1993 Victims Reliving Own WTC Anguish

Feb. 26, 2003
Ten years ago today, Linda Nash's "life as she knew it" ended with the explosion of a terrorist bomb under the World Trade Center.
February 26, 2003 -- Ten years ago today, Linda Nash's "life as she knew it" ended with the explosion of a terrorist bomb under the World Trade Center. She now suffers from brain damage and a variety of physical ailments - and is just one of the approximately 400 plaintiffs who have a lawsuit related to the attack languishing.

The suits charge the Port Authority, which controlled the World Trade Center site, knew the garage was a likely target for a terror attack, and did nothing to prevent it or warn anyone.

The agency has been fighting the lawsuits, and Nash's lawyer, Louis Mangone, said the PA's entire strategy has been "to delay and delay."

The PA didn't return a call for comment.

In its most recent legal maneuver, the agency recently argued the suits should be tossed because the terror attack wasn't "foreseeable."

The lead attorney for the suits, Blair Fensterstock, called that argument "inane," and Mangone pointed to PA documents warning of a possible a car-bomb attack as far back as the mid-1980s.

Nash was parking her car in the underground garage at the trade center when terrorists struck there for the first time, detonating a van stuffed with explosives.

The blast killed William Macko, Stephen Knapp, Monica Smith, John DiGiovanni, Robert Kirkpatrick and Wilfredo Mercado.

The explosion injured more than 1,000, including Nash, who was parking her car when concrete hit her in the head.

Several of the victims' families joined with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) last night to push for legislation which would make them eligible for the federal 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.

"As a society and as a nation, we did nothing for the families of the [1993] victims," he said.

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