tonight on a second look, it's a simple agriculture fertilizer that's widely available but in the wrong hands it can be made into a deadly bomb. how the same chemical used in the recent bombing in norway has also been used in deadly attacks in the u.s. in several decades. hello everyone i'm frank somerville. the nation of norway has been in mourning after a self- proclaimed terrorist set off a bomb a week away friday then

opened fire at an island youth camp killing a total of 78 people in the two attacks. while the bombing was meant as a diversion, it showed a similar character. breivik made a bomb out of a vehicle and set it off. it's the same type of bomb that the uni bomber used. and it's the same bomb that terrorists used in 1993, they killed six and injured thousands more. it was also the mixture that terrorists used to bomb the u.s. embassies back in 1998. the most recent attempt to set off a fertilizer infused bomb was last year in new york city.

a naturalized american citizen parked an suv that was filled with the explosive combination right in the middle of time square. but he failed to detonate it and police not only disarmed the vehicle, they also tracked down the man who put it there. randy shandobil first brought us this report in may of last year. >> reporter: the doors to this jet were already locked preparing to take off from new york bound for dubai when the fbi stopped it and arrested the suspect in the botched car bombing of time square. 30-year-old fisal shizad who was attempting to flee. >> this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering americans in one of the busiest places in the country. >> reporter: just as officials have admitted that shizad on saturday night drove a van to time square and parked it in

front of the theater where the lion king was playing and planned to detonate it. court papers showed that the suv was packed with fertilizer, gasoline, fire work, propane and alarm clocks. shizad is being held on attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. the fbi today searched his connecticut home. officials say shizad told them he acted alone but that he recently learned how to make bombs in his native pakistan. >> we always have to be vigilant because in the eyes of terrorists, new york is america. and they want to come back to kill us. >> as americans and as a nation we will not be terrorized. we will not cower in fears, we will not be intimidated.

>> reporter: it was two street vendors that alerted authorities. >> president obama called me. what was the best is he did not let the secretary call me, he called me which made my day. >> reporter: shizad bought a one way plane ticket using cash. >> you and i can buy the ingredients we need to make a bomb, we don't but others will. >> reporter: prosecutors released video of an fbi test that showed what might have happened the previous may if that car bomb in time square had exploded. according to court documents the test used the exact same materials found in the incident including 250 pounds of amonium nitrate all inside an suv. here's what happened. a week after prosecutors

released that video a federal judge sentenced would be bomber s hizad to life many prison. the judge noted he showed no remorse for his attempt to kill thousands if not hundreds of people in time square. still to come on a second look. the fertilizer based bomb that devastated the federal building in oklahoma city and the human devastation it left behind. and the attack on the center, nine years before 9/11. t are you reading, sweetie? her diary. when you're done, i'd love some feedback. sure. your mom and i read that thing cover-to-cover. loved it.

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the bombing a week ago in norway's capital reminded people of the attack at the federal building in oklahoma city. in part because both attacks used the same materials. officials would charge timothy mcvay of the crime. and we first brought you this report on the eve of that

execution. >> reporter: it was too horrible to behold. inconceivable that someone would blow up a federal building filled with hundreds of people going on with their routine lives. 19 of them children at a day care center. >> it was real terrible. i started pulling baby, babies were under this, under that. it was awful. >> reporter: a surveillance tape showed a ryder truck like this one parked in front of the center. a truck filled with an explosive mixture of fertilizer and gas. two days after the bombing, a break.

authorities identified this man decorated gulf war veteran timothy mcvay as a suspect. a state trooper stopped mcvay because he didn't have a tag on his car. the trooper saw mcvay was armed and arrested him. authorities made the link. investigators describe mcvay as a member of a right wing militia. a man angry at the federal government for the death of the waco stand off. mcvay was at the scene a few weeks before it's fierily culmination. and quotes him about the federal government conspiritorial take. that led to an armed raid from federal agents on the farm of

