Ramzi Yousef

Ramzi Yousef (Arabic: رمزي يوسف‎ Ramzī Yūsuf; born 20 May 1967) is one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, bombing of Philippine Airlines Flight 434, and a co-conspirator in the Bojinka plot. In 1995, he was arrested at a guest house in Islamabad, Pakistan while trying to set a bomb in a baby doll by the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and U.S. Diplomatic Security Service,^[3][4][5] then extradited to the United States.

He was tried in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York along with two co-conspirators and was convicted of planning the Bojinka plot. In court, Yousef stated: "Yes, I am a terrorist, and proud of it as long as it is against the U.S. government and against Israel, because you are more than terrorists; you are the one who invented terrorism and using it every day. You are butchers, liars and hypocrites."^[6][7] He was sentenced to two life sentences for his part in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Bojinka plot.

Yousef's maternal uncle is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, with whom he allegedly planned the Bojinka plot. Mohammed is a senior al-Qaeda member accused of being the principal architect of the September 11 attacks in 2001. Yousef is serving his life sentences at ADX Florence, located in Florence, Colorado.^[8]

Early life

The name "Ramzi Yousef" is believed to be an alias.^[9] The 9/11 Commission claimed that Yousef's real name is Abdul Basit Mahmoud Abdul Karim.^[10] He was born in Kuwait to his parents who were both from Pakistan. His father is Mohammed Abdul Karim from Balochistan, Pakistan. His mother is believed to be the sister of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

When his family returned to Pakistan in the mid-1980s, Yousef was sent to the United Kingdom for education. In 1986, he enrolled at Swansea Institute in Wales, where he studied electrical engineering, graduating four years later.^[11] He also studied at the Oxford College of Further Education to improve his English.

Yousef left the United Kingdom after completing his studies and returned to Pakistan. He began to learn bomb making in a terrorist training camp in Peshawar, before traveling to the United States in 1992.^[12][13]

1993 World Trade Center bombing

The World Trade Center bombing occurred on 26 February 1993, when a car bomb was detonated below Tower One of the World Trade Center in New York City. The 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate-hydrogen gas enhanced device^[14] was intended to knock the North Tower (Tower One) into the South Tower (Tower Two), to bring both towers down and kill thousands of people.^[15] It failed to do so but killed six people and injured 1,042.

Ramzi Yousef sent a letter to The New York Times after the bombing which expressed his 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." He later stated that he had hoped to kill 250,000 Americans to show them the exact pain they had caused to the Japanese in the Atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki."^[16]

Arrival in United States

On 1 September 1992, Yousef entered the United States with an Iraqi passport of disputed authenticity.^[17] His companion, Ahmed Ajaj, carried multiple immigration documents, among which was a crudely falsified Swedish passport. Providing a smokescreen to facilitate Yousef's entry, Ajaj was arrested on the spot when immigration officials found bomb manuals, videotapes of suicide car bombers, and a cheat sheet on how to lie to U.S. immigration inspectors in his luggage. Directors of the American Counter-Terrorism program later tied the travel arrangements to a phone call from Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, a militant Muslim preacher, to the Pakistani telephone number 810604.^[16]

Yousef was held for 72 hours and repeatedly interrogated, but INS holding cells were overcrowded. Yousef, requesting political asylum, was given a hearing date of 9 November 1992.^[13] He told Jersey City Police that he was Abdul Basit Mahmud Abdul Karim, a Pakistani national born and brought up in Kuwait, and that he had lost his passport. On 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, during which time he made calls to Abdel-Rahman via cell phone. Between 3 December and 27 December 1992, he made conference calls to key numbers in Balochistan, Pakistan (SAAG 484 2002).

Ajaj never reclaimed the manuals and tapes, which remained at the FBI's New York Office after Judge Reena Raggi had ordered the materials released in December 1992. (Lance 2004 pp 51, 101^[18])

Assembling the bomb

Yousef, aided by Mohammed Salameh and Mahmud Abouhalima, began assembling the 1,500 lb (680 kg) urea nitrate-fuel oil device in his Pamrapo Avenue home in Jersey City ready for delivery to the WTC on 26 February 1993. He ordered chemicals from his hospital room when he had been injured in a car crash — one of three accidents caused by Salameh in late 1992 and early in 1993.

