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 ...

Terre Haute Terre Haute ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Vigo County, Indiana, United States, about 5 miles east of the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 60,785 and its metropolitan area had a ...

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 The Chevrolet Chevy II/Nova is a small automobile manufactured by Chevrolet, and produced in five generations for the 1962 through 1979, and 1985 through 1988 model years. Nova was the top model in the Chevy II lineup through 1968. The Chevy II ...

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 A driving test (also known as a driving exam, driver's test, or road test) is a procedure designed to test a person's ability to drive a motor vehicle. It exists in various forms worldwide, and is often a requirement to obtain a driver's lic ...

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 Ramzi Ahmed Yousef ( ur, , translit=''Ramzī Ahmad Yūsuf''; born 20 May 1967 or 27 April 1968) is a Pakistani convicted terrorist who was one of the main perpetrators of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and the bombing of Philippine Airlines ...

. 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 w ...

to use his corporate account with

Allied Signal AlliedSignal was an American aerospace, automotive and engineering company created through the 1985 merger of Allied Corp. and Signal Companies. It subsequently purchased Honeywell for $14.8 billion in 1999, and thereafter adopted the Honeywell n ...

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 Ryder System, Inc., commonly known as Ryder, is an American transportation and logistics company. It is especially known for its fleet of commercial rental trucks. Ryder specializes in fleet management, supply chain management, and transp ...

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 The Ford E-Series (also known as the Ford Econoline or Ford Club Wagon) is a range of full-size vans manufactured and marketed by the Ford Motor Company. Introduced for model year 1961 as the replacement for the Ford F-Series panel van, the E-Se ...

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 The United States Penitentiary, Florence Administrative Maximum Facility (USP Florence ADMAX), commonly known as ADX Florence, is an American federal prison in Fremont County near Florence, Colorado. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Pris ...

, 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 divisi ...

, 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 El Sayyid Nosair (born 16 November 1955) is an Egyptian-born American citizen, convicted of involvement in the 1993 New York City landmark bomb plot. He had earlier been tried for, but acquitted of, the 1990 New York City assassination of Meir Kah ...

, who had been acquitted of the murder of Meir Kahane, 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