Informant helps expose plot to bomb JFK

AN INFORMANT who helped break up an alleged plot to bomb a fuel pipeline feeding New York’s busiest airport was so convincing to the suspects they thanked God he was with them, federal authorities said.

The informant made several overseas trips to discuss the plot against John F Kennedy International Airport, even visiting a radical Muslim group’s compound in Trinidad, officials said. He also joined the plotters on airport surveillance trips — where authorities were waiting, they said.

The four-person plot, revealed on Saturday, demonstrated the growing importance of informants in the government’s efforts to combat terrorism, particularly as smaller radical groups become more aggressive. Tom Corrigan, a former member of the FBI-New York Police Department Joint Terrorism Task Force, said the Kennedy airport case illustrated the need for inside information.

“These terrorists are in our own backyard,” said Mr Corrigan. “They may have to reach out to people they don’t necessarily trust, but they need to — for guns, explosives, whatever.”

Without informants, Mr Corrigan said, investigators are often left with little more than educated guesswork. “In most cases, you can’t get from A to B without an informant,” said the ex-NYPD detective. In the Kennedy airport case, the informant was a twice-convicted drug dealer who found himself in the midst of a terrorist plot conceived as more devastating than the September 11, 2001, attacks.

Authorities said the JFK scheme was an example of homegrown terrorism. The man accused of being the mastermind, Russell Defreitas, 63, immigrated to the US more than 30 years ago, but he told the informant that his feelings of disgust toward his adopted homeland had lingered for years.

The four Muslim men accused in the JFK plot didn’t turn to Pakistan or Iran for support after targeting the airport, home to an average of 1,000 daily flights and 45 million passengers annually.

Instead, according to a federal complaint, the informant and defendants Kareem Ibrahim and Defreitas visited a compound belonging to Jamaat al Muslimeen, a radical Islamic group known for launching a bloody 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad that involved taking the prime minister and his cabinet hostage. It left 24 people dead. 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.