02 June 2007

Terror Plot Against JFK Airport Fuel Line Foiled

If you haven't heard the preliminaries on this story, three people have been arrested and one is wanted in connection to a terror plot involving the bombing of a fuel line that runs through residential neighborhoods and services JFK International Airport in New York.

Two of the suspects who were arrested have been identified as Russell Defreitas, a Muslim U.S. citizen from Guyana and a former JFK employee, and Abdul Kabir, a member of the People's National Congress Reform party in Guyana. Defreitas was arrested in the U.S., and Kabir and the unnamed third suspect were arrested in Trinidad. The fourth suspect is currently being sought in Trinidad.

I can't say that I'm surprised that Trinidad is a point of origin for this plot. The Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM), led by Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, has been quite active in Trinidad and Tobago for at least seventeen years. In 1990, the terror group attempted a coup against the Trinidad and Tobago government. Those involved in the violent uprising were never prosecuted, and the Jamaat al-Muslimeen has been involved in Trinidad-Tobago politics ever since. The JAM aligned themselves with the United National Congress in the mid-1990s, and they are now aligned with the current ruling party in Trinidad/Tobago, the People's National Movement.

The group tends to focus their attacks on middle and upper class, and on citizens of Indian descent. In the most recent high-profile case invovling the JAM, three members of the terror group confessed in March to the kidnapping, rape, and murder of Vindra Naipaul-Coolman in December of 2006. Of course, the only reason that they fessed-up was because they were afraid that other members of the Muslim organization that they belonged to were being instructed to find the three and kill them.

Guyana has similar fun with the Religion of Peace. Luckily, ideological differences continue to divide the Muslim population of Guyana, which makes up 12% of the population, but it is unclear how long those differences will keep the Muslims from being united against the rest of Guyana. Keep in mind that one of the suspects under arrest in Trinidad has ties to the People's National Congress Reform party in Guyana.

In case anyone has forgotten what other major events the tolerant and peace loving followers of Islam have been involved int over the past year, let me provide a refresher.

Bombing plots against the Sears Tower the the North Miami Beach FBI building.

The seven individuals — ranging in age from 22 to 32 — were indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami. Six were taken into custody in Miami on Thursday when authorities swarmed a warehouse in the Liberty City area, removing a metal door with a blowtorch. A seventh was arrested in Atlanta.

Five are U.S. citizens, one is a legal immigrant from Haiti and the other is a Haitian national who was in this country illegally.

All had taken an oath to al-Qaida and sought help from someone they believed was a member of the terrorist organization, the indictment alleged. [...]

In February 2006, it said, [Narseal] Batiste [the alleged ringleader] told the "al-Qaida representative" that he and his five soldiers wanted to attend al-Qaida training and planned a "full ground war" against the United States in order to "kill all the devils we can." His mission would "be just as good or greater than 9/11," the indictment accused Batiste of boasting.

The seven defendants were charged with conspiring to "maliciously damage and destroy by means of an explosive" the FBI building in North Miami Beach and the Sears Tower in Chicago.

Bombing plot on the PATH tunnels in New York.

Lebanese authorities found maps and bombing plans on the personal computer of an al-Qaida loyalist accused of plotting to attack New York train tunnels, and a U.S. official disclosed that he had visited the country at least once.

Acting Lebanese Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat described the information found on 31-year-old Assem Hammoud's computer as "very important."

"It contained maps and bombing plans that were being prepared," Fatfat said in a local television interview. [...]

Hammoud, who has used the alias Amir Andalousli, has been in Lebanese custody since April. Two others also are in custody in the case, which U.S. investigators said was disrupted after coordinated efforts with officials in six other countries. Five suspects are at large.

The FBI said the suspects are alleged to have planned to attack trains under the Hudson River using suicide bombers and backpack bombs. The plan, which authorities said the suspects hoped to carry out in October or November, was to flood lower Manhattan by attacking the tunnels — used by tens of thousands of commuters each day.

Bombing plot against aircraft flying from Great Britain to the U.S.

British police said Thursday they had arrested 21 people in connection with a terror plot against airlines traveling from Britain to the U.S. which was "intended to be mass murder on an unimaginable scale." [...]

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official said authorities believe dozens of people possibly as many as 50 were involved in the plot, which "had a footprint to al-Qaida back to it." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation.

The plan involved airline passengers hiding masked explosives in carry-on luggage, the official said. "They were not yet sitting on an airplane," but were very close to traveling, the official said, calling the plot "the real deal."

Plot to attack Fort Dix, N.J.

Five were charged with conspiracy to kill U.S. military personnel; the sixth, Abdullahu, was charged with aiding and abetting illegal immigrants in obtaining weapons.

Four of the arrested men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Jordan and one came from Turkey, authorities said. Three were in the United States illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay in this country permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.

Federal investigators are now checking whether the latter three lied on their immigration paperwork to remain in the United States.

One drove a cab, three were roofers. Another worked at a 7-Eleven and a sixth at a supermarket. Their alleged plot to attack Fort Dix was foiled by another blue-collar worker: a video store clerk.

The foreign-born Muslims are accused of planning to assault the Army base and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers with automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.
Islam. We can all live without it.

USMC 9971 OUT

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