The 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

Disclaimer
The purpose of this paper is to examine actions of United States government officials and/or agencies, according to official and mainstream media sources, for failures or potential failures to perform one or more of the following:

     1. Properly execute justice
     2. Operate with reasonable transparency
     3. Appropriately address instances of dereliction of duty
     4. Appropriately address instances of corruption

Every detail found in each section can also be found in one or more of the sources listed at the end of that section. This paper does not assert that every detail of every section is true. In fact, every detail cannot possibly be true since some details contradict others. This paper also does not assert that all sources cited espouse the overall narrative of their sections or of the paper as a whole. In fact, occasionally sources cited are skeptical or derisive of said narratives. Meaningful rebuttals, counter-rebuttals, etc., to the main points covered in this paper have been included to the best of my ability and awareness.

I do my own editing, which is not my strength. Please feel free to contact me through my website with any spelling/grammar errors you find.

Finally, this paper contains copyrighted material such as media quotations which have not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is included to advance education of criminal justice, political, and economic issues. I believe this constitutes a “fair use” of such material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. However, if the copyright owner believes my use of such material does not constitute “fair use” and would like it removed, please contact me through my website and I will be happy to accommodate all reasonable requests.

Summary
During the Afghan-Soviet War, the CIA reportedly used the Alkifah Center located within/beside the Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, New York to recruit and train Islamic militants who were then sent to the Services Center in Pakistan, run by Al Qaeda co-founders Osama Bin Laden and Sheikh Azzam. The Alkifah Center subsequently became the Al Qaeda’s operational headquarters in the United States. Several key players in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the follow-on “Day of Terror” plot to blow up New York City landmarks, including the United Nations, were affiliated with the Alkifah Center.

The CIA reportedly recruited Al Qaeda co-founder and Bin Laden mentor Sheikh Azzam, frequently bringing him to the Alkifah Center to give lectures, fundraise, and recruit militants.

The CIA also reportedly recruited Sheikh Abdel Rahman, better known as The Blind Sheik – the mastermind of the Day of Terror plot and co-mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. The Blind Sheik was the spiritual overseer of the Akifah Center. CIA officers four times approved the visa applications for him to travel to the U.S. despite him being a high-profile figure on the U.S. terrorist watch list. Unable to deny the assistance, the CIA pleaded stupidity instead of deceit.

Ali Mohamed helped establish the Akifah Center and was one of its key paramilitary trainers. He training to the WTC bombers and the Day of Terror plotters. His résumé was duplicitous, to say the least. On one hand, he was a CIA asset, an FBI informant, and a U.S. Army Sergeant who trained Green Berets and Delta Force special operations officers. On the other hand, he was a top personal aid and confidante to Osama Bin Laden, he trained Bin Laden’s personal security entourage, he authored most of the content of Al Qaeda’s terrorist training manual, and he was convicted as a co-planner of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

El Sayyid Nosair’s apartment in 1990 was found to contain containing blueprints for both the 1993 WTC bombing and the Day of Terror Plot, but the FBI said they were misfiled and overlooked. When the FBI was subsequently confronted with this evidence, it continued to resist associating Nosair with the plots.

The co-owner of the of the Sphinx Trading mailbox-check cashing store, located in the same building as the Blind Sheik’s New Jersey Mosque, was named a co-conspirator in the Day of Terror trial. The other co-owner helped 9/11 hijackers Almidhar and Alhazmi obtain the fake ID’s they used to board Flight 77.

Prior to 9/11, a military intelligence team named Able Danger identified four of the hijackers as belonging to the Blind Sheik’s Alkifah terror cell. The team tried to warn the FBI three times, but were blocked by the Pentagon and ordered destroy all the program’s files. After 9/11, the team members testified of these things to congress, but the Defense Department Inspector General’s office claimed all their memories were inaccurate.

When WTC bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef was discovered in Pakistan in 1995, the CIA tried to prevent the FBI from arresting him. Then it destroyed large amounts of digital evidence on his laptop before the FBI could access it. The FBI opened an investigation against the CIA for these actions and to probe possible past ties between the agency and Yousef.

Yousef’s uncle, principle 9/11 architect, and ‘93 bombing co-conspirator Khalid Sheik Mohammed trained Islamic militants at a Pakistani “university” overseen by the warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a primary recipient of CIA funds during the Afghan-Soviet War. Khalid’s brother Zahid likewise ran a large Pakistani charity which was another funnel for CIA funds and militants.

FBI Informant Emad Salem infiltrated the Alkifah terrorist cell to gather evidence. In so doing, he built the bomb used on the World Trade Center during its early stages. He planned to eventually replace the explosive powder with benign powder, but an FBI supervisor pulled him off the case before he could do so, despite his vigorous protests and warnings. After the bombing, he wanted bring to the matter to FBI headquarters, but his handlers did not oblige.

Nevertheless, Salem returned to the terrorist cell and gathered the evidence that was used for stopping the Day of Terror plot and prosecuting its conspirators. Salem secretly recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with his FBI handlers contained in 70 audio tapes for self-protection, fearing the FBI might later deny working with him and charge him as a co-conspirator. The defense for the Day of Terror plotters demanded access to the tapes. However, the government withheld 25 and sealed the remaining 45 from the public domain.

