Authorities
ate threats
>efore blast
f Bruce Frankel
SA TODAY
NEW YORK — Investigators
tesday said they are puzzled
er the disappearance of a vid-
tape that may have recorded
hides
in
the World
Trade
•nter garage before it explod-
Friday.
And authorities revealed the
S. Embassy
in
Algeria
re-
ived two
threats
from
the
>pular Front for the Libera-
n of Palestine that
it would
)w up a building in New York
late January.
Police Commissioner Ray-
Mid Kelly said authorities be-
ved
the
threat had
passed
len the second deadline —
n. 26, requiring Israel
to
al-
v 400 expelled Palestinians to
aim — passed uneventfully.
Meanwhile, New York
City
d the Port Authority offered
>200,000 reward for informa-
n leading to the arrest and
aviction of those responsible
rtbp bombing.
Authorities cautioned against
aBng too much of the missing
ieotape: “You could call it pe-
iMOTUCD crtnE
A
.....'
,
.
By Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY
ANUmcR scare. A port authority employee tells workers at a reopened part of the World Trade
Center complex Tuesday to leave after a bomb threat. Workers later returned to the complex.
culiar," said James Fox, head of
the FBI’s bureau in New York.
“Incredible, isn’t it?”
Videotapes were recovered
on Monday for the period from
Wednesday morning to Thurs-
day morning, and from Friday
morning to Saturday moring.
Missing; a sequence
video-
tape for the period from Thurs-
day at 8 a.m. to Friday at 8 a.m.,
of the B-2 garage level — the
“seat” of the massive explosion.
A Port Authority employee
has
told
investigators he may
have misplaced
it, Fox said.
It
may still be buried.
Two
garage
videotapes
al-
ready reviewed were of mar-
ginal quality, though subject to
enhancement, Fox said.
Asked what he would tell the
employee, Fox said, “Let’s try
to find
it!
.
. . Now!”
While acknowledging pieces
of brown metal from a vehicle
had been recovered, authorities
said there is “no reason to raise
speculation” that a brown van
with a stripe may have held the
bomb, as reported on CNN.
Investigators
say
they
are
looking at several terrorist
groups, including the extremist
Hamas
which
is
opposed
to
Middle East peace talks.
The
investigation
is spread-
ing as license plates are tracked
from
Michigan,
Illinois. .New
Hampshire and elsewhere.
Seeking to dampen expecta
tions of a quick resolution. Fox
said, “No new dramatic witness;
is going to solve this case for us.
Also on Tuesday:
Investigators pulled about
10 cars from the garage and be-’
gan vacuuming them inside and;
outside and scraping their un-
dercarriages.
If nothing
perti-
nent is found, the cars will be
returned to their owners.
Bomb experts said the ex-
plosion took place on the B-2
level below the Vista Hotel in
the public parking area.
The New York City Comp-
troller’s
office
estimated
the
bombing could cost about $700
million in lost business during
the first week after the blast
For the second day
in a
row, a retaining wall collapsed
near the crater — described as
200 feet in diameter, extending
through seven stories. The col-
umns previously were support-
ed by the horizontal flooring.
“It is in a dangerous position
now," said Walter Boser, head
of the police bomb squad.
A part of the complex that
had reopened was
evacuated
because of a bomb threat For
minutes,
authorities
searched the train station be-
neath the center while
fright-
ened workers left the area. A
suspicious package
later was
found to contain building mat