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A murderous explosion in
the heart of NewYork City
raises the specter of
terrorism in America and
sets off a feverish hunt for
the bomber
By RICHARD LACAYO
MERICANS WERE NOT ACCUSTOMED
to what so much of the world had
already grown weary of: the sud-
den, deafening explosion of a car
bomb, a hail of glass and debris, the
screams
of innocent
victims
fol-
lowed by the wailing sirens of ambulances.
Terrorism seemed like something that hap-
pened
somewhere
else—and
somewhere
else a safe distance over the horizon.
And then last week, in an instant, the
World Trade Center in New York City be-
came ground zero.
At 12:18 on a snowy Friday afternoon, a
massive explosion rocked the foundation of
the Twin Towers of the Trade Center in
build-
Photographs by Allan Tannenbaum-—Sygma for TIME
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. The explosion
' blew a crater
200 ft. by 100 ft.
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(60 m by 30 m),
Parking Level 2
blasted a 180 ft.
(55 m) hole in
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TIME Graphic by Nigel Holmes. Source: IIP
ings in the world and a magnet for 100,000
workers and visitors each day. The bomb
was positioned to wreak maximum dam-
age to the infrastructure of the building
and the commuter networks below. And
the landmark
target near Wall
Street
seemed chosen with a fine sense for the
symbols of the late 20th century. If the ex-
plosion, which killed five people and in-
jured more than 1,000, turns out to be the
work of terrorists,
it will be a sharp re-
minder that the world is still a dangerous
place. And
that the dangers can come
home.
Against that threat, the relevant intelli-
gence
agencies
mobilized
quickly.
The
news from New York sent the fbi and other
federal agencies to Code Red, their highest
900260011-0
state of readiness. The
fbi activated
its
Joint Terrorist Task Force, and the
Cla.
turned up the heat at its Counterterrorist
Center in Langley, Virginia, a conglomer-
ate of psychiatrists, explosives experts and
hostage
negotiators. Meanwhile,
the Bu-
reau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the
agency responsible
for
investigating
the
loss and theft of explosives, mobilized its
13-member National Response Team held
on 24-hour call in the New York area. They
were joined by bureau chemists from head-
quarters in Rockville, Maryland.
Until
it is firmly concluded that a ter-
rorist was responsible, the New York City
police department is in charge, and it was
the n.y.p.d.
that took the lead
in
sifting
through the 19 telephoned claims of "cred-
it” that were received in the first 24 hours.
Though none came in before the blast—the
earliest followed
it by an hour, well after
the first news reports-a few were intrigu-
ing. Many of the calls were made by people
claiming
to
be
affiliated
with
Balkan
groups, including one made by a caller in
Europe who said he represented the Black
Hand,
a
Serbian
extremist organization
last active about 10 years ago. According to
terrorism expert Xavier Raufer,
Serbian
nationalists have threatened terrorist re-
prisals against West European countries
- for interference in the region.
There were immediate suspicions that
Bill
Clinton’s decision
last week to
air-
drop relief supplies over Bosnia—a step
that had seemed like a low-risk humani-
Scores of emergency vehicles, including
many from nearby cities, sped to the
scene to help rescue the injured
tarian gesture—might have been an-
swered in thunder by the Serbs. Still, the
Bosnian hypothesis was by no means the
only one. A caller from the West Coast
credited the Iranian Revolutionary Guard;
an anonymous tipster blamed Jewish ex-
tremist groups.
Because of their trouble getting to the
“blast seat” in the dangerously crumbling
underground garage,
investigators could
not even confirm to their complete satisfac-
tion what had caused the explosion. But its
size and intense heat suggested a bomb, as
did traces of nitrate found at the edges of
TIME, MARCH 8J993
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: dlA-RD^96-00789R003900260011-0
the blast crater. Until they could determine
otherwise, informed experts assumed that
hundreds of pounds of high explosives had
been packed into a. car or van that was left
at a four-level underground parking ga-
rage. The garage
is
situated below the
Trade Center plaza and near a station of
the path commuter subway line that links
Manhattan and New Jersey.