CIA Uses Alkifah Center to Train and Recruit Islamic Militants; Alkifah Center Becomes Al Qaeda’s U.S. Operational Headquarters and Ground Zero for WTC Bombing and Day of Terror Plots
In 1985, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive 166, also known as Operation Cyclone. An extension of the Cold War, Cyclone secretly authorized the CIA to arm and train Islamic militants called the “mujaheddin” to expel the Soviet Union from Afghanistan.

According to numerous reports, the CIA used the Alkifah Center (or Alkifah Refugee Center),  located within/beside the Al-Farooq Mosque in Brooklyn, New York, to recruit and train new fighters for Cyclone. For example, in November of 1998, the Independent stated that Alkifah was “a place of pivotal importance to Operation Cyclone.” Likewise, in September of 2001, Newsweek called the Alkifah Center “a recruiting post for the CIA seeking to steer fresh troops to the mujahedin.” Further, in November of 2001, the former head of the American visa bureau in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Michael Springman, told BBC Newsnight that, against his ongoing protests, he was repeatedly ordered by high-level State Department officials to issue visas to unqualified applicants who were first sent to the U.S. for training by the CIA and then sent to fight in Afghanistan.

The CIA appears to have mostly refrained from commenting on these assertions in the media. However, a January of 2005 State Department press release entitled, “Did the U.S. ‘Create’ Osama bin Laden,” briefly quoted Milt Bearden, the CIA’s Pakistani Station Chief  from 1986 to 1989 as claiming:

“Contrary to what people have come to imagine, the CIA never recruited, trained, or otherwise used Arab volunteers.”

This can be understood as a CIA “soft denial” since the press release did not explicitly deny the accusations, which might have invited additional Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for documentary proof from its Operation Cyclone archives. Instead, it merely quoted a work already in the public domain and implied that it was accurate. As is discussed in my paper on Operation Gladio, the same tactic was employed after the European Union, the Italian government, and numerous mainstream British and European media outlets accused the CIA of orchestrating a string of deadly terrorist bombings during the Cold War.

It should also be pointed out here, as is discussed in paper on 9/11 and the Jeddah Embassy, that a Jeddah, Saudi Arabia diplomat during Operation Cyclone, whistle-blower Michael Springman, openly accused the CIA to numerous media outlets (ex. Associated Press, BBC, Candian Broadcasting Corporation, Fox News) of forcing him to approve visas for hundreds of Islamic militants so they could travel to the U.S. for training before being sent to Pakistan for further training by Osama bin Laden before being sent into battle. When asked by the media, per the Associated Press, a State Department spokesman did not deny this charge. Springman also said he filed a series of Freedom of Information Act requests with the State Department and the CIA on the matter, but was stonewalled.

In any case, it is not difficult to comprehend why the CIA wanted to distance itself from the Alkfah Center, since it became Osama Bin Laden’s and Al Qaeda’s operational headquarters in the United States. In October of 1998, according to the New York Times, the federal government asserted that “the roots of Mr. bin Laden's organization could be traced, in part, to… [the] Alkifah Refugee Center…” Similarly, in December of 2001, the Chicago Tribune called the Alkifah center “the first U.S. outpost for what would evolve into Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.” Further, in 2003, according to the New York Times, federal officials called the Alkifah Center “the first American base for Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network.” Also, in his 2006 book, Jihad Incorporated, counterterrorism expert, CNN correspondent, and US News and World Report senior editor Steven Emerson called the Alkifah Center, “Al Qaeda’s operational headquarters in the United States.” 

Likewise, in March of 1995, the award-winning investigative journalist Robert Friedman wrote an in depth exposé in New York Magazine of the CIA’s work at the Alkifah Center which will be discussed in more detail in coming sections. (Friedman, whose writings appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, and The Nation, among many other publications, was famous in the journalism world for having been warned by the FBI that the mob boss Seimon Mogilevich put a contract out on his life in retaliation for an exposé he wrote on the Russian mob.) In his Alkifah Center exposé, Friedman observed:

“The CIA… managed to do something that America’s enemies have been unable to: give terrorism a foothold in the United States.”

Such statements do not appear to be exaggerations when one considers that several key players in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the follow-on “Day of Terror” plot were all affiliated with the Alkifah Center. To summarize these events briefly, on February 26th, 1993, a group of terrorists detonated a 1300-plus pound truck bomb below the North Tower of the World Trade Center (WTC), killing six people and injuring over one thousand. The failed intent of the bombing was to remove enough of the North Tower’s foundation to crash it into the South Tower, bringing down both buildings and killing thousands of people. Three months later, a second group of terrorists from the same cell was arrested for plotting a “Day of Terror” to blow up New York City tunnels, bridges, and landmarks, including the United Nations.

Regarding links to the Alkifah Center, the aforementioned October of 1998 New York Times report stated:

“… [the] Alkifah Refugee Center… had for many years been a gathering place for… Brooklyn militants who figured not only in the World Trade Center case, but also in… [the Day of Terror] conspiracy to blow up the United Nations and other New York landmarks in 1993…”

Similarly, a January of 2000 New York Times opinion piece pointed out, “…the World Trade Center bombing was financed through money coming from the Alkifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn.” Likewise, the Boston Herald reported in 1994:

“Intelligence sources say the CIA used the Al-Kifah Refugee Center in Brooklyn… to funnel aid… setting the stage for terrorists here to acquire the money, guns and training needed to later attack the World Trade Center.”

