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Plot to attack JFK Airport Pipeline Thwarted

June 3, 2007

Plot to Attack Airport Pipeline Foiled

By Audrey Hudson, THE WASHINGTON TIMES

WASHINGTON, DC/NEW YORK, NY: Three men, including a former member of the Guyanese parliament, were charged yesterday with plotting to destroy the fuel-supply tanks at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and the 40-mile fuel pipeline from New Jersey to the airport in Queens.

The plot was foiled long before it could be carried out, and authorities said the public was never at risk.

The arrested men include Russell Defreitas, a Brooklyn resident who was born in Guyana and formerly was a cargo handler at the airport. Trinidad officials arrested Kareem Ibrahim, a Trinidad citizen, and the former Guyanese government official, Abdul Kadir. A fourth suspect, still at large, was identified as Abdel Nur, a Guyanese citizen.

The arrests were made Friday night after a five-month investigation by the Joint Terrorist Task Force (JTTF), and the men were charged yesterday with conspiracy.

According to the criminal complaint, the men began plotting in January to "destroy buildings, fuel tanks, and fuel pipelines at JFK Airport with explosives." The suspects obtained satellite photographs of the airport and surrounding facilities from Internet sites and traveled frequently between the United States, Guyana and Trinidad to discuss their plans and solicit the financial and technical assistance of others.

The plot was presented to radical Islamic groups in South America and the Caribbean, including senior leadership of Jamaat Al Muslimeen (JAM), which was responsible for a deadly coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990. Mr. Kadir and Mr. Nur "were longtime associates of JAM leaders," the complaint said.

This story continues at: http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20070603-120959-8080r.htm