Four suspected Islamic extremists from South America and the Caribbean faced charges yesterday over an alleged terrorist plot to bomb fuel tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy (JFK) Airport in New York.
The four -- including Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament -- have been charged over the plot, which officials said had links to international terrorist cells in the Western Hemisphere but was thwarted well before it could be carried out.
"Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction," US Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf said, telling reporters in New York the plan was "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."
The devastation such a blast would have caused "is just unthinkable," she said on Saturday.
The plot allegedly tapped into Jamaat al Muslimeen, described by justice officials as an international network of Muslim extremists from the US, Guyana and Trinidad.
US anti-terrorist forces arrested one of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a former employee at JFK airport, in New York on Friday.
In Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul said that Guyanese former-legislator Kadir and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on Friday and Saturday, respectively.
Kadir is a former mayor and lawmaker in his country with the Peoples National Congress Reform-One Guyana (PNCR-1G) party.
at large
The fourth suspect, Abdel Nur, also a Guyanese citizen, is believed to be hiding in Trinidad and Tobago, Paul said, though US officials said they believed he was at large in Guyana.
Defreitas was alleged to have said in a conversation recorded by a US agent who had infiltrated the group that blowing up the airport would have been of great symbolic importance and like killing former US president Kennedy again.
"Any time you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States," he was alleged to have said.
"They love John F. Kennedy like he's the man ... If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice," Defreitas was alleged to have said.
He was also alleged to have compared the plot to the Sept. 11 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center.
"Even the Twin Towers can't touch it," he was alleged to have said. "This can destroy the economy of America for some time."
According to US authorities, the plot went back to January last year and would have involved blowing up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at the airport, which handles 1,000 flights and more than 120,000 passengers daily.
The pipeline network extends into neighborhoods which could have been devastated.
satellite photos
Defreitas allegedly used his knowledge of airport operations to identify targets and escape routes and assess airport security, while also using satellite photographs of the airport downloaded from the Internet.
Another conversation, in which Kadir, an engineer by training, told his alleged co-conspirators that the fuel tanks would require two explosions suggested the plotters had some technical expertise.
The indictment alleges that Ibrahim was planning to send "an emissary" overseas to present the plan to other extremists for their support.
According to the document, Defreitas wanted to get back at the US, claiming that while working at the airport, he saw military parts being shipped to Israel "including missiles that he felt would be used to kill Muslims."
White House spokeswoman Jeanie Mamo said only that US President George W. Bush had been briefed on the investigation and that the operation was "a good example of international counter-terrorism co-operation."
The bombing plot was uncovered barely three weeks after the arrest of six suspected Islamic radicals on charges of plotting to attack the US army base of Fort Dix in New Jersey.
In that case the suspects, including a pizza delivery man who allegedly used his job to case out the base, were arrested on May 7 as they tried to buy automatic rifles. Two undercover FBI informers had earlier infiltrated the group.
Other alleged plots believed to have been thwarted in New York since the Sept. 11 attacks included plans to blow up a subway station and to bomb commuter train tunnels linking Manhattan to New Jersey.
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