In fact, an internal CIA reported cited by the Boston Herald and the Independent concluded that the agency was “partial culpable” for the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. One U.S. intelligence source quoted by the Herald stated:

“By giving these people the funding that we did, a situation was created in which it could be safely argued that we bombed the World Trade Center.”

In the following sections, we’ll take a look at some of the key players in Cyclone, the Alkifah Center, the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and the Day of Terror plot, and how the CIA reportedly assisted them, as well as the FBI.

Sources:
Associated Press, 7/16/2002, “Ex-Official Details U.S. Operations”
BBC Newsnight, 11/6/2001, “Has someone been sitting on the FBI?”
Boston Herald, 1/24/1994, “Sources Claim CIA Aid Fueled Trade Center Blast”
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, 1/1/2003, “Michael Springman Interview”
Chicago Tribune, 12/11/2001, “Terrorists Evolved in U.S.”
CNN, 2/26/2003, “New York Remembers 1993 WTC Victims”
CNN, 2/10/2020, “1993 World Trade Center Bombing Fast Facts”
Fox News (The Big Story with John Gibson), 7/18/2002, Interview With Michael Springman, by John Gibson
History Channel, 2/26/2013, “Remembering the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing”
Independent, 11/1/1998, “Terror ‘Blowback’ Burn CIA”
New York Magazine, 3/17/1995, “The CIA’s Jihad” by Robert Friedman
New York Times, 10/22/1998, “U.S. Sees Brooklyn Link to World Terror Network”
New York Times, 1/4/2000, “The New Face of Terrorism” (opinion)
New York Times, 10/12/2003, “Why America Slept”
Newsweek, 9/30/2001, “War on Terror: The Road to September 11”
Steven Emerson, 2006, “Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the U.S.”
U.S. Department of State, 1/14/2005, “Did the U.S. "Create" Osama bin Laden?”
Village Voice, 7/9/2002, “Inconvenient Truth”
Washington Post, 8/30/1999, “A Journalistic Breed Apart”
Washington Post, 2/23/2017, “Recalling the 1993 World Trade Center Bombing”

Al Qaeda Co-Founder Sheikh Azzam Recruited By CIA
Sheikh Azzam was Osama Bin Laden’s mentor, the co-founder of Al Qaeda, and co-founder the “Services Office” in Peshawar, Pakistan, which ran paramilitary training camps for the Afghan fighters. The New York Times stated in January of 2001:

“…in 1984, Mr. Azzam set up… the Office of Services… to recruit and train Muslim volunteers for the Afghan fronts… Mr. bin Laden embraced the idea from its inception and became Mr. Azzam’s partner, providing financial support and handling military affairs… in early 1989, bin Laden and Azzam decided that their new organization should not dissolve. They established what they called a base (al Qaeda) as a potential general headquarters for future jihad.”

According to numerous reports (Independent, New York Times 4/11/1993, Chicago Tribune), the Services Office is where the Alkifah recruits were sent after completing their training in the U.S.

According to Friedman, the CIA helped Azzam frequently travel to the Alkifah Center in order to give lectures, fundraise, and recruit Muslims for the mujaheddin up until his assassination by car-bombing in November of 1989. Correspondingly, the New York Times reported in January of 2001:

“Mr. Azzam raised money for the organization in countries overseas including the United States and gave impassioned speeches promoting the Afghan cause.”

Sources:
BBC, 11/20/2001, “Review: Bin Laden Biography”
Chicago Tribune, 12/11/2001, “Terrorists Evolved in U.S.”
Independent, 11/1/1998, “Terror ‘Blowback’ Burn CIA”
New York Magazine, 3/17/1995, “The CIA’s Jihad” by Robert Friedman
New York Times, 4/11/1993, “After Blast, New Interest in Holy-War Recruits in Brooklyn”
New York Times, 1/14/2001, “One Man and a Global Web of Violence”
PBS (Bill Moyer’s Journal), 7/27/2007, “Brief History of Al Qaeda”

WTC/Day of Terror Mastermind Blind Sheik Recruited by CIA and Snuck Into U.S. Four Times
In 1989, the Soviet Union withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, at which point congress mostly defunded covert aid to the mujaheddin. However, the CIA wished to continue both funding and training the mujaheddin to take control of Afghanistan, which had descended into civil war. Therefore, the agency continued to sponsor high-profile Islamic militants to come speak at the Alkfah Center, raising millions of dollars and enlisting new recruits. One of these visitors was another Services Office affiliate named Sheikh Abdel Rahman, better known as The Blind Sheik – the mastermind of the Day of Terror plot and co-mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. In September of 2001, Newsweek reported:

“[The Blind Sheik] slipped into the United States with the protection of the CIA, which saw the revered cleric as a valuable recruiting agent for the Mooj.”

This statement echoed Robert Friedman’s assertion from March of 1995.

