Another Major Security Blunder at JFK Airport

Just days after a jet skier was able to not only wander onto airport grounds by scaling a fence, crossing two runways, jetways, and entering Terminal 3 without setting off or alerting security officials courtesy of a $100 million security system, word comes that a gate close to the airport's fuel tank farm was unsecured and no cameras were positioned to allow security to view the location. However, there are questions as to whether the gate was unsecured or not. There are no questions, however, that there are no cameras in that area:

Gate 112 is a key location in the troubled $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System, because it provides an entryway to the Buckeye pipeline, which carries 8.4 million gallons of fuel daily through the city to the airport.

It was the target of terrorists who were busted in 2007 for plotting to blow it up.
The gate is also near an active runway, 22 Left.

PA officials — including Executive Director Patrick Foye — last night scrambled to explain the situation in a conference call.

The memo is “a lie,” Foye said, although he could not explain how it was inaccurate.
Paul Nunziato, president of the PAPD union, was brought onto the call and immediately declared the memo “is not a lie.”

The Port Authority then had Officer DeFelice call The Post, and, with a union rep on the line, said the fence has two heavy chains and that one of them was unlocked.

He claimed he called in an “unsecure” chain, and could not explain why the memo said the gate was unsecure.

He said the unlocked chain was not a security risk, but could not explain why there were two chains on the gate.

DeFelice and the union rep agreed that the lack of camera coverage on the gate was a security lapse.

The PA denied a request to immediately view the fence.

The lapse comes less than a week after the $100 million Perimeter Intrusion Detection System was embarrassingly breached by a stranded jet-skier, who climbed over an 8-foot section of the fence and walked across two runways without being noticed, despite his wearing a bright-yellow life vest.

The gate was close to where the Buckeye gas pipeline enters the airport. If that name sounds familiar, it should.

The pipeline was targeted by terrorists in the 2007 JFK terror plot to blow up the pipeline and tank farm causing catastrophic damage to the airport and its surrounding communities. Those involved in that plot have been sentenced to prison.

It's absolutely reprehensible that no one bothered to check that the security fence was properly secured or that cameras were positioned to make sure that no one could access this sensitive location.

This once again highlights the security theater that has gone into dealing with threats against infrastructure. $100 million was spent on upgrading security at JFK airport alone, and yet it seems that there are enough holes that anyone determined to cause harm and mayhem could still achieve their goals.

No Wonder Hizbullah Brought Down Lebanese Government

Reports coming out of Lebanon indicate that the UN special tribunal investigating the assassination of Rafik Hariri was set to announce that Syria, Iran and Hizbullah were behind the assassination.

Sources familiar with the investigation into the assassination of Rafik Hariri in 2005 told Newsmax that the United Nations Special Tribunal for Lebanon will accuse Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of giving the order to murder the former Lebanese prime minister, according to the Lebanese website Naharnet.

The sources told Newsmax, an American news website, that the tribunal will lay out evidence showing that the murder was committed by Iran's Quds force and Hezbollah.

The order to murder Hariri was transmitted to Imad Mughniyeh, Hezbollah's top commander at the time, by Quds force chief Qassem Suleymani, sources familiar with the investigation told Newsmax.

The sources said Mughniyeh and his brother-in-law, Mustapha Badr al-Dine, put together the hit team that carried out the attack. "The Iranians considered Hariri to be an agent of Saudi Arabia, and felt that killing him would pave the way for a Hezbollah takeover of Lebanon," one of the sources said.

According to the sources, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and his brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat, the head of Syrian intelligence, also played key roles in the assassination plot.

A few days ago Hezbollah toppled the government of Saad Hariri, son of the assassinated former prime minister. Saad Hariri returned to Lebanon Friday after visiting the US and France.

The report is scheduled to be released Monday. It's little wonder that Hizbullah was trying to divert attention from its culpability by bringing down the government and Iran's latest claims that they shot down US UAVs and that they've made advances on their nuclear enrichment program. Hizbullah has pitched itself as a resistance group dedicated to stopping Israel's involvement in Lebanon, but this shows through the lie, and reinforces the reality that Hizbullah is nothing more than a proxy army for Damascus and Tehran.

Hizbullah has threatened further violence if anyone attempts to take those involved in the assassination into custody.

The report also indicates that Hizbullah, Syria, and Iran carried out the assassination because they considered Rafik to be too close to Saudi Arabia.

Lebanese leader Amin Gemayel notes that Hizbullah's threats and actions are designed to maximize their power by any means necessary and that the Lebanese people are seeing through their machinations.

