N.Y. Police Tell Bomb Warning From Mideast

Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly disclosed Tuesday that, a month before a massive bomb explosion rocked the World Trade Center, the U.S. Embassy in Algiers was warned by purported Middle East callers that New York would be the target of a bomb attack unless Israel canceled its deportation of 400 Palestinians.

In response to the January telephone threats, which did not specify an attack on any skyscraper, police beefed up security at Israeli and some other U.N. missions here. However, the two deadlines--both in January--passed without incident.

On two separate occasions, callers claiming to represent the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine set 48-hour deadlines for actions permitting the return of deportees that Israel said were linked to Hamas, a Muslim extremist group blamed for increasing acts of violence.

City and federal investigators acknowledged that the incident puts Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine on its list of possible terrorist groups subject to investigation in connection with last week’s bombing that left five dead and more than 1,000 injured.

However, FBI officials said no single group had so far been singled out as a prime suspect.

“We are not targeting any individual group based on the investigation to this point,” said James Fox, director of the FBI’s New York field office.

Kelly said police in New York receive about a dozen such warnings relayed to them by the U.S. intelligence agencies each year.

The list of possible terrorists receiving attention from a joint task force of city and federal agents investigating the twin towers explosion includes South American drug lords; warring factions in the former Yugoslavia; possible agents from Iran, Iraq and Libya, and other militant elements considered potentially hostile to U.S. interests.

“All groups of this nature are in the equation, factored into the investigation,” the police commissioner said.

On Tuesday, Mayor David N. Dinkins said the city would offer a $100,000 reward for information leading to the capture of the trade center bombers.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the center, added $100,000 of its own to make the total reward $200,000.

At the same time, Stanley Brezenoff, executive director of the Port Authority, acknowledged that the twin, 110-story towers could be closed for some time.

“I would like to believe it will be under a month,” he said. But some estimates were that the closure could last several months.

New York City Controller Elizabeth Holtzman estimated that the effects of the bombing could cost the city $700 million in lost business in just the first week after the blast.

One problem delaying trade center tenants and investigators was the perilous condition of the crime scene--a seven-story-deep, 200-foot-wide canyon caused by the explosion in the complex’s underground garage. Fox said it could be Sunday at the earliest before bomb experts can begin combing the debris at ground zero.

Authorities said pieces of a van had been extracted from rubble at the fringes of the bomb site. But they stressed that it was too early to know if the vehicle had contained the bomb.

“There are hundreds of cars down there--pieces are all over the place,” said Charles Thomson, chief of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms in New York City.

Police have removed 10 vehicles, the first of hundreds that must be inspected, from the garage. Working in assembly-line fashion, bomb technicians are using vacuum cleaners to collect dust samples from inside and outside the vehicles, including under the hood. These samples are placed in bags and transferred to laboratories for analysis.

Fox acknowledged some frustration at the long delay in reaching the heart of the crime scene. On Tuesday, part of another wall near the crater collapsed, underscoring the dangerous instability of the area.

“We are absolutely at the mercy of the engineers--when they tell us it is safe to go in there, we will take the crime team in,” he said.

Investigators so far have not been in a position to sift debris that they expect contains “the most relevant residue and pieces of the device itself . . . which we desperately need.”

Fox said that such evidence could help identify the bomb components, where they were purchased and who bought them.

The delay, he said, “gives (the bombers) three or four more days we wish they didn’t have.”

Investigators also hope to recover additional garage surveillance cameras that may be buried in the rubble.

Tapes from at least one garage surveillance camera have proven to have limited initial value. Officials said the quality of the tape would require painstaking enhancement before license plates can be identified.

“The tapes we have recovered are marginal in quality at best,” Fox said.

He said a videotape taken by a tourist has so far produced no useful information.

Since the explosion at 12:18 p.m. Friday, police have received 364 bomb threats. On Tuesday, police emergency squad members examined a suspicious package at the trade center. It turned out to be building equipment.

One person remains unaccounted for after the explosion. Another man reported missing on Monday turned up safe.

More than 5,000 phone tips have been received. Fox said three or four of the tips about activities in and around the garage were found to be “very interesting and we are following through.” He provided no details.

The FBI official said, however, that “no new dramatic witness” so far has come forth “who is going to solve this case for us.”

Times Staff Writer Robert L. Jackson contributed to this story.

Snapshot of Terrorism in the U.S.

Here is a breakdown of recent terrorist incidents in the United States, from 1987 to 1991: TERRORIST INCIDENTS 1987: 9 1988: 9 1989: 4 1990: 7 1991: 5 THE TARGETS Public: 1 Military: 8 School: 3 Business: 16 U.S. Govt.: 6 GROUPS INVOLVED Anti-Castro: 1 Puerto Rican: 23 Special Interest: 10 TYPE OF ATTACK Bomb attacks: 23 Arson: 6 Property destruction: 4 Sabotage: 1 Source: FBI