Plot

The incredible story of the events leading up to the February 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the capture of the terrorists. The amazing thing is that the FBI had an informant among the terrorists, but refused to pay him $500/wk for more information. They eventually had to pay $1 million and place him in the witness protection program. A story of incompetence on all sides.—Bob Farnsworth

The incredible story of the events leading up to the bombing of the World Trade Center in New York and the capture of the terrorists. The amazing thing is that the FBI had an informant among the terrorists but refused to pay him $500/week for more information. They eventually had to pay $1 million and place him in the witness protection program. A story of incompetence on all sides. Feb 26th, 1993, terrorists attack NYC by bombing the World Trade Center.

John Anticev (Peter Gallagher) is the special FBI agent who was in charge of the case. He was part of the joint task force for counter-terrorism for the NY region. John admits to US Attorney General that FBI had confiscated training tapes of the accused prior to the bombing and thought they were amateur videos. The videos clearly depicted how to make a bomb. FBI knew that the men in the video were connected to Omar Abdel-Rahman (Andreas Katsulas), who ran a mosque in Jersey. A few days before the bombing, a local Jersey cop apprehended a car, in whose trunk he founds a cache of weapons and car registration plates. El Sayyid Nosair (Shaun Toub) (City worker) claims that he runs a used car dealership, and the cop lets them go. Bombers include Rodney Hampton-El (Sheik Mahmud-Bey), Ibrahim El-Gabrowy (contractor), Mohammed Salameh (delivery Man) & Mahmud Abouhalima (Mike Starr) (limo driver). John claims that the men had a valid weapons license and were not breaking any laws.

In Nov 1990, Rabbi Meir Gahani was killed by El Sayyid Nosair. Nosair was wounded during escape by an ATM cop & arrested. Search of Nosair's apartment reveals all radical teachings of Omar Abdel-Rahman. Nosair was eventually found not guilty of murder in a public trial (but was sentenced to 22 years in jail for the lesser charges).

After the case was closed John says he and his partner Lou Napoli (Paul Guilfoyle) lost interest in the case. Emad Salem (Ned Eisenberg) (an unemployed security guard) approached the FBI (meets special agent Nancy Floyd (Marcia Gay Harden) & John) and offered information on the pending attack for $500/week (a small weekly retainer). Emad knew Nosair and said he and Omar were planning something big against America, as USA supports Israel and Muslims/Arabs hate Israel. Emad says these men dishonor Islam and hence he wants to help the FBI. John recommends taking Emad on payroll, but his recommendation is rejected, since FBI thinks Emad is still with Egyptian intelligence and wants Omar in hot water. John and Nancy are permitted to use Emad on a limited basis.

Omar attends the Islamic Conference in Detroit in 1991. Emad drove him there. Omar encourages Emad to kill President Mubarak of Egypt at the next available opportunity as he collaborates with USA. Nosair wants out of prison and asks his fellow conspirators to build bombs and kill the judge. Emad tells the FBI that Nosair is asking for 12 pipe bombs to be built using powder from nail guns cartridges that Ibrahim can get (as he is a contractor). FBI Director Ray Williams (Keith Randolph Smith) asks Emad to wear a wire, which he refuses to do (he goes through a lie detector test, which is inconclusive). Nov 1st, 1992. Ramzi Yousef (Art Malik) arrives in America and is a professional bomb builder. Ramzi seeks political asylum as he doesn't have a US visa. He is carrying multiple IDs and has red flags all over. But the application is approved without a court hearing as the cells are full and cannot hold more inmates.

John continues to investigate the Rabbi killing by interviewing known associates of Nosair. John reaches the house of Mahmud Abouhalima, whose neighbors tell him that Mahmud is a terrorist, with strange men going in and out of his house at odd hrs. They search Mahmud's apartment and find links to Omar Abdel-Rahman. Meanwhile Ramzi rents an abandoned house and a storage facility to make a bomb. He buys all the chemicals needed in huge quantities, without raising any flags anywhere. Mahmud delivers the chemicals from storage to the house where Ramzi is building the bomb. Nidal Ayyad joins Ramzi and is a Chemical Engineer and has easy access to all the missing ingredients. Ramzi is injured in a car accident when returning with more ingredients from the storage facility. Jersey police had the master bomber, his accomplice and the chemicals right under their nose before the bombing. In hospital Ramzi comes up with a plan to blow up one of twin towers with so much explosive that it collapses on the second tower and takes it down.

Feb 25th, 1993, a van is hired to deliver the bomb. Ramzi gets 4 compressed hydrogen cylinders to magnify the impact of his bomb. Ramzi drives the bomb himself to the twin towers basement. At 12:17 pm the bomb goes off. But the bomb fails to topple the towers. Only 2 people die, while hundreds are injured. Ramzi flies out of the US. The FBI finds that the van was rented by Mohammed Salameh. They track it to Omar Rahman. John knows that he had the guys and he let them slip. Mohammed Salameh is arrested and so is Nidal Ayyad. They still don't have any evidence against the Omar. Now FBI wants Emad back in to testify against the conspirators. He wants $1 MM and witness protection. Emad wears a wire to his next meeting with Omar Rahman. Emad gets on tape that Omar was planning to bomb the Holland tunnel. All are arrested. They were put on trial in Nov 1995. Rodney Hampton-El got 35 yrs in prison. Ibrahim El-Gabrowy 57 yrs. Mohammed Salameh 240 yrs. Mahmud Abouhalima 240 yrs. Nidal 240 yrs. Nosair & Omar were give life imprisonment. Ramzi was arrested in the US and extradited to the US. He promises to bring the twin towers down.