Two Convictions In JFK Terror Plot

Two of the five plotters in a plan to blow up JFK airport in New York City were convicted today. The two men, Russell Defreitas and Abdul Kadir plotted to use Defreitas' knowledge of JFK airport to blow up the jet fuel tank farm and or the gas pipeline that runs into the airport so as commit a mass casualty attack.

A federal jury found two Guyanese men guilty on Monday of conspiring to attack Kennedy International Airport, concluding a monthlong trial that focused on their plan to blow up fuel tanks and set off a series of explosions along a pipeline that cuts through New York City.

The plot never advanced beyond the conceptual stage, and the planning sessions, some of which were recorded by a confidential informant, were alternately grandiose and absurd. Talk of destroying the American economy mixed with suggestions of a “ninja-style” attack.

As in some other recent terrorism cases, the threat as officials described it at the time of the arrests seemed to exceed the suspects’ capacity. Like most of those cases, though, it resulted in conviction.

The defendants, Russell M. Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, had been monitored from an early stage in the plot by the informant, who posed as a member of the group, which included a number of other participants.

The informant, Steven Francis, had recorded the men at the airport during surveillance missions and on international trips to secure financial and logistical support for the attack.

The recordings were used by federal prosecutors to portray Mr. Defreitas, 67, an immigrant who became a United States citizen and is a former cargo handler at the airport, as the “homegrown extremist” who conceived and drove the plot.

Mr. Kadir, 58, a prominent Guyanese politician who served in Parliament and as mayor of a major city, initially emerged as a secondary figure, one of several conspirators portrayed as facilitating the plot by providing advice and contacts. But in testifying in his own defense, he opened himself to questions about whether he had spied for Iran.

The case, with its international reach, high-profile target and unusual cast of characters, drew headlines when the men were arrested more than three years ago.

The United States attorney in Brooklyn at the time, Roslynn R. Mauskopf, said the planned attack had the potential to cause “unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction.”

But as time went on, more was revealed about the plot and the unlikelihood of its success (the fuel pipeline, for example, had safety mechanisms to prevent cascading explosions), as well as the level of government involvement (the informant had played a somewhat enabling role in pushing forward the plot).

The verdict came after five days of deliberations in a trial before Judge Dora L. Irizarry in United States District Court in Brooklyn. Both men showed no emotion as the decision was read.

Both are to be sentenced in December and each faces up to life in prison.

Two other plotters have previously entered guilty pleas for their role in plotting the attacks. A fifth person Kareem Ibrahim, is awaiting trial, but is apparently in poor health.

JFK Bomb Plotters To Stand Trial This Week In New York; UPDATE Nur Enters Guilty Plea

The JFK bomb plotters who hoped to blow up gas lines that run into JFK International Airport in Queens are to stand trial this week in a New York courtroom. The terrorists had hoped that blowing up the gas lines and the gas tank farm at the airport would have caused massive devastation and mass casualties.

Jurors will be asked to decide whether two men, American Russel Defreitas, 66, and Guyanese Abdul Kadir, 58, a former member of parliament in his South American country, joined in a conspiracy to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

They face life in prison if convicted by jurors in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn. Opening statements in the trial are due to be held on Wednesday.

While New York was the target of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States as well as other plots such as the botched Times Square car bombing in May, relatively few cases involving those incidents actually go to trial.

Of the suspects charged in the 11 plots against New York City that authorities say they have foiled since the September 11 attacks, many have been charged in other countries or have pleaded guilty and avoided trial.

The plot originally involved four men, but one of the other two is expected to enter a guilty plea and a fourth was deemed too ill to stand trial.

Defreitas had previously worked at the airport as a security guard and was involved in plotting where and how to attack the airport and its facilities. The group is further alleged to have sought assistance from Jamaat Al Muslimeen, an Islamic terror group that had been active in Trinidad.

UPDATE:
Abdel Nur entered a guilty plea in court today, and will face 15 years in prison for his role in the terror plot.

Abdel Nur copped to providing material support to co-conspirators a day before he was scheduled to go on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court. Nur faces 15 years in prison under the plea deal approved by prosecutors in Brooklyn and the U.S. Justice Department. He could have gotten life in prison if convicted after a trial.

"I understood the goal of the planning of the destruction of fuel tanks and fuel by planes was to cause major economic loss in the United States," Nur said in court.

JFK Bomb Plot Leader Considered Targeting Yeshiva; Admits To Thefts

The lead plotter in a plan to blow up JFK airport by using explosives to hit gas lines that feed the tank farms at the airport, Russell Defreitas, apparently had more than just the airport in mind as possible targets.

