A former leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Trinidad and Tobago was found guilty on Thursday of taking part in a conspiracy to bomb New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport.
Imam Kareem Ibrahim, 65, was charged in June 2007 for his involvement in what prosecutors said was a failed plot to destroy buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at the airport that handles more than 1,000 flights daily. He is the fourth and last member of the plotters to have been convicted in the 2006-2007 conspiracy.
Following a four-week trial in Brooklyn federal court, a jury convicted Ibrahim on all five counts, including conspiracy to attack a public transportation system, conspiracy to destroy a building by fire or explosive, conspiracy to attack aircraft and aircraft materials, conspiracy to destroy international airport facilities and conspiracy to attack a mass transportation facility.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for Oct. 21.
“In pursuit of a radical terrorist agenda, bent on the destruction of John F. Kennedy Airport and the murder of innocent civilians, Imam Kareem Ibrahim abandoned the true tenets of his religion,” US Attorney Loretta Lynch said.
“The defendant believed the attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the US economy, as well as the loss of innocent lives,” the US Department of Justice said.
Two others, Russell Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, were found guilty in August for involvement in the plot and sentenced to life in prison. Defreitas has appealed his verdict.
A fourth man charged in the plot, Abdul Nur, pleaded guilty in June last year to one count of providing material support to a terrorist plot and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
According to prosecutors, Defreitas, a US citizen from Guyana, formulated a plot based on his experience as a cargo handler at JFK Airport to target its fuel tanks and pipeline in an attack that was to mimic the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
He began recruiting others to help him, including Ibrahim, starting in 2006, prosecutors said. An attorney for Ibrahim did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday.
CONFRONTATION: The water cannon attack was the second this month on the Philippine supply boat ‘Unaizah May 4,’ after an incident on March 5 The China Coast Guard yesterday morning blocked a Philippine supply vessel and damaged it with water cannons near a reef off the Southeast Asian country, the Philippines said. The Philippine military released video of what it said was a nearly hour-long attack off the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) in the contested South China Sea, where Chinese ships have unleashed water cannons and collided with Philippine vessels in similar standoffs in the past few months. The China Coast Guard and other vessels “once again harassed, blocked, deployed water cannons, and executed dangerous maneuvers” against a routine rotation and resupply mission to
GLOBAL COMBAT AIR PROGRAM: The potential purchasers would be limited to the 15 nations with which Tokyo has signed defense partnership and equipment transfer deals Japan’s Cabinet yesterday approved a plan to sell future next-generation fighter jets that it is developing with the UK and Italy to other nations, in the latest move away from the country’s post-World War II pacifist principles. The contentious decision to allow international arms sales is expected to help secure Japan’s role in the joint fighter jet project, and is part of a move to build up the Japanese arms industry and bolster its role in global security. The Cabinet also endorsed a revision to Japan’s arms equipment and technology transfer guidelines to allow coproduced lethal weapons to be sold to nations
Thousands of devotees, some in a state of trance, gathered at a Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Bangkok renowned for sacred tattoos known as Sak Yant, paying their respects to a revered monk who mastered the practice and seeking purification. The gathering at Wat Bang Phra Buddhist temple is part of a Thai Wai Khru ritual in which devotees pay homage to Luang Phor Pern, the temple’s formal abbot, who died in 2002. He had a reputation for refining and popularizing the temple’s Sak Yant tattoo style. The idea that tattoos confer magical powers has existed in many parts of Asia
ON ALERT: A Russian cruise missile crossed into Polish airspace for about 40 seconds, the Polish military said, adding that it is constantly monitoring the war to protect its airspace Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, and the western region of Lviv early yesterday came under a “massive” Russian air attack, officials said, while a Russian cruise missile breached Polish airspace, the Polish military said. Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in a series of deadly aerial attacks, with yesterday’s strikes coming a day after the Russian military said it had seized the Ukrainian village of Ivanivske, west of Bakhmut. A militant attack on a Moscow concert hall on Friday that killed at least 133 people also became a new flash point between the two archrivals. “Explosions in the capital. Air defense is working. Do not