Opinion ID: 2644804
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Terrorism in Manhattan

Text: In 1984, the Port Authority formed “The Office for Special Planning” (the “Office”) to assess the vulnerability of the Authority’s various facilities to terrorism. A report prepared by the Office examined the vulnerabilities of the World Trade Center Complex, noting a number of “Symbolic Bombing Incidents in New York City from 1980 to 1985,” including: • Three people injured in explosion at the Manhattan offices of the airline Aeroflot in 1980, with the Jewish Defense League claiming credit. • A pipe bomb exploding the sub-basement of New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan in 1981 after warnings of a bomb blast by the Croatian Freedom Fighters. • Four bombs at stock exchanges and banks in Manhattan in 1982, with Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional (“FALN”) claiming credit. • A bomb at the Bankers Trust Company in Manhattan, also in 1982, with FALN again claiming credit. 5 • A bomb at 250 Broadway (apparently directed toward the New York City Police Benevolent Association) in 1985. In 1993, a car bomb was detonated in the parking garage below One World Trade Center. See United States v. Yousef, 327 F.3d 56, 79 (2d Cir. 2003). Ramzi Yousef, along with several co-conspirators, “drove a bomb-laden van onto the B–2 level of the parking garage below the World Trade Center. They then set the bomb’s timer to detonate minutes later. At approximately 12:18 p.m. that day, the bomb exploded, killing six people, injuring more than a thousand others, and causing widespread fear and more than $500 million in property damage.” Id. Testifying at Yousef’s trial, a U.S. Secret Service agent told the jury that Yousef’s intent was to cause One World Trade Center to topple, killing tens of thousands of people.