nicole's brother james where they found chemicals if áf chemicals chemicals used in the bombing. on june 2, 1997 a jury convicted mcvay of murder. >> we got him. >> if anyone should be put to death is timothy mcvay. the deaths seem to easy. the pain right now for me is in levy and to receive a lethal injection. i would rather see the man isolateed in jail for the rest of his life. >> reporter: on june 11, 2001 four years after mcvay's conviction. a doctor administered the lethal injection. that made mcvay the first criminal executed in the united

states in 30 years. as for nicoles, a jury found him guilty of manslaughter. that jury could not guilty agree on a sentence. the judge imposed life in prison. last year the state of oklahoma tried nicoles, a jury convicted him of 160 counts of first degree murder and one count of first degree manslaughter. the jury deadlocked on the death penalty, so the judge sentenced nicoles to 165 life sentences to be served consecutively. a week ago the fbi acted on a tip and once again searched the house in harrington kansas where timothy lived. even though authorities had searched the home many times, this time they found explosives in a crawl space. apparently authorities failed to look there in previous searches. mcvay claims he did not know

there was a day care center in the building and calls the children killed collateral damage. some say mcvay hopes to be remembered as a martyr. the attack on the world trade center eight years before 9/11. what's being done in an effort to regulate ammonia nitrate chemicalless. -- chemicals.

when terrorists attack the pentagon and the world trade center in 2001 it wasn't the first time they targeted that new york city landmark. back in 1993, terrorists parked a van filled with a deadly explosive mixture right in the basement garage of the trade centers. in the process provided a preview of the horrific events eight years later. ktvu's tracy mitchell first brought us this report in 2003. >> on a cold winter morning in new york, two cars and a van

drove into the basement of the number one world trade center. the van parked next to a wall which was the tower report. four men got out. and they had 12 minutes to get away. >> there has been some type of an explosion directly underneath the world trade center complex. >> the building rattled, the whole thing shook. we thought it was a massive bomb. the evacuation of more than 50,000 people took hours with many complaining that no one had told them what to do. >> the stair cases were pitch black. we had to be there for each over, nobody told us what to do. >> reporter: most had been sitting on the other wall from the van. the blast injured over 1,000. firefighters searched for the

source of explosion. millions of gallons of sewage and water poured into the basement garage. by that evening, new york police said it was not an accidental explosion and they asked for help. federal bomb teams arrived the next morning led by the fda. milton brady was in charge. >> the first thing i saw was a 10 by 10 hole in the ground where it blew up where it would come out e ground. i said well that's not too bad. and they said come closer, i looked six floors down and about 200 feet wide and said, oh my gosh. >> the explosion that ripped through six levels of the basement parking garage and weakened the steel supports of the number one trade tower. >> you can see where the floor blew apart. all the way across. the walls are gone. >> no one has ever done

something that compact. >> were more bombs waiting to explode at the center? investigators did not know. but they knew where the explosion came from. >> it stuck out that the explosion came from a vehicle. >> reporter: authorities had to inspect dozens of vehicles. these investigators would locate key evidence which led to suspects who were arrested less than a week after the attack. >> the day he arrived, rainy looked crater aáepb he made a -- and he made a quick decision. >> the floors had fallen away from beneath us. and we had some tons and tons of materials that had already fallen deeper into the hole. and we decided that we really

needed to take a look down at the bottom of the pit. >> reporter: if it was a car bomb agents did not expect it to vaporize in the explosion. >> so we actually roped off, had a couple of guys roped off and they lowered themselves down to the bottom of the scene. >> reporter: one of these mean was atf agent joe henlen. >> basically it was just totally dark, total darkness like going through a cave. >> reporter: but, henlen spotted something in the muck. these pieces of the vehicle which they found scattered all over the area, not blown from one side to the other. had they reached the bomb van? >> the differential was blown off. that's what gave them a clue this was going to be a part of the evidence. >> reporter: to lift it out the

team had to borrow a gurnie. >> reporter: the numbers the fda tracked the van to a truck rental agent cy in new jersey. agents were there when the phone rang. muhamad salama rented the van and reported it stolen. he was calling to get his $400 deposit back. >> he came back. a number of times. he came back friday after next and told me the truck was stolen from his possession. >> and he wanted his $400 deposit. >> agents told them to come down for the money and arrested him. his phone led them to storage facility. forensic chemist had determined the van contained over a

