NEW YORK, Sept. 26 (Xinhuanet) -- Twelve years after the 1993 World Trade Center (WTC) bombing, a lawyer for the victims said on Monday that the WTC owner failed to take steps to prevent the bombing.
Lawyer David Dean, representing survivors and families of the casualties, said in opening statements in Manhattan's State Supreme Court that the Port Authority(PA), the agency that owns the trade center did not close the 400-car public garage as a security precaution despite the warnings given by its own security officials.
Dean said an internal document shows that PA executives decided not to close the garage because it would be "inconvenient to tenants and cause loss of substantial revenue."
At issue is the question of whether survivors and victims' families should be able to sue the Port Authority for damages suffered in the attack. Survivors, victims' families, and businesses involved in the suit insist the agency could have done more to prevent the attack.
Terrorists detonated 1,200 pounds of explosives left in a rented van in a public parking garage under the 16-acre trade center's 110-story twin towers on Feb. 26, 1993, the blast killed six people and injured more than 1,000.
Marc Kasowitz, lawyers for the Port Authority, argued that the bombing was unforeseeable or preventable. He said the agency's executives were never warned that an attack was coming by way of the garage, but rather they were told that such an attack was "possible."
He said it is "not right" and "not fair" to sue the Port Authority for the "murderous acts of fanatical terrorists who schemed for years and traveled thousands of miles" to try to destroy the trade centers.
Four people were convicted in March 1994 on charges related to placing and detonating the explosives and causing the deaths, injuries and damage.
Survivors and victims' families have said they were neglected by government agencies, in contrast to the support, financial and otherwise, that was given to victims of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Enditem | 
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