2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot
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The 2007 John F. Kennedy International Airport attack plot was an alleged
Islamist terrorist Islamic terrorism (also known as Islamist terrorism or radical Islamic terrorism) refers to terrorist acts with religious motivations carried out by fundamentalist militant Islamists and Islamic extremists. Incidents and fatalities fr ...
plot to blow up a system of
jet fuel Jet fuel or aviation turbine fuel (ATF, also abbreviated avtur) is a type of aviation fuel designed for use in aircraft powered by gas-turbine engines. It is colorless to straw-colored in appearance. The most commonly used fuels for commercial a ...
supply tanks and pipelines that feed fuel to John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Queens, New York. These pipelines travel throughout the undergrounds of New York City in densely populated areas. The alleged plot was foiled when an undercover law enforcement
official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
was recruited to the
homegrown Homegrown may refer to any plants grown in a domestic setting. It may also refer to: Music *Home Grown, an American rock band formed in 1994 * ''Home Grown'' (Geri Allen album), 1985 * ''Homegrown'' (Dodgy album), 1995 * ''Home Grown'' (Blue Mou ...
terrorist cell A clandestine cell system is a method for organizing a group of people (such as resistance fighters, sleeper agents, mobsters, or terrorists) such that such people can more effectively resist penetration by an opposing organization (such as l ...
.


The plot

The suspects were Russell Defreitas, a United States citizen and native of
Guyana Guyana ( or ), officially the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, is a country on the northern mainland of South America. Guyana is an indigenous word which means "Land of Many Waters". The capital city is Georgetown. Guyana is bordered by the ...
who was the alleged ringleader and worked for a time at the airport; Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and former member of the Guyanese National Assembly; Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago; and Abdel Nur, a citizen of Guyana and uncle of former world welterweight boxing champion Andrew "Six Heads" Lewis. In a recorded conversation, Russell Defreitas allegedly told an informant that "Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow.... They love JFK – he's like the man. If you hit that, the whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice." Defreitas had allegedly seen arms and missiles being shipped to Israel which he felt would be used to harm Muslims. The men are alleged to have named the plot "Chicken Farm". Extensive surveillance of the targets including the use of satellite photographs had been done and attempts had been made to reach out to another Islamist terrorist group. No explosives had been bought. A New York City police source told ''
Newsday ''Newsday'' is an American daily newspaper that primarily serves Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and f ...
'' that investigators were probing a possible Iran connection to the plot because Abdul Kadir planned to visit that country. In Trinidad, police reportedly investigated whether Kareem Ibrahim had ties to Iraq and Iran. On August 6 it emerged that U.S. authorities would allege the plotters planned to seek help from Iran. According to US court documents, Kadir was the disciple of Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian diplomat accused of being one of the masterminds behind the
1994 AMIA bombing The AMIA bombing occurred on 18 July 1994 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and targeted the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA; ), a Jewish Community Centre. Executed as a suicidal attack, a bomb-laden van was driven into the AMIA buildi ...
in Buenos Aires.


Arrests and trial

Defreitas was arrested in Brooklyn, New York. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on June 3, 2007. Nur surrendered to police two days later in Trinidad. On June 25, 2008 Kareem Ibrahim, Abdel Nur and Abdul Kadir were extradited to the United States. They pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to "cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks". The men were ordered held without bail pending a hearing scheduled for August 7. Russell Defreitas was held in jail after an earlier not guilty plea. On June 29 the four men were indicted on charges with conspiring to "cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction" at the airport. On August 6, a judge ordered three of the alleged plotters extradited to the United States.Suspects in airport plot face extradition to U.S. Newsday August 7, 2007
On August 2, 2010, Kadir and Defreitas were convicted in the JFK airport bomb plot. In 2011, Ibrahim was found guilty of the JFK Airport bomb plot, and in February 2012, Ibrahim was sentenced to life to prison. The informant in the case was a longtime cocaine dealer who cooperated with investigators after being convicted of possession of about $2 million worth of cocaine in 2003, according to court documents posted on
thesmokinggun.com The Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources. Most o ...
. The 36-year-old man is described in the documents as a onetime member of a violent drug gang first convicted in 1996 of selling cocaine and crack and being part of a conspiracy to murder a rival drug kingpin. The rival survived the attempted hit, according to the federal complaint in the drug trafficking and racketeering case. After the web posting according to FBI spokesman James Margolin. "We're concerned about the safety of the Source and are taking measures to safeguard him." On January 19, 2016 Ibrahim died in custody at the age of 70 at U.S. Medical Center in Springfield, Missouri. Before his death he was BOP#64657-053. His cause of death was revealed as heart failure. Defreitas is serving his life sentence at USP McCreary with BOP#64347-053. Abdel Nur was sentenced to 15 years and was assigned BOP# 64655-053 and served his sentence at
USP Lewisburg The United States Penitentiary, Lewisburg (USP Lewisburg) is a medium-security United States federal prison in Pennsylvania for male inmates. It is operated by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a division of the United States Department of Justice. ...
. In 2020 he was deported to Guyana.


Controversy over the seriousness of the plot

A debate has emerged in the wake of plot about the seriousness of a threat this plot posed and how seriously foiled plots should be taken in general. Criticism has emerged to the statement by U.S. Attorney Roslynn Mauskopf that the plot could have been "one of the most chilling plots imaginable," which might have caused "unthinkable" devastation. According to critics such as Bruce Schneier the plot was never operational and the public had never been at risk. And the notion of blowing up the airport, let alone the borough of Queens, by exploding a fuel tank was in all likelihood a technical impossibility. Also cited are a portrait emerging of alleged mastermind Russell Defreitas as hapless and episodically homeless, and of co-conspirator Abdel Nur as a drug addict. '' The New York Times'' put the story of the plot on page 37 the day after the plot was announced. Rich Lowry, editor of the '' National Review'' writing in the New York Post, criticized the Times' decision saying "Foiled terror plots often will seem ridiculous and unlikely, especially when they are pre-empted" but should be taken seriously. Rep. Peter King, former chairman and member of the United States House Committee on Homeland Security, dismissed criticism of law enforcement as "the price of success when you haven't been attacked in six years. We've gone from criticizing them for not doing enough immediately after 9/11 to now criticizing them too much."Amateurs – Not – Nypost.Com
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See also

*
List of unsuccessful terrorist plots in the United States post-9/11 The following is a list of unsuccessful terrorist plots in the post-9/11 United States. After the initiation of the War on Terrorism following the attacks of September 11, 2001, several terrorist plots aimed at civilian and military targets have ...


References


External links


Four charged in plot to blow up JFK airport


* ttp://www.nbcnews.com/id/18999503 3 arrested in alleged airport plot
Report: Feds bust JFK airport bomb plot

Arrests in NY airport 'bomb plot'

JFK TERROR PLOT: three under arrest Newsday June 3, 2007

CBS News JFK Terror Suspects Face Extradition
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