PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, June 5, 2007
4th JFK Terror Suspect Surrenders
Guyanese Suspect In NYC Terror Plot Turns Himself In To Police In Trinidad
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Play CBS Video Video Foiled Terror Plot Analysis Two of four suspects in an alleged bomb plot against NYC's JFK Airport will appear in court in Trinidad, where they were arrested. Terrorism consultant Paul Kurtz discusses the case with Julie Chen.
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Abdel Nur, a suspect in the JFK bomb plot, surrendered to authorities in Trinidad on Tuesday. (CBS/Gov. of Trinidad)
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Storage tanks on the grounds of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Offficials say a federal informant was key to stopping an alleged plot to blow up fuel lines at the airport. (AP)
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Abdel Nur turned himself in this morning around 11 a.m., according to the official. He said Nur was on his way to a police station in Port du Spain, Trinidad, and may have a court appearance this afternoon.
Nur, 57, is originally from Pakistan but is a citizen of Guyana.
He is the fourth man arrested in the alleged plot, including a former opposition member of Guyana's parliament and a former airport air cargo employee who was arrested in New York.
Nur is reportedly the uncle of former world welterweight boxing champion Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis, one of Guyana's most famous citizens.
U.S. authorities claim the alleged plotters unsuccessfully sought support in Trinidad from Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group that staged a deadly coup attempt in the Caribbean nation in 1990.
In addition to Nur, Trinidadian authorities are holding two suspects: Abdul Kadir, the former Guyanese lawmaker, and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad. They are fighting extradition to the United States.
The other suspect named, Russell Defreitas, is former JFK air cargo employee who was arrested in New York. He is a U.S. citizen native to Guyana, a former Dutch and British colony on the northern coast of South America.
While the intent to inflict major damage was apparent, CBS News terrorism consultant Paul Kurtz said the men were "a long way off from actually being able to carry out the plot."
A senior federal official told CBS News on Sunday the U.S. government considered the JFK cell operational "in the sense that they were taking affirmative steps to move forward with the planning" — undertaking surveillance, seeking to obtain funding — "but not in the sense that they had the explosives already or had selected a date to strike."
The leader of Jamaat al Muslimeen told The Associated Press on Monday that his group had no connection to the plot. "I know nothing about these men and I have nothing to do with whatever they are being charged for," said Yasin Abu Bakr, the longtime head of Jamaat al Muslimeen.
Bakr would not say if he knew any of the suspects.
The case was broken open by an informant — a twice-convicted drug dealer who found himself in the midst of what investigators called a terrorist plot conceived as more devastating than the Sept. 11 attacks.
"Would you like to die as a martyr?" the informant was asked, according to the indictment.
He unhesitatingly replied yes and soon was making surveillance trips around the airport — the "chicken farm," as the planners dubbed their target.
Authorities said the JFK scheme was an example of homegrown terrorism. Defreitas, 63, immigrated to the U.S. more than 30 years ago, but he told the federal informant that his feelings of disgust toward his adopted homeland had lingered for years.
"Before terrorism started in this country," he said in one secretly recorded conversation.
Defreitas was arrested Friday night outside Brooklyn's Lindenwood Diner — a spot once bugged by federal officials tracking former Gambino family boss John A. "Junior" Gotti.
Jamaat al Muslimeen, known for launching a bloody 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad that involved taking the prime minister and his Cabinet hostage, is not accused of offering the suspects any support. The group, whose followers are largely black converts to Sunni Islam, has faded as a political force in Trinidad while Abu Bakr fends off criminal charges of inciting violence.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 59 Commentsso does that mean osama is actually a white house staff working out of a hidden studio under the white house..
al queda is really a secret army run by the white house to instigate fear all over the planet.
Islam is a religion of peace..
that muslims are NOT really killing muslims, jews and non-muslims..
and if you beleive all of that..then you guys are giving Bush way to much credit..and a moron is fooling you guys..making you guys a bigger moron
ask the liberal DNC and the ACLU why, as soon as they are done defending terrorist rights
Last summer they polled over 100 counter-terrorism experts, and over 80% agreed with the following two conclusions:
1) we are LOSING the war on terror
2) the IRAQ WAR is the reason why.
What greater proof of your assertion is needed?
why the molten metal for weeks in the sub-basement ?
why did the steel beams from the core show distinct 45 degree angle cuts in the exact manner that demolition crews bring down a structure.
why was the steel shipped off to China to be melted before it could be analysed ?
there are so many basic questions that have been ignored or left unanswered that when you even just add a few together a different picture of what happened that day emerges.
look - I really don't want to believe it but the facts are leading me elsewhere ...
Step inside a building that has a insulation fire and tell me it is not that hot.Smoke is black pitch black just like the black smoke that was billowing out of WTC.
check out these other, recent skscraper fires:
much hotter and no collapse - all steel framed buildings.
http://911research.wtc7.net/wtc/analysis/compare/fires.html
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/spain_fire_2005.html
Posted by ubrew12
Re: Design and factor in everything that you have said along with the other variables that ignited, exploded.
