Trade Center Blast Called War Message for U.S.

The alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing went on trial Tuesday, with a prosecutor saying the defendant wanted to topple the twin towers to “send a message to Americans that they were at war.”

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, an electrical engineer of uncertain nationality, is accused of mixing the bomb and organizing the Feb. 26, 1993, attack that killed six people, injured more than 1,000 and caused $500 million damage. The attack was intended as a blow against U.S. support of Israel.

In opening statements, Assistant U.S. Atty. Lev Dassin told the jury that Yousef and a co-defendant were part of a “self-proclaimed army of terrorists” intent on reducing the twin towers to a mass grave.

“He said he wanted to topple one twin tower into the other and kill thousands of civilians,” Dassin said. “He hoped that this death would send a message to Americans that they were at war and that continued support of Israel would result in more war that would result in more casualties.”

After naming each of the dead and describing their last moments, Dassin turned and pointed at Yousef: “This man ordered and mixed the chemicals to make the bomb.”

Co-defendant Eyad Ismoil, a Palestinian, is accused of driving the van carrying the 1,200-pound bomb into the trade center’s underground garage.

The prosecutor said the defendants were “sending a message to all Americans that this could happen at any time, to anyone, on American soil.”

As the bomb went off, Yousef “sat comfortably aboard a plane to Pakistan.” He was captured in that country two years later and brought to the United States.

Dassin said Yousef thought the van that carried the bomb into the trade center “would be blown into undetectable bits.” But Yousef was tracked down because pieces of the van and bomb were found in the rubble and traced to Jersey City, N.J., where the van was rented and the bomb allegedly made.

Yousef’s lawyer asked jurors to keep an open mind until all the evidence is presented.