A Case of Dumb Luck

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From there the trail grows tenuous and circumstantial. The mailbox on the Brooklyn apartment bears the names of both Elgabrowny and his cousin El Sayyid Nosair, who is serving a prison term on weapons-possession charges related to the 1990 slaying of Rabbi Meir Kahane, a Zionist zealot. Salameh is known to have worshipped at a Jersey City mosque -- actually a bare room under a leaky roof -- where he would have heard the fiery sermons of Sheik Omar Abdel- Rahman, a blind cleric from Egypt whom the U.S. government is trying to deport. The sheik vocally advocates overthrow of the Egyptian government of Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally, and some merchants in the Little Egypt section of Jersey City speak of the mosque and its communicants with fear.

The obvious suspicion is that the Trade Center bombing was carried out by a group of Muslim fundamentalist fanatics who regard all moderate Arab leaders as traitors to Islam, and the U.S. as their prime support. Whether these somewhat nebulous suspicions can ever be pinned down, let alone proved, is another matter. Sheik Omar has denounced the Trade Center bombing and claims not even to know Salameh.

One of the loosest loose ends is that investigators are not yet sure even what kind of explosive went off in the van. Early reports had them concluding from traces of nitrates found at the blast scene that dynamite had been used. But James Ronay, explosives-unit chief at the FBI laboratory in Washington, says the presence of nitrates in the rubble was "meaningless"; nitrates are contained in exhaust fumes, paint, cleaning materials, foodstuffs and many other substances. Nonetheless, his best guess is that the explosive was in fact dynamite or something similar; the pattern of blast damage is more consistent with dynamite than with the plastic explosives often favored by terrorists. Fox also believes that "the velocity of the blast indicates that ((the explosive)) is in the dynamite family, which includes TNT and the so- called witches' brew of fertilizer and fuel oil. Most of our guys who have been around a while seem to think that's what it will turn out to be -- witches' brew."

One theory is that an unstable explosive was used that went off prematurely -- perhaps when the van was going over a speed bump -- and blew up the bombers along with their bomb. The blast seems to have occurred either on the ramp or at the bottom of it -- not ordinarily a spot where bombers would park, get out of the van and take an elevator up to the street. A foul odor in the crater could point to the presence of bodies in the wreckage, but it could have other causes as well.

Even after investigators get down into the crater to check out "the real hot stuff" and run down all the leads stemming from Salameh, Fox warns, it ! may be years before the probers can piece together a full picture of the bombing conspiracy. But then, investigators were saying much the same thing about the possibility of developing leads at all even as they were closing in on Salameh. Perhaps they will get lucky again.