[JURIST] A New York court Monday commenced proceedings in the civil trial arising out of the 1993 truck bombing of the World Trade Center [Wikipedia backgrounder]. The court will need to determine whether the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey [official website] is liable for their failure to act on several warnings that the World Trade Center was vulnerable to attack before Islamic militants exploded a truck bomb in an underground parking garage in 1993, killing six and injuring more than a thousand. The plaintiffs argue that the underground parking garage was left unguarded even when presidential limousines and the Secret Service's ammunition were stored there and that security assessments made by the Port Authority predicted the attack. In response, the Port Authority claims that it received no specific threat or intelligence report to anticipate the blast. If the Port Authority is deemed liable, this could open up the floodgates for separate suits from hundreds of victims and business owners. Reuters has more. Islamic militant Ramzi Yousef was found guilty in 1997 of masterminding the 1993 WTC attack.