U.S. & World

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― A defense lawyer says one of four men accused of trying to bomb two New York City synagogues and shoot down military planes upstate is "intellectually challenged" and has trouble understanding complex concepts.

Attorney Marilyn Reader told a court Thursday that Laguerre Payen has "a very low borderline" IQ and is on medication for schizophrenia.

When a judge asked the 27-year-old Payen whether he understood the proceedings, he said, "Sort of."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder says Payen is an alert and "enthusiastic" participant in secretly videotaped discussions of the plot.

Payen and his co-defendants are being held without bail.

The New York City police commissioner said Thursday the four men wanted to commit "jihad." At a news conference outside the Bronx temple Thursday, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly quoted one of the men as saying, "If Jews were killed in this attack ... that would be all right."

"Jihad" is an Arabic word generally translated as meaning "struggle" or "holy war." It was not clear if the four men who were arrested were Muslim, but one told an informant that his parents had lived in Afghanistan.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned against stereotypes. He stressed that the Riverdale Temple is open to people of all faiths, including a Muslim girl who sometimes prays there.

The four suspects, who had been under FBI surveillance for nearly a year, are due in federal court Thursday in White Plains.

James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens and one is of Haitian descent, officials said.

"It does not appear yet, though, that there are any ties to international terrorist groups or outside funders. So that's the good news. The bad news is these guys were home-grown Americans living among us, and they plotted some pretty serious things," CBS News national security consultant Juan Zarate said.

The arrests came after the suspects, under FBI surveillance for nearly a year, planted what they believed were 30 pounds of C-4 explosives in two cars parked outside a temple and Jewish center in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale, authorities said.

A top FBI official told CBS News that the suspects then planned to drive around 60 miles north to Newburgh, N.Y., to shoot down planes taking off from a the Stewart Air National Guard base with surface-to-air missiles, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

The defendants, in their efforts to acquire weapons, dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.

The religious targets were the Riverdale Temple, founded in 1947, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, authorities said.

"This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement.

The city leaders met privately with congregants Thursday morning. Kelly said the neighborhood security was heightened to improve residents' comfort level.

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.

Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," they said in the complaint.

A leader of a mosque in Newburgh one of the suspects, 21-year-old Payen, occasionally attended the mosque but misunderstood the teachings of Islam.

Hamin Rashada tells the Times Herald-Record of Middletown Payen told him he was a Muslim, but his statements on Islam often had to be corrected.

Rashada, an assistant imam at the mosque, says he met Payen through a program that helps parolees reintegrate after being released from prison.

In October 2008, the informant began meeting with the defendants at a Newburgh house equipped with concealed video and audio equipment, the complaint said.

Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and the community center they intended to hit, it said. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard Base, it said.

The suspects were arrested Wednesday night, shortly after planting a mock explosive device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Jewish Center, authorities said.

Rep. Peter King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, was briefed on the case following the arrests.

"This was a long, well-planned investigation, and it shows how real the threat is from homegrown terrorists," said King, of New York.

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said if there can be any good news out of this case it's that "the group was relatively unsophisticated, penetrated early and not connected to any outside group."

"The shocking plan to blow up a Jewish house of prayer with what the jihadist terrorists thought were C-4 explosives is dramatic proof that the dangers from such fanaticism have not passed and that American Jews must maintain their vigilance," said a statement released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights group.

The defendants were jailed Wednesday night and couldn't be contacted for comment. The FBI didn't immediately return a telephone message seeking information on whether the men had lawyers.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting 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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