thousand pounds of homemade explosives. >> the van was rented in jersey city. he was accompanied by a second person. >> phone records led investigators to an apartment that had been used as a bomb factory. there they found traces of exemployee exprosieves ex -- explosives in the wall from an accidental detonation. they arrested a chemist who went to the same prayer center. within three more months for arrests after they had

intercepted a plan to bomb three key buildings. chemicals much as seen in the oklahoma explosion. fbi agents excused salomon as unreliable. the fbi put salem back to work as an informer paying him over $1 million. but the man who lit the fuse slipped away. yosoman was turned over to the fbi who flew him back to new york for trial. from the window of the plane, the fbi's senior new york agent pointed out the world trade center towers and reportedly said look, they are still standing. yoseff replied they wouldn't be if i would have had enough money and explosives.

the efforts to make ammonia nitrate harder to get and why some have resisted that change.

tonight on a second look we're revisiting a number of terror atracks that have involved the same explosive mixture. ammonia fertilizer. in 2006 authorities arrested 17 suspects in toronto and its suburbs in what they say was a plot to set off fertilizer and fuel bombs in various locations throughout canada. and in 2004, british investigators took eight men into custody and confiscated a thousand pounds of ammonia nitrate. about half the amount that timothy mcvay used in 1995. in 1996, atf experts arrested seven members who were accused

of plotting to blow up government facilities. all but one were sentenced on weapons and explosive charges. faith fancher brought us this report at the time. >> reporter: they had an organized plan. >> reporter: according to the u.s. attorney for arizona, january net napolitano that plan included plowing up federal buildings in arizona. that included the fbi, internal revenue service, the immigration and naturalization service. the secret service, the phoenix police department, and the arizona national guard. the indictment also charges that three members of the par military group took detailed pictures and made a video tape of the best way to i can carry out the attack. >> a video take provides advice on how to collapse the buildings, how to enter and take the buildings. where to place anti personnel devices within the buildings.

how to cut the water and power supplies to the building and what diversional tactics would be. >> reporter: on three occasions members of the viper militia went to remote locations in arizona to conduct training exercising. those exercising including training with automatic weapons and making bombs. ammonia nitrate was the key component used in the bombing in oklahoma city last year. but there's no connection between that booming and these arrests. the arizona conspiracy began in 1994, a whole year before the oklahoma bombings. >> law enforcement we were able to intervene, arrest and seize destructive materials before a single person got hurt. >> reporter: tonight we've been

talking a lot about ammonia nitrate, it's a common fertilizer. farmers use it to improve the growth of their crops. there's been efforts to try to regulate ammonia nitrate so farmers can get it but terrorists can't. right now the federal government does not regulate amonnium nitrate. >> reporter: this is amoniun nitrate. >> reporter: when used properly, farmers use it to improve their yields. but terrorists have used it in bombings. >> clearly our product isn't the only product that could be used in a terrorist incident. we wish it hasn't been used. but because it has been renice that it is a product of concern. >> reporter: yet the federal government doesn't regulate sales of the product. only two states do, nevada and south carolina. >> dealers are required to

record a valid driver's license for any purchases of the product. >> reporter: meantime at patterson's shop in mississippi there's no i.d. required just don't be a stranger. >> if i were to come into your store from off the street and say i want a thousand pounds of ammonium nitrate for my corn field, would you sell it to me? >> no. >> why not? >> because i don't know you. >> reporter: the farm and fertilizer industry is opposed. arguing that was heavy handed. not anymore. >> clearly over the last six or so months the security landscape has changed. >> we're locking up. >> reporter: soon patterson recognizes he may have to change his security as well. that rural america isn't immune on the war on terror. >> and that's it for this

week's second look. i'm frank some earlville. we'll see you again next week. in here, anarchy meets order. working with at&t, doctors set up a broadband solution to handle data and a mobility app to stay connected with their business. so they can run the office... e office. call at&t and see what we can do for you. with unlimited voice plus broadband, starting at $70 dollars. it's a network of possibilities -- helping you do what you do... even better.