The towers themselves contain potential energy that was turned into kinetic energy upon falling. Since all this energy impacted on the buildings footprint, its conveivable that some of it raised the temperature of metal parts to above their melting point (potential energy can be translated to any temperature value of heat energy you want), after which the rubble insulated the melted parts until discovered later. Don't know what to say about the freefall argument.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm73wOuPL60&mode=related&search=
1) well a lot of players on Wall Street knew something was up on Mon 9/10 with the level of activity on United and American airline options ... through the roof -
2) is it coincidence that the company in charge of security (Securacom/Stratesec) at the WTC and Dulles Airport (where Flight 77 supposedly flew out of) was headed by Marvin Bush (W's little brother) and Wirt Walker ... Marvin left in 2000, Walker left Securacom on 9/10/01 ... hmmm - coincidence - the day before 9/11 ?
The firm was financially backed by an investment firm, the Kuwaiti-American corporation..
do your research people ! why don't we hear about these things in the mainstream press ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIgoXQWiSlM#t51rEH3AtIY
And for what? According to every report (and this should surprise no one) there are now more terrorists than when we started. We are killing innocents and creating hate. This will not stop terror; it will just lend it a legitimacy it does not deserve.
We need to fight terror as it was fought in this instance: law enforcement, investigation and arrest. The Bush War on Freedom in Iraq is sheer madness unless viewed as a money-making venture, whereupon it has a sick, evil logic.
Posted by jimibear at 05:48 PM : Jun 05, 2007
Reposting, because it deserves it. Good one, jimibear.
the south doesn't pay!
poor slave states don't have any money.
the rich, hardworking, educated blue states pay.
the south provides the wars!
ha,ha,ha.
war, hate, arrogance, phony christian republican creeps...
nothing good comes out of the south!
Posted by jimibear
Tell me in your courses in physics did you actually ever work with steel? Have you ever melted steel? Have you ever witnessed a fire from the inside of a building? I learned alot in college (theory) life has taught me theory is not always practical nor does it include variables. Secondary fires inside the WTC occured, insulation, wiring, pcs, printers,hydraulics,common cleaning supplies etc.
While it is true that in order to bring down the buildings, only weakening of the steel/welds would have been necessary, there were actual puddles of molten steel found. This is impossible if the official story is true, but there they were.
Once one has ruled out the impossible, one must consider other options, however apparently far-fetched and distasteful. Since the official story cannot possibly be true as presented, one of those options is that they did it themselves and are lying.
Another is that the way it happened would make them look even more incompetent (such as if the attacks combined explosives planted in the towers by terrorists with the plane attacks, which would be an even greater security lapse than the one that clearly took place) and they are lying about that.
Either way, our government is lying to us; I guess we should be used to that by now, though.
Posted by notblue at 05:05 PM : Jun 05, 2007
+ report abuse"
I respond to everything I see you say, notblue.
I fully realize the threat of terrorism. It is a legitimate threat, yes. However, the threat posed by terrorists is miniscule compared to the massive, mis-directed military effort designed (supposedly) to fight it. More damage has been done, more money spent and more lives lost in the so-called "war on terror" than could possibly have resulted from terrorist attacks.
$500 billion and counting fast. 3,400 dead and counting on our side, countless thousands in Iraq - a country with no ties to 9/11.
And for what? According to every report (and this should surprise no one) there are now more terrorists than when we started. We are killing innocents and creating hate. This will not stop terror; it will just lend it a legitimacy it does not deserve.
We need to fight terror as it was fought in this instance: law enforcement, investigation and arrest. The Bush War on Freedom in Iraq is sheer madness unless viewed as a money-making venture, whereupon it has a sick, evil logic.
Posted by notblue at 05:05 PM : Jun 05, 2007
+ report abuse"
I respond to everything I see you say, notblue.
I fully realize the threat of terrorism. It is a legitimate threat, yes. However, the threat posed by terrorists is miniscule compared to the massive, mis-directed military effort designed (supposedly) to fight it. More damage has been done, more money spent and more lives lost in the so-called "war on terror" than could possibly have resulted from terrorist attacks.
$500 billion and counting fast. 3,400 dead and counting on our side, countless thousands in Iraq - a country with no ties to 9/11.
And for what? According to every report (and this should surprise no one) there are now more terrorists than when we started. We are killing innocents and creating hate. This will not stop terror; it will just lend it a legitimacy it does not deserve.
We need to fight terror as it was fought in this instance: law enforcement, investigation and arrest. The Bush War on Freedom in Iraq is sheer madness unless viewed as a money-making venture, whereupon it has a sick, evil logic.
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See all 59 Comments