The Blind Sheik was the spiritual leader of the terrorist group known as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which formally merged with Al Qaeda in 1998. After Azzam was assassinated, the Blind Sheik became the spiritual overseer of the Akifah Center. The terrorists behind the World Trade Center bombing and the Day of Terror plot were his disciples.

In December of 1990, the New York Times reported that the Blind Sheik had been granted a tourist visa from the U.S. Embassy in Sudan and slipped in to the United States despite being a high-profile character on the State Department terrorist watch list. The State Department insisted it was a one-time mistake by an immigration official who didn’t follow procedures.

However, three years later, after the Day of Terror plot was exposed and the Blind Sheik was arrested, the New York Times reported that he had actually been granted four separate visas to the U.S. between 1986 and 1990 and that every one of his application had been reviewed by CIA officers. Officials described this as “an appalling series of Government blunders,” but nevertheless insisted the CIA did not deliberately assist the Sheik’s entries. Robert Friedman quoted one top New York investigator as stating:

“Left with the choice between pleading stupidity or else admitting deceit, the CIA went with stupidity.”

Sources:
ABC News, 2/18/2017, “‘Blind Sheik’ Linked to 1993 World Trade Center Bombing Dies in US Federal Prison”
Guardian, 11/16/2006, “Joining the Dots of Ineptitude”
Guardian, 2/18/2017, “Omar Abdel-Rahman, Convicted in 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, Dies at 78”
Fox News, 2/18/2017, “Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, Linked to 1993 World Trade Center Attack, Has Died”
New York Magazine, 3/17/1995, “The CIA’s Jihad” by Robert Friedman
New York Times, 12/16/1990, “Islamic Leader on U.S. Terrorist List Is in Brooklyn”
New York Times, 4/11/1993, “After Blast, New Interest in Holy-War Recruits in Brooklyn”
New York Times, 7/22/1993, “C.I.A. Officers Played Role In Sheik Visas”
New York Times, 10/22/1998, “U.S. Sees Brooklyn Link to World Terror Network”
New York Times, 1/4/2000, “The New Face of Terrorism” (opinion)
New York Times, 1/14/2001, “One Man and a Global Web of Violence”
New York Times, 10/12/2003, “Why America Slept”
Newsweek, 9/30/2001, “War on Terror: The Road to September 11”

CIA Asset/FBI Informant/Special Forces Soldier Ali Mohamed Trains the Alkifah Terrorists; Is Hidden From Public View and Shielded From Sentencing
Ali Mohamed both helped to establish the Akifah Center, according to the Chicago Tribune, and was one of its key paramilitary trainers.

Mohamed’s resume was duplicitous to say the least. On one hand, he was a CIA asset, an FBI informant, and a U.S. Army Sergeant who trained Green Berets and Delta Force special operations officers. On the other hand, he was a top personal aid and confidante to Osama Bin Laden, he trained Bin Laden’s personal security entourage, he authored most of the content of Al Qaeda’s terrorist training manual, and he was convicted as a co-planner of the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings.

The reader can learn more in my paper devoted to Ali Mohamed, but for now let’s briefly expand on a few parts of his repertoire before addressing his work at the Alkifah Center.

In 1981, Mohamed became a member of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, overseen by the Blind Sheik. In 1984, he reached out to the CIA and offered to work as an informant on Middle Eastern terrorist groups. According to the CIA’s narrative, the agency briefly tried him out, but dismissed him after he proved unreliable. They subsequently put him on the terrorist watch list to prevent him from entering the United States.

However, one year later, Mohamed not only entered the United States, but received U.S. citizenship and went on to fly in and out of the United States 58 times over the next 10-plus years. According to a 1995 report by the Boston Globe, later cited by the New York Times, this was accomplished under a clandestine visa-waiver program used for CIA assets. When the New York Times questioned the CIA on this point in October of 1998, an agency spokesman refused to comment.

In 1986, Mohamed enlisted in the U.S. Army where he quickly rose to become a supervising trainer of elite Green Beret and Delta Force Officers at the highly secure JFK Special Warfare School at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. While there, according to his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Robert Anderson, Mohamed was known for his terrorist background, his bizarre and fanatical behavior, and his open defiance of army regulations when he used vacation time to fight in Afghanistan with the mujaheddin, which the U.S. had no official involvement with. When Anderson’s repeated requests for Army intelligence to investigate, court-martial, and deport Mohamed were ignored, he concluded Mohamed must be sponsored by the CIA.

For most of the 1990’s, Mohamed served as an FBI informant. During these same years, he constantly traveled to and from Sudan and Afghanistan to meet with Osama Bin Laden and/or train Al Qaeda terrorists, he brokered terror summits, he smuggled Al Qaeda sleeper agents into the United States from Canada, he helped Bin Laden’s second in command Ayman al-Zawahiri acquire a fake passport and travel to America on Al Qaeda fundraising trips, and he co-planned the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings for which he and Osama Bin Laden were indicted. After his indictment, Mohamed’s case was sealed from public access and he was never sentenced after his conviction. In addition to coverage by numerous media outlets, Mohamed’s exploits were documented in fine detail by ABC News producer, five time Emmy-winning reporter, and best-selling political author Peter Lance in his 2006 book, Triple Cross.