He also considered targeting a Queens yeshiva.

The airport employee, Russell Defreitas, 66, recorded audio and video tapes of his terrorist plot to blow up the airport and considered hitting targets in the surrounding neighborhood, including a Jewish school, according to the feds. Authorities declined to name the school.

Defreitas also confessed on tape to stealing cargo, identity theft and welfare fraud –as well as building and detonating bombs in Guyana, prosecutors say.

And the accused terrorist recorded conversations about a sexual assault charge brought against one of his four co-defendants, Abdel Nur, in Guyana, and how it affected the bomb plot.

It's expected that prosecutors will try to have these tapes played at trial. A Guyanese newspaper has more details, including intimate knowledge that Defreitas had of airport operations that enabled him to steal various items.

Terror Bust In Queens

Media outlets are reporting that the Joint Terrorism Task Force has raided a number of residences in Queens, New York.

Law enforcement agents raided residences in New York City on Monday as part of a terrorism investigation, and prepared to brief Congress about the probe.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed that searches were conducted in the borough of Queens by agents of a joint terrorism task force. He would not discuss the matter further.

Separately, federal authorities planned to brief senior lawmakers in Congress on the case later Monday.

Expect to hear from Rep. Peter King shortly, as he represents Queens.

The last major terror bust in New York City was this past May, when the FBI arrested five men in connection with a plot to blow synagogues in the Bronx and take out aircraft flying out of Stewart International Airport near Newburgh, New York. Before that, in 2008 a group of four men were arrested plotting to blow up JFK Airport and the gas lines that run to and through the airport vicinity.

UPDATE:
According to NY1, no arrests have been made.

The NYPD says one of the residences is located on 147th Street between Parsons and 41st Avenue in Flushing, Queens.

The Associated Press reports that the investigation is terrorism-related but neither the FBI nor the NYPD will confirm those claims.

The FBI says several criminal search warrants were issued but no arrests have been made at this time.

Also, the timing of this is interesting given that President Obama was in New York City not too far from my office in Lower Manhattan when he gave a speech at Federal Hall. Also, he met with former President Bill Clinton for lunch in the Village.

Needless to say, security would be tight under normal circumstances, but a terror bust an immediate briefing with Congress does raise eyebrows. There will be much more to this story.

UPDATE:
Via Reuters:

New York City police and the FBI raided at least one home in the borough of Queens early on Monday as part of an investigation into suspected terrorism, focusing on one man who has been under surveillance, officials said.

Members of U.S. Congress briefed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation said there was no imminent danger.

"There was nothing imminent, and they are very good now at tracking potentially dangerous actions and this was preventive," said Charles Schumer, a U.S. Senator from New York who was among those briefed by FBI officials.

The New York Times, citing an unnamed senior law enforcement official, said authorities had uncovered a small group of people who espoused a militant ideology aligned with al Qaeda.

Neither a specific plot nor a target of any planned attack had been detected, but their activities had aroused enough suspicion to obtain search warrants, the Times said.

Schumer told reporters the rumors indicated the terrorist threat was related to an upcoming appearance in New York by President Barack Obama but authorities learned that this was not true.

Peter King, a Republican congressman from New York who was also briefed on the case, told ABC News: "He was being watched and concern grew as he met with a group of individuals in Queens over the weekend.

UPDATE:
Agents were looking for powders, gels, fuses, TNT, and other materials that could be used in explosives at several locations in Queens. There was nothing imminent according to this report, but they were looking at a residence of five Afghan men.

JFK Terror Plotters Extradited From Trinidad UPDATE: Plead Not Guilty

The three JFK terror plotters who were in Trinidad have been extradited to the United States to stand trial. They will be arraigned this afternoon in US District Court in Brooklyn.

The men, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, were charged in the summer of 2007 by the United States attorney in Brooklyn of conspiring with a former airport cargo worker, Russell M. Defreitas, to attack fuel storage tanks and fuel lines at Kennedy.

Mr. Defreitas has been detained without bail awaiting trial since his arrest in Brooklyn on June 1, 2007.

Mr. Kadir and Mr. Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on June 3, 2007. Mr. Nur surrendered to the police there two days later. On June 29, 2007, the four men were indicted on charges with conspiring to “cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction” at the airport.

Prior coverage can be found here.

UPDATE:
The three have entered not guilty pleas in federal court.

