The New York City landmark bomb plot was a plan to follow up the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing and was designed to inflict mass casualties on American soil by attacking well-known landmark targets throughout New York City, United States.
[1] Before and after the World Trade Center bombing, the Federal Bureau of Investigation had a confidential informant, Emad Salem, infiltrate the group of plotters.
The plot was espoused by a blind sheikh, Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was a radical Muslim cleric in New York City, to be carried out by some of his followers.
Rahman was the spiritual leader of the al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, a radical Egyptian Islamic group that had links to al-Qaeda.
[3] One of Rahman's followers, El Sayyid Nosair, had assassinated Meir Kahane in 1990 and was linked to the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
[7] Nosair also wanted to assassinate New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Jewish politician, and Alvin Schlesinger, a judge who had tried him in a previous case.
[4] The attack on the hotels would be detrimental because they are known to host prestigious guests such as the US ambassador to the United Nations and the US secretary of state, who stayed at the Waldorf during UN sessions.
[3] The planned attacks on the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels and the George Washington Bridge would create chaos in transportation between New Jersey and Manhattan, as these were the only three direct vehicular crossings between the two locations.
[3] The New York group had supposedly wanted to plant a total of 12 bombs around the city targeting Jews and then detonate them at the same time.
The FBI had been closely monitoring the plan throughout 1992 and 1993 but intensified its investigation after the World Trade Center bombing in February 1993, which killed six people.
[13] Emad Salem was used as an intelligence asset during the entire investigation (codenamed TERRSTOP) into the plot and for one year earlier.
At one point, when Senator D'Amato and Assemblyman Hikind received bodyguards, agents mistakenly feared that their investigation had been exposed.
James Kallstrom, an ex-FBI officer, said, "You obviously want to play things out so you can fully identify the breadth and scope of the conspiracy.
The general public later criticized that strategy, but the FBI still leans toward slow approaches to foil terrorist plots.
[29] Salem had recorded tapes in which the defendants sought to prevent Rahman from being directly involved in the terror plot so that he would not be implicated.
[4] Defense lawyers cross-examining Salem argued that he was not credible because he had lied several times in the past, including when he was gaining his US citizenship.