At the Alkifah Center, Mohamed provided paramilitary training to the WTC bombers and the Day of Terror plotters. This training was facilitated in large part by numerous U.S. Army Special Operations manuals he brought from Fort Bragg, but also included topics such as how to build bombs using garden-store materials and how to pose as typical Americans by shaving beards and staying away from mosques. Mohamed made the prosecution’s list of unindicted co-conspirators in the Day of Terror trial.

Sources:
Boston Globe, 2/3/1995, “Figure Cited in Terrorism Case Said to Enter U.S. with CIA Help”
Chicago Tribune, 12/11/2001, “Terrorists Evolved in U.S.”
Guardian, 11/16/2006, “Joining the Dots of Ineptitude”
Huffington Post, 8/15/2009, “Mr. Fitzgerald, In Your Threat to Sue for Libel, Please, Either Put Up or Shut Up” by Peter Lance
New York Times, 10/30/1998, “U.S. Ex-Sergeant Linked to bin Laden Conspiracy”
New York Times, 10/12/2003, “Why America Slept”
New York Times, 8/28/2006, “Slipping Through the Cracks: Bin Laden’s Mole”
Peter Lance, 11/2006, “Triple Cross”
San Francisco Chronicle, 9/21/2001, “Bin Laden's man in Silicon Valley”
San Francisco Chronicle, 11/4/2001, “Al Qaeda Terrorist Worked with FBI / Ex-Silicon Valley

El Sayyid Nosair A Key Figure in the WTC/Day of Terror Plots; FBI and CIA Attempt Cover-up
El Sayyid Nosair, an Egyptian boiler mechanic who worked in New York City's criminal courts building, hosted Ali Mohamed during his trips to the Alkifah Center, was a regular attendee of his training classes, and was convicted for co-planning the Day of Terror plot in 1995.

In 1989, Nosair, Ali Mohamed, and some of the WTC bombers were photographed firing AK-47’s at a Long Island shooting range on four successive weekends by the FBI’s elite Special Operations Group. However, FBI surveillance of the group inexplicably halted after this, according to Peter Lance.

In 1990, Nosair assassinated Rabbi Meir Kahane, the leader of the Jewish Defense League, by firing a .357 Magnum slug into his head just after he completed a speech at a midtown Manhattan motel. According to the Chicago Tribune, this act later came to be considered the first shot of the Akifah terrorists’ campaign against the U.S.

After his arrest for the Kahane murder, FBI investigators searched Nosair’s apartment. According to Newsweek, the Chicago Tribune, and Friedman, they found a number of items of interest. First, they found binders full of Mohamed’s classified military training manuals from Fort Bragg. Second, they found thousands of rounds of ammunition and hit lists with the names of New York judges and prosecutors. And third, they found numerous documents in Arabic containing blueprints for both the 1993 WTC bombing and the Day of Terror Plot. For example, one document contained a formula for a bomb almost identical to the one used at the World Trade Center, along with a picture of the World Trade Center. Another document described a strike on the United States, stating:

“…this is to be done by means of destroying – exploding – the structures of their civilized pillars such as the tourist infrastructure which they are proud of and their high world buildings which they are proud of and their statues which they endear and the buildings in which gather their leaders.”

Unfortunately the FBI said it never translated the Arabic documents, purportedly due to a misfiling error. One source from the District Attorney’s office told Friedman:

“We gave all this stuff to the bureau, thinking that they were well equipped. After the World Trade Center, we discovered they never translated the material.”

During Nosair’s investigation and trial, New York District Attorney Robert Morgenthau suspected Nosair was part of a broader terrorism conspiracy which led back to the Blind Sheik, but said the FBI lied to him, claiming Nosair was a lone gunman. Friedman quoted Morgenthau as stating:

“The FBI lied to me… They’re supposed to untangle terrorist connections, but they can’t be trusted to do the job.”

Morgenthau also speculated the CIA encouraged the FBI not to pursue any broader terrorism leads.

Three years later when the World Trade Center was bombed. The FBI took several suspects into custody. Morgenthau again believed they were part of a larger network which led back to the Blind Sheik, but that the federal government would try to protect him. As the investigation unfolded, Morgenthau was completely frozen out of the FBI-NYPD joint Terrorist Task Force which he helped to create. Undeterred, Morgenthau quietly created his own parallel unit to follow the FBI’s progress.

It was this parallel unit that finally translated the Arabic documents taken from Nosair’s home in 1990, which contained blueprints for the WTC bombing and the Day of Terror plot. When Morgenthau’s team brought this evidence to FBI, they expected the FBI to be excited. Instead they told Morgenthau’s team to “get off our backs” and continued to resist linking Nosair and the Alkifah Center associates to a broader conspiracy.

When Nosair eventually did get indicted as a co-planner in the Day of Terror plot, the government did not allow Ali Mohamed to testify at the trial and blocked Nosair’s lawyers from gaining any access to him even though he was named by the prosecution as an unidicted co-conspirator.

Meanwhile, the FBI appeared to shift some of the blame to the CIA. According to Newsweek, one FBI investigator said his team “had zero cooperation from the intelligence community” in tracking down the Blind Sheik after the WTC bombing. Likewise, Friedman wrote that the CIA tried to “discourage local law enforcement agencies and the FBI from looking into the matter too deeply.” 

