Ramzi Yousef

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Ramzi Ahmed Yousef
Image:Ramzi_yousef.jpg
Born 20 May 1967
Baluchistan, Pakistan

Ramzi Ahmed Yousef or Ramzi Mohammed Yousef (also transliterated as Ramzi Yusuf, Ramzi Youssef) (Arabic: رمزي يوسف ), birth name possibly Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim (Arabic: عبد الباسط كريم) and also known by dozens of aliases,[1] is a Kuwaiti of Pakistani descent who was one of the planners of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He was arrested at an al-Qaeda safe house in Islamabad, Pakistan in 1995 and was extradited to the United States. He was tried in New York City in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York and along with two co-conspirators was convicted of planning the Oplan Bojinka plot. Yousef stated, "Yes, I am a terrorist, and proud of it as long as it is against the U.S. government."[2] He was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Yousef's uncle is Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, a senior al-Qaeda member.

Soon after the 1993 attack, the FBI, on April 21, 1993 made him the 436th person added to the Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list. On February 7, 1995, Pakistani intelligence and U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security agents Bill Miller and Jeff Reiner captured Yousef in Islamabad, Pakistan. On September 5, 1996, Yousef, and two co-conspirators were convicted for their role in the Bojinka plot and were sentenced to life in prison without parole. U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Duffy referred to Yousef as "an apostle of evil" before recommending that the entire sentence be served in solitary confinement.[3]

Contents

[edit] Biography

His nationality may be disputed, but Ramzi himself said he was born in Kuwait. Ramzi's father was a Pakistani engineer who worked for Kuwait Airways, is believed to be from the Baluchistan province of Pakistan, same as Yousef's uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. Yousef was possibly raised in Kuwait.

Raised in an urban Palestinian community in Kuwait, Ramzi excelled in maths and science, but was treated as a second-class citizen, which formed his underlying grievance[citation needed]. He spoke Arabic, Baluchi, Urdu, and English, graduating in 1989 with a degree in engineering from West Glamorgan Institute (now Swansea Institute of Higher Education), Swansea, Wales, where he joined a chapter of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Following graduation, in Kuwait he was employed as communications engineer in the National Computer Center of the Ministry of Planning. He saw himself as an international playboy. He may have refused to fast during Ramadan.[citation needed] After Iraq invaded Kuwait, August 2, 1990, some members of Ramzi's family fled to Quetta, others to Iran. [4]

Starting in the late 1980s, Yousef took spring break trips to Pakistan.

[edit] World Trade Center bombing

Main article: World Trade Center bombing
The aftermath of the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people were killed and over 1,000 injured; Yousef fled to Pakistan hours later.
The aftermath of the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York City. Six people were killed and over 1,000 injured; Yousef fled to Pakistan hours later.

Yousef sent a letter to the New York Times after bombing the WTC, it spelled out the motive: "We declare our responsibility for the explosion on the mentioned building. This action was done in response for the American political, economical, and military support to Israel the state of terrorism and to the rest of the dictator countries in the region." On September 1, 1992, a few days after leaving Khaldan training camp in Afghanistan, Yousef allegedly entered the United States with an Iraqi passport of disputed authenticity. His companion Ahmed Ajaj, carried multiple immigration documents, among them a crudely falsified Swedish passport. Providing a smokescreen to facilitate Yousef's entry, Ajaj was arrested on the spot as bomb manuals, videotapes of suicide car bombers, and a cheat sheet on how to lie to U.S. immigration inspectors were found in his luggage.

INS holding cells were overcrowded and Yousef, claiming political asylum, was given a hearing date. November 9, 1992, he told Jersey City Police his name was Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim, a Pakistani national born and brought up in Kuwait, and had lost his passport. December 31, 1992 the Pakistani Consulate in New York issued a temporary passport to Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim. (SAAG 484 2002)

Yousef travelled around New York and New Jersey and called Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a militant Muslim preacher, via cell phone. Between December 3 and December 27, 1992, he made conference calls to key numbers in Baluchistan. (SAAG 484 2002)

Ajaj never claimed the manuals and tapes, which remained at FBI's New York Office after Judge Reena Raggi ordered the materials released in December 1992. (Lance 2004 pp 51, 101)

Aided by Mohammed Salameh and Mahmud Abouhalima, both present in El Sayyid Nosair's home the night Rabbi Meir Kahane was assassinated, Yousef, in his Pamrapo Avenue home in Jersey City, began assembling the 1,500-lb urea nitrate-fuel oil device for delivery to WTC on February 26, 1993. He ordered chemicals from his hospital room when injured in a car crash - one of three accidents caused by Salameh in late 1992 and early in 1993.

Speaking in code by phone December 29, 1992, Ajaj told Yousef that he had won release of the bomb manuals, but warned Yousef that picking them up himself might jeopardize his "business." On one book carried by Ajaj in 1992 was a word translated by the FBI as "the basic rule" - later found actually to be "al Qaeda" - "the base." (Lance 2004 p 32)

During a CBS interview, co-conspirator Abdul Rahman Yasin said Ramzi originally wanted to bomb Jewish neighborhoods in New York City, New York. Yasin added that after touring Crown Heights and Williamsburg, Yousef changed his mind. Yasin alleged that Yousef was educated in bomb-making at a training camp in Peshawar.

