Search is on for Mideast Link to World Trade Center Bombing

Officials investigating the blast that shook New York’s World Trade Center last Friday are looking into the possibility that a Middle East terrorist group may have been responsible.

The explosion and resulting fires left five dead and more than 1,000 people injured in what is thought to be the worst terrorist incident in the United States since the 1970s.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and FBI officials have raised the Middle East as a possible source for the fatal bombing.

But the FBI also insists that it is too early to focus its investigation primarily on Middle East terrorist groups such as the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas group or the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, both of which have been cited in media reports.

Kelly and James Fox, director of the FBI’s New York office, revealed at the investigation’s daily 4 p.m. news conference Tuesday that in January, the U.S. Embassy in Algeria received a threat that a New York skyscraper would be targeted for bombing within 48 hours unless Israel allowed the 415 Palestinians it had deported to Lebanon to return to the administered territories.

The warning was repeated two days later, but the deadline passed without action.

But in Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Wednesday, “There are no indications that this threat is related to the World Trade Center bombing.”

‘NOT TRACKING HAMAS’ MORE THAN OTHERS

Sgt. Edelle James of the New York City Police Department said that at this time, investigators cannot reveal how many of the 63 calls claiming responsibility for the bombing came from the Middle East or Middle East terror groups.

While reports have circulated that the FBI investigation has split into several task forces each concentrating on suspected terrorist groups, an FBI spokesman denied this.

“We are not tracking Hamas any more than any other group,” Joe Valiquette of the FBI said.

James confirmed that the interagency task force comprising the FBI, the police and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms would continue to conduct the investigation as one intact unit.

Initially, media speculation focused on Serbian groups as a possible terrorist link for the bombing, but more recent news stories have given increased attention to Middle East groups.

Valiquette insisted the FBI is not ready to conclude that the bombing was perpetrated by terrorists.

“It’s a lead we’re looking into, but it’s not the only lead,” said Sgt. James.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has expressed sympathy with the victims of terrorism in letters of condolence sent to New York Gov. Mario Cuomo and New York City Mayor David Dinkins.

“Together with all freedom-loving people throughout the world, we mourn with you and the citizens of New York the tragic loss of life, extensive injuries and damage to property caused by the dastardly act of what appears to have been a terrorist strike that rocked the World Trade Center,” Rabin wrote.