Expert Tells Of Markings
On Van Parts At Blast Trial

RICHARD BERNSTEIN / New York Times 28oct1993

Emad A. Salem, right, an informer for the Federal Bureau if Investigation, might have been able to foil the bombing of the World Trade Center, according to tape-recorded conversation. Mr. Salem escorted Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, who is charged in a related case, from a television interview last March. Photo: Edward Keating/New York Times

There was an insurance company expert on automobile theft, experts on Michelin tires, and another expert on Bridgestone tires as prosecutors in the World Trade Center trial Inched ever closer yesterday to identifying the van that they say was used in the Feb. 26 bomb attack.

The day of testimony sometimes had the aura of a technology and crime lab seminar, as the witnesses detailed how vehicles can be traced from their identification numbers or how the tread patterns of tires can be read.

One witness, William Fritz, who identified himself as a field agent for the National Insurance Crime Bureau, was brought to the stand for the clear purpose of identifying the actual vehicle that matched the numbers un vehicle parts recovered in the wreckage of the blast and introduced earlier into evidence.

Mr. Fritz was the first Government witness to pronounce three words that ring with significance in the case: "Ford van, Econoline."

Coming Up With Number

The Government maintains that a Ford Econoline van was rented from a Ryder rental agency in Jersey City three days before the World Trade Center explosion by Mohammed A. Salameh, the lead defendant in the case.

Mr. Fritz. a tall. square-faced man with graying hair, said that his organization. the National Insurance Crime Bureau, is a nonprofit group supported by insurance companies. He said that it collects data on every vehicle manufactured in the United States, sharing that information with law-enforcement agencies for such purposes as identifying stolen vehicles after they have been recovered.

On Tuesday, another witness described for the jury how he had lifted from a metal frame of a vehicle wrecked in the blast the number LHA75633. Yesterday, Mr. Fritz explained to the jury that that was a secondary vehicle identification number, also known as a confidential vehicle identification number stamped by a manufacturer into vehicle parts. By feeding that number into a computer, Mr. Fritz said, he came up with the full 17-digit public vehicle identification number that belonged to the vehicle in question. He read the full vehicle identification number IFTHE34YOLHA75633.

"And when you say the public VIN number, the public VIN number of what?" he was asked by J. Gilmore Childers, the lead prosecutor.

"Of a 1990 Ford van, Econoline," Mr. Fritz said

Van Reported Stolen?

Mr. Fritz, using a chart provided by the prosecution, then explained how he knew that. The "F" in the public VIN number, he said, indicates that it was a Ford. The "E" signifies Econoline cargo van. The "L" represents the year 1990.

In cross-examination, Mr. Salameh's lawyer, Robert E. Precht, did not challenge Mr. Fritz's identification of the vehicle. Instead, he asked if in Looking at the records for that VIN number there was any indication that the vehicle It signified had been stolen on Feb. 25, which would be the day before the blast.

Mr. Precht's question seemed aimed at helping him to establish an alternative explanation for the actions of Mr. Salameh, who reported the Ryder rental van stolen on Feb. 25. In his opening statement, Mr. Precht argued that Mr. Salameh's open and cooperative actions in reporting the theft of the van were not what would be expected of a man involved in an unfolding terrorist plot. In short, Mr. Precht seems to want to suggest to the jury that the van could indeed have been stolen from Mr. Salameh and used by ether individuals to blow up the trade center.

Mr Fritz confirmed that, indeed, he learned on March 3 that the Ford Econoline van had been stolen, though he remembered the date of theft as Feb. 26.

While the drift of Mr. Fritz's testimony was clear, the prosecution case is being built in such small increments that Mr. Salameh's name has not yet been mentioned by any of the 58 witnesses who have testified so far.

Indeed, once Mr. Fritz brought up the Ford Econoline van, the prosecution turned to a different element in their case, calling to the stand Manuel Zambelas, a senior field engineer for the Michelin Tire Company, who entertained the jury with his description of 5 of the 19 tire fragments found in the wreckage.

"I know my tires and these are Michelins," Mr. Zambelas proclaimed with apparent pride, drawing guffaws from the jurors and smiles from some of the defendants.

Mr. Zambelas explained in considerable detail how the make of any tire fragment can be easily determined, as can the reasons for tire failure.

He talked about distinctive tire tread patterns and the markings inside the tire as the chief clues to its manufacturer.

"Whatever you do to a tire, the tire will tell you," he said. "All you have to know is how to read it."

16-Inch Ti res

Mr. Zambelas said that he determined that five of the tire fragments' were from Michelin tires. He said that four of them came from the same tire, which he said was a retread. The fifth fragment came from a different tire and it was not a retread.

Mr. Zambelas was followed by James B. Gardner, an engineer who works for the Bridgestone-Firestone company, another tire manufacturer. Mr. Gardner testified that he also examined all 19 of the tire fragments found in the wreckage. He said there was a Michelin retread tire among them, a Bridgestone and a Firestone. Both witnesses contended that the tire fragments came from 16-inch tires of the sort that would be used on a pick-up truck or a heavy-duty van.

The prosecution seemed to be building up its contention that the van was at ground zero of the blast but it was not entirely clear how the tire fragments substantiated its argument. Mr. Zambelas said that he had never before seen tires blown into small fragments like the ones he examined in this case, contending that it would have taken a tremendous force to do so, far more than an ordinary blowout.

The prosecution has not yet presented any evidence to show that the van rented by Mr. Salameh had the types of tires identified by the witnesses.

source: NYT Page A1 from microfilm at a public library 16jul2007