4 Charged In New York Airport Terror Plot

3 Suspects In Custody; Allegedly Planned To Attack JFK Airport Fuel Lines

(CBS)  Four Muslim men, including a naturalized U.S. citizen and former politician from the South American nation of Guyana, have been charged with conspiring to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport by bombing jet fuel supply tanks and a major fuel pipeline, government officials said Saturday.

U.S. law enforcement officials said various agencies had been watching the group for the past 18 months.

"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," said Roslynn Mauskopf, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, where the criminal complaint was filed.

The alleged ringleader of the plot, former JFK Airport employee Russell Defreitas, 63, was the only person in U.S. custody. Following his arrest Friday night, Defreitas appeared in Brooklyn federal court Saturday but did not enter a plea. He is scheduled to have a bail hearing next Wednesday.

Two other suspects are in custody in Trinidad. Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana who has served as a member of the Guyanese Parliament and a mayor of the city of Linden, and Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad.

Mauskopf said she expected judicial proceedings to bring them to the U.S. to commence next week.

Kadir was arrested at the Trinidad airport Friday en route to Venezuela, according to U.S. and Trinidad law enforcement officials, and planning to connect to a flight to Iran.

A fourth man charged in the plot, Abdel Nur, a Guyanese citizen, was still at large but believed to be in Trinidad.

"The enforcement action that we're announcing today was taken to prevent the terrorist plot from maturing into a terrorist act," said Mark Mershon, FBI Assistant Director in charge of the New York field office. "This is a very determined group that engaged in precise and extensive surveillance."

The surveillance included video allegedly recorded in January of JFK airport by Defretias, as outlined in a 33-page criminal complaint. Conspirators also downloaded maps and images of the airport and surrounding neighborhood from Google Earth, officials said.

The alleged plot was documented and unraveled with the help of a confidential informant, who secretly recorded telephone calls and conversations he had in his car with Defreitos. The informant also purchased the video camera and extolled martyrdom, according to court papers.

"He certainly penetrated the group, but he was not the provocateur," Mershon said.

The informant, who has been working with the government since 2004, is a twice-convicted drug trafficker. His infiltration of the plotters began when he met Defreitas at a Queens mall in last July, six months after the government received information about the potential attackers.

While driving around New York together a month later, Defreitas first brought up the plot, saying there were "brothers who wanted to do something bigger than the World Trade Center," according to the complaint.

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Read: U.S. Criminal Complaint

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Podcast: CBS News Homeland Security Consultant Paul Kurtz on the arrests and investigation

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The alleged plot conceived of fuel tank explosions causing economic and symbolic damage to the United States. Defreitas predicted the attack could destroy JFK's air traffic control tower and "the whole of Kennedy," according to the complaint.

"They love the man," Defreitas allegedly said, referring to the former President. "If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice," he allegedly said in tape recorded conversations.

Officials portrayed Defreitas as motivated as much by anti-Semitism as hatred of the U.S. He told the informant last August that Muslims always "incur the wrath of the world" while Jews "get a pass," according to the complaint.

Defreitas worked as a JFK cargo handler for Evergreen Airlines in the 1990s, according to officials. He allegedly told the informant when he once saw military parts, including missiles, being shipped to Israel, he believed, to kill Muslims. Defreitas "wanted to do something to get those bastards," according to the complaint.

The pipeline draws fuel from a facility 40 miles away in Linden, New Jersey, and is connected to the privately-owned Buckeye Pipeline, which stretches through Pennsylvania.

"None of it is above ground at JFK," Steve Sigmund, chief spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages all three major New York area airports, told CBS News. The double-hulled fuel tanks at JFK lie 300 feet inside the airport's security fence, have electronic sensors, and are subjected to canine patrols. "The fuel farms are heavily protected," Sigmund said.

As the plot developed, the conspirators referred to their target in code, calling the airport "Chicken Farm," according to the complaint.

Accompanied by the informant, Defreitas traveled to Guyana three times in the past year meeting the other conspirators as recently as last week, according to the complaint. Besides the four men charged, at least seven unnamed individuals were allegedly involved in the plot.

The group allegedly sought backing of Jamaat Al Muslimeen, a Muslim extremist group active in South America and Caribbean and based in Trinidad.

