March 1993: Confession of Tortured Bombing Suspect ‘Worthless’

FBI agents fly to Cairo to take charge of Egyptian Mohammed (or Mahmud) Abouhalima, who will later be convicted for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings (see Summer 1993). Abouhalima has been tortured by Egyptian intelligence agents for 10 days (see March 1993), and has the wounds to prove it. In 2008, a Vanity Fair report will state, “As US investigators should have swiftly realized, [Abouhalima’s] statements in Egypt were worthless, among them claims that the bombing was sponsored by Iranian businessmen, although, apparently, their sworn enemy, Iraq, had also played a part.” [Vanity Fair, 12/16/2008]