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Revision as of 08:04, 14 November 2003 by WhisperToMe (talk | contribs) (+Al Qaeda)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, birth name probably Abdul Basit Karim, is believed to be the mastermind behind the first World Trade Center attack. He is also an alleged Al-Qaeda agent.
He was probably raised in Kuwait. The man thought to be the father was a guest worker. Guest workers were treated as second-class citizens in Kuwait.
Yousef attended college in the United Kingdom. He studied electrical engineering there. Starting in the late 1980's, Yousef took spring break trips to Pakistan.
Both Yousef and his uncle, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, are believed to be from the Baluchistan province of Pakistan.
In 1992, Yousef entered the United States with a false Iraqi passport. His partner was arrested on the spot after instructions for making bombs was found in his luggage. INS holding cells were overcrowded, so Youssef was told to come back in one month. Youssef travelled around New York and New Jersey and called Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a controversial Muslim preacher, via cell phone. Youssef got the manuals back from his partner. He got conspirators and tried obtaining mixing chemicals to make a bomb. After a hospital stay from a car accident, Youssef got back the manuals from his car, which was in a police impound.
He then rented a Ryder van. On February 26, 1993, the van was driven into the garage of the World Trade Center. Youssef escaped to Pakistan hours later. After meeting up with terrorist friends, including Khalid Sheik Mohammed, he attempted more terrorist attacks. His attack in Iran worked, but his plot to kill then-president Benazir Bhutto did not work. In a meeting with Mohammed and Abdul Hakim Murad, an old friend, they discussed airplanes and training to fly aircraft.
The trio were sent to Manila, Philippines. Youssef made assasination plots to kill Pope John Paul II and United States President Bill Clinton. The second plan was dismissed, and the first failed due to chance. Youssef also courted local women in clubs and went on scuba trips. Youssef and Mohammed then started crafting Project Bojinka. The project would have had catastrophic consequences if it was carried out. The project was abandoned after an apartment fire occured in Manila, Philippines. It was started when one of Youssef's friends started a chemical fire in his apartment. Youssef's plan was discovered on a laptop computer inside his apartment, two weeks before it would have been implemented. Murad was sent to the apartment to retrieve the computer after the fire department left, but he was arrested and later tortured. He confessed to being part of the Bojinka plan.
One month later, Youssef was arrested in Pakistan and sent to the United States.
On November 12, 1997 Yousef was found guilty of masterminding the 1993 bombing and in 1998 he was convicted of "seditious conspiracy" to bomb the towers.
He is currently held in the Supermax Prison in Colorado. He had the Unabomber, Terry Nichols, and Timothy McVeigh as his cellmates.
His friend Khalid Sheik Mohammed would succeed in launching a Project Bojinka-like attack called the September 11 Terrorist Attacks. He too would be arrested after the United States campaign in Afghanistan.