Port Authority Ruled Liable for 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

Port Authority Ruled Liable for 1993 World Trade Center Bombing

Noeleen G. Walder

New York Law Journal

April 30, 2008

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An appellate court Tuesday upheld a jury's finding that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey was more than two-thirds responsible for the 1993 terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center that killed six and injured more than 1,000 people.

The Port Authority's failure to implement adequate security measures in the face of repeated warnings that the structure's underground parking garage was vulnerable to an "event of potentially catastrophic magnitude" amounted to negligence, the Appellate Division, 1st Department, held in a unanimous opinion.

The absence of previous attacks did not absolve the Port Authority of its duty as a commercial landlord to use reasonable measures to "minimize the risk of harm from criminality upon its premises," Presiding Justice Jonathan Lippman wrote for the panel in Nash v. Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, 2617.

The panel noted that the jury's 68 percent apportionment of negligence to the Port Authority should not be construed as "absolving" the terrorists of blame.

However, the court held that while "[t]errorism has for decades posed a dire threat to ordered life in free and open societies ... its spectre cannot justify the view that performance of the duties we have traditionally relied upon as essential to the preservation of our security may be generally excused as futile," the panel wrote.

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The jury says the Port Authority was 68 percent to blame. How much blame was the "terrorist".
I'm sure the Freedom Tower would be the world most secure location.

This is interesting, thanks. I did read years back "Two Seconds Under the World," I think it was called, and remember it mentioning the van with the explosives was yellow and made to look like a PA van, and t parked in a spot usually used by PA vans. If I remember right, it took this spot right after a real Port Auth van pulled out of the spot, almost like a coordinated swap. FWIW.

and remember it mentioning the van with the explosives was yellow and made to look like a PA van, and t parked in a spot usually used by PA vans. If I remember right, it took this spot right after a real Port Auth van pulled out of the spot

Bomb vehicle was Ryder commericial van which are painted yellow.
Was rented from Ryder agency in Jersey City, across river from NYC
and WTC. Terrorists purchased 3 tanks of compressed hydrogen from
AGL Welding - just down road from me. Some people I knew who worked
there was questioned by FBI as to who and what they saw. Another
friend was legal secretary at Allied Signal in Morristown. Was there
when FBI showed up to arrest Nidal Ayyad and "perp walked" the scum
bag out. Know several people inside building when bomb went off...

Terrorist left behind when leader Ramzi Yousef fled are noted for being
some of the dumbest perps on the face of the earth.

Originally posted by thedman
Terrorist left behind when leader Ramzi Yousef fled are noted for being
some of the dumbest perps on the face of the earth.

Yes, I would call the FBI "some of the dumbest perps on the face of the earth" too.

[edit] Allegations of FBI foreknowledge

In the course of the trial it was revealed that the FBI had an informant, a former Egyptian army officer named Emad A. Salem. Salem claims to have informed the FBI of the plot to bomb the towers as early as February 6, 1992. Salem's role as informant allowed the FBI to quickly pinpoint the conspirators out of the hundreds of possible suspects.

Salem, initially believing that this was to be a sting operation, claimed that the FBI's original plan was for Salem to supply the conspirators with a harmless powder instead of actual explosive to build their bomb, but that the FBI chose to use him for other purposes instead.[11] He secretly recorded hundreds of hours of telephone conversations with his FBI handlers.[12]

The FBI is on record as being a part of it. Yet no arrests were made?