Prosecution Alleges ‘Terror In The Sky’ Plot

Only a small fire in a Philippines apartment prevented the alleged mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing from carrying out a plot to explode 11 jumbo jets carrying 4,000 Americans, a prosecutor said Wednesday.

The fire, which attracted police to Ramzi Yousef’s alleged bomb-making headquarters, disrupted the plan by Yousef and two co-defendants to create “terror in the sky” in hopes of ending U.S. support for Israel, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia said in opening statements.

Yousef fled to Pakistan after the apartment was discovered. His co-defendants, Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah, were arrested in the Philippines.

Garcia said the defendants began plotting in the fall of 1994 when they met in Pakistan.

A Casio watch became the group’s “signature, the calling card,” Garcia said. In each bombing, a watch was to have been converted into a timing device using 9-volt batteries, he said.

The first test came Dec. 1, 1994, when a device was attached under the seat of a Manila movie theater, where it exploded, causing minor injuries. Yousef and Shah took part, Garcia said.

The second test came on Dec. 11, 1994, when Yousef put a bomb under a seat on Philippine Airlines Flight 434, Garcia said. Haruki Ikegami, a Japanese man, was killed, nearly blown in half.

Yousef then was joined in Manila by Murad. Garcia said they spent 10 days building timers and bombs before “Ramzi Yousef got very careless and created some smoke” on Jan. 6, 1995.

Yousef ran off and Murad initially told authorities they were making firecrackers. But he had trouble explaining the homemade explosives, timers, electronic components and a bomb-making notebook, as well as a computer.

On the computer was a plan calling for bombs to be placed aboard flights over the Far East in January 1995, Garcia said.