Law Officers Tread Carefully Into Bombing Suspect’s Past

It has become a familiar, if ominous, sight. Just across the Hudson River, almost in the long shadows of the twin towers of the World Trade Center, the hulking silhouette of the New Jersey bomb squad’s mobile disposal unit was making another appearance Saturday on the streets of this gritty industrial town.

A street was barricaded by police cars with flashing lights. Yellow tape defined temporary “no trespassing” zones. And in the middle of Pamrapo Street, the big white truck squatted with its odd little trailer: the bomb disposal canister.

Friday night one had waited outside a self-storage lot; Thursday it blocked Kensington Street where one elderly woman--told what it was--put a hand to her throat and gasped.

Such is the dread reflected throughout this community as teams of law enforcement agents sweep through neighborhoods, swarming over the past of suspected World Trade Center bomber Mohammed A. Salameh.

Federal and state investigators not only are searching for explosives and other forensic evidence but for traces of the once obscure life of the jailed Palestinian immigrant with a long-expired visa. So far, most details of Salameh’s history and associations in Jersey City remain a mystery.

“They were quiet, but they were always very busy,” said one neighbor who asked that her name be withheld. She said that she knew nothing about his occupation.

Nor did another neighbor who tried to befriend him. “He didn’t seem to want to know anyone.”

Another recalled that Salameh “was always polite, opening doors, saying hello. He was never nasty or anything like that.” The woman, now afraid of her neighbor and his acquaintances, insisted that her name not be used.

Salameh was born in Biddiya on the West Bank, then a part of Jordan but now occupied by Israel. Jordanian government officials said that he had no criminal record in Jordan.

After applying for a tourist visa in Amman in the fall of 1987, Salameh arrived in New York in February, 1988. Instead of returning when his visa expired, he made his way to Jersey City and to a network of friends that in recent years apparently had allowed him to move into their apartments without Salameh having to sign a lease.

It is this trail of addresses and acquaintances that law enforcement officials have been following--sometimes handcuffing and searching people mistakenly assumed to be suspected accomplices.

They have found that Salameh was a man of many addresses. At 34 Kensington, a four-story walk-up in a working-class neighborhood, the bearded Palestinian may have occupied two different apartments. Like many immigrants in this region, he roomed with other Arabs, sharing meals and Spartan living conditions.

When his roommate moved out of the building six months ago, Salameh relocated downstairs into a second unit leased by other friends. Neighbors said that roommates came and went. Sometimes the names on the mailbox changed. Sometimes they didn’t. The latest name on the mailbox was Josie Hadas, described as a motherly Arab woman about twice the age of Salameh, who moved into the apartment before Christmas.

But as was the case when Salameh lived upstairs, his name never went on the mailbox.

In the last few days, the bomb squad combed both apartment units even though the original unit had long before been scrubbed and repainted.

Next, Salameh’s trail led to a decrepit apartment building on Weldom Street, a few blocks away. One of Salameh’s Kensington roommates is believed to have lived there but it was not known whether Salameh shared the address.

The Weldom Street building is roach-infested and in desperate need of repairs. Identifying numbers have disappeared from the doors of many apartments. A strong odor of grease permeates the hallways.

Residents could shed little light on the identities of those who once resided there. “We don’t know anyone around here,” said a woman who lived next door to the raided unit. But she thought it had been Salameh who occasionally made change for her when she needed quarters for the laundry machines. She said that she had not seen him for a few weeks.

How Salameh earned his share of living expenses is unclear. He has been associated with people who worked as taxi drivers and truck drivers. His court-appointed lawyer said that he did occasional light construction work.

Some of his neighbors said that none of the roommates seemed to have full-time jobs. “They did not work,” one declared.