Posted on 06/03/2007 4:09:32 PM PDT by Shermy
Four men including former PNCR Member of Parliament Abdul Kadir were yesterday charged by United States law enforcement officials with allegedly conspiring to blow up the John F Kennedy International airport as well as tanks storing aviation fuel and underground fuel pipelines.
Those charged with Kadir are former JFK worker Russell Defreitas, a Guyanese-born US citizen; Kareem Ibrahim, an imam from Trinidad; and Guyanese Abdel Nur. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad, while Defreitas was held in New York. Up to press time, however, Nur had not been apprehended and was thought to be still at large in Trinidad.
...snip...
According to a release from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) yesterday, Kadir had departed Guyana for Trinidad and Tobago on a Liat flight on Thursday evening.
The statement also said that the GPF had co-operated with the United States authorities at the embassy in Georgetown in relation to Kadir's detention as part of efforts to deal with the terrorist activity.
According to the Trinidad Express, Kareem Ibrahim, 56, an imam of a Shi'a mosque in Canefarm, Tacarigua, Trinidad was arrested at his home on Friday. The paper said he sold Islamic literature at Woolford Square, and ran a parlour from his house. The daily said too that Police Special Branch and US authorities were investigating whether the group had any connection to Shi'a groups in southern Iraq and Iran.
... snip ...
Islamic conference
Speaking with the Stabroek News yesterday, Kadir's daughter Sauda said that her father had been on his way to Iran where he had been invited to attend an Islamic conference when he was arrested. She said that Kadir had left Guyana on Thursday evening for Trinidad from where he was scheduled to travel to Venezuela to pick up his Iranian visa before proceeding to Iran.
It was when he was about to board his flight to Venezuela that he was taken off the plane and told he was being held "for some conspiracy." This news had reached the family late on Friday night, Sauda said, and had come as a shock since everyone in the family knew that Adbul Kadir was a "principled and caring person."
The family have since contacted Kadir's lawyer in Trinidad who told them that he was being held for questioning.
"We firmly believe it is an attack on my father because he is a Muslim. We don't even have any ties with al Qaeda. We don't share the same belief as them; we are Shia's; we don't believe in taking innocent lives," Kadir's daughter said.
According to Sauda two weeks ago the Kadir family hosted two Muslim brothers from the USA. She said that they had come to Linden and wanted a place to stay, and as was their belief whenever a brother needed a place to stay, they provided one. She said that one of the brothers went to their Friday night prayer. They were in Guyana, she said, to have meetings with fellow Muslims across the country, which they did.
She said her father had had no contact with the brothers after they had left for Trinidad on their way to the USA.
Abdul Kadir
Abdul Kadir hailed originally from Buxton, East Coast Demerara, and attended St Stanislaus College. While working the night shift at the Guyana Water Authority, he enrolled at the University of Guyana from where he graduated in 1975 with a Higher Technical Diploma in Civil Engineering. He then went on to the University of the West Indies (UWI) where he earned a BSc in Civil Engineering, graduating in 1981. He also studied Islamic theology in Iran.
Before going to UWI, Kadir spent a year in Venezuela between 1977 and 1978, where he hoped to continue his studies. When those plans fell through, he returned to Guyana and taught for a brief period at the Charlestown Government Secondary School.
In Trinidad during his vacation Kadir worked with Dr Emru Millet, a consulting engineer, and on his return from UWI, Kadir joined the Guyana Bauxite Company, later Linmine, and remained there until the retrenchment exercise in July 2003. Kadir, who converted to Islam in 1974, told this newspaper in 2004 that while in Trinidad he had been a member of the Islamic Party of the Caribbean. When he returned home, his main focus was to foster the teaching of Islam in the hope of bringing about social reform through that means.
Kadir was a member of the PNC's Young Socialist Movement during the time of Eustace Hall and Jeffrey Thomas, and was also a member of Ascria. In his 2004 interview he said that Eusi Kwayana of Ascria had influenced him in the direction of developing a certain scholarship to understand the socialist principles to go beyond situations as they appeared on the surface.
He told this newspaper at that time too that he had also been influenced by the writings of Walter Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah, Eldridge Cleaver and Malcolm X.