Speaking in code by phone on 29 December 1992, Ajaj told Yousef that he had won release of the bomb manuals but warned Yousef that picking them up might jeopardize his "business". On one book carried by Ajaj in 1992 was a word translated by the FBI as meaning "the basic rule." It was later found to be al Qaeda – meaning "the base" (Lance 2004 p 32^[18]).

During a 60 Minutes interview in 2002, co-conspirator Abdul Rahman Yasin said that Yousef originally wanted to bomb Jewish neighborhoods in New York City. Yasin added that after touring Crown Heights and Williamsburg, Yousef had changed his mind. Yasin alleged that Yousef was educated in bomb-making at a training camp in Peshawar, Pakistan.^[12]

Explosion and aftermath

Yousef rented a Ryder van and on 26 February 1993, loaded it with explosives. He packed four cardboard boxes into the back of the van, each containing a mixture of paper bags, newspapers, urea, and nitric acid; next to them he placed three red metal cylinders of compressed hydrogen. Four large containers of nitroglycerin were loaded into the center of the van with Atlas Rockmaster blasting caps connected to each (Reeve (1999), pp 154 ^[4]).

The van was driven into the garage of the World Trade Center, where it exploded. Using his Pakistani passport, Yousef escaped from the United States hours later. It is believed that he fled to Iraq and then Pakistan. As a result of the bombing, the FBI added Yousef as the 436th person on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list on 21 April 1993.

1993 Benazir Bhutto assassination attempt

After returning to Pakistan in February 1993, Yousef went into hiding. That summer, he allegedly took up a contract to assassinate the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto, which was initiated by members of Sipah-e-Sahaba. The plot failed when Yousef and Abdul Hakim Murad were interrupted by police outside Bhutto's residence. Yousef decided to abort the bombing and it blew up as he was trying to recover the device. He escaped and went into hiding during the investigation.

Bojinka plot

After the Iranian shrine bombing, Yousef soon began planning the Bojinka Plot. It included plans to assassinate Pope John Paul II while he visited the Philippines, and to plant bombs inside several United and Delta Air Lines flights out of Bangkok. On this plot, he allegedly worked with his maternal uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Philippine Airlines Flight 434

United States Diplomatic Security Service photograph showing the damaged interior of PAL 434 after the bombing. The explosion punched a hole, visible in the lower center of the photo, through the floor below seat 26K into the center cargo bay.

On 11 December 1994, Yousef conducted a trial run of the plan by boarding a Philippine Airlines Boeing 747 designated as PAL434 from Manila to Tokyo, Japan, with a stopover in the Philippine city of Cebu. His identity for the flight was that of an Italian man named Armaldo Forlani. The cabin crew for this leg of the flight later told investigators that Yousef changed seats several times during the relatively short flight, with his last seat change coming after a return from the lavatory.^[19]

Yousef assembled a bomb in the lavatory, set the timer to detonate four hours later, and put it in the lifejacket pocket under seat 26K on the right-hand side of the fuselage.^[20] The domestic flight attendant Maria Delacruz had noticed that Yousef kept switching seats during the course of the Manila to Cebu flight, but did not warn the new cabin crew boarding at Cebu of his behavior.^[19] Yousef and 25 other passengers left the plane at Cebu, where 256 passengers and a new cabin crew boarded for the trip to Tokyo. Many passengers were Japanese people; some were coworkers traveling as part of a tour group. Airport congestion delayed the departure of Flight 434 from Cebu for 38 minutes. All of the passengers had boarded by 8:30 a.m., with the bomb having been planted around two hours earlier. PAL 434 cleared for takeoff at 8:48 a.m.^[19]

Two hours before arrival at Tokyo, at 11:43 am, the bomb exploded while Flight 434 cruised on autopilot 31,000 feet (9,400 m) above the Japanese island of Minamidaitō^[19] (near Okinawa Island and approximately 260 miles (420 km) southwest of Tokyo). The explosion ripped in half the body of 24-year old Haruki Ikegami (池上 春樹, Ikegami Haruki), a Japanese businessman occupying seat 26K.^[19] Ten passengers sitting in the seats in front of and behind Ikegami were also injured. One needed urgent medical care. The bomb tore out a two square-foot (0.2 m²) portion of the cabin floor, revealing the cargo hold underneath, but leaving the fuselage of the plane intact. The rapid expansion of energy from the bomb caused the plane to expand vertically slightly, damaging cables to the steering and aileron controls. The bomb's orientation caused the energy to be mostly absorbed by Ikegami; he was killed but the other passengers and the plane was not catastrophically damaged.^[19]

The cockpit crew improvised to manipulate the plane's speed and direction by varying the engines' throttle settings. Captain Eduardo Reyes made an emergency landing at Okinawa's Naha Airport, saving 272 passengers and 20 crew. The plane became a crime scene; bomb fragments found in and around the blast zone, as well as the lower half of Ikegami's body, provided clues pointing investigators back to Manila.

