The FBI has arrested and charged a third suspect in connection with the Feb. 26 bombing of New York’s World Trade Center.
Nidal Ayyad, 25, a chemical engineer living in Maplewood, N.J., was arrested at his home early Wednesday morning without incident and later arraigned before a federal magistrate in Newark, N.J.
He was charged with “aiding and abetting” the bombing at the Manhattan landmark skyscraper.
Ayyad was identified as a Kuwaiti-born nationalized American who works as a chemical engineer at Allied-Signal Corp. in Morristown, N.J.
He was described by government officials as an associate of Mohammed Salameh, the 25-year-old Jordanian national who was arrested March 4 as a prime suspect in the bombing.
Among other things, the two have a joint bank account.
Also being held is Ibrahim Elgabrowny, 42, who is charged with obstructing justice. Elgabrowny assaulted federal officials during a search of his apartment, which Salameh had listed as his own address.
According to FBI officials, Ayyad was the driver of a red General Motors sedan that accompanied Salameh when he arrived at the Ryder truck rental agency to pick up the yellow Ford Econoline van that allegedly was used in the trade center bombing.
It was reported that both Salameh and Ayyad had access to a New Jersey locker containing chemicals similar to those that caused the massive blast, which killed at least five people and injured more than 1,000 others.
WARNINGS ABOUT STEREOTYPING
It was not immediately clear whether Ayyad is a follower of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a radical Egyptian cleric who preaches violence in the name of Islam.
Nor was there any early word on whether Ayyad has any connection to El Sayyid Nosair, the Moslem fundamentalist serving a jail sentence for charges connected with the November 1990 assassination of Rabbi Meir Kahane.
Elgabrowny is a great uncle of Nosair’s, and Salameh was said to have visited him more than once in jail. All three men worshipped in Abdel Rahman’s mosques in Brooklyn and Jersey City, N.J.
Abdel Rahman was tried but acquitted in Egypt for alleged involvement in the 1981 assassination of President Anwar Sadat. U.S. officials have deportation hearings pending against him.
Meanwhile, a number of American Jewish organizations have issued statements in recent days urging the public not to scapegoat Arab Americans or Moslems in the wake of the recent arrests.
A warning to that effect was first issued late last week by the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, which said, “Strong feelings engendered by the bombing of the World Trade Center must not be used to generate intimidation of Arab-Americans or American Muslims.”
Similar statements were issued this week by the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations.
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