Kadir was elected as mayor of Linden in 1994 and held this office for two years before resigning. He became a parliamentary representative for Region Ten (Upper Demerara/ Upper Berbice) for one term following the 2001 election, but in his 2004 interview said that he had found the experience to be well below what he had expected.
Kadir is married and the father of nine children, the eldest of whom is 37 and the youngest 20. Two of his children, Sheikh Salim Bin Abdul Kadir and Sauda Bint Abdul Kadir, are Moslem scholars, graduates of the religious centre of Kum, Iran.
Kadir was one of the members of the local Shi'a Muslim community who led calls for the police force to vigorously pursue the case involving the killing of the Director of the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies (IICAS), Iranian cleric Mohammed Hassan Ebrahimi. He was abducted in April 2004 by two armed men and his body was found weeks later in a shallow grave four hundred yards off the St Cuthbert's trail and about three-and-a-half miles from the Linden-Soesdyke Highway
Ibrahim, 35, was grabbed outside the Islamic institution at 42B United Nations Place in what seemed a well-planned operation. Administrator of the college, Raymond Halley, 51, who was with Ibrahim at the time of his abduction, was shot in his heel as he attempted to flee.
Kadir, who was a close friend of Ibrahim from his years studying Islamic Theology in Iran, took over the functions of the senior Shi'a cleric. Classes at the college were curtailed, however, as a result of the man's death.
No ransom was demanded from the man's abductors and Kadir at a press conference in response to a question said that he had never heard of Ibrahim receiving any death threats in the two years or so he had been living in Guyana. He had told the media too that he [Kadir] had felt personally responsible for Ibrahim's safety since it was on account of their close friendship that the cleric had come to this country. At that time Kadir had expressed himeself puzzled by the silence of other local Islamic groups on the issue.
A number of Iranian detectives had even come to Guyana to help the local authorities solve the crime, but no one was ever charged.
Reactions
The Government of Guyana expressed shock at the news of the arrest of two Guyanese suspected of being part of a terrorist network, according to a release from the Guyana Information Agency yesterday.
Earlier Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee had said that contrary to reports from a section of the international media, Kadir was not and never had been a government official.. "He served as a parliamentarian for the opposition, People's National Congress Reform, PNCR in the eighth parliament of Guyana," the minister said in a two-minute presentation on the state-owned National Communications Network (NCN).
He said too that this latest development brought into sharper focus the need for greater co-operation among countries in the fight against international terrorism, and he reiterated what he called the government's "principled position that the fight against international terrorism is for the benefit of all mankind."
Opposition Leader Robert Corbin told Stabroek News that he was in Essequibo visiting the residents of Dartmouth when he got the news. He described Kadir as an outstanding citizen of Linden and Member of Parliament who had led a distinguished career as a civil engineering professional.
Corbin said he was aware the former Mem-ber of Parliament was a devout Muslim. "We knew that Mr Kadir always had ties with international Muslim organisations who helped him to carry out activities... and we at the PNCR did not know him ever being involved in any illegal or criminal activities, and we have nothing on record on misbehaviour on the part of Kadir," Corbin said
ping
http://www.trinidadexpress.com/index.pl/article_news?id=161156372
...Shia link possible
Police intelligence in Trinidad and Tobago and the US say the group that planned to blow up fuel depots at JFK airport might be linked to radical Shia groups based in southern Iraq or Iran.
The two men arrested in Trinidad on Friday, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdul Kadir, are both imams of Shia mosques here and in Guyana respectively.
A third man, a Guyanese known as Abdul Nur, also a Shia, is on the run and believed to be hiding here.
The United States has issued arrest warrants for all three.
Sources from the Police Special Branch say they are in the “process of trying to determine whether Ibrahim has links to radical Shia groups in the Middle East based on information passed on to us the FBI.”
FBI agents are in Trinidad investigating this and other aspects of the case involving Ibrahim and Kadir.
Local police say they were informed by their US counterparts that unlike previous terror plans that involved Sunni Muslims with Al Qaeda links it is the first time that a plot of this kind involving Shias has been uncovered.
