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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2007/6/3/212139.shtml?s=lh
Informant Plays Key Role in JFK Plot
NewsMax.com Wires Monday, June 4, 2007
NEW YORK -- A convicted drug dealer who agreed to pose as a wannabe
terrorist among a shadowy group now accused of plotting to blow up John F.
Kennedy International Airport secretly fed information to federal
investigators in exchange for a lighter sentence.
His surveillance trips to the airport with the suspects, travels abroad to
meet with supporters and assurances he wanted to die as a martyr in an
attack on an underground jet fuel pipeline gave counterterrorism agents
insight and evidence that experts say was otherwise unattainable.
And his help once again demonstrated the growing importance of informants in
the war on terrorism, particularly as smaller radical groups become more
aggressive.
"In most cases, you can't get from A to B without an informant," said Tom
Corrigan, a former member of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force. "Most
times when an informant tells you what is going on, speculation becomes
reality."
According to court papers and investigators, the informant began working for
the government in 2004, after his second drug-trafficking conviction in New
York, and he quickly proved to be a credible source.
He was sent to meet with the JFK plot's alleged mastermind Russell Defreitas
in 2006 and was introduced by an unidentified third party. Defreitas quickly
accepted the informant as legitimate, saying he was sure they knew each
other through a Brooklyn mosque.
The informant was convincing. Defreitas, according to a federal complaint,
believed the informant "had been sent by Allah to be the one" to pull off
the bombing.
Four Muslim men are accused of plotting to use explosives to destroy a jet
fuel pipeline that runs through populous residential neighborhoods to the
airport, which they allegedly believed would kill thousands of people and
trigger an economic catastrophe.
In an indictment, one of them is quoted as saying the bombing would "cause
greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks."
Although the plotters put a great deal of time and travel into their plan,
they never managed to obtain any explosives before authorities arrested
Defreitas and foiled the JFK scheme. Experts said the plot could have
resulted in damage and fires, but nothing on the scale that the defendants
had envisioned.
The men accused in the JFK plot didn't turn to Middle Eastern extremists for
support to target the airport. Instead, investigators say the informant and
defendants Kareem Ibrahim and Defreitas visited a compound belonging to the
Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Muslim group based in Trinidad off
Venezuela's coast.
When Defreitas discussed his radical "brothers" with the informant, he made
it clear they were not Arabs, but from Trinidad and Guyana.
The complaint also made clear how deeply the informant had infiltrated the
small band of would-be terrorists. While Defreitas, a retired JFK airport
cargo worker, made four reconnaissance missions to the airport with the
informant, federal authorities recorded each one on audio and video.
Defreitas, 63, who immigrated to the U.S. more than 30 years ago from
Guyana, was in custody Sunday pending a bail hearing, was arrested two days
earlier in Brooklyn.
Ibrahim and another suspect, Abdul Kadir, were in custody in Trinidad
awaiting extradition hearings. Officials identified Kadir as a former mayor
of a Guyanese town and a member of the country's Parliament.
Authorities in Trinidad were still seeking a fourth suspect, Abdel Nur.
Authorities said the JFK case and last month's arrest of six men suspected
of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., illustrated the need for
inside information.
"These have been two significant cases back-to-back where informants were
used," Corrigan said. "These terrorists are in our own backyard. They may
have to reach out to people they don't necessarily trust, but they need -
for guns, explosives, whatever."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said they were examples of terrorism growing
in the U.S.
"It's a movement. It's a philosophy. And they're motivated by the same
hatred that motivates al-Qaida," Kelly said Sunday on CBS's "Face The
Nation."
Last year, informants played a major role in two other terror cases. In June
2006, an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative helped bring down a plot
to blow up the Sears Tower. Five of the seven men arrested in that alleged
terrorist group were U.S. citizens.
In May 2006, an NYPD informant's testimony led to the conviction of a man
plotting to blow up the busy Herald Square subway station in midtown
Manhattan.