Trinidadian suspect Kareem Ibrahim, a Muslim cleric, has been hospitalized since April after apparently suffering a mental breakdown. His lawyer said Ibrahim is in no shape to be extradited, and he plans to file another appeal.

Lawyers for the other two suspects, Abdel Nur and Abdul Kadir, both from Guyana, were not available for comment.

The three men entered not guilty pleas in federal court Wednesday afternoon.

The judge ordered them held without bail on a "permanent detention order." They are due back in court at noon on Aug. 7.

The three are each charged with five counts of conspiracy, punishable by up to life in prison, for the alleged plot to blow up fuel tanks and the underground fuel lines at JFK and extending into Brooklyn and Queens.

JFK Terror Plot Suspects' Extradition Approved

A judge Monday ordered three men extradited to the U.S. to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential U.S. document said they planned to seek help from Iran.

The three men professed their innocence at the hearing.

Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls rejected arguments made on behalf of Abdel Nur, Kareem Ibrahim and Abdul Kadir. Their lawyers said the men could not be extradited on conspiracy charges under Trinidadian law. Nur's lawyer said he would appeal the decision.

On their way into court Nur and Ibrahim proclaimed their innocence. Nur told the Associated Press that he is being set up by drug dealers. He was apparently referring to a confidential informant – a convicted drug dealer who taped conversations with the suspects.

Ibrahim said of the allegations, "It's a movie." A third suspect, Abdul Kadir, said nothing as he entered the court. The three men were arrested in June, when U.S. authorities say they discovered the plot to blow up pipelines that supply JFK.

The alleged ringleader of the group – Russel Defreitas – is in custody in New York. He was a former cargo handler at the airport.

The judge swatted down the defense claims succinctly and directly. Defreitas' lawyers and supporters have been floating the idea that he was simply doesn't have the reading or analytical skills to ever come up with an idea such as blowing up the airport or its fuel systems. One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to carry out a criminal act and stupidity isn't a bar to being prosecuted or convicted of plotting to carry out the act of conspiring to blow up the airport and its fuel systems.

Indictments Handed Down on JFK Terror Plot

An indictment filed in Brooklyn charged Russell Defreitas, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, all arrested earlier this month, with conspiring to "cause death, serious bodily injury and extensive destruction" at the airport.

The charges were first detailed in a criminal complaint unsealed at the time of the arrests. A grand jury voted on Friday to indict the four defendants on five counts of conspiracy.

Defreitas is to be arraigned on the indictment on July 11. His attorney did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment.

The other suspects are fighting extradition in Trinidad. If convicted, the men would face a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Blurred Vision

A New York state assemblyman would like Google to blur out the satellite imagery of sensitive locations based on the news that the JFK terror plotters were using Google satellite imagery to help plan their terrorist attack on the airport and related fuel storage and delivery systems.

Google notes that the imagery isn't theirs to blur. It's a third party provider. Okay, then pursue the matter with the third party provider.

It is an interesting question as to what obligations a service like Google or the third party provider of the imagery has to the public with respect to information and satellite imagery. Should they be providing crystal clear images of locations like airports or transit hubs when such locations are considered high value targets by terrorist organizations? Should the company do more to make it more difficult for individuals to access such information?

UPDATE:
It's not just satellite imagery that prompts privacy and security concerns, but Google ranks lowest for its privacy practices. So much for "Don't Be Evil."

UPDATE:
Bail was denied for the three members of the JFK terror plot in Trinidad.

A judge denied bail today for three men accused of plotting to bomb New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, ordering them to remain in jail until a hearing on a U.S. request for their extradition.


The three men - Kareem Ibrahim, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur - smiled and waved to about 20 supporters and family members in the courtroom but did not speak. Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicols said he chose to deny bail "given the nature and the seriousness of the offense."

The suspects, arrested this month in this twin-island Caribbean nation, allegedly participated in a Muslim terror cell that planned to blow up a jet fuel artery that runs through residential neighborhoods in New Jersey and New York and feeds Kennedy airport.

The Widening JFK Terror Probe Investigation

The New York Times insisted that the JFK terror plot was not a situation worthy of front page attention. Their misjudgment continues to shine through on the issue, as reports continue to show that the investigation is widening and that law enforcement is trying to track down multiple individuals around the world in relation to the plot. The name of Adnan Shukrijumah continues to pop up in relation to this investigation. That would be significant considering that he's an integral part of al Qaeda's ongoing war against the US.

Of course, those individuals were mentioned in the court filings, namely as Individuals A through G. The four arrested thus far are likely only the tip of this latest iceberg.