In a 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad, JAM took the prime minister and cabinet hostage for six days. JAM has since been involved in drug and weapons trafficking, kidnapping for ransom, money laundering, and murder, according to the FBI.

Defendant Abdul Nur was chosen to meet a JAM leader about the plot, which he allegedly did last month.

Kadir (pictured, left, in a 2004 file photo) had purported connections with "militants" in South America and the Middle East, according to one of the unnamed individuals cited in the complaint.

His wife, Isha, told the Associated Press her husband flew from Guyana to Trinidad on Thursday. In Venezuela, 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."

Kadir left his position in the Guyanese 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.

The suspects do not have any known ties to al Qaeda.

One official told CBS News the group was "capability low, intent high."

Though they discussed using dynamite, they had not obtained any explosives or moved beyond an early planning stage. The plot did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, officials said.

"The bottom line is that we believe that this threat has been fully contained," the FBI's Mershon said at the news conference. "We do not believe the public was ever in danger."

JFK is one of the nation's busiest airports with a thousand flights a day. Almost 4 million passengers flew into or out of the airport in March, according to the Port Authority. Nearly 45 million passengers pass through the airport a year, as does 1.5 million tons of cargo.

These arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting American landmarks.

Six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.

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. That group is scheduled for trial in September.

Last July, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York City train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan.

"Once again, would-be terrorists have put New York City in their cross hairs," said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly on Saturday. "It tells is that we must remain vigilant, at home and abroad."

CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller and CBS News producers Phil Hirschkorn, Rob Hendin and Ryan Corsaro contributed to this report.

[realpatriot1]

A job well done by the authorities and a further indication that the real war on terrorism isn't in Iraq. It's right here.

[tuckerndfw]

Yes and this will probably turn out to be another one of those, "oops, it appears these 10 year olds really weren't going to do anything. . ."

Maybe the media should stop providing attention seeking politicians with free publicity.

Let us know when they are found guilty, but in the meantime, it is not front page news.

[peaceforusa]

Bring our soldiers home so they can protect us from the very scum they are dying for over in Iraq. They need to be here to start cleaning up ALL the terrorist cells we have right here on our own soil.

[feelfree1]

Re: "They were under surveillance for some time and did not have a target date selected. The law enforcement source said the men were not that close to pulling off the attack."

"The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Joint Terrorist Task Force"

No date...not close...this looks like another distraction designed to prop-up the Bush regime, and to give the goose-stepping eunuchs at the 'Joint Terrorist Task Force' an excuse for existing at all.

[billpl-2009]

"Joint Terrorist Task Force" is the "NYPD"

....Now THOSE guys know how to fight Terror, NOT those idiots in the White House

[seven-pesos]

if you want to win a war, don't elect a southerner to do the job.

the south has lost every war they ever started.

jefferson davis lost his.
johnson lost his
bush will lose his.

idiot slave state confederate creeps have lost ever war they ever started.

i wonder if we can get the puerto ricans to fight america's wars for us.

ha,ha,ha.

war, hate, rednecks, reborns...

nothing good comes out of the south.

[jscribe58]

I'll tell you, some of you who write here need to actually read what you write, as well as read what others write. Then maybe you can take your head out of your *ss and see just how far we've played into the hands of these murderers.

We were here, minding our own business when they attacked us, but you seem to have forgotten that. Of course we're finding home-grown cells right here - they know now that we are so easy to divide, and therefore that easy to conquer. THe fact that you have no idea that if we weren't there pounding the hell out of them, the attacks here would have been stepped up a long time ago.

Obviously also, you don't leave the house very often, or you'd know that the South is no longer made up of rednecks saluting the Confederate flag.
Even though you don't know this from looking - perhaps if you read a book? If you picked one with a lot of pictures, perhaps it would educate you a little.

But while you're trying to figure that out, perhaps you will see that it isn't Bush killing our soldiers, but murdering fanatics who attacked us and took thousands of lives. Perhaps.

[tbweb]

Feed them all Chinese Pet Food, let the brush their teeth with poison Chinese tooth paste to make sure the job gets done and then ship their bodies to China's prison system to replenish their supply of body parts!

