4 Men Convicted in Trade Center Case; More Complex Case to Be Tried in Fall

Jewish leaders and organizations are applauding the convictions last week of four defendants in the World Trade Center bombing case.

After a five-month federal trial, Mohammed Salameh, Ahmad Ajaj, Mahmud Abouhalima and Nidal Ayyad were found guilty on all 38 counts in the case.

Six people were killed and more than 1,000 wounded in the bombing last February, one of the worst terrorist incidents ever to take place on American soil.

The defendants were convicted of charges including conspiracy, explosive destruction of property, interstate transportation of explosives, assault upon a federal officer and using or carrying a destructive device during a violent crime. Many of these carry a maximum penalty of life in prison.

Terming the bombing “a wake-up call about the dangers of religious extremism,” the American Jewish Committee issued a statement saying the organization “is gratified that justice has been served with the conviction, on all counts, of the four defendants” in the case.

Rep. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), chair of the Crime and Criminal Justice Subcommittee, also hailed the verdict, which he described in a statement as the “result of outstanding efforts by federal and local law enforcement officials.

“These guilty verdicts send a strong message to other would-be terrorists: You won’t be tolerated and you will be caught,” he said.

Following are brief descriptions of the four men convicted in the case: Mohammed Salameh was found guilty on 10 counts for renting the van used in the bombing, the apartment in Jersey City where the explosive ingredients were mixed and the locker where the explosives were stored. He was also convicted for helping to mix the chemicals and bankrolling the bombing with a co- defendant. Nidal Ayyad was found guilty on 9 counts. An engineer, he ordered the chemicals needed to make the bomb and had them delivered to Salameh’s storage locker. After the bombing, he sent messages to news organizations taking responsibility for the act. Ahmad Ajaj was found guilty on 10 counts, although he was in prison when the bomb went off. He was arrested after being detained at Kennedy Airport, where he was found carrying four passports in different names and military manuals for making bombs. Phone calls he made from prison, along with fingerprints in the manual linked him to another suspect in the bombing, Ramzi Yousef, who has not yet been captured. Mahmud Abouhalima was found guilty on 9 counts. He was present in the Jersey City apartment when the chemicals were mixed to make the bomb. He and Yousef bought gas for the van used in the bombing.

Two other men – Abdul Yasin and Yousef – were formally indicted in the case, but they fled the country after the bombing and have so far eluded capture. Another man, Bilal Alkaisi, was also indicted in the case, but according to his lawyer he is hoping to settle the case without a trial.

The defendants in the World Trade Center case were linked to fundamentalist Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a key figure in a second, more complex case that is to be tried this fall.

Rahman and at least 13 other defendants have been charged with plotting to blow up several New York City buildings and assassinate political leaders.

In that case, FBI agents raided a bomb factory in Queens last June and foiled a plot to set off bombs at several New York City locations – the United Nations, Manhattan FBI headquarters and the two Hudson River tunnels. Several of the defendants are also charged with conspiring to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The conspiracy case, set to go to trial on Sept. 13, will largely be based on videotapes and audiotapes made by an informer, Emad Salem. Among those charged with seditious conspiracy are: Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, a Muslim cleric with a large number of devoted followers at a Jersey City mosque. He is believed to have incited the other defendants to acts of terror. El Sayyid Nosair, who is also charged under a Federal racketeering statue with the 1990 murder of militant Jewish leader Rabbi Meir Kahane. Nosair was acquitted in state court on the murder charge, but was convicted on related gun charges. Abdo Haggagg, who has agreed to turn state’s evidence for the government, but the terms of cooperation have not yet been settled.

The conspiracy trial may also demonstrate that at least some of the defendants have links to the militant Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement and to the Egyptian Islamic Group, which is dedicated to the overthrow of Egypt’s Mubarak.

Militant fundamentalist groups have also been suspected of involvement in the March 1 shooting attack on a van full of young Chasidic students on the Brooklyn Bridge.

There has been speculation that the attack may have been an act of revenge for the mass slaying of Palestinians by an Israeli settler at a Hebron mosque on Feb. 25, but New York City law enforcement officials have so far declined to comment on this or on any connection between the shooting and any militant groups.

Rashad Baz, a Lebanese native, was arrested and charged with attempted murder in the Brooklyn Bride attack.

One federal government official dealing with terrorism said that spontaneous attacks, such as that apparently committed by Baz, “are in some ways harder to guard against” than are those planned by more organized and professional terrorists.