'Unthinkable' Terror Averted, Officials Say
POSTED: 9:04 am PDT June 2, 2007
UPDATED: 7:34 pm PDT June 2, 2007
Authorities said Saturday they had disrupted a terror plot that could have caused "unthinkable" devastation.
They said the aim was to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds New York's Kennedy airport and runs through residential neighborhoods.
U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf called it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."
Authorities said three people have been arrested, including Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen born in Guyana who used to work at JFK.
Defreitas was arraigned Saturday in federal court, but did not enter a plea. Prosecutors said he would be held pending a bail hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
According to the indictment, Defreitas is quoted as saying the airport named for the slain president was targeted because it is a symbol that would put "the whole country in mourning." He allegedly added, "It's like you can kill the man twice."
Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, were in custody in Trinidad. Kadir is a former member of Guyana's parliament. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.
U.S. authorities said two of the men were longtime associates of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group that launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead.
The officials said the two arrested suspects in Trinidad would likely be extradited to the U.S. after court hearings there. He did not say when their first court appearance would occur.
The wife of suspect Abdul Kadir has told The Associated Press that her husband, a Shiite Muslim, is innocent. She said her husband had been planning to fly to an Islamic religious conference in Iran before his arrest at Trinidad's airport Friday.
Kadir served in Guyana's parliament until last year when it was disbanded before general elections.
An indictment says all four have been charged with conspiring to attack the airport by blowing up major fuel supply tanks and the pipeline.
The plot never got past the planning stages. It posed no threat to air safety or the public, the FBI said Saturday.
"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," Mauskopf said.
"The defendants sought to combine an insider's knowledge of JFK Airport with the assistance of Islamic radicals in the Caribbean to produce an attack that they boasted would be so devastating to the airport that 'even the Twin Towers can't touch it,'" said Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Justice Department. "Like the Fort Dix case several weeks ago, this plot highlights the evolving nature of the terrorist threat we face, and our investigation into both plots highlights how our agents and prosecutors are refining their capability to detect and pre-empt such plots before they advance to a dangerous stage."
The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting high-profile American landmarks.
A year ago, seven men were arrested in what officials called the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and destroy FBI offices and other buildings.
A month later, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York City train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan.
And six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/13431901/detail.html
POSTED: 9:04 am PDT June 2, 2007
UPDATED: 7:34 pm PDT June 2, 2007
Authorities said Saturday they had disrupted a terror plot that could have caused "unthinkable" devastation.
They said the aim was to set off explosives in a fuel line that feeds New York's Kennedy airport and runs through residential neighborhoods.
U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf called it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."
Authorities said three people have been arrested, including Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen born in Guyana who used to work at JFK.
Defreitas was arraigned Saturday in federal court, but did not enter a plea. Prosecutors said he would be held pending a bail hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
According to the indictment, Defreitas is quoted as saying the airport named for the slain president was targeted because it is a symbol that would put "the whole country in mourning." He allegedly added, "It's like you can kill the man twice."
Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, were in custody in Trinidad. Kadir is a former member of Guyana's parliament. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.
U.S. authorities said two of the men were longtime associates of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group that launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead.
The officials said the two arrested suspects in Trinidad would likely be extradited to the U.S. after court hearings there. He did not say when their first court appearance would occur.
The wife of suspect Abdul Kadir has told The Associated Press that her husband, a Shiite Muslim, is innocent. She said her husband had been planning to fly to an Islamic religious conference in Iran before his arrest at Trinidad's airport Friday.
Kadir served in Guyana's parliament until last year when it was disbanded before general elections.
An indictment says all four have been charged with conspiring to attack the airport by blowing up major fuel supply tanks and the pipeline.
The plot never got past the planning stages. It posed no threat to air safety or the public, the FBI said Saturday.
"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," Mauskopf said.
"The defendants sought to combine an insider's knowledge of JFK Airport with the assistance of Islamic radicals in the Caribbean to produce an attack that they boasted would be so devastating to the airport that 'even the Twin Towers can't touch it,'" said Kenneth L. Wainstein, Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the Justice Department. "Like the Fort Dix case several weeks ago, this plot highlights the evolving nature of the terrorist threat we face, and our investigation into both plots highlights how our agents and prosecutors are refining their capability to detect and pre-empt such plots before they advance to a dangerous stage."
The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting high-profile American landmarks.
A year ago, seven men were arrested in what officials called the early stages of a plot to blow up the Sears Tower in Chicago and destroy FBI offices and other buildings.
A month later, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York City train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan.
And six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/13431901/detail.html
