Another man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the bombing of the World Trade Center, the FBI said. It was the second arrest directly linked to the devastating blast.
The suspect's identity was not disclosed immediately, nor were the specific charges that would be brought.A federal investigator said the man was arrested in Maplewood, N.J., and allegedly was involved in renting the van used in the devastating explosion.
FBI spokesman Joseph Valiquette would say only that the suspect was a man arrested by FBI agents without incident about 6:45 a.m. The man was to be brought before a federal magistrate in Newark, N.J., later Wednesday, he said.
One other man, Mohammed Salameh, has been charged in the bombing. The man arrested Wednesday allegedly was with Salameh when he rented the van that authorities say was used in the blast.
The new arrest came as the FBI tightened its investigation of the bombings, examining links among the two men arrested earlier and El Sayyid Nosair, the man acquitted of killing anti-Arab extremist Rabbi Meir Kahane in 1990. Last week, the first link emerged when Nosair's cousin Ibrahim A. Elgabrowny was charged with obstruction in connection with the bombing probe, accused of scuffling with law enforcement officers during a raid.
On Tuesday, Nosair's attorney, civil rights lawyer William Kunstler, said that during Nosair's 1991 trial in the Kahane slaying, Elgabrowny helped the defense team, handling everything from security to picking up documents.
Nosair was acquitted of murder in Kahane's slaying but was convicted of a weapons offense and committing an assault as he fled the shooting scene.
Authorities say Salameh, 25, rented the van that held the bomb detonated under the 110-story twin towers Feb. 26. The blast killed at least five people and injured more than 1,000.
Elgabrowny and Salameh have been jailed without bail, and the FBI said it may make other arrests this week.
In other developments:
- James Fox, the head of the FBI's New York office, told a congressional panel in Washington on Tuesday that investigators believe the bombing was carried out by a large and highly professional terrorist group.
- New York Newsday reported Wednesday that investigators believe the bomb was made out of 1,200 pounds of explosives triggered by nitroglycerine.