Mohammed A. Salameh ( ar, محمد سلامة) (born September 1, 1967 in the

West Bank The West Bank ( ar, الضفة الغربية, translit=aḍ-Ḍiffah al-Ġarbiyyah; he, הגדה המערבית, translit=HaGadah HaMaʽaravit, also referred to by some Israelis as ) is a landlocked territory near the coast of the Mediter ...

) is a convicted terrorist and perpetrator of the

1993 World Trade Center bombing The 1993 World Trade Center bombing was a terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, U.S., carried out on February 26, 1993, when a van bomb detonated below the North Tower of the complex. The urea nitrate–hydrogen gas en ...

. He is currently serving an unknown sentence as an inmate at

FCI Terre Haute The Federal Correctional Institution, Terre Haute (FCI Terre Haute) is a medium-security United States federal prison for male inmates in Indiana. It is part of the Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute (FCC Terre Haute) and is operated by the ...

in Terre Haute,

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

for taking part in the attack on New York.

Early life

Salameh's family fled the

with him in 1967, shortly after he was born there, because of the

Six-Day War The Six-Day War (, ; ar, النكسة, , or ) or June War, also known as the 1967 Arab–Israeli War or Third Arab–Israeli War, was fought between Israel and a coalition of Arab world, Arab states (primarily United Arab Republic, Egypt, S ...

Illegal immigrant

He entered the United States on a six-month tourist visa in 1988 but then overstayed. He was still in the country illegally in 1993 during the World Trade Center bombing. He applied for an immigration amnesty under a 1986 law that set up the Special Agricultural Worker program despite never having been eligible. However, he was still guaranteed work authorization until the

Immigration and Naturalization Service The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was an agency of the U.S. Department of Labor from 1933 to 1940 and the U.S. Department of Justice from 1940 to 2003. Referred to by some as former INS and by others as legacy INS, ...

could rule on his applications. It took the INS nearly five years to determine he was ineligible for any of the programs for which he had applied. Even then, he was not deported.

Role in World Trade Center bombing

Salameh's 1978 Chevy Nova was used to ferry the

nitric acid Nitric acid is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is a highly corrosive mineral acid. The compound is colorless, but older samples tend to be yellow cast due to decomposition into oxides of nitrogen. Most commercially available nitri ...

and

urea Urea, also known as carbamide, is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest amide of carbamic acid. Urea serves an important r ...

used to construct the bomb used in the past 1993 bombing. Despite failing his driving test four times, Salameh had been the driver for the group. On January 24, 1993, he jumped a curb and tore the

undercarriage Undercarriage is the part of a moving vehicle that is underneath the main body of the vehicle. The term originally applied to this part of a horse-drawn carriage, and usage has since broadened to include: *The landing gear of an aircraft. *The ch ...

from his car, injuring himself and Ramzi Yousef. He was checked out of Rahway Hospital the following day and went to the garage to clean his car while Yousef remained in the hospital for four more days. With his Nova in for repairs, Salameh got

Nidal Ayyad Nidal A. Ayyad (Arabic: نضال عياد; born 1968) is a convicted perpetrator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. He is currently serving an 86-year sentence at USP Coleman for his role in the bombing. Early life and education Ayyad was ...

to use his corporate account with Allied Signal to rent him a new car. However, he got in a car accident again on February 16 and collided with a car.

Arrest and sentencing

On March 4, 1993, the FBI arrested Salameh. He had just collected $400 after reporting his rental van had been stolen and speaking with an undercover FBI agent posing as a Ryder "

loss prevention Retail loss prevention (also known as Retail asset protection) is a set of practices employed by retail companies to preserve profit. Profit preservation is any business activity specifically designed to reduce preventable losses. A preventable ...

analyst". Earlier, the FBI had traced the Ford Econoline van that had been used in the World Trade Center bombing by its

vehicle identification number A vehicle identification number (VIN) (also called a chassis number or frame number) is a unique code, including a serial number, used by the automotive industry to identify individual motor vehicles, towed vehicles, motorcycles, scooters ...

. In 1994, Salameh was sentenced to 240 years in prison. In 1999, his sentence was reduced to 116 years and 11 months. In 2021, one of his convictions was overturned, cutting his sentence by another 30 years. He is assigned BOP number 34338-054. Salameh was initially sent to ADX Florence, where he was repeatedly force-fed after hunger strikes. He was later transferred to

USP Big Sandy The United States Penitentiary, Big Sandy (USP Big Sandy) is a high-security United States federal prison for male inmates in unincorporated Martin County, Kentucky, near the city of Inez. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a divisio ...

, then

. Salameh is scheduled for release on May 23, 2067.

Possible link to assassination of Kahane

An article in the ''

Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'' quoted from the mid-August 2010 issue of ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'' that El Sayyid Nosair, who had been acquitted of the

murder of Meir Kahane Meir Kahane, an Israeli American rabbi, ultra-nationalist politician and militant, was assassinated by El Sayyid Nosair on 5 November 1990, shortly after 9:00 p.m. at the New York Marriott East Side, a hotel in Manhattan, New York City. ...

, later still claimed that he had two partners with him:

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Salameh, Mohammed 1967 births Living people Islamist bombers Inmates of ADX Florence People convicted on terrorism charges People imprisoned on charges of terrorism Palestinian mass murderers 20th-century criminals Palestinian people convicted of murder