Discovery by police

After this success, Yousef returned to Manila, where he began preparing at least a dozen bombs, each with more explosive materials. Weeks before his planned attacks, a fire started in his Manila flat, forcing him to flee the room, leaving everything behind. The fire made the apartment staff suspicious, and soon police, led by Aida Fariscal, raided the flat and uncovered the plot. A Philippine National Police raid in another Manila apartment revealed related evidence that Abdul Murad, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and Yousef had drawn up plans for flying an airplane into the CIA headquarters. The information was passed on to the FAA, who warned individual airlines.^[21]

1995 U.S. airliner bombing attempt

Despite the international manhunt, Yousef escaped from Manila to Pakistan. On 31 January 1995, he flew from Pakistan to Thailand and met with an associate Istaique Parker. Yousef told Parker to check two suitcases filled with bombs, one on a Delta Air Lines flight and another on a United Airlines flight. Both bombs were timed to blow up over populated areas of the U.S. Parker spent much of the day at the airport, but was reportedly too scared to approach the airlines with the suitcases. Finally, Parker returned to Yousef's hotel and lied that employees at the airline cargo sections were asking for passports and fingerprints, making it too risky to go ahead with the plan.

Yousef, wanting to get the bombs on a plane bound for the U.S., called a friend with diplomatic immunity in Qatar who was willing to take the suitcases to London and check them on a flight to the U.S. The plan was that they would explode mid-flight and destroy the plane. Yousef planned to use the friend's diplomatic immunity to ensure the suitcases would be loaded on the plane. According to Simon Reeve's book The New Jackals, the name of this friend has not been revealed, but his father is said to be a very senior politician and leading member of the establishment in Qatar (at the time, Yousef's maternal uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, was living in Qatar as the guest of a Qatari cabinet official). However, there was a problem and the suitcases were not checked in. Yousef and Parker returned to Pakistan on 2 February 1995.(Reeve (1999), pp 98–100^[4])

Arrest, conviction and prison life

House where Yousef was captured

Following a tip-off from Istaique Parker, on 7 February 1995, Agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Special Agents of the U.S. Diplomatic Security Service, including Bill Miller and Jeff Riner, raided room number 16 in the Su-Casa Guest House in Islamabad, Pakistan, and captured Yousef before he could move to Peshawar.^[16] Parker was paid $2 million for the information leading to Yousef's capture (Rewards for Justice – RFJ).^[3][4] During the raid, agents found Delta and United Airlines flight schedules and bomb components in children's toys.^[19] Yousef had chemical burns on his fingers.

Yousef was sent to a prison in New York City and held there until his trial. In court he said,

"Yes, I am a terrorist, and proud of it as long as it is against the U.S. government and against Israel, because you are more than terrorists; you are the inventors of modern terrorism. In fact, you use it every day. You are butchers, liars and hypocrites."^[7]

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.^[22]

On 12 November 1997, Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing, and in 1998 he was convicted of "seditious conspiracy" to bomb the World Trade Center towers.^[23][24] The judge sentenced Yousef to 240 years for the Trade Center attack, and life in prison for the Flight 434 attack in 1994.

Yousef is held at the high-security Supermax prison ADX Florence in Florence, Colorado.^[25] The handcuffs Ramzi Yousef wore when he was captured in Pakistan are displayed at the FBI Museum in Washington, DC.^[26] His Federal Prisoner number is: 03911-000.^[25]

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

In 1997, Osama bin Laden said during an interview that he did not know Yousef but claimed to know Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who is the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks and Yousef's uncle. According to the 9/11 Commission, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed said under interrogation that "Yousef was not a member of al Qaeda and that Yousef never met Bin Laden."^[27]

See also

• Richard A. Clarke

References

Further reading

• Simon Reeve (June 27, 2002). The New Jackals: Ramzi Yousef, Osama bin Laden and the future of terrorism. Northeastern University Press. ISBN 1-55553-509-7. 
• Peter Lance (September 7, 2004). Cover Up: What the Government Is Still Hiding About the War on Terror. William Morrow. ISBN 0-06-054355-8. 