We've also learned more about the informant; quite possibly too much information as his name and phone number were provided. It would appear that his phone number is to a New York metro area telephone exchange.

JFK Terror Plot Links To Iran To Be Examined

The New York Times considered this plot to be something less than worthy of front page news, and yet the hits keep on coming. The New York Sun reports that the FBI and JTTF are looking into whether the plotters had connections with Iran:

As New York police and the FBI interview suspects in an alleged plot to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport, one thread the ongoing investigation will explore is why one of the suspects was planning to go to Iran.

A former Guyanese legislator, Abdul Kadir, was arrested in Trinidad on Friday on a plane bound for Caracas, Venezuela. According to Mr. Kadir's wife, Isha Kadir, he was in the island nation to pick up an Iranian visa so he could attend an Islamic conference in Tehran. Two of Mr. Kadir's children are studying in Iran, according to Mrs. Kadir.

Trinidad's counterterrorism police are also investigating whether one of Mr. Kadir's alleged co-conspirators, a 56-year old Shiite imam in Trinidad named Kareem Ibrahim, had ties to Shiite organizations in southern Iraq and Iran through an Islamic discussion group he hosted, according to the Trinidad Express.

In interviews in the Guyanese press, Mrs. Kadir said her husband's Iran connection was likely the reason the FBI was requesting his extradition.

"We are shocked, we are not part of these things," she was quoted by Kaieteur News in Guyana. "To begin with, we are not Al Qaeda ... we are Shia. My husband is a decent, devoted, intelligent Muslim. Both of us have relatives in the United States. It would be nonsensical for him to plot something like this."

As for that last part by Mrs. Kadir, one only has to be reminded that Hizbullah, the Shi'a Islamic terrorist group, had no problems launching terrorist attacks against the US in the past, and regularly receives support from Iran. Sunni and Shi'a have a common goal in going after infidels and the West, enough so that they would be willing to set aside their doctrinal differences to go after the US. Iran's reach around the world is growing, having aligned itself with dictators and thugs across the globe:

If Iran's hand is found behind the JFK airport plot, it would raise an alarm about the Islamic Republic's recent alliances with America's hemispheric enemies. Since the 2005 ascendance of President Ahmadinejad in Iran, the Iranian regime has strengthened ties with such leaders as President Castro of Cuba, President Chavez of Venezuela, and even President Reagan's one-time foe, President Ortega of Nicaragua.

Judging a Threat

Mike Kelly notes the obvious problems with trying to minimize the terror plot against the Buckeye pipeline and the JFK fuel tank farms. Just what exactly is an acceptable loss from terrorism. The so-called experts that have been cited by the media don't seem to have a problem noting that the explosions would be largely confined and the pipeline wouldn't completely go up in a massive explosion, but they ignore the fact that there are quite a few people who would be affected in the immediate vicinity of the explosion - those are people who would be injured or killed and their property damaged or destroyed:

One expert even suggested a pipeline fireball would look gruesome on TV but would not cause too much damage – just a block of homes near the pipeline or a charred jetliner on the JFK tarmac.

Stop for a moment and consider what that means: Have we gotten to the point where a block of homes or a charred jetliner is not that bad? Have we also reached the point where we look for ways to downplay the abilities of terrorists rather than take them seriously?

Are we again suffering from a failure to imagine?

In announcing that they broke up the alleged plot, police and federal officials pointed out that suspects, along with an undercover informant, went on several trips to assess possible targets. The suspects also reportedly collected satellite photos of the airport from the Internet, mapped out their escape routes and even discussed disabling the JFK control tower.

And that's not serious enough?

It's not entirely clear how many explosive devices the suspected terrorists planned to set off. Maybe they planned just one – on a portion of a fuel line that hooks to one 747 jetliner that is docked at a terminal.

Hundreds of people could be killed. Isn't that serious?

If the plotters set off a half-dozen explosive devices along the pipeline route, a dozen or more blocks of residential neighborhoods could be affected. And that's not serious?

Whether its suspected terrorists near Buffalo, a plot to blow up PATH tunnels, or even the recent alleged plan by six New Jersey men to murder soldiers at Fort Dix, the announcements were followed by other announcements discounting those plots in some way. Why?

It's a damned good question. Another good question would be to ask why the New York Times has been at the forefront of minimizing the seriousness of the averted outcome, or the possible ties to international terrorist groups including al Qaeda? What does the Times know that all the other papers, including the Washington Post, New York Post, New York Daily News, The Record, The New York Sun, New York Newsday, Newark Star-Ledger, and other papers do not? All treated this story with the proper amount of seriousness - giving front page coverage and detailing the threat and related information. The Times buried the story in the innards of the paper and didn't even treat it with a front page above the fold spot. Most curious. Oh, and not to be outdone, Keith Olbermann questions the timing of the latest terror plot to be uncovered. I question his sanity and grip on reality.

