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Suspect arrested in trade center bombing
Suspect’s van
Length: 10 7" Height: 4* 5" Width: 6’8" Cargo volume: 261 cu. ft.
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NEW YORK — A man described
as a follower of a radical Muslim
cleric was arrested Thursday in last
week’s World Trade Center bombing
when he coolly tried a third lime to
reclaim a rental deposit on a van
wrecked in the blast.
Other suspects were being sought.
Law enforcement sources said the
bombing appeared to be a terrorist
act.
Papers that the suspect presented
the rental agency were covered with
nitrates, according to a government
source, speaking on condition of ano
nymity. Nitrates are found in some
explosives; traces of nitrates were
found at the blast site.
The arrest was a sudden, major
break in the mostnotorious U.S. bomb
ing in years. Just a day earlier, the FBI
had said it could take months to crack
the case.
WNBC-TV in New York identi
fied the suspectas 26-year-old Salama
Mohammed of Jersey City, N.J., but
the station wasn’t sure exactly how
the name was spelled. His arraign
ment, initially scheduled for Thurs
day evening in New York City, was
postponed.
The arrest came after an army of
investigators spent the past week
combing through piles of rubble at the
blast site, fielding thousands of phone
calls and pursuing scores of leads.
Detectives systematically checked
garage payment stubs and viewed vid
eotapes of entering vehicles.
I
Investigators turned up charred
pieces of the rental van around the
perimeter of the blast site, indications
that the van might have held the ex
plosives, a source said on condition of
anonymity.
The suspect had rented the van
froqj a Ryder truck agent in Jersey
City on Feb. 23 and returned less than
two hours after the explosion Friday
afternoon to say it had been stolen
from him in Jersey City, said Paul
Mascitclli, owner of a car dealership
that shares an office with the Ryder
agent.
On Thursday morning, the man
called the Ryder office — and spoke
with an FBI agent posing as a Ryder
official, before being arrested.
1
berbs oner tree passage to Muslims
after burning of Bosnian villages
Refugees allowed
an escort if they
vow not to return
TUZLA, Bosnia-Herzegovina —
After routing thousands of civilians
from their homes and burning their
villages, Serbs Thursday offered to
escort the beleaguered Muslims from
the region and vowed they will never
return.
The statement,
-reported by the
Yugoslav news
agency Tanjug, ap
parently confirms
the Serbs’ goal of
driving all Muslims
from eastern
-Bosnian regions
bordering Scibia, in
a quest for a Greater Serbia.
A day after the Security Council
demanded that Serbs hall the tank-led
offensive, the United Nations negoti
ated with Serb commanders today for
access to the besieged enclaves, still
being pounded by Serb shells.
Bosnian Serbs spumed the U.N.
criticism, and their leader warned the
United Stales it could face terrorist
attacks as a consequence of its pro
Muslim humanitarian intervention.
Following that warning and a gre
nade explosion outside the U.S. Em
bassy in Belgrade, U.S. Secretary of
State Warren Christopher said today
the United States “will not be deterred
from doing what’s necessary.”
Some 10,000 people driven from
war-tom Cerska in the 4-day-old as
sault were said to be sheltering in the
snowy ruins of the Konjcvic Poljc
enclave, cold and hungry.
U.S. airdropped humanitarian aid
fell close to that area Thursday, but
ham radio reports suggested the
bundles also fell near Serb positions,
possibly hindering retrieval by the
refugees.
Reports from the assaulted region
continued to cite Serb massacres of
refugees, but with access barred they
could not be independently confirmed.
The people are extremely desper
ate because they are trapped and the
Serbs won’t let them go,” said Anders
Levinsen of the U.N. High Commis
sioner for Refugees in Tuzla.
He said he was expecting about
20,000 refugees to seek shelter in
Tuzla.
According to the Tanjug report,
the Bosnian Serb army command in
Zvomik announced that all Muslims
around Konjevic Polje can “safely
leave the war-torn regions.”
“The Serb side will even provide
transport” and “does not want inno
cent people to suffer,” the Belgrade
based news agency quoted the com
mand as saying.
Hearing begins for Marine
charged with shooting Somali
MOGADISHU, Somalia—The
first court martial hearing of Op
eration Restore Hope began Thurs
day in adusty, flyblown room where
Sgt. Harry Conde faced charges for
shooting a 17-ycar-old Somali who
snatched his sunglasses.
Conde, a 13-year veteran born
and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico,
could be charged with the military
equivalent of an aggravated assault
for wounding the teen-ager as well
as a bystander hit by buckshot from
Condc’s gun. If the court martial
proceeds, he could face up to 10
years in prison.
A power generator provided a
droning background to the testi
mony from nervous Marines in the
room at Mogadishu’s airport. Their
words frequently were blotted out
by the roar of planes taking off and
landing.
Capt. Chris Wcsely, the investi
gating officer, sat behind a battered
table. Only a few folding metal
chairs were available, so some spec
ta tors sat on wooden drawers turned
on their sides. Sheets of bare ply
wood served as a partition.
There’s no dispute that Condc
shot a youth, identified only as
Omar, who grabbed the soldier’s
sunglasses through the window of a
moving military vehicle that was
returning to the airport.