Shia or Shiite Muslims have their origins in Iran and are also based in southern Iraq.
Radical Shias headed by Muqtada Al Sada have been blamed for attacks on foreign troops in Southern Iraq while Iran has been a long-time foe of the United States.
The Shia population in Trinidad and Guyana is relatively small.
The Shia community is very “close knit and well organised” one leading Muslim told the Sunday Express.
“Shias all over the world are linked and the communities live close together and are well known for their extremism especially self-flagellation.”
The plot to blow up the fuel depots was uncovered by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations.
Police Commissioner Trevor Paul confirmed that FBI agents were in T&T conducting their own investigations into the matter.
Paul held a press conference at old Police Headquarters, St Vincent Street, Port of Spain to deal with the arrests.
The US Justice Department also contacted the Central Authority Department of the Ministry of Attorney General asking that the men be extradited.
Ibrahim and Kadir are expected to appear before a Port of Spain magistrate on Monday on an extradition hearing.
Kadir was arrested around 11 a.m. on Friday at the Piarco airport trying to board a flight on Venezuela, while Ibrahim was held around the same time at his mosque in Tacarigua.
Kadir was heading to Iran via Venezuela for an Islamic conference.
Both men were up to yesterday being questioned by Special Branch and FBI officers.
Their fingerprints and photographs were also taken by local Interpol.
The FBI also visited the Jamaat al Muslimeen yesterday as Ibrahim is said to have visited the mosque on “occasion”.
Ibrahim is not a member of the Jamaat nor affiliated to the mosque.
Paul confirmed that there was no information linking the Jamaat to the plot.
The Jamaat is a Sunni-based organisation.
Ibrahim is the imam of one of the two leading Shia mosques in Trinidad.
He is 56 years old and his mosque was originally based in Port of Spain but was relocated to Canefarm in Tacarigua some years ago.
Ibrahim is well known and sells Islamic books at Woodford Square and runs a parlour from his home located near the Mosque.
He is a father of five and is a leading Muslim of African descent in T&T.
Kadir, 57, a Shia imam in Guyana, served as an opposition MP in that country between 2001 to 2006.
He is a member of Guyana’s main opposition party the PNC/Reform.
The father of nine represented the Upper Demarara, Upper Berbice area and became a Shia in 1974.
Kadir is a qualified civil engineer who earned his degree at UWI, St Augustine and he also lived in Venezuela for a short time.
Local intelligence officers have confirmed that the investigations into the matter have not ended as both local and US authorities are trying to determine whether more people here are involved and which international organisation the group is affiliated with.
They’re everywhere.
Fourth Alleged JFK Plotter Still at Large
1010 WINS -- Federal authorities said a plot by a suspected Muslim terrorist cell to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport, its fuel tanks and a jet fuel artery could have caused "unthinkable'' devastation.
But while pipeline and security experts agreed that such an attack would have crippled America's economy, particularly the airline industry, they said it probably would not have led to significant loss of life as intended.
Authorities announced Saturday they had broken up the suspected terrorist cell, arresting three men, one of them a former member of Guyana's parliament. A fourth man was being sought in Trinidad as part of the plot that authorities said they had been tracking for more than a year and was foiled in the planning stages.
``The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable,'' U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it ``one of the most chilling plots imaginable.''
In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the foiled plot would ``cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks,'' destroying the airport, killing several thousand people and destroying parts of New York's borough of Queens, where the pipeline runs underground.
One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK air cargo employee, said the airport named for the slain president was targeted because it is a symbol that would put ``the whole country in mourning.''
``It's like you can kill the man twice,'' said Defreitas, 63, who first hatched his plan more than a decade ago when he worked as a cargo handler for a service company, according to the indictment.
Authorities said the men were motivated by hatred toward the United States and Israel. Defreitas was recorded saying he ``wanted to do something to get those bastards'' and he boasted that he had been taught to make bombs in Guyana. Despite their efforts, the men never obtained any explosives, authorities said.
``Pulling off any bombing of this magnitude would not be easy in today's environment,'' former U.S. State Department counterterrorism expert Fred Burton said, but added it was difficult to determine without knowing all the facts of the case.