Mayor Bloomberg, gets flippant over the terror plot. That's one of the infuriating things about Bloomberg when it comes to security matters; he always seems to get the tone and tenor of his comments wrong. There are good reasons to be concerned about the terror plot and the security at the airport and the pipeline system, but to cast them aside casually is a mistake.

There are plenty of targets that are out in plain sight, and terrorists may be gunning for them as well.

Meanwhile, the informant that broke this plot open for investigators was so convincing that he was able to get the other plotters to confide specific details of the plot to him.

UPDATE:
The New York Post editorial page wonders what the heck the agenda is at the Times when it couldn't be bothered to produce a front page story on the thwarted JFK terror plot when ever other major paper did.

Yet far more important to the Times than the prospect of a plot aiming to out-do 9/11 were front-page stories about:

* The debate over the legality of detaining "boy fighters" in the Guantanamo prison camp.

* How the brick laying trade in India is benefiting peasants.

* Proper upkeep for "the most treasured violins."

Let's be clear here: The "paper of record" isn't guilty of merely poor news judgment. It's got an agenda.

Numerous newspapers understood the gravity of a plot against New York by terrorist upstarts from a seemingly unlikely part of the world - the Caribbean, just a few hours from U.S. shores. The Washington Post, for example, put the story on its front page Sunday.

Nor is the Times' coverage of this story a quirk: The paper has downplayed several other terror cases because the plotters were "merely" in the "talking" stage. Last month, after the Fort Dix Six case came to light, the paper ran a piece called "Informer's Role Draws Praise and Questions" - casting doubt on "the legitimacy of the investigations" because of the role of an FBI informer.

None of that should matter.

The point is, an unknown number of ruthless actors around the world - some in our backyard - continue to emerge and threaten the nation. No doubt the 9/11 plot also once seemed like something no one could pull off.

UPDATE:
Abdel Nur, the fourth member of the JFK terror plot, has surrendered to authorities in Trinidad.

Guyanese suspect in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy Airport surrendered to police Tuesday in Trinidad, a police official said.

Abdel Nur turned himself in at a police station outside the Trinidadian capital of Port-of-Spain, police spokeswoman Wendy Campbell told The Associated Press.

Rick Moran takes Olbermann to task for his inanities and Michelle Malkin points out the ostrich-like symptoms among some politicians who think the threats are not as serious as they are.

UPDATE:
The NYT responds to why they didn't put the JFK terror plot on the front page:

A. Here's the basic thinking on the J.F.K. story: In the years since 9/11, there have been quite a few interrupted terrorist plots. It now seems possible to exercise some judgment about their gravity. Not all plots are the same. In this case, law enforcement officials said that J.F.K. was never in immediate danger. The plotters had yet to lay out plans. They had no financing. Nor did they have any explosives. It is with all that in mind, that the editors in charge this weekend did not put this story on the front page.

In truth, the decision was widely debated even within this newsroom. At the front page meeting this morning, we took an informal poll and a few editors thought the story should have been more prominently played. Some argued it should have been fronted, regardless of the lameness of the plot, simply because it was what everyone was talking about.

Lame is the excuse for deciding what makes the front page and what doesn't. The plot wasn't nearly as lame as they claim, and the players aren't fully known if they bothered to read the complaint.

They also believe that just because the plot wasn't actionable at the time the four were taken down, it wasn't worth mentioning on the front page instead of an article about bricks. That's one of the reasons that the Times keeps slipping in circulation. Those kinds of journalistic decisions keep coming back to hurt them.

UPDATE:
Wouldn't you know, but there was an incident with a pipeline in the New York metro area today. A pipeline rupture resulted in three people being injured:

A section of roadway in Bergen County town exploded at the start of rush hour this afternoon, flipping a car onto its roof, sending macadam into the air and injuring the driver and two police officers, authorities said.

The roadway blew up on River Road at Henley Avenue in New Milford when an underground gas line ruptured as it was being tested using compressed air, Sgt. Stephen Littlefield said. He said the line was not yet in service, and there was no gas explosion.

The driver of the car, who was not identified, was taken to Hackensack University Medical Center with a broken arm, the sergeant said.

Al Qaeda Involved in JFK Terror Plot?