[king77shaw]

more terror hype to keep us hypnotized while the ruling elite plunders America's wealth, freedom and world standing for their own GREED. Don't believe it ! This *** is pure PROPAGANDA. We'll find out in a couple of months that these guys were plating with cap guns and drew a couple of cartoons of a pipe bomb blowing up...

[libsarenuts]

Liberals in general need to get their heads out of their Al Gore and see what could happen to the USA if we don't crack down on these domestic scum as well as those in Iraq. We are going to try to stop them, with or without you.

[one4gipper]

These terrorists must be released at once. The NSA must have illegally intercepted their email and cell phone calls. Certainly, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid will not stand for these gross abuses of the civil rights of these poor defendants.

[feelfree1]

jscribe58,

Re: "perhaps you will see that it isn't Bush killing our soldiers"

Nope. Sorry. It IS Bush that is killing our soldiers. No doubt about it. And pointlessly, I might add. Plus around 1 million Iraqis.

But we must remember that the illegitimate Bush-puppet only does what he is instructed to do by his Corporate/AIPAC masters.

[libsarenuts]

If you don't like capitalism there are other places where you might fit in better. Cuba and Venezuela come to mind. One TV station and maybe reruns of Chico and the Man.

[libsarenuts]

FeelFree...You really are over the edge. They are waiting for you at the not-so-funny farm.

[rafterman1]

===If you don't like capitalism there are other places where you might fit in better. Cuba and Venezuela come to mind. One TV station and maybe reruns of Chico and the Man.===

Funny, I was going to say the same of you neocons since Cuba and Venezuela have the form of government you prefer - the "do as we say and don't ask questions or complain" type of government.

[king77shaw]

unchecked capitalism is destroying America - it's a profit-over-logic mentality or a profit-at-any-cost paradigm that the ruling elite operates under. Even if it means starting unnecessary wars on false pretenses or destroying the American middle class by shipping GOOD jobs to China. America is living on a credit card ... Democracy does not = capitalism !

[seven-pesos]

the south voted overwhelmingly for that faith professing snake, bush.

the south loves war, hate and phony christian creeps...

after all, the south is responsible for all the wars america has lost.

jefferson davis, johnson, bush...

all slave state, southern pieces of sorry dixie *****.

white trash, ignorant christian *****, republican snakes.

i ***** on the south.

i wipe my azz on the confederate flag.

don't like it? come see me!

war, hate, arrogance, phony christian snakes...

nothing good comes out of the south!

[libsarenuts]

You are full of pelosi, rafter. Here you are spouting your poison and nobody is coming to your house...yet.

[seven-pesos]

history shows what happens when southerners get the power in america.

the south has a dark and sordid past.

bush is just the latest chapter to come out of that most militaristic and extremist region of america.

the south never does good for america.

always war, hate, phony christian creeps and crooked republican snakes.

ha,ha,ha.

that's the south for you, folks!

nothing good comes out of the south.

[king77shaw]

Big Oil + AIPAC Big Media = perpetual war on "terror"

[rafterman1]

Come to think of it, the US and Cuba and Venezuela have similar leadeship.

All three:

Have "decider" type leaders who think they are above approach.

Have their minority of rabid supporters who think their leader is God.

Do not tolerate disent.

Use secret prisons and torture.

Use political dirty tricks to destroy opponents

The similarity between Bush and the other communists and facsists is getting more obvious every day.

[libsarenuts]

Okay, queen77, you win. Here's half of what is in my wallet. Sorry but I only had $5.- bucks in there. Do you take Mastercard?

[feelfree1]

Rafterman1,

Chavez was overwhelmingly elected, 3 times, by the people of Venezuela. The Bush regime, legitimately elected into office a total of zero times, tried to overthrow Chavez in 2002.

Venezuela does NOT have the form of government that neo-cons prefer.

Here is an excellent and very exiting film on the failed 2002 coup attempt against Chavez:

'THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED'

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5832390545689805144&q=The+Revolution Will Not Be Televised

Chavez is being demonized because Venezuela is the third largest oil supplier to the U.S., and the oil pirates want the oil.

If the U.S. had half the leader that Venezuela has with Mr. Chavez, at least we would have half of a leader.

