1993 World Trade Center bombing commemorated on 27th anniversary

Before there was 9/11/01, there was 2/26/93.

Twice the World Trade Center was attacked by terrorists — the first time in 1993. Six people, including two from Long Island, were killed when a small cell of Islamists blew up about 1,200 pounds of explosives in a van parked in a below-ground garage.

On Wednesday, the 9/11 Memorial & Museum commemorated the 27th anniversary.

Just next to the former site of the north tower, survivors, World Trade Center personnel and the loved ones of the slain paused for a moment of silence at 12:18 p.m., the time of the explosion, for the tolling of a bell.

“Twenty-seven years and we have not forgotten,” Alice M. Greenwald, president of the museum and memorial, said in opening remarks.

The names of the slain were recited by two of their relatives.

The Long Islanders who died were John DiGiovanni of Valley Stream and Monica Rodriguez Smith of Seaford. She was eight months pregnant when she was killed.

About 1,000 people were injured in the 1993 attack, but the damage to the World Trade Center was relatively slight.

“Its structures and its people largely survived. The restoration and recovery of the World Trade Center was nothing short of miraculous,” said Charlie Maikish, who was director of the World Trade Center back then. “It demonstrated the resiliency and the determination of the people of the New York region."

The commemorative gathering on 2/26 is an annual tradition.

“I’ll see you all, same place next year,” Maikish said.

In the years after the 1993 attack, six men were convicted of carrying out the bombing; they had connections to a metro area mosque and Islamic terrorist networks overseas. One attacker has not been caught.

In 1995, while on the last leg of being flown from Pakistan to New York for trial, an FBI agent pulled back the blindfold of mastermind Ramzi Yousef and pointed to the towers below.

“Look down there. They’re still standing," the agent told Yousef. To which Yousef replied, "They wouldn't be if I had enough money and explosives."

By Matthew Chayes

matthew.chayes@newsday.comchayesmatthew

Matthew Chayes, a Newsday reporter since 2007, covers New York City.