According to FoxNews, one of the hoped for goals of the ongoing investigation into the four men charged in connection with the JFK terror plot was an al Qaeda leader who had a $5 million bounty on his head and was al Qaeda's nuclear weapons expert:

Al Qaeda's reported nuclear whiz kid — a "tantalizing terror figure" with a $5 million bounty on his head — was the figure investigators had hoped to snag in their 18-month probe of a plot to blow up a New York airport, the New York Post reported Monday.

The name of Adnan Gulshair el-Shukrijumah, reportedly the man Usama bin Laden tapped to lead a previous plot to detonate nuclear bombs simultaneously in several U.S. cities, came up at several points in taped conversations during the probe, law-enforcement sources familiar with the investigation told the paper.

Those living near the pipeline aren't entirely satisfied with the thwarted plot because security concerns remain:

"The pipeline is a ticking time bomb because anyone can go down there at any time," a retired city worker who lives a block from the pipeline in Brooklyn, Morton Pupko, said.

The pipeline's operator, Buckeye Partners, has said that in the event of an attack, sections of the 40 miles of pipeline that run between Linden, N.J., and Queens could be isolated easily by shutoff valves.

The president of Accufacts Inc., a company that investigates oil and gas pipelines, Richard Kuprewicz, said an explosion in the pipeline would probably extend for hundreds or thousands of feet, not miles.

Consider that there are sections of the pipeline that pass under densely populated areas of the City, and the potential for a catastrophic attack with mass casualties is a possibility, despite the safeguards built into the pipeline.


Meanwhile, I wonder whether the reports over the past several months about how the Port Authority was working on a deal with the New York and New Jersey governors on a plan to have National Guardsmen operate in the Port Authority's PATH system was not tangentially connected to the ongoing terror investigation.

Having the National Guard bolster the Port Authority police in the PATH system would free up Port Authority police to operate at JFK airport and shift resources to the areas that were likely to be affected by a terror plot. When the plan to station National Guardsmen in the PATH system was announced, the Port Authority pointed out that there were no specific threats against the PATH system that had been made, but it would seem logical that such a move would enable the shift in resources to where it was needed.

And speaking of PATH and other rail and subways systems in the NY metro area, the NYPD is calling for a total order maintenance sweep of all cars in the system to improve security:

While it is unclear exactly how much funding the New York City Police Department spends on counterterrorism, the department is leading a $30 million program funded by the Department of Homeland Security to create a 50-mile perimeter barring nuclear weapons from the city, investigating the importation of chlorine, which can be used in the manufacturing of deadly bombs, and deploying a counterterrorism unit into the streets and the subways of the city every day.

Adding to the department's counterterrorism efforts, officers from the city's police department and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority are now performing a counter-terrorism reconnaissance program, known as "total order maintenance sweeps," or TOMS, at Metro-North and Long Island Rail Road commuter stations. The sweeps, where a patrol of officers inspects each train car on every train that pulls into a commuter station, are being implemented randomly across the city.

"Attacks in London against the mass transit system there demonstrated how planning and bomb assembly took place outside of London," Mr. Kelly said. "The Madrid commuter rail bombings showed how commuter trains approaching the central city were also targeted. NYPD presence on Metro-North and LIRR trains is just one more element in widening counterterrorism coverage and cooperation among neighboring jurisdictions and agencies."

Elsewhere, the unindicted coconspirator in ABSCAM, Rep. John Murtha, thinks that the latest terror plot is a response to the US involvment in Iraq. Murtha apparently hasn't been paying attention to the facts. Defreitas specifically stated that he wanted to attack the US and JFK airport because he claimed to have seen US weapons being shipped to Israel where they could be used against fellow Muslims. That was included in the complaint against the four accused men. Murtha either ignores the facts, is lying, or both.

UPDATE:
According to the FBI, Shukrijumah appears to have gone to Pakistan, where he's likely joined up with al Qaeda elements. As Allah notes, if they had captured Shukrijumah, it would have been an intel bonanza and tactical victory on par with the capture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

UPDATE:
One of the curious aspects of the coverage of this story is the abject failure of the New York Times to provide above the fold coverage to a story with great import to the New York metropolitan region. Every other paper in the region has devoted at least one day of front page coverage to the story, if not more (see nj.com, northjersey.com, nysun.com, nypost.com, nydailynews.com, and nynewsday.com for a sampler). The New York Times, instead buried the story on the inside pages of the paper. Most curious. Even if the New York Times believes the plot wasn't going to cause as much damage as FBI investigators believed or that experts considered the threat to destroy miles of pipelines that snaked through the New York metro area to be remote, the fact that the FBI was hoping to nab a major al Qaeda figure should have rung some bells.

