Wednesday, February 26, 2003

So in December 1992, I was in a meeting on the 68th floor of One World Trade Center to discuss the business resumption plan of an organization with which I had a contract. The discussion turned to possible threats that might cause us to need a business resumption plan. Natural disasters were thought of as the major risk. Lower Manhattan is at risk from ocean surge flooding and earthquakes are possible. Someone finally mentioned terrorism as a possibility. The consensus seemed to be that that risk was low. I pointed out that, even though we were then apparently at peace, war was also a risk.

Two months later, terrorists detonated a bomb in the basement of the building we were meeting in.

Nine years later, the whole complex was destroyed in an attack which can only be characterized as an act of war.

I was as surprised as anyone.

Monday, February 24, 2003

The 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City

Wednesday 26 February 12:18 PM EST is the 10th anniversary of the World Trade Center bombing.

The attack killed six people and injured over a thousand.

Killed were John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen Knapp, William Macko, Wilfredo Mercado, and Monica Rodriguez Smith and her unborn child.

Here is the [now destroyed] memorial to that bombing:

Its inscription read:

On February 26, 1993, a bomb set by terrorists exploded below this site. This horrible act of violence killed innocent people, injured thousands, and made victims of us all.

Thanks to the International Foundation for Art Research website.

A one-foot-square fragment of marble from the memorial was recovered from the WTC site and will be used in a temporary memorial [New York Times -- Registration required].

Most of the 1993 conspirators have been tried and are in prison. None received the death penalty because they were tried in the Southern District of New York whose juries are reluctant to impose that penalty.

From The Guardian: A new breed of terror

As an FBI helicopter took him to a cell on Manhattan, Bill Gavin, the head of the FBI in New York, leant forward and eased [Ramzi] Yousef's blindfold away from his eyes. "Look down there," he said to Yousef, gesturing towards the twin towers. "They're still standing." Yousef squinted and looked out of the window. "They wouldn't be if I had had enough money and explosives," he replied defiantly.

Bibliography of the 1993 Bombing of the World Trade Center

Best book is the out-of-print Two Seconds Under the World: Terror Comes to America - The Conspiracy Behind the World Trade Center Bombing by Jim Dwyer, Deidre Murphy, Peg Tyre, David Kocieniewski.
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Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. -- The 91st Psalm