Abdul Kadir, Would-Be JFK Bomber, Sentenced To Life In Prison

NEW YORK — A former member of Guyana's parliament was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for plotting to blow up fuel tanks at John F. Kennedy International Airport after insisting he was wrongly convicted.

"At no time did I have any intention or believe in bringing any harm to the people of this country by the terrorist acts I happened to be identified with," Abdul Kadir told a judge in federal court in Brooklyn.

U.S. District Court Judge Dora Irizarry responded that there was ample evidence Kadir was a key player in "a plan that would have caused devastation unimaginable."

Kadir and Russell Defreitas, a former JFK cargo handler, were arrested and charged with multiple counts of conspiracy in 2007 after an informant infiltrated the plot and recorded them discussing it.

At a trial where Kadir and Defreitas were convicted earlier this year, prosecutors alleged the pair wanted to kill thousands of people and cripple the American economy by using explosives to blow up the fuel tanks and the underground pipelines that run through an adjacent Queens neighborhood. The said they sought the help of militant Muslims, including an al-Qaida operative, in Guyana.

The government relied heavily on the informant's secret recordings, which captured Defreitas bragging about his knowledge of Kennedy Airport and its vulnerabilities.

"For years, I've been watching them," he said of the fuel tanks while on a reconnaissance mission with the informant.

In other tapes, Defreitas ranted about punishing the United States with an attack that would "dwarf 9/11."

Kadir testified in his own defense, denying he was a militant Muslim who spied for Iran for years before joining the JFK scheme. He told jurors that he warned the plotters: "Islam does not support aggression or killing innocent people."

As part of the plot, Defreitas and the informant traveled to Guyana to try to meet with Kadir and show him homemade videotapes of the airport's so-called fuel farms. The plotters also discussed reaching out to Adnam Shukrijumah, an al-Qaida member and explosives expert who was believed to be hiding out in the Caribbean at the time.

Shukrijumah, an FBI most-wanted terrorist, has been indicted on federal charges he was involved in a failed plot to attack the New York City subway system with suicide bombers.

Sentencing for DeFreitas is set for Jan. 21.

Comments

[George Thomas]

09:45 AM on 12/19/2010

It is the height of hypocrisy to talk about fighting terrorism while harbouring men who are wanted for or helping to destroy passenger airplanes.

But, just as the Bush family has been directly tied to the Bin Laden family, so, too, have they been tied to Posada Carriles. Just as the Bin Ladens were the only planes in American airspace to leave the country after 9/11, so too is Luis Posada Carriles being shuffled through the system to fall out the other side completely free and anonymous.

Will President Obama extradite Luis Clemente Faustino Posada Carriles, to Venezuela and risk that he will reveal the secrets of four decades of Bush’s involvement in organising a facist international, or will President Obama protect him and stand exposed before the world as another protector of an international terrorist apparatus. The U.S. government knows how many crimes it has committed, hence all the continued secrecy by the Obama administration. Everything in Washington stinks.

"The terrorists Posada Carriles, and Osama bin Laden have become symbols of the US methods of hemispheric domination and its double standard: on the one hand, they declare a global war on terrorism and, on the other, they use it."

It is time to end the mockery of justice, peace, and order that has existed for too long.

EXTRADITE POSADA TO VENEZUELA.. NOW!

Why does this terrorist Posada Carriles get such protection? http://www.jfkmurdersolved.com/posada.htm

[JumpinJ]

01:14 PM on 12/16/2010

That's true, if this plot was carried out, it could've cause "unimaginable devastation". What the article neglects to mention though it that the plot, while creative, simply wasn't possible. It doesn't diminish what the terrorist were hoping for (and you could imagine me with four wheels and call me a wagon), but could we have just a teeny-weenie bit of reality?

[Manny Peddy]

01:00 PM on 12/16/2010

Oh my another one. And now, when do the Islamic apologists come by to blame this all on Israel and the Jews?

[MIKEinNYC]

10:47 AM on 12/16/2010

Someone with this kind of disregard for human life needs to be put away forever because with such callousness, you just don't know if, when he's released, he won't plot to do something equally horrific.

[Manny Peddy]

01:41 PM on 12/16/2010

This is the point that many seem to be missing.

[MIKEinNYC]

09:28 PM on 12/16/2010

Right. People who would engage in this type of behavior are sociopaths.

[p456]

08:40 AM on 12/16/2010

Do the crime do the time.

[IamaLogican]

08:58 AM on 12/16/2010

So "talking" about doing something is punishable by life in prison?

Our prisons are going to start filling up even faster I guess.

[p456]

09:27 AM on 12/16/2010

After 9/11 anyone talking about blowing up anything in America that would lead to the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people is something I think you should go to jail for. Like talking about killing the president is punishable so should the treat of a terrorist be punishable. Just my opinion you are entitled to yours.

[supportamerica]

09:35 AM on 12/16/2010

lamaLogician: Many people go to prison on "intent", if one attempts to hires a hit man to kill their wife/husband, then, that is "intent to do bodily harm" if given the chance.

This is not a new law or charge. Happens everyday in our court system. This man, regardless of what he states, "intended" dire circumstances.