At issue is whether Condc fired
on the spur of the moment, fearing
for his safety, or if the shot came as
Omar was fleeing and was fired in
revenge.
Omar, hit in the abdomen by
several pellets, was treated at a
Swedish field hospital but later
vanished. No one is even sure he’s
still alive.
The weapon, an M-79 grenade
launcher loaded with a40mm buck
shot shell, had been confiscated by
the Marines during a raid of Somali
arsenals the month before. Under
the U.S. military rules,confiscated
weapons are not to be used in the
field.
I—-WORLD WIRE
Major takes a swipe at British tradition
LONDON — Prime Minister
John Major has taken a whack at
the “gongs,” announcing Tuesday
that merit will dictate who gets the
2,000-odd knighthoods, peerages
and shiny gold medals awarded
each year.
Major also abolished the old
class distinction between bravery
medals, which reserved the Mili
tary Cross forofficcrs and the Mili
tary Medal for grunts.
Opposition lawmakers jeered
much of Major’s speech and said
his reforms didn’t go far enough.
In a country which sometimes
appears to be organized like a cos
tume party, with its hierarchy iden
tified by ye oldc titles and antique
costumes, the distribution of hon
ors is taken most seriously.
Doctors denied voice in health plan
WAJmlINvj ION — I he White
House spumed a bid Thursday by
the powerful American Medical
Association for a scat at its health
care planning deliberations. The
doctors signaled a willingness to
entertain changes but not strict con
trols on what they charge. J
“We know that the status quo
must go,” AM A Executive Direc
tor James S. Todd said in letters to
the While House and leaders of
Congress.
The 290,000-mcmbcr organ i/a
lion has helped to block national
health insurance since the Truman
administration.
But Todd wrote Ira Magaziner,
the White House adviser whoover
sees hundreds of experts working
on health care: “Bring us into the
process, and we can help make it
work.”
White House Press Secretary
Dee Dee Myers said neither the
AM A nor any other interest groups
would be allowed to join Clinton’s
health working groups.
[ Officials expect long cult standoff
WACO, Texas — Like an medi
eval army laying siege to a castle,
authorities are settling in for a long
haul outside the Branch Davidians
compound.
But insteadof catapults and batter
ing rams, the weapons of this siege are
decidedly modem, including portable
toilets, pizza and twice-a-day news
briefings.
‘Things have settled into a rou
tine,” said Jeff Jamar, the FBI official
heading operations around the sect’s
heavily fortified compound near
Waco.
That routine includes 12-hour shift
changes of agents surrounding the
cluster of tan buildings huddled on a
rise of brown Texas prairie. Well
armed sect members have been holed
up since a deadly shootout with fed
eral agents.
While duly near the compound is
dangerous — four agents were killed
and 16 wounded Sunday — it’s not
without amenities. Pickups bearing
containers of steaming pizzas drive
into the security area surrounding the
Mount Carmel compound several
times a day.
-44
Things have settled Into a routine.
—JeffJamar
FBI official
-99 -
“It’s gelling so regular it’s like we
should be punchingiimc clocks,”said
one agent as he relumed lo his hole!
after spending the day in the field. He
declined lo identify himself.
Liule happened to change ihc rou
tine Thursday, the fifth day of the
standoff between federal authorities
and the more than 100 followers of
David Koresh, the 33-ycar-old sect
leader who claims to be Jesus.
Speaking at a news conference,
Jamar said Koresh had released two
boys, aged 11 and 12, in the last 24
hours. That makes a total of 20 chil
dren and two elderly women released
from the compound since Sunday.
Jamar said the body of an uniden
tified man was recovered Thursday in
a wooded area 300 yards from the
compound. He had a pistol in his hand
and died of gunshot wounds.
At least two more of Koresh’s fol
lowers were killed Sunday; there have
been reports that from seven to 10
others died in the shootout.
Jamar said surveillance indicates
the sect members have relumed to
their regular routine, with the esti
mated 47 women handling housekeep
ing and child care while the remain
ing men do construction work. The
compound is believed to be well
stocked with food and water.
Debate
Continued from Page 1
candidate, said the university should
start taking vertical budget cuts in
stead of horizontal ones.
By taking cuts across the board
each year, the university is showing it
still has “fat” in its budget, she said.
Steele disagreed and said horizon
tal cuts were preferable to vertical
ones. He said ne could do without a
few copy machines and telephones if
2 it meant saving programs at UfJL.
V The parties also disagreed on an
AS UN decision that ended spending
limits in student elections.
—• Stoete.wheis ASUN’scurrentsec
-44
ASUN needs an
attitude change and
that’s what we
represent
■ -Dietz
VOICE presidential candiate
-w
ond vice president, said the decision
was made for legal reasons.
Because the student body presi
dent is a student regent and therefore
a state official, legally there can be no
limit on campaign spending, he said.
But Dietz said because the student
regent had no vote, the dispute could
be taken to court.
He said spending limits let “com
mon students” feel comfortable with
ASUN.
Strong closed by saying PARTY
had more experience and diversity,
not just token representation.
She also said PARTY was open to
new ideas ahd was not trying to ma
nipulate different segments of the vote.
In closing, Steele said he saw a
fundamental disagreement between
the two parties.
He said VOICE was not trying to
manipulate votes but was trying to
represent alt students.
Nebraskan
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