Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 5, 1993 TAG: 9310050189
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Short
The Feb. 26 bombing, which killed six people and injured more than 1,000, was "the single most destructive act of terrorism ever committed here in the United States," Assistant U.S. Attorney Gilmore Childers said in his opening statement.
He said no one will testify they saw the bomb being made or being driven in a rental van into a garage under the 110-story towers, but the evidence will tie the four defendants to each other and to the attack.
The defendants - Mohammad Salameh, 26, Ahmad Ajaj, 27, Mahmud Abouhalima, 34, and Nidal Ayyad, 25 - shook their heads several times but otherwise showed no emotion.
Defense lawyers maintained the men's innocence. Salameh's lawyer, Robert Precht, was slapped on the back and kissed by Salameh after he told jurors that "truth is sometimes an elusive thing." Outside the courtroom, Precht said it was a "stunning admission" that there were no witnesses to the key events.
The bombing occurred as tens of thousands of people in the world's second tallest buildings were going about their business at 12:17 p.m., "unaware that one minute later, at 12:18, their lives would change forever," Childers said.
by CNB