Sources:
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, 9/2/2003, Dan Rather reporting from Iraq with coverage of the book “1000 Years for Revenge” and an interview with author Peter Lance
Chicago Tribune, 12/11/2001, “Terrorists Evolved in U.S.”
Huffington Post, 8/29/2006, “Triple Cross: Nat Geo Channel’s Whitewash of the Ali Mohamed Story” by Peter Lance
Huffington Post, 8/15/2009, “Mr. Fitzgerald, In Your Threat to Sue for Libel, Please, Either Put Up or Shut Up” by Peter Lance
New York Magazine, 3/17/1995, “The CIA’s Jihad” by Robert Friedman
New York Times, 10/12/2003, “Why America Slept”
New York Times, 1/13/2012, “Man Convicted in Terrorism Conspiracy Is Denied New Trial”
Newsweek, 9/30/2001, “War on Terror: The Road to September 11”
Peter Lance, 9/2012, “1000 Years for Revenge”

Points of Overlap Discovered Between Blind Sheik, El Sayyid Nosair, and Two 9/11 Hijackers
Before moving on to the next WTC Bombing/Day of Terror plotters, it is worth pausing to note an interesting link which connects the Blind Sheik, El Sayyid Nosair, and two of the lead 9/11 hijackers – Almidhar and Alhazmi – who were aboard American Airlines Flight 77 when it flew into the Pentagon.

In addition to the Al-Farooq Mosque/Alkifah Center in Brooklyn, New York, both Nosair and the Blind Sheik were affiliated with the Masjid al-Salam Mosque in Jersey City, New Jersey. The Blind Sheik was the spiritual leader and Nosair was a regular worshiper. In fact, it was at this location where the Blind Sheik masterminded the WTC bombing and the Day of Terror plot, according to prosecutors in the 1995 Day of Trial.

Located in the same building as the Masjid al-Salam mosque was a mailbox-check cashing store called “Sphinx Trading.” Sphinx Trading first came to the attention of the FBI in 1990 when they discovered that Nosair kept a mailbox there. But suspicious must have grown exponentially by 1995 when Sphinx Trading’s co-founder, Waleed al Noor, was listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Day of Terror trial.

Remarkably, lead 9/11 hijackers, Almidhar and Alhazmi, not only had mailboxes at Sphinx Trading as well, but they even received the fake ID’s they used to board Flight 77 from its other co-founder, Mohammed El-Attriss. Peter Lance argued in his book “Triple Cross” that stopping 9/11 would have been as simple for the FBI as monitoring Sphinx Trading after the Day of Terror trial and connecting the dots from Nosair to the co-founders to Almidhar and Alhazmi.   

Sources:
CBS News, “1993 WTC Bomb: A Warning Shot,” photo 9/13 caption
Huffington Post, 8/15/2009, “Mr. Fitzgerald, In Your Threat to Sue for Libel, Please, Either Put Up or Shut Up” by Peter Lance
New York Times, 11/13/1990, “F.B.I. Investigates Groups of Zealots Who Praise Kahane Slaying”
Newsweek, 3/14/1993, “Radical Sheik: A Cleric's Violent Message”
Peter Lance, 11/2006, “Triple Cross”
San Francisco Chronicle, 9/22/2001, “In Jersey, Attacks Put Coexistence to New Test / Muslim Enclave Under Strain of Terror Backlash”

Military Intelligence Team Identifies Four 9/11 Hijackers as Belonging to the Blind Sheik’s Brooklyn Cell; Pentagon Denies
In early to mid 2000, five members of a classified military intelligence data mining program named Able Danger were purportedly briefed with a chart which included the names and photographs of four 9/11 hijackers – ringleader Mohamed Atta, Marwan Alshehhi, and lead non-pilot Flight 77 hijackers Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi. The briefings said they were members of a Brooklyn, New York-based Al Qaeda terrorist cell. The New York Times (8/9/2005) stated:

“…the original chart… included the names and photographs of Mr. Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, as well as Mr. Mihdhar and Mr. Hazmi, who were identified as members of what was described as an American-based ‘Brooklyn’ cell, as one of five such Al Qaeda cells around the world.”

One Able Danger team member said the data linked Mohamed Atta specifically to the Blind Sheik. Fox News (8/28/2005) reported:

“…the unit came to know Atta through Omar Abdul Rahman, part of the first World Trade Center bomb plot in 1993. Smith said Able Danger used data mining techniques — publicly available information — to look at mosques and religious ties and it was, in part, through the investigation of Rahman that Atta's name surfaced.”

Similarly, Republican congressman Curt Weldon, Vice Chairman of both the House Armed Services Committee and the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was in contact with people in the Pentagon data mining pre-9/11 intelligence and “in spite of what DoD [Department of Defense] said, I have 13 hits on Mohamed Atta,” per the Associated Press.