Informant Plays Key Role in JFK Plot
NewsMax.com Wires Monday, June 4, 2007
NEW YORK -- A convicted drug dealer who agreed to pose as a wannabe
terrorist among a shadowy group now accused of plotting to blow up John F.
Kennedy International Airport secretly fed information to federal
investigators in exchange for a lighter sentence.
His surveillance trips to the airport with the suspects, travels abroad to
meet with supporters and assurances he wanted to die as a martyr in an
attack on an underground jet fuel pipeline gave counterterrorism agents
insight and evidence that experts say was otherwise unattainable.
And his help once again demonstrated the growing importance of informants in
the war on terrorism, particularly as smaller radical groups become more
aggressive.
"In most cases, you can't get from A to B without an informant," said Tom
Corrigan, a former member of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorist Task Force. "Most
times when an informant tells you what is going on, speculation becomes
reality."
According to court papers and investigators, the informant began working for
the government in 2004, after his second drug-trafficking conviction in New
York, and he quickly proved to be a credible source.
He was sent to meet with the JFK plot's alleged mastermind Russell Defreitas
in 2006 and was introduced by an unidentified third party. Defreitas quickly
accepted the informant as legitimate, saying he was sure they knew each
other through a Brooklyn mosque.
The informant was convincing. Defreitas, according to a federal complaint,
believed the informant "had been sent by Allah to be the one" to pull off
the bombing.
Four Muslim men are accused of plotting to use explosives to destroy a jet
fuel pipeline that runs through populous residential neighborhoods to the
airport, which they allegedly believed would kill thousands of people and
trigger an economic catastrophe.
In an indictment, one of them is quoted as saying the bombing would "cause
greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks."
Although the plotters put a great deal of time and travel into their plan,
they never managed to obtain any explosives before authorities arrested
Defreitas and foiled the JFK scheme. Experts said the plot could have
resulted in damage and fires, but nothing on the scale that the defendants
had envisioned.
The men accused in the JFK plot didn't turn to Middle Eastern extremists for
support to target the airport. Instead, investigators say the informant and
defendants Kareem Ibrahim and Defreitas visited a compound belonging to the
Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Muslim group based in Trinidad off
Venezuela's coast.
When Defreitas discussed his radical "brothers" with the informant, he made
it clear they were not Arabs, but from Trinidad and Guyana.
The complaint also made clear how deeply the informant had infiltrated the
small band of would-be terrorists. While Defreitas, a retired JFK airport
cargo worker, made four reconnaissance missions to the airport with the
informant, federal authorities recorded each one on audio and video.
Defreitas, 63, who immigrated to the U.S. more than 30 years ago from
Guyana, was in custody Sunday pending a bail hearing, was arrested two days
earlier in Brooklyn.
Ibrahim and another suspect, Abdul Kadir, were in custody in Trinidad
awaiting extradition hearings. Officials identified Kadir as a former mayor
of a Guyanese town and a member of the country's Parliament.
Authorities in Trinidad were still seeking a fourth suspect, Abdel Nur.
Authorities said the JFK case and last month's arrest of six men suspected
of plotting to attack soldiers at Fort Dix, N.J., illustrated the need for
inside information.
"These have been two significant cases back-to-back where informants were
used," Corrigan said. "These terrorists are in our own backyard. They may
have to reach out to people they don't necessarily trust, but they need -
for guns, explosives, whatever."
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said they were examples of terrorism growing
in the U.S.
"It's a movement. It's a philosophy. And they're motivated by the same
hatred that motivates al-Qaida," Kelly said Sunday on CBS's "Face The
Nation."
Last year, informants played a major role in two other terror cases. In June
2006, an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative helped bring down a plot
to blow up the Sears Tower. Five of the seven men arrested in that alleged
terrorist group were U.S. citizens.
In May 2006, an NYPD informant's testimony led to the conviction of a man
plotting to blow up the busy Herald Square subway station in midtown
Manhattan.
