Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 5, 1993 TAG: 9303050132
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
BOMB SUSPECT CHARGED
A man described as a follower of a radical Muslim cleric was arrested Thursday in last week's World Trade Center bombing when he coolly tried a third time to reclaim a rental deposit on a van that the FBI said held the bomb.Other suspects were being sought. Law enforcement sources said the bombing appeared to be a terrorist act, though the motive remained unclear.
Mohammed Salameh, 26, appeared in federal court Thursday night and was charged with aiding and abetting the bombing and a fire that followed. The Jersey City, N.J., resident was held without bail.
Salameh appeared calm and relaxed as an interpreter read the charges to him in Arabic. He nodded to his attorney but didn't appear to speak.
The FBI said in an affidavit filed with the court that the van Salameh rented carried the bomb, and that a search of his apartment with a bomb-sniffing dog turned up bomb-making equipment. Fragments of the van were recovered at the blast site.
The arrest was a sudden, major break in the most notorious U.S. bombing in years. Just a day earlier, the FBI had said it could take months to crack the case.
Last Friday's blast in a garage beneath the twin towers killed five people, injured more than 1,000, left one missing and sent fear through the nation's largest city.
One law enforcement source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Thursday that the attack could have been in retaliation for the Persian Gulf War. The bombing came on the second anniversary of the U.S. ouster of Iraq's army from Kuwait. But a Clinton administration source said evidence of Mideast terrorist involvement was "iffy."
The suspect was affiliated with the El Salam Mosque in Jersey City, N.J., where Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman preaches, a Jersey City official said, citing reports from FBI agents to city police.
Abdel-Rahman, 54, is a blind Muslim cleric living in self-imposed exile in New Jersey after his acquittal a decade ago in Egypt on charges that he sanctioned the 1981 assassination of President Anwar el-Sadat.
The cleric commands a following in Egypt that analysts compare to that of the late Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran; his message includes calls to eradicate anyone who stands in the way of Islam.