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March 1993:

Muslim Brotherhood Said to Help Fund World Trade Center Bombing -

An Egyptian official will later detail an alleged confession of MAHMUD ABOUHALIMA made at this time. Abouhalima was captured in Egypt in March 1993 and reportedly tortured into a confession there before being handed over to US officials. He will later be convicted for a role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing (see February 26, 1993).

Abouhalima supposedly confessed that the bomb plot originated in AFGHANISTAN among Arab veterans of the Afghan war. He also tells his interrogators that it was approved by men describing themselves as IRANIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENTS AND by the “Blind Shiekh,” Sheikh Omar Abdul-Rahman.

Abouhalima further confessed that he was a member of the Al-Gama’a al-Islamiyya (the Islamic Group), a militant group headed by Abdul-Rahman, and that the group obtained its money from various sources INCLUDING THE GERMAN OFFICES OF THE MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD. It is unclear how much this account can be trusted, especially since the Egyptian government has conflicts with Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood at the time. [New York Times, 7/16/1993]

However, two March 1993 Los Angeles Times and New York Times reports appears to confirm at least part of Abouhalima’s confession. The Times articles reports that two of the bomb plotters, MOHAMMED SALAMEH and NIDAL AYYAD, had BANK ACCOUNTS IN THE US where they received a total of $10,000 sent from Germany prior to the bombing. [Los Angeles Times, 3/12/1993; New York Times, 3/12/1993]

And in 1999, journalist SIMON REEVE will report, “FBI and CIA investigations traced some of the money given to the WTC conspirators back to Germany and the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD.” [Reeve, 1999, pp. 245] However, nothing more about this possible Muslim Brotherhood connection has been reported since.