The pipeline, owned by Buckeye Pipeline Co., takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and New Jersey's Newark Liberty International Airport.
Buckeye spokesman Roy Haase said the company had been informed of the threat from the beginning.
Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline expert and president of Accufacts Inc., an energy consulting firm that focuses on pipelines and tank farms, said the force of explosion would depend on the amount of fuel under pressure, but it would not travel up and down the line.
``That doesn't mean wackos out there can't do damage and cause a fire, but those explosions and fires are going to be fairly restricted,'' he said.
John W. Magaw, a former head of the Transportation Security Administration, told The Washington Post that such an attack ``may not cause a lot of deaths, but it would be spectacular and seen around world.''
He said it ``could cripple the airlines.''
Since Defreitas retired from his job at the airport in 1995, security has significantly tightened and his knowledge of the operation was severely outdated.
He was arraigned Saturday in federal court in Brooklyn, where he was held pending a bail hearing Wednesday. His court-appointed lawyer told the judge that officials were not revealing the full story, according to published reports.
Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, were in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.
Trevor Paul, the top police official in Trinidad and Tobago, a twin-island nation off Venezuela's coast, said Kadir and Ibrahim would likely be extradited to the U.S. after court hearings in Trinidad.
Authorities said Kadir and Nur were longtime associates of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, which launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead.
Phone calls to Yasin Abu Bakr, the radical group's leader, went unanswered Saturday.
Kadir, a member of Parliament in Guyana until last year, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for ``terrorist operations,'' according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Isha Kadir, the Guyanese suspect's wife, said her husband flew from Guyana to Trinidad on Thursday. She said he was arrested Friday as he was boarding a flight from Trinidad to Venezuela, where 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.''
The U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force recorded and surveilled the men, learning that Defreitas drove around and videotaped JFK four times in January.
When Defreitas returned from Guyana in February, U.S. customs officials searched his belongings and found Kadir's name and telephone number in Defreitas' address book. At that time, Defreitas told an informant he was suspicious the U.S. government was aware of the plot.
Authorities decided to pounce after Defreitas said on May 27 that he was happy to see that the plan, code named ``chicken farm,'' was moving forward, according to the criminal complaint.
Defreitas was nabbed Friday night walking out of a Brooklyn diner.
Field of storage tanks on the grounds of JFK Airport.
"He told this newspaper at that time too that he had also been influenced by the writings of Walter Rodney, Kwame Nkrumah, Eldridge Cleaver and Malcolm X. "
Is there a racial element to this group?
>>>code named ``chicken farm,’’<<<
You betcha. The confluence of wild-haired Islamism and angry black victimology is volatile indeed.
Home grown terrorism-coming soon from a prison near you!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1844248/posts
Drug Dealer Becomes Hero For Exposing Terror Plot
If there is another strike or two against the U.S. by these assholes — either Arab, Persian, Asian or Black Muslims, there is going to be a reaction from the “Joe Six Packs” in this country that will rock the world....
Count on it...I’ll be in that pack too.
Thanks! I was so curious as to why “chicken farm”.
Your pic explains it.
(Note: Contact phone number deleted by me.)
NOTE The following text is a quote:
http://newyork.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/nyfo080210.htm
For Immediate Release
August 2, 2010
United States Attorney’s Office
Eastern District of New York
American and Guyanese Citizens Convicted of Conspiracy to Launch Attack at JFK Airport
Defendants Plotted to Explode Fuel Tanks at Airport
BROOKLYN, NYFollowing a six-week jury trial, Russell Defreitas and Abdul Kadir were convicted today in the Eastern District of New York of conspiring to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, by exploding fuel tanks and the fuel pipeline under the airport. The defendants believed their attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the New York economy, as well as the loss of numerous lives. Both defendants face sentences of up to life imprisonment. Sentencing has been scheduled for December 15, 2010.
The convictions were announced by Loretta E. Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in New York.
