Spectre's Blog

Well I guess John Edward's needs to reconsider his WOT Bumper Sticker statement.....I know, I know this is some type of "Bush" Administration ploy.......

Hmmm so far we have the Fort Dix SIx and now this!

 

Three Arrested, 1 Sought in Terror Plot on New York City's JFK Airport

Saturday, June 02, 2007

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Sketch of Russell Defreitas

NEW YORK —  Four Muslim men were foiled from carrying out a plot to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods, authorities said Saturday.

Three men were arrested and one was being sought in Trinidad on Saturday. In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the plot would "cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks."

Authorities said the four were motivated by a pattern of hatred toward the U.S., Israel and the West.

One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and retired JFK employee, said the airport was a symbol that would put "the whole country in mourning."

"Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States," he said on a recording made by a police informant. "They love John F. Kennedy like he's the man ... It's like you can kill the man twice."

The plot, which the men code-named "Chicken Farm," never got past the planning stages, authorities said.

• "The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."

The men tried to reach out to a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, which launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead.

Defreitas, a 63-year-old Brooklyn resident, first hatched his plan more than a decade ago when he worked as a cargo handler for a service company, according to the indictment. He was recorded saying he "wanted to do something to get those bastards."

He was arraigned Saturday afternoon in federal court and was to be held pending a bail hearing scheduled for Wednesday, prosecutors said. He did not enter a plea at the arraignment, and a phone number for his lawyer could not be located.

Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, were in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.

The suspects believed explosives could ignite the pipeline at JFK and destroy the airport and parts of Queens, where the line runs underground, according to the indictment. In

The pipeline, owned by Buckeye Pipeline Co., takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

Kadir, a former member of Parliament in Guyana, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for "terrorist operations," according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Kadir left his position in Parliament last year. Muslims make up about 9 percent of the former Dutch and British colony's 770,000 population, mostly from the Sunni sect.

Isha Kadir, the Guyanese suspect's wife, said her husband flew from Guyana to Trinidad on Thursday. She said he was arrested Friday as he was boarding a flight from Trinidad to Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a travel visa to attend an Islamic religious conference in Iran.

"We have no interest in blowing up anything in the U.S.," she said Saturday from the couple's home in Guyana. "We have relatives in the U.S."

Investigators received information about the plot in January 2006, according to the indictment.

Buckeye spokesman Roy Haase said the company, which moves petroleum through pipelines in a number of states, had been informed of the threat from the beginning, but he declined to detail the company's security measures.

"Given the nature of Buckeye business and the importance of this transportation network, we have an intense and ongoing communications relationship with the Port Authority, the New York City fire and police departments, the federal Department of Homeland Security and the FBI," he said.

JFK and the area's other airports remained at a heightened state of alert Saturday, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said.

Jeanie Mamo, a spokeswoman for the White House, said President Bush had been briefed and updated regularly as the investigation into the plot progressed.

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.