After being initially forbade by the Pentagon, Able Danger team members testified before congress concerning the chart, three instances in which the Pentagon blocked the team’s attempts to warn the FBI before 9/11, and the Pentagon’s orders to destroy the program’s files. However, the Defense Department Inspector General’s office subsequently conducted its own internal investigation and claimed that the memories of the Able Danger team members were inaccurate, the program never identified any 9/11 hijacker, and they were they never prevented from contacting the FBI. Afterward, according to Fox News (10/4/2010) at least five witnesses later claimed that their statements were distorted by the Inspector General’s final report.

To learn more about Able Danger, please read my paper on 9/11 ringleader Mohamed Atta.

Sources:
ABC News, 9/15/2005, “Pentagon Employee Was Ordered to Destroy Data Identifying Atta as a Terrorist”
Associated Press, 2/14/2006, “Weldon: ‘Able Danger’ ID’d Atta 13 Times”
Fox News, 8/28/2005, “Third Source Backs ‘Able Danger’ Claims About Atta”
Fox News, 10/4/2010, “Witnesses in Defense Dept. Report Suggest Cover-Up of 9/11 Findings”
New York Times, 8/9/2005, “Four in 9/11 Plot are Called Tied to Al Qaeda in ‘00”
New York Times, 8/16/2005, “Officer Says Pentagon Barred Sharing Pre-9/11 Qaeda Data With F.B.I.”

CIA Destroys Incriminating Evidence on WTC Mastermind Ramzi Yousef’s Laptop; Yousef’s Uncle and 9/11 Architect Khalid Sheik Mohammed Linked to CIA Funds/Arms Pipeline
Ramzi Yousef was recruited by the Blind Sheik to mastermind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing after having trained for the task in Pakistan under Osama Bin Laden. According to Friedman, when Yousef was finally discovered in Pakistan in 1995 the CIA tried to prevent the FBI from arresting him, preferring instead to only track him. A couple months later, the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times journalist David Kocieniewski, writing for Newsday, reported that the CIA had destroyed large amounts of digital evidence against Yousef and his network contained in his computer before the FBI could access it. The CIA even went so far as to use “at least three separate computer deletion programs.” The lost information included “detailed information about Yousef’s coconspirators in the United States and overseas, including their names, addresses and in some cases, even phone numbers.” As a result the FBI opened an investigation against the CIA for destruction of evidence. Here are some key excerpts from the article:

“Some crucial computer evidence against notorious terrorist suspect Ramzi Yousef has been destroyed, and the FBI has begun an investigation into whether the CIA is responsible…”

 “[The CIA] provided the FBI with a summary of the files, indicating they contained detailed information about Yousef’s coconspirators in the United States and overseas, including their names, addresses and in some cases, even phone numbers.… But when the CIA turned over the actual computer and disks, Justice Department experts determined that at least three separate computer deletion programs had been used to erase some of the data, law-enforcement sources said.” 

“[An FBI official stated,] ‘We had teams of investigators frothing at the mouth to get at Yousef’s network. And we get handed an empty computer. It’s as if we’d been tracking a serial killer and someone intentionally shredded the investigative file.’”

The Los Angeles Times added that Yousef’s laptop also contained detailed information about Operation Bojinka, which was a virtual blueprint for the 9/11 attacks. To learn more, please read my paper on Operation Bojinka. Finally, the Newsday article said the FBI believed the CIA may have had a pre-existing relationship with Yousef dating back to Operation Cyclone. It stated:

“FBI officials also are considering a probe of whether the CIA had any relationship with Yousef, who fought with the CIA-financed mujaheddin in Afghanistan in the 1980s.”

Similarly, United Press International stated in 1995:

“…officials are also investigating the possibility that Yousef worked for Pakistani and U.S. security agencies during the Afghan war…”

Yousef was the nephew of Khalid Sheik Mohammed. Although he now best known as “the principal architect of the 9/11 attacks,” in the words of the 9/11 Commission Report, Mohammed was also indicted as a co-conspirator in the 1993 WTC bombing. According to one CBS News report, “Mohammed gave Yousef advice, tips, and cash in the run up to the 1993 bombing.”

During the Soviet-Afghan war, Mohammed was also linked to the CIA arms/funding pipeline in Peshawar, Pakistan. For example, he taught at the terrorist “university” overseen by the warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a primary recipient of CIA funds. And he was tied in with Azzam and Bin Laden who, as we have already seen, operated the Services Center which received fresh recruits from the allegedly CIA-sponsored Akifah Center in Brooklyn, New York. The Los Angeles Times stated:

“The United States funneled arms and more millions through Peshawar… At the center of the Afghan resistance movement in Peshawar was… warlord Abdul Rasul Sayyaf… He became the favored recipient of money from the Saudi and American governments… The money funded his… college called the University of Dawa al Jihad, which means Convert and Struggle. The university became known as a place you could learn darker trades than mathematics -- bomb-making, for example… By 1989, [Khalid Sheik] Mohammed had gone to work at Sayyaf’s university… He taught there and… became part of the small, semi-permanent Arab community that included Azzam… and Bin Laden.”

The Los Angeles Times also pointed out that Khalid Sheik Mohammed’s older brother Zahid ran one of the largest Soviet-Afghan War-related charities in Peshawar, making him a major regional figure, known by all local diplomats, politicians, and warlords. According to BBC documentarian and New York Times best-selling political author Simon Reeve, per his 1998 book entitled, “The New Jackals,” Zahid’s charity was yet another funnel for CIA funds and CIA-trained Islamic militants.