The evidence at trial established that Defreitas, a naturalized United States citizen from Guyana, originated the idea to attack JFK Airport and its fuel tanks and pipelines by drawing on his prior experience working at the airport as a cargo handler. Beginning in 2006, Defreitas recruited others to join the plot, including Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, during multiple trips to Guyana and Trinidad. Between trips, Defreitas engaged in video surveillance of JFK Airport, and transported the footage back to Guyana to show to his co-conspirators. Nur pleaded guilty before trial to supporting the plot and faces a sentence of up to 15 years. A fourth member of the plot, Kareem Ibrahim, faces trial on the same charges as Defreitas and Kadir.1
According to the trial evidence, the plot members also attempted to enlist support for the plot from prominent international terrorist groups and leaders, as well as the government of Iran, including Abu Bakr, leader of the Trinidadian militant group Jamaat Al Muslimeen, and Adnan El Shukrijumah, an al Qaeda leader. In February 2007, Defreitas recruited Kadir to join the plot because Kadir, a former member of the Guyanese parliament, was an engineer and had connections with militant groups in Iran and Venezuela. During cross-examination at trial, Kadir admitted that he regularly passed information to Iranian authorities and believed himself bound to follow fatwas from Iranian religious leaders
Defreitas was arrested in New York on June 2, 2007. Kadir was arrested in Trinidad aboard a plane headed to Venezuela, en route to Iran. Ibrahim and Nur were also arrested in Trinidad. All three were subsequently extradited to the United States.
The specific charges Defreitas and Kadir were convicted of are: Conspiracy to Attack a Public Transportation System, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2332f; Conspiracy to Destroy a Building by Fire or Explosive, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 844(n); Conspiracy to Attack Aircraft and Aircraft Materials, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 32; Conspiracy to Destroy International Airport Facilities, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 37; and Conspiracy to Attack a Mass Transportation Facility, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1992(a)(10). Defreitas was also convicted of Surveillance of a Mass Transportation Facility, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1992(a)(8).
The defendants intended to send a message by killing Americans and destroying the New York City economy, stated United States Attorney Lynch. Today, the only message is that those who engage in potentially deadly plots against the United States will be stopped and punished. United States Attorney Lynch extended her grateful appreciation to the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York for its role in investigating and prosecuting the case, as well as to the Guyanese and Trinidadian law enforcement authorities who assisted with the investigation and apprehension of the defendants.
The governments case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Marshall L. Miller, Jason A. Jones, Berit W. Berger, and Zainab Ahmad.
The Defendants:
RUSSELL DEFREITAS, also known as Mohammed
Age: 67
ABDUL KADIR, also known as Aubrey Michael Seaforth
Age: 58
ABDEL NUR, also known as Compton Eversley
Age: 60
1The charges against Ibrahim are only allegations, and Ibrahim is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
FBI.gov - Seeking Information: "ADNAN G. EL SHUKRIJUMAH" (ALIASES: "Adnan G. El Shukri Jumah; Abu Arif; Ja'far Al-Tayar; Jaffar Al-Tayyar; Jafar Tayar; Jaafar Al-Tayyar") (VIEW POSTER. Click Here.)
SPEAKING OF SHUKRIJUMAH in post no. 13...here is an UNRELATED thread:
Quote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2544942/posts
US officials: Al-Qaida operative tied to NY plot
(AP) via KSRO.com ^ | June 30, 2010, 4:48 pm | Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo
Posted on July 1, 2010 3:50:41 AM PDT by Cindy
SNIPPET: “U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation’s most wanted terrorists to last year’s thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday.
Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks.”
(Excerpt) Read more at ksro.com ...
Back to the present thread...
Note: Photo and drawing included.
“Breaking News: Kadir, DeFreitas found guilty in JFK plot case”
By editor | August 2, 2010 in Local News
SNIPPET: “NEW YORK, (Reuters) Two Islamist militants were found guilty today by a federal jury of plotting to bomb New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Russell Defreitas, 67, a U.S. citizen born in Guyana, and Abdul Kadir, 58, of Guyana, conspired to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at the airport in the New York City borough of Queens.”
SNIPPET: “Two other men were arrested in the plot. Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad and Tobago was deemed too ill to be tried, but may face trial later.
Guyanese Abdel Nur, 60, pleaded guilty in June to a separate charge of material support to terrorism and faces up to 15 years in prison.”
Thank you
You’re welcome Shermy.
Thanks for the ping
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.