By Philip Newman
It was shortly after noon on Friday, Feb. 26, 1993 with light snow falling steadily in perhaps winter’s last gasp when the phone rang on the Metro Desk of the United Press International news agency in Manhattan.
The voice was that of Frank (Rip) Slusser, formerly a financial reporter for UPI but then with Wall Street’s Standard & Poor’s Corp. He had a tip.
“We just had a tremendous shock that knocked out all our computers,” said Slusser, whose offices were in Lower Manhattan. “What is it?”
It may have been the initial word on the first attack against the World Trade Center.
An enormous bomb had exploded in a parking garage 60 feet beneath World Trade Tower No. 1. The 12:18 p.m. blast from the bomb, estimated to weigh perhaps 1, 500 pounds, gouged a hole 60 feet deep and 150 feet wide in the garage under the 1,400-foot tower and left six persons dead, 1,042 injured and an estimated $600 million in damage.
More than 50,000 people were evacuated, mostly down stairs filled with smoke. Hundreds more were plucked from the roof by helicopters.
Investigators traced an identification number on a piece of twisted steel among the debris to a Ford F-350 Econoline van, ultimately determined to have been the means of delivering the huge bomb to the World Trade Center. It had been rented then reported stolen.
While FBI agents were interviewing the manager of a Ryder Rental Agency in Jersey City, N.J., a customer identified as Mohammad Salameh telephoned the rental agency and made arrangements to obtain the return of his $400 security deposit on the van rental.
When he showed up, he was arrested.
Ultimately, 11 people including Salameh, Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman and the alleged mastermind of the bombing, Ramzi Yohsef, and eight other militant Muslims, including citizens of the Sudan, Egypt, Jordan and the United States were convicted in federal court in Manhattan of conspiracy and other charges and sentenced to hundreds of years in prison.
Reach contributing writer Philip Newman by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 156.