Sources:
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, 9/2/2003, Dan Rather reporting from Iraq with coverage of the book “1000 Years for Revenge” and an interview with author Peter Lance
CBS News, 2/26/2013, “The 1993 World Trade Center Bombers: Where Are They Now?”
Fortune Magazine, 4/16/2013, “‘The New York Times’ Gets Its Pulitzer for Picking on Apple”
Los Angeles Times, 9/1/2002, Los Angeles Times, 9/1/2002, “The Plot: How Terrorists Hatched a Simple Plan to Use Planes as Bombs”
Los Angeles Times, 12/22/2002, “The Plots and Design of Al Qaeda’s Engineer”
New York Magazine, 3/17/1995, “The CIA’s Jihad” by Robert Friedman
New York Times, 1/4/2000, “The New Face of Terrorism” (opinion)
New York Times, 4/10/2011, “In Federal Court, a Docket Number for Global Terror”
Newsday, 4/16/1995, “Terrorism Evidence Destroyed” by David Kocieniewski
Simon Reeve, 1998, “The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the Future of Terrorism”
United Press International, 4/11/1995; “Pakistan Unearthing Yousef’s Roots”
Washington Post, 12/30/2001, “Bust and Boom”
9/11 Commission, 4/16/2001, “9/11 Commission Report,” pg. 145

FBI Informant Emad Salem Infiltrates Alkifah, Helps Builds WTC Bomb, Is Pulled Before He Can Neutralize
In the early 1990’s, FBI Informant Emad Salem infiltrated the Alkifah terrorist cell. Salem was a former Egyptian army officer and explosives expert. He secretly recorded and videotaped more than 150 hours of conversations with the cell members, which became crucial evidence in their eventual indictments and in stopping the Day of Terror plot. The New York police administrator said of Salem, “The man saved the city. There is no doubt that he saved lives.”

Once he was accepted into the cell, Salem took the lead in building the bomb that was detonated at the base of the World Trade Center. The plan was for Salem to eventually substitute fake explosive powder into the bomb while he continued to gather evidence to build the FBI’s case against the terrorists.

However, according to the New York Times, six months before the bombing, an unnamed FBI supervisor pulled Salem off of the job and the terrorists went on to build the bomb successfully without him. Salem feuded with the supervisor for months over the decision, but to no avail. In disgust, Salem told one of his FBI handling agents, Nancy Floyd:

“Don’t call me when the bombs go off.”

According to Salem’s 2017 interview with the History Channel, when the cell members couldn’t convince him to return and continue working on the bomb, they sent a fax to Osama Bin Laden who provided them with a new explosives expert as a replacement.

Meanwhile, Salem also secretly recorded hundreds of hours of conversations with his FBI handlers over a two year period for self-protection. Salem developed a deep mistrust for the Bureau and, according an interview with the History Channel interview, feared the FBI would later deny working with him and charge him as a co-conspirator.

After the WTC bombing, according to some transcripts of Salem’s recordings of his conversations with the FBI, later obtained by the New York Times, Salem complained bitterly about the FBI’s failure to prevent the bombing. At one point in the transcripts, Salem told his handlers, “…you saw this bomb went off and you both know that we could avoid that… Do you deny your supervisor is the main reason of bombing the World Trade Center? We was handling the case perfectly well until the supervisor came and messed it up…”

At another point, when Salem wanted to complain to FBI headquarters in Washington, agent John Anticev replied, “I don't think that the New York people would like the things out of the New York office to go to Washington, D.C.” Agent Nancy Floyd then agreed, stating, “Well, of course not, because they don't want to get their butts chewed.”

At another point, Salem stated, “Since the bomb went off I feel terrible. I feel bad. I feel here is people who don't listen.” Agent Nancy Floyd replied, “Hey, I mean it wasn't like you didn't try and I didn't try. You can't force people to do the right thing.”

Salem’s recordings of his conversations with the FBI were compiled in 70 tapes, most of which were made after the WTC bombing. The defense lawyers in the Day of Terror case demanded access to them. The government withheld them for several weeks before eventually turning over only 45 of them. The 45 tapes were also sealed by a Federal Judge, which meant the defense lawyers could not publicly discuss or disseminate them. One of the attorneys, William Kunstler, accused the government of improper delay in handing over the material and said even the partial transcripts he finally saw “were filled with all sorts of government misconduct.” However, he was legally unable to provide any further details.

Sources:
CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, 9/2/2003, Dan Rather reporting from Iraq interviewing journalist Peter Lance regarding his book “1000 Years for Revenge”
CBS New, 10/28/1993, Dan Rather reporting on the World Trade Center bombing and FBI Informant Emad Salem
History Channel, 9/11/2017, “This Man Helped Thwart the Biggest Terror Attack That Almost Happened”
New York Times, 10/28/1993, “Tapes Depict Proposal to Thwart Bomb Used in Trade”
New York Times, 10/31/1993, “Bomb Informer's Tapes Give Rare Glimpse of F.B.I. Dealings”
Washington Post, 8/26/1993, “Informer at Center of Case”

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