[seven-pesos]

just got my special mail order toilet paper.

a whole case of azzwipe designed like the confederate flag.

now when i wipe my azz, it's pure delight.

better than sexx!

ha,ha,ha.

war, hate, republican christian snakes...

nothing good comes out of the south!

[rafterman1]

===Here you are spouting your poison and nobody is coming to your house...yet.===

Because I'm small-fry. 300 million people is too many to oppress at one time (for now), so the Bushies just concentrate on the big players or those who directly oppose them.

[libsarenuts]

Next it will be Big Corn. Who ever is making legal money must be a crook. Hardy Har! John Edwards making money on hedge funds is cool.

[tomflint69]

Dont travel by aeroplanes.

' Eat Apples and Sleep Tight '.


_____________________________________

[rafterman1]

===Chavez was overwhelmingly elected, 3 times, by the people of Venezuela. The Bush regime, legitimately elected into office a total of zero times, tried to overthrow Chavez in 2002===

But Chavez is consolidating power and opposing civil liberties, shutting down TV stations etc. He, like Hitler, was legally elected, but how long before he becomes dictator for life? Chavez is heading that way. His legislature recently gave him "enabling" laws to deal with "crisis" - just like Hitler got. History is repeating itself. And if we let Bush keep getting away with his shenanegans, we are headed down that path too.

[king77shaw]

nothing wrong with big profits - it's when it becomes profit-over-country or profit-over-the-greater-good that creates problems... and that's what it has become in the neo-con led White House.

[seven-pesos]

christians are like cockroaches!

whenever you shine the light on them they run into their holes.

that's why i always wear my $300 dollar, lizard skin, 2" heel, chrome tipped

pointed texas cowboy boots...

so i can step on those cockroaches when they run into the corner.

ha,ha,ha.

war, hate, phony republican christian snakes...

nothing good comes out of the bush loving south

[libsarenuts]

Okay, being subserviant to the world is a much better scenerio. Apologize for being bullies, elect submissive leaders, in a generation teenage minority immigrants get upset because there is not enough free money so they try to burn down, let's say Chicago, holy batshitt. That sounds like the liberal dream. Count me, and most of America out on that one.

[feelfree1]

Rafterman1,

The T.V. station that was shut down collaborated in the failed 2002 coup attempt. Those who are protesting its closure are the priviledged elite.

Please watch the film. You will not regret it.

[seven-pesos]

without the south supporting him, bush would be unable to continue his illegal war in iraq...

but they still love that azzhoole, bush, in the south.

war, hate, arrogant, uneducated, ignorant, phony christian, twisted evangelist freaks.

i hate the south.

republican, christian snakes.

i wipe my azz on the confederate flag.

ha,ha,ha.

nothing good comes out of the south!

[bobcra]

I just came from the Post Office. An employee there said "hey, the terrorists are after JFK." I said, "did they find them with any bombs, etc?" He said, "yeah, they got everything. Bush is right about this stuff...we're at war and that's why we're over there, blah, blah...my son is a Marine in Iraq...blah, blah, blah."

As soon as I got home, I logged on and read the report. Nothing. No bombs, no connection to al Qaida, nothing. But I just talked to an American who has a son in an illegal war for oil profits, and this father thought we had just foiled another 9/11. Meanwhile, all of our civil rights are down the toilet and Bush can declare himself a dictator any time he wants. Do you people really feel safe? I feel sick and I'm sorry for your loss.

[seven-pesos]

who has the fattest folks in america?

who has the lowest education in america?

who has the most reborns in america?

who has the most republicans in america.

that's right...the bush loving slave state south!

war, hate, arrogance, reborns, flag wavers and ignorant uneducated *****...

nothing good comes out of the south!

[libsarenuts]

Wow, it's almost like walking into a gay bar, except instead of ***** it's liberals all around me. At least when you are in here you're not out there trying to screw up America.

[seven-pesos]

gay as in foley gay?

or gay as in ted haggard gay?

both christians, both republicans.

both *****.

[feelfree1]

Rafterman1,

The CBS site screwed up the URL.

Here is an alternate.

'THE REVOLUTION WILL NOT BE TELEVISED'

http://tinyurl.com/m8kkw

[libsarenuts]

That man's son is a hero while you are some of the scum he is protecting. What were you doing, mailing a check to moveon.org? Your favorite charity.