The Trade Center is not a surprising
target. In the early 1970s cia agents com-
piled a list of potentially vulnerable sites
that they believed might make high-value
terrorist strike points. Near the top of that
list, former deputy cia director Bobby In-
man told Time, was the World
Trade Center. “When the peo-
ple responsible for anticipat-
ing terrorist attacks began to
run scenarios on this kind of
thing,
this was
one
of
the
places.” Why? “Because of the
number of victims who would
be involved,” said Inman. The
information
raises
questions
about what kind of extra pre-
caution
the
Port
Authority
might have taken in
light of
the
building’s
tantalizing
vulnerability.
The bomb blew out a crater
200 ft. by 100 ft. wide and five
stories deep. Floors collapsed
onto one another with an im-
pact that caused the ceiling of
the
path
station
nearby
to
come crashing down, shower-
ing chunks
of concrete onto
commuters
waiting
on
the
platform.
In
the
same
mo-
ment, the 110-story Twin Towers swayed
visibly as the force of the blast shuddered
upward. Lobby windows exploded onto
the plaza and marble slabs
fell from the
walls. As fractured steam pipes launched
jets of hot mist into the air, the first vic-
tims stumbled out of the buildings, blood-
ied and in shock.
Fires
quickly
broke
out,
launching
thick, acrid smoke up hundreds of stair-
wells and elevator banks. In both towers
the electricity went out, including emer-
gency backup systems. Even on the high-
est floors, workers were stunned by the
speed at which smoke flew upward. David
2600^yjuers ^ip one of the
'
injured; hundreds suffered
cuts and smoke inhalation
Deshane, 25, was on the 105th
floor when he
felt the explo-
sion. “All the computers shut
down, then all the phones shut
down,” he said. “Then all of a
sudden we saw smoke every-
where.” He ran to hit the fire-
emergency
button.
“Nothing
happened.”
In a panic, some
people broke windows to admit
air, sending daggers of glass
raining onto the crowds below
and creating a chimney effect
that drew smoke upward even
more quickly.
Four of the dead were Port
Authority workers, whose
of-
fices and locker rooms were lo-
cated on the lower levels that
sustained the worst damage.
More than 24 hours after the
blast, two other workers were
still missing. But the toll was
less severe than
first
feared.
Though some suffered major
injuries, most
of the victims
were treated for smoke inhalation or mi-
nor burns.
In a meeting late Friday evening, the
state and federal agencies involved in the
case hammered out a protocol to govern
the inquiry. The first priority was to stabi-
lize the pillars that hold up the Vista Hotel
on the Trade Center plaza and which were
supported in turn by the garage floors that
were ripped away in the blast. Before in-
vestigators can safely enter the blast site,
workers must buttress the dangerous sag-
ging remnants of the garage and lay a web
of tubular steel beams across the crater
left by the bomb. It may be days before in-
POWERFUL TOOLS OF DESTRUCTION
WHEN INVESTIGATORS DIG THROUGH THREE FLOORS OF RUBBLE TO REACH THE “BLAST SEAT,”
they will begin to find the telltale traces-detouator fragments, chemical residue, heat indica-*.
tors—that point toward a specific explosive compound. Among the possibilities:
SEMTEX This yellowish plastic explosive, one-third more powerful than an equivalent
amount of tnt, has a texture like putty; it can be molded into almost any shape. It is also
easy to transport. “You can drop it, you can throw it against a wall, you can stomp on it. It
won’t go off” without a detonator, says terrorism expert Robert Phillips. Composed in equal
parts of rdx and petn, both high explosives, Semtex was manufactured in Czechoslovakia.
,
In 1990, Prague officials vowed to enforce an export ban; by then 1,000 tons had been
shipped to Libya.
C-4 A relative of Semtex, this odorless, claylike high explosive is made in the U.S. and fa-
vored by nato armies as well as by mining companies. Much like Semtex, C-4 converts to a
gaseous state at very high velocity, sending forth shock waves at 26,400 ft. per sec.
TNT About twice as powerful as common dynamites but lower in explosive velocity than the
plastics, trinitrotoluene is made ofnitric acid, sulfuric acid and toluene. This toxic substance,
typically bundled in '/2-lb. and 1-lb. sticks, is commonly available in the U.S.
AMMONIUM NITRATE When used for benign purposes, this is known simply as fertilizer.
But when mixed with diesel fuel and set off, it has a detonation velocity of 3,600 ft. per sec.
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