New York: Remember the 1993 WTC bombing

NEW YORK (AP) — Lolita Jackson sat at her desk on the 72nd floor of the World Trade Center, feeling like she was working on top of the world. Then an explosion was heard and it was possible to perceive smoke entering through an elevator shaft.

Unsure of what was going on, she joined thousands of other office workers on a harrowing trek through dark, smoky stairwells until she emerged at the scene of a terrorist attack.

No era el 11 de septiembre de 2001. Era el 26 de febrero de 1993, when a lethal attack provoked the death of seis personas, one of them embarazada, y dejó más de 1,000 heroes, convirtiéndose in a presagio del terrorism that aún aguardaba a The twin towers.

Jackson hopes Sunday’s 30th anniversary will serve as a reminder that while decades have passed since the seismic acts of terrorism in America’s most populous city, no one, anywhere can say the threat of attacks mass violence ended.

She knows it more personally than anyone: on September 11, she had to evacuate the south tower of the WTC (World Trade Center) again.

“I am a living testimony that it can happen to one, and it can happen twice,” he said.

Relatives of victims, survivors, dignitaries and others will gather at the World Trade Center for a ceremony that will include the reading of the names of the six people killed in the 1993 bombing. Other anniversary events include a mass at a church near the WTC and a panel discussion Monday at the 9/11 Memorial Museum.

The midday explosion, set off in a rental van in an underground car park, showed that Islamic extremists wanted to destroy the twin towers of the World Trade Center. But the memory of the attack in the public memory was largely obscured after the events of September 11. Even the source who remembered the attack was crushed that day.

But for some survivors and relatives of victims, the 1993 bombing still stands as a warning that has gone unheeded, a loss that seems unheeded and a lesson yet to be learned.

“The bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 was the powder keg for the 9/11 attacks,” said Andrew Colabella, a cousin of John DiGiovanni, who was killed by the bomb. Colabella believes the first attack is widely remembered as “a momentary irregularity”, rather than an alarm, in the history of international terrorism.

“These two historic events that happened should be instilled in our hearts and minds, to think together and be united,” Colabella said. Now an alderman in Westport, Connecticut, he regularly attends Ground Zero anniversary ceremonies for the 1993 bombing and the 2001 bombing, to honor the cousin he lost when Colabella was a young child but still remember.

DiGiovanni was at the WTC as a guest salesman. The other victims worked at the complex. They were Robert Kirkpatrick, Stephen A. Knapp, William Macko, Wilfredo Mercado and Monica Rodriguez Smith, who was going on maternity leave the next day.

The names of the six victims are inscribed in one of the 9/11 memorial ponds, and the museum has their photographs and a room dedicated to talking about the 1993 explosion.

“Every part of our work has seen the 1993 bombing as part of the story we tell,” said museum director Clifford Chanin.

The explosive was planted by Muslim extremists who wanted to punish the United States for its policies in the Middle East, particularly Washington’s support for Israel, according to federal prosecutors.

Six people were found guilty and imprisoned, including Ramzi Yousef, accused of being the leader of the group. A seventh suspect in the attack remains on the FBI’s most wanted list.

Yousef hoped the bomb would bring down the twin towers by collapsing on top of each other, according to the FBI. The idea of ​​razing those skyscrapers stuck: A message found on the laptop of another convicted conspirator warned that “next time it will be very specific, and the World Trade Center will continue to be the one of our targets.

Yousef’s uncle, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, would later become the self-proclaimed mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, when hijacked commercial planes crashed into buildings.

Although the towers withstood the bombings of 1993, they were left without electricity and without service from the emergency generators and the public address system. Tens of thousands of people descended the stairs; others were rescued from stopped elevators and damaged parking lots. Some workers kicked open windows to get some fresh air, 120 kindergarten children were stranded for a while on the lookout, and police helicopters picked up just over 20 people from rooftops.

The government agency that runs the WTC apologized to relatives of the victims on the 25th anniversary, telling them the resort and the country were unprepared for the attack.

Following the attack, the World Trade Center banned the use of underground parking lots and installed security cameras and vehicle barriers. Battery-operated lights and reflective tape were attached to the stairs. Tenants stepped up fire drills, and the resort issued worker ID cards, which they had to present upon entry.

On September 11, 2001, Jackson was back in his office, then on the 70th floor. When flames broke out in the adjoining tower, his company ordered an immediate evacuation.

Now he wonders if what he experienced twice sounds like “some kind of folklore” to people born after the two attacks. He warns that complacency must be avoided.

“You’re just at work pouring yourself a cup of coffee,” he noted, “and you might have to run for your life.”