[libsarenuts]

peso-trash. Tell your old lady that I can't come by tonight. Church, you know.

[libsarenuts]

Nolan Ryan
Roger Clemens
Ryne Sandberg
Janis Joplin

One of your buddies, George Wallace. How about Robert Byrd? You like him, right?

[libsarenuts]

Okay, gay boys, gotta go. See you in 08. You're gonna be surprised. Freedom will win out again.

[seven-pesos]

god gave me this ol' mangy, mongrel, ***** eating dawg.

i'd be rid of that smelly old dawg but that dawg's got a nose like a georgia **** hound.

that dawg can smell a bush loving, slave state, republican christian creep from a mile away.

don't let me catch any of you phony southern republican reborn snakes in my neighborhood.

you won't like it if i cut that dawg loose on you.

ha,ha,ha.

war, hate, hypocrite christian snakes...

nothing good comes out of the bush loving south.

[pakaal]

So, yet another example of how well the "we're fighting them over there so they don't attack us over here" rationale is working out.

As if any sane individual bought into that baloney in the first place. Sorry, but the only thing we're doing in Iraq is proving - daily - that we can't control a president who is himself out of control and completely out of step with the needs and wishes of his country.

I am so looking forward to '08 when we'll dump the remaining Bush rubberstampers and begin to undo the horrific damage done by the Neocon cabal.

[rafterman1]

===Freedom will win out again.===

You're right, when Bush is gone and the neocons removed from power.

[zorlacskates]

ok, we got it 7pesos, you aren't fond of the south. you're quite the diplomat for northern interests.

when i see these "terrorist plot" headlines i can only shake my head anymore. the national enquirer has more credibility than bush at this point. but, maybe it's a good thing that their scare tactics don't work anymore. it's strange that this kinda stuff it happening more often since we unnecessarily invaded iraq and pisssed all over the middle east. connection? nah, it's our freedom they hate. yea, that's it.

[rafterman1]

Actually, all the rantings of the righties around here aren't about the Iraq war or Bush. It's all about the social environment in America. Righties believe in controlling that social environment. They want to be able to tell people who they can have *** with, when they can die, what they can do with their bodies and what TV shows and movies are acceptable to watch. I mean, just look at all the righty causes over the last few years - abortion, gay marriage, Terri Shiavo, FCC issues (e.g. ,Janet Jackson Superbowl). All those things had righties wanting to tell others how they should act in their personal lives. They want the control over people - to set the "morality" of America.

But liberals are a threat to that control. Liberals believe in the philosophy of doing whatever you want, as long as you don't hurt anybody. The liberal idea of the freedom of the individual goes against their very core, like it's something obscene. Things like the Iraq war are just an extension of the social war here in the US. I mean, if lefties were for the war, righties would be against it. It also explains why they would defend a clearly incompetent president and do it with unquestionable loyalty. Righties simply hate liberals more than they hate Bush or even more than they hate terrorists. Just as terrorists threaten to end our way of life, lefties threaten the conservative way of life, which is just as bad to them. Their battle cry used to be "better dead than red". Now it's "beter dead than left".

[torocaca]

If Ashcroft were still attorney general this wouldn't even make news, let along front page. It doesn't fit the "muslem" profile, just like William Krar, the Noonday, Texas "terrorist" didn't fit the muslem profile.

Sounds more like a pissedoff fired employee.

Good job, Bushie! LOL!!

[navyretired2]

I cant help but notice the blatant similarity of some of you conspiracy theorists to the same lunacy you claim the government possesses.

You claim this headline and story is all Bush and propeganda.

ITS AN ARREST people. They caught these guys planning some doo-doo. Its that simple. I see you cry and moan about how crazy and off-thinking the government is, yet you come off as a nutcase yourself...

Rationality has completely escaped you in your hat for government. Unless of course Bush had all of this concocted, planned, executed, controlled media release, planted evidence, etc etc.....

[seven-pesos]

the republican party loves the south...

southerners are so easy to fool.

that's because they have so little education.

dependent, christian and superstitious...

rednecks and reborns...

bush's kind of people.

nothing good comes out of the south!