World Trade Center

The World Trade Center was a major financial institution in New York City. In 1993, a bombing in the World Trade Center led to the creation of the Counter Terrorist Unit. The events of 9/11 led to the destruction of the building.

1993 World Trade Center bombing
Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, “the Blind Sheik,” had inspired several members of a Jersey City mosque to park a truck bomb in the parking structure of the World Trade Center. Most of those responsible had been caught, including the Sheik himself. One of the primary terrorists in the bomb attack was Ramzi Yousef, a known associate of al-Qaeda. Another terrorist, Abdul Rahman Yasin, had been taken into custody and then mistakenly released. He’d slipped away to somewhere in the Middle East, probably Iraq.

With most of the main culprits in jail, the media considered the case closed, but the World Trade Center bombing had been a wake-up call to a few entities inside the U.S. government, and they had started watching more carefully. This led to the creation of the Counter Terrorist Unit, though due to bureaucratic resistance, it would take several more years until CTU could get up and running.