Yousef rented a Ryder van and on February 26, 1993, loaded it with explosives. Four cardboard boxes were packed into the back of the van, each containing a mixture of paper bags, newspapers, urea and nitric acid. Next to them were placed three red metal cylinders of compressed hydrogen, and four large containers of nitro-glycerine were loaded into the centre of the van, with Atlas Rockmaster blasting caps connected to each (Reeve 1999 pp 154).

The van was driven into the garage of the World Trade Center, where it exploded (in a later interrogation Yousef told investigators that the plan had been to take out structural parts of the foundation and make one tower collapse into the other). With his Pakistani passport he fled to Pakistan hours later. For a while he was on the loose.

[edit] After the attack

In the summer of 1993, he allegedly took up a contract initiated by members of Sipah-e-Sahaba to assassinate the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto. The plot failed when Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad were interrupted by police outside Bhutto’s residence as they planted the bomb. At this point Yousef decided to abort the bombing, however as they attempted to recover it the device blew up, injuring Yousef who was rushed to the hospital by Murad.

Yousef is believed to have returned to Pakistan, and soon began plotting to fulfill part of his unsuccessful Bojinka plot. Using the same design as the bombs intended for Bojinka, Yousef planned to conceal the devices inside toy cars and plant them on United and Northwest flights out of Bangkok.

To carry out the attack he recruited Istaique Parker, a South African Muslim living in Pakistan. Parker flew to Bangkok with Yousef where they built the devices. Parker got cold feet at the last minute and could not check-in the luggage containing the bombs.

After returning to Pakistan, Parker became aware of the $2 million bounty being offered by the U.S. government for the capture of Yousef. Shortly later Parker contacted the United States Embassy in Islamabad and became an informant.

[edit] Philippine Airlines bombing and plot to kill Pope John Paul II

In December 1994, Yousef boarded a Philippine Airlines Flight 434 in Manila headed to Cebu; he pretended to be an Italian man named Armaldo Forlani. Midway through the flight he disappeared into the toilet, took off his shoes to get the batteries and assembled his bomb which he tucked into the life vest under his seat, seat number 26K. The plane flew on to Cebu where Yousef got off before the final leg of the flight to Tokyo, Japan. Haruki Ikegami, a 24-year-old businessman, took Yousef's old seat. Two hours later, the device exploded, killing Ikegami. The blast blew a hole in the floor and severed the cables that controlled the plane's flaps. The jet's steering was crippled but the captain made an emergency landing at Naha Airport on Okinawa (southern Japan), saving 272 passengers and 20 crew.

Yousef monitored the effects of his "test", then increased the amount of explosive in his devices and began preparing at least a dozen bombs.

But just before the Bojinka Plot was due to be launched a fire started in Yousef's Manila flat and police, led by Aida Farsical, uncovered his plot. They also discovered he had been planning to assassinate the Pope and President Bill Clinton.[5]

[edit] Arrest

On February 7, 1995, Pakistani Intelligence and U.S. Bureau of Diplomatic Security agents Bill Miller and Jeff Riner raided the Su-Casa Guest House in Islamabad, Pakistan, and captured Yousef before he could rebase himself in Peshawar. He was betrayed by Istaique Parker, a man Yousef had tried to recruit. Parker was paid $2 million for the information leading to Yousef's capture.[6] When he was discovered, Yousef had chemical burns on his fingers.

Yousef was flown back to the United States and helicoptered into Manhattan. He was sent to a prison in New York, New York, United States, and held there until his trial. On September 5, 1996, Yousef, Murad, and Shah were convicted for planning Bojinka. They were sentenced to life in prison without parole. In court, Yousef said, "I am a terrorist, and I am proud of it." U.S. District Court Judge Kevin Duffy referred to Yousef as "an apostle of evil" before recommending that the entire sentence be served in solitary confinement.[7]

In 1997, Osama bin Laden said during an interview that he did not know Yousef. Yousef's uncle Khalid Shaikh Mohammed was the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks.

On November 12, 1997 Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing and in 1998 he was convicted of "seditious conspiracy" to bomb the towers.

He was held at the high-security Supermax prison ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado.

The handcuffs Ramzi Yousef wore when he was captured in Pakistan are displayed at the FBI Museum in Washington, DC, though FBI agents were not present in the room when the handcuffs went on.[citation needed]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Yousef used the names Najy Awaita Haddad, as Moroccan national registered at Dona Josefa Apartments, Manila, 1995, Dr. Paul Vijay, Adam Sali, Adam Adel Ali, Adam Khan Baluch, Doctor Adel Sabah, Dr. Richard Smith, Azan Muhammed, Adam Ali Qasim, Armaldo Forlani, Muhammad Ali Baloch, Adam Baloch, Kamal Ibraham, Abraham Kamal, Khuram Khan, and other aliases to obscure his identity. (Lance 2004 p 23)
  2. ^ CNN.com, January 8, 1998. "'Proud terrorist' gets life for Trade Center Bombing. Retrieved on September 19, 2006.
  3. ^ [1]
  4. ^ Hamm, Mark S. Crimes committed by terrorist groups: theory, research, and prevention. Research report submitted to the United States Department of Justice, Grant #2003 DT CX 0002.[2]
  5. ^ [3]
  6. ^ [4]
  7. ^ [5]

[edit] Further reading

  • The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism, by Simon Reeve, 1999

[edit] External links

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