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Jun 3, 2007 9:09 pm US/Eastern
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Local Radical Muslim At Center Of Terror Plot
NEW YORK (CBS/AP) ―
As a cargo handler at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Russell Defreitas watched military parts be shipped to Israel and believed they would be used to kill Muslims.
He seethed with rage against the U.S. and Israel for more than a decade after retirement before finally deciding, authorities said, that he wanted to "get those bastards."
Drawing on his inside knowledge of the massive airport, Defreitas conspired with three men to blow up the airport's underground jet fuel tanks and its pipeline in a spectacular attack designed to kill thousands in the populous neighborhood, authorities said.
But Defreitas, 63, never got a chance to carry out his plan and would not get the "place in paradise" that the U.S. citizen and Guyana native said he desired.
Federal authorities announced Saturday they had arrested Defreitas and broken up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell. Two other men, one a former member of Guyana's parliament, were arrested in Trinidad and another was sought there as part of a plot that authorities said they had tracked 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."
Despite their "extraordinary efforts," the men never obtained any explosives, authorities said.
"Pulling off any bombing of this magnitude would not be easy in today's environment," said Former U.S. State Department counterterrorism expert Fred Burton, though he added that it was difficult to determine the severity of the threat without knowing all the facts of the case.
Since Defreitas had worked at JFK, security has tightened and his knowledge of the operation was severely outdated.
Defreitas 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 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.
The suspects believed explosives could ignite the pipeline at JFK and destroy the airport and parts of Queens, where the pipeline runs underground, according to the indictment. Shutting down the airport would cripple America's economy temporarily.
"Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States," Defreitas said in the indictment. "To hit John F. Kennedy, wow. ... They love John F. Kennedy like he's the man ... If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice."
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 Newark Liberty International Airport.
Buckeye spokesman Roy Haase said the company, which moves petroleum through pipelines in a number of states, 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 any explosion would depend on the amount of fuel under pressure, but any fire 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.
Kadir, a former member of Parliament in Guyana and an engineer by training, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for "terrorist operations," according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Kadir left his position in 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.
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 nearby 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, which neighbors Venezuela on South America's northern coast. "We have relatives in the U.S."
Investigators received information about the plot in January 2006, according to the indictment. They used a confidential source, a convicted drug dealer, to infiltrate the group and gather evidence against the men.
The country's Joint Terrorism Task Force recorded and surveilled them, learning that they videotaped and took photos of JFK on four occasions in January 2007.
The cell, the complaint alleged, even reached out to Jamaat al Muslimeen, a Trinidadian Muslim group responsible for a deadly coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990 that left 24 people dead. The complaint says Kadir and Nur were longtime associates of JAM. Phone calls to Yasin Abu Bakr, the radical group's leader, went unanswered Saturday.
Authorities finally 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. They also had become concerned when Defreitas told an informant he was suspicious authorities knew about the plan.
Defreitas, who retired from his job at JFK in 1995, was nabbed Friday night walking out of a Brooklyn diner.
The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting high-profile American landmarks.
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.
A month later, authorities broke up a plot to bomb underwater New York City train tunnels to flood lower Manhattan.
And six people were arrested a month ago in an alleged plot to unleash a bloody rampage on Fort Dix in New Jersey.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the arrests of Defreitas and the others was a reminder that the city was still a top target for terrorists.
"Once again would-be terrorists have put New York City in their crosshairs," he said.
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)