CHEMICAL ENGINEER HELD IN N.Y. BLAST (WASHINGTON POST)

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Summary: The document discusses the arrest of Nidal A. Ayyad, a chemical engineer, in connection with the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. Ayyad is said to have close ties to Mohammed A. Salameh, who was previously arrested in the investigation. They are both charged with aiding and abetting in the underground explosion. The document reveals that Salameh made repeated telephone calls to Ayyad from a rented storage shed containing chemicals that could be used to create an explosion. No further details about their ties or Ayyad's specific role are provided.

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Body:  Approved For Release 2003/01/17 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003900260006-6
 The complaint also said Salameh
 had Ayyad's business card, that
 Ayyad rented a red sedan believed
 to have been driven to rent the van
 known to have been used in the
 bombing and that the two shared a
 bank account.
 Ayyad, 26, who immigrated from
 Kuwait in 1985 and became a nat-
 uralized citizen two. years ago, is a
 1991 chemical engineering grad-
 uate of Rutgers University in New
 Brunswick, NJ, He was employed
 as a process engineer at AlliedSig-
 nal Inc. in Morristown, NJ., author-
 ities said. Bail is to be set at a hear-
 ing in Newark Friday.
 No further details were released
 about the extent of ties between
 Salameh, 25, and Ayyad or what
 FBI officials believe Ayyad's role in
 the bombing may have been. But
 James Esposito, special agent in
 charge of the FBI's Newark office,
 See NEW YORK, A4, CoL 3
 Approved For Release 2003/01/17 : CIA-RDP96-00789R003900260006-6
 41110  toll
 THURSDAY, MARCH 11, 1993
 Sections
 A News/Editorials
 B Metro/Obituaries
 C Style/Television
 D Sports/Business
 Inside: The Weekly, Classified,
 Comics, Washington Home
 Today's Contents: Page A2
 Prices May Varyin Areas outside
 Metropolitan Washington (See Box on A4)
 250
 Chemical Engineer
 Feld in N.Y. Blast
 Mideast Immigrant Linked to Salameh
 By Malcolm Gladwell
 and Jim McGee
 Washington Post Staff Writers
 FBI agents yesterday arrested
 Nidal A. Ayyad.of Maplewood, N.J.,
 in connection with the bombing of
 the World Trade Center in New
 York and said the Kuwaiti-born
 chemical engineer had close ties to
 Mohammed A. Salameh, the Jersey
 City man arrested last week in the
 investigation.
 Both are charged with aiding and
 abetting in the underground explo-
 sion Feb. 26 when five people were
 killed and more than 1,000 injured.
 In a complaint filed in U.S. Dis-.
 trict Court in Newark, FBI officials
 said Salameh had made repeated
 telephone calls to Ayyad from out-
 side a rented storage shed contain-
 ing chemicals that officials said
 REUTER could be used to fashion an explo-
 1