Bombing of JFK airport "could have caused "unthinkable" devastation"

Found at:

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070603/D8PH9FM80.html

4 Charged in Plot to Blow Up NYC Airport

Jun 3, 6:27 AM (ET)

By ADAM GOLDMAN

NEW YORK (AP) - 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.

[Now isn't that ridiculous! Talk about blowing a situation up out

of all proportion! Any "devastation" such an attack would cause is

certainly comprehensible. The federal authority who made this

statement needs to take a deep breath and just settle down a little

bit. It's not that bad. Really.]

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.

[The attack might have caused big problems for the airlines and

people going in and out of New York but I do not think that equates

with crippling the whole American economy. I know the people up East

think they are at the center of the universe, but the truth is there

is much more to the U.S. that just the Northeast. They may have to

take the train rather than an airplane but that can be arranged fairly

easily. People in the rest of the nation won't miss a beat (unless

they happened to own some airline stock).]

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,

[Ah, hah! The moron has identified herself! It sounds like Ms

Mauskopf might need to take a long vacation until she comes to her

senses. It is not really a good idea to make the proposed attack out

to be as bad a a nuclear blast going off in New York City, which is

pretty much what she is doing. Get a grip, lady!]

calling it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."

[Again, ridiculous.]

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.

[First of all, a terrorist making a grandiouse claim does not

necessarily make it so. Second, the attack plan, if successful, would

have done a lot of damage to fuel storage tanks but this is not the

same as "destroying the airport". Fuel tanks can be replaced. Blast

damage can be fixed. And fuel storage tanks will all not necessarily

explode by blowing up an adjacent fuel storage tank. And third, the

borough of Queens would not be in danger unless the terrorists planted

explosives along the pipeline in that area, and since the pipeline is

buried, there seems to be little chance of that. An explosion started

at JFK will not propagate back up through the pipeline for any

distance. Fuel needs to combine with oxygen in order to explode or

burn and there is no oxygen in the pipeline. Any damage would be

confined to JFK airport.]

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.

[And their hatred of the United States and Israel is motivated by

extremist "religious" beliefs, which tells them that suicide and

murder of innocents is a requirement of their faith. These people

have been so radicalized, by the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia and

like-minded maniacs from other areas, that they are functionally as

insane as their teachers.]

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.

[Yes, it would be difficult. There are dozens of fuel storage tanks

at JFK, and they would have to set off explosives next to each one to

guarantee that they would all explode. Just causing one fuel storage

tank to explode would not guarantee that others around it would be

detonated. I suppose it is possible to plant explosives at every fuel

storage tank, but it seems to me that such activity would seem

suspicious and draw attention to the bombers.]

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.

[Thanks for confirming my thoughts on the subject.]

"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.

[My opinion, too.]

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."

[Well, it wouldn't do the airlines any good, but I don't see how it

would cripple the airlines for more than a short time. There are

other airports in the area that could be used.]

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.

---

Associated Press writers Tom Hays, Richard Pyle and Pat Milton in New

York and Tony Fraser in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, contributed to this

report.

end

The bottom line: We should not expect loyalty from naturalized

American citizens or "born and bred" Americans for that matter, if the

person follows the fanatic, murderous form of Islam. His only loyalty

is to an insane dogma disguising itself as a religion and presuming to

speak for God.

Good work, FBI and all the other security agencies involved.

And President Bush needs to sick Attorney General Gonzales on that

hysterical New York Federal prosecutor. Anyone who doesn't understand

the situation any better than she does, ought to be fired.

TA