Alleged militants in the War on Terror who have lived in the United Kingdom Al Ghurabaa and Al-Muhajiroun Hassan Butt Anjem Choudary Abu Izzadeen Sulayman Keeler Omar Bakri Muhammad Abu Uzair 1988 Lockerbie bombing Abdelbaset al-Megrahi 1993 World Trade Center bombing Ramzi Yousef 1994 kidnappings of Western tourists in India Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh 1998 United States embassy bombings Anas al-Libi (also known as Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai) 2001 September 11 attacks Osama bin Laden Zacarias Moussaoui Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh 2001 shoe bomb plot Richard Reid Saajid Badat 2002 London ricin plot Kamel Bourgass Mohamed Meguerba 2002 Murder of Daniel Pearl Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh 7 July 2005 London bombings Hasib Hussain Mohammad Sidique Khan Germaine Lindsay Shehzad Tanweer Haroon Aswat 21 July 2005 London bombings Osman Hussain Muktar Said Ibrahim Ramzi Mohammed Yasin Hassan Omar Adel Yahya 2005 shooting of Jean Charles de Menezes Jean Charles de Menezes 2006 Cheetham Hill terrorism arrests (Manchester) Habib Ahmed Mehreen Haji Raingzieb Ahmed 2006 transatlantic aircraft liquid bomb plot Rashid Rauf Ahmed Abdullah Ali Assad Sarwar Tanvir Hussain Oliver Savant Arafat Khan Waheed Zaman Umar Islam Ibrahim Savant Waheed Zaman 2007 London car bombs Bilal Abdullah Kafeel Ahmed (also known as Khalid Ahmed) 2007 Glasgow International Airport attack Bilal Abdullah Kafeel Ahmed (also known as Khalid Ahmed) Sabeel Ahmed Mohammed Asha Mohamed Haneef 2007 plot to behead a British Muslim soldier Parviz Khan Zahoor Iqbal Abu Bakr § 2007 Crawley fertiliser bomb plot Omar Khyam Mohammad Momin Khawaja Mohammed Junaid Babar 2007 London Al-Qaeda propaganda cell Younes Tsouli 2008 Exeter bombing Nicky Reilly 2009 underpants bomb plot Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab 2009 Al Qaeda cell Abdul Wahab Khan § Shoaib Khan § 2010 attempted murder of Stephen Timms MP Roshonara Choudhry 2010 London Eye bomb plot Usman Khan 2013 Murder of Lee Rigby Michael Adebolajo Michael Adebowale Al-Shabaab cell participants Samantha Lewthwaite ISIS fighters Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary Azzam Publications Babar Ahmad Syed Talha Ahsan Libyan Islamic Fighting Group Abdelhakim Belhadj ECHR US extradition cases Abu Hamza al-Masri Babar Ahmad Syed Talha Ahsan Adel Abdul Bary Khalid al-Fawwaz Haroon Aswat Deprivation of nationality cases Abu Hamza al-Masri David Hicks Persons subject to a control order or Tpim order Zeeshan Anis Siddiqui Miscellaneous persons Rangzieb Ahmed Andrew Ibrahim Abu Bakr Mansha Aabid Khan Rabah Kadre Kamel Rabat Bouralha Abu Qatada Abu Nusaybah Abdullah Faisal Anwar al-Awlaki David Hicks Nabil Hadjarab Raed Salah Yusuf al-Qaradawi See also Brixton Mosque East London Mosque Finsbury Park mosque Markazi Masjid Londonistan 2006 London Danish embassy protest British detainees at Guantanamo Bay Free Syrian Army The Satanic Verses controversy Feltham Young Offenders Institution Malakand training camp Manchester Manual George Galloway Inspire Undercover Mosque Muslim Patrol Organisations Al-Qaeda Al Ghurabaa Al-Muhajiroun Advice and Reform Committee Association of Muslim Lawyers CAGE Hizb ut-Tahrir Islam4UK Islamic Forum of Europe Muslims Against Crusades The Saved Sect Tell Mama Muslim Mujahideen Brigade Aid Convoy § Muslim Association of Britain Islamic Forum Europe Federation of Student Islamic Societies Ahlus Sunnah wal Jamaah Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) British Muslim opposition to Islamic militancy Maajid Nawaz Quilliam Foundation § denotes disambiguation needed