Ramzi Yousef is removed from Pakistan in an “extraordinary rendition.” After being forcibly capture in Islamabad on the night of February 7 by a combination of State Department Diplomatic Security agents and Pakistani officers, the FBI negotiates his removal over two intense days with the Pakistani government. The FBI quietly borrows a corporate jet from a still unknown CEO to return the leader of the 1993 World Trade Center attack to the United States to stand trial. The jet lands at Stewart Air National Guard base in Newburgh, New York.
Urban legend is that Yousef is flown over New York City and that an FBI agent onboard mocks him, saying “You see the Trade Centers down there, they’re still standing, aren’t they?” Yousef supposedly responds, “They wouldn’t be if I had enough money and enough explosives.”