CIA-RDP96-00789R003900260009-3

93-170-P
Nachington Post 26 Mar 93
Approved For Release 2001/03/07-CIA-RDF96-00789R003900260009-3
5th Suspect
Arrested in
Bombing
Firing Device Found
In Home, Court Told
By Jim McGee
and Rachel Stassen-Berger
Washington Post Staff Writers
NEW YORK, March 25-The
investigation of the bombing of the
World Trade Center reached a new
plateau Thursday with the arrest of
a-fifth suspect and disclosure of new
evidence against a circle of Middle
Eastern immigrants from the New
York-New Jersey area.
Today's developments
began
shortly after midnight, when 'FBI
agents in Newark placed Bilal
Alkaisi, 27, junder arrest after sev-
eral hours of questioning. Later in
the day he was formally charged
with "aiding and abetting" the
bombing, which killed six persons,
injured more than 1,000 and crip-
pled one of the world's largest of-
fice complexes.
When FBI agents arrested Nidal
.A. Ayyad, a chemical engineer im-
plicated in the case, on March 10,
he was carrying an American Ex-
press card in the name of Alkaisi.
American Express records listed
Ayyad's residence as the billing ad-
dress for the card, the federal com-
plaint said.
A search of Ayyad's residence
the same day turned up a "timing
mechanism which had been mod-
ified .... as a time-delay firing sys-
tem, consistent with timing mech-
anism used in other terrorist
bombs," according to the complaint.
In related court proceedings to-
day, Ayyad and three other sus-
pects pleaded not guilty to charges
involving the Feb. 26 explosion in
" the trade center's underground
parking garage.
While they are optimistic after
`five arrests within a month after the
bombing, senior officials said they
are still unsure about the motive.
: "The circle is now very narrow in
"terms of the individuals we are still
seeking who we believe are respon-
sible for this bombing," said Jim Es -..
posito, special agent in charge of : ney, known for his representation of
thA Jorok El ist Reibase 200110 310y trer RUP98 00729
"the motive for this bombing is un-
over the past generation.
clear." .
REUTER
Mahmud Abouhalima, center, an Egyptian, is arraigned in New York
courtroom on charges of causing Feb. 26 bombing of the World Trade Center.
Esposito's counterpart in New
York, FBI Assistant Director Jim
Fox, cautioned that it may be
months before the investigation is
complete in the case, which defense
attorneys are quick to note is
based-so far as is publicly under-
stood-on evidence that is largely
circumstantial. "The investigation is
continuing on a large scale," Fox
said at the news conference.
Each of the five suspects now in
custody appeared in federal court
on separate charges related to the
bombing, but a federal prosecutor
said in court that some of the de-
fendants can expect to be re-in-
dicted within a week under a more
comprehensive set of charges. Such
a step, known as a superseding in-
dictment, might define in greater
detail the legal underpinnings of the
government's case.
"I ... am ... not ... guilty,"
said Mohammed A. Salameh, his
loud voice rising above the din of
the courtroom. Salameh, the first
arrested in connection with the
bombing, rented a van that the FBI
alleges was used to carry the explo-
sivės.
Moments later, Ayyad, who is
implicated in the case as a result of
his dealings with Salameh, stood up
and gave a prepared statement: "I
swear by all I hold dear-the
Koran, my wife, my children, my
mother-I am not guilty," he said.
"I had nothing to do with this."
Minutes later, Ibrahim A. El-
gabrowny, 42, was led into the
same courtroom, where he was
greeted with a bear hug from Wil-
-liam N. Kunstler, his defense attor-
structing the search of his resi-
dence and possessing fraudulent
passports, but the U.S. Attorney's
office has publicly connected him
with the bombing indictment. "Not
guilty," said Elgabrowny.
According to the indictment un-
.
sealed today, the grand jury
charged Salameh, Ayyad and Ma-
hmud Abouhalima, an Egyptian
flown here from his homeland on
Wednesday, with causing the bomb-
ing of the trade center.
Abouhalima "was beaten, he was
tortured," during 10 days of con-
finement in Egypt, his defense at-
. torney, Jesse Berman, told the
court. In the hallway after the hear-
ing, Berman told reporters that
Abouhalima claimed that his inter-
.rogators in Egypt tortured him with
cigarette burns to his genitals and
demanded that he confess to in-
volvement in the bombing.
A spokesman for Egypt's Interior
Ministry said today he did not know
"anything about" the charges,
Washington Post correspondent
Caryle Murphy reported from Cais
ro. "Telephone again after tomor-
row," he said.
Alkaisi was brought before
magistrate, but did not enter a pleas
The federal complaint said that afe
least one witness saw Alkaisi with
Salameh before the bombing, at
storage shed in New Jersey where
agents discovered a cache of chem,
icals that can be used to create ex
plosives:
During questioning at the Ne
wark FBI office, Alkaisi "stated in
substance and in part that he da
not know Salameh well and only had
" contact with him through Nicht
ad " said the federal complain
Elgabrowny is charged with ob-
shed.