UPDATE:
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UPDATE:
NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly says that explosives were available to the JFK plotters:

"Did they have explosives in their possession? No. But clearly, there were explosives available in Guyana," Kelly said.

Kelly said the four Muslim suspects made repeated trips between the U.S., Guyana and the Caribbean while plotting the JFK terror plot. Several of the trips were made to try to win support from Jamaat al Muslimeen, an extremist Muslim group in Trinidad and Tobago, Kelly said.

"We don't know exactly what this case could have changed into, could have morphed into, if they were able to successfully create a partnership with this militant group," Kelly said on CBS' "Face the Nation."

Kelly, who has assigned 1,000 cops to fight terrorism, said it was only a matter of time before the alleged mastermind, Russell Defreitas, 63, of Brooklyn, got his hands on explosives.

"They tried to get money, and they tried to get explosives," Kelly said. "I think the investigators took this case down at the appropriate time."

UPDATE:
Say hi for the video - tapes of the last encounter between Defreitas and the informant before Defreitas was taken into custody have been released.

UPDATE:
One of the things that has gone rather unremarked upon is that there are quite a few references to unnamed individuals. James Robbins notes:

Reading the indictment against the four would-be JFK airport bombers, Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir, I was struck by the phrase “together with others” which frequently followed their names. It is on page 1, page 2, page 3, twice on page 4. In the course of the document we are introduced to these others, known only as Individuals A-G. There must be some legal rationale why we can’t know their identities. It surely can’t be to conceal from the Individuals that we know what they were up to; they must have figured out who is which letter by now. But until we know who Messrs. A-G are, we can’t know the extent of the network, or the magnitude of the threat.

Of the six, the most interesting are A and E. “A” is one of the ringleaders of the plan, playing a key role in conceptualizing and promoting it. Yet for some reason, he was not indicted. “E” is even more important — a businessman in Georgetown Guyana, who funds jihadists on their missions and comes across in the indictment as extremely knowledgeable in matters of terrorism. It seems as though he has done this many times before. He served as a mentor for the prospective attackers, but eventually pulled out of the plan when he thought it might be compromised. Good instincts.

Updates: JFK Terror Plot Revealed

Safety shutoff valves are likely to have prevented the kind of deadly results that the four plotters intended.

The Port Authority has stepped up security as well.

So what pushed the accused to commence a plot to attack JFK airport? Well, Defreitas said that he was extremely upset that he saw missiles and weapons being shipped to Israel, which could be used against other Muslims (page 15 of the complaint).

The target was chosen because President Kennedy holds a special place in the hearts of Americans, and destroying such a symbol would be extremely harmful to the local, state, and national economy.

Defreitas engaged in surveillance of the airport and videotaped various areas around the airport (page 19), while the law enforcement source drove the vehicle.

And Defreitas' co-conspirator Kadir sought to go to Iran.

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.

It is interesting how law enforcement got alerted to this plot and how they began surveillance of the plotters.

The thing to keep in mind is that these plotters were stopped before their plans could be brought to fruition. The idea is to stop them before they carry out the attacks.

The airport is fed jet fuel, gasoline and heating oil through a capillary system of pipes that run from New Jersey through Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens. Oil industry experts said safety shut-off valves would almost assuredly have prevented an exploding airport fuel tank from igniting all or even part of the network.

But officials said the four men determined to carry out their attack, having conducted “precise and extensive” surveillance of the airport using photographs, video, the recollections of Mr. Defreitas and satellite images downloaded from Google Earth.

They said the men had also traveled repeatedly to Guyana and Trinidad in recent months, seeking the blessing and financial backing of an extremist Muslim group based in Trinidad and Tobago called Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which was behind a bloody coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990.

“The enforcement action we are announcing today was taken to prevent a terrorist plot from maturing into a terrorist act,” Mr. Mershon said during a news conference yesterday at F.B.I. headquarters in Manhattan. The motive behind the planned attack, he said, “was a pattern of hatred toward the United States and the West in general.”

There is also more information about the four men named in the complaint:

Abdul Kadir, 55, a former mayor of a town in Guyana and a onetime member of Parliament in that South American country, was arrested in Trinidad on Friday. He helped Mr. Defreitas complete the plan and secure financing, according to the criminal complaint, which was unsealed yesterday.

Mr. Kadir was detained after boarding a flight on Aeropostal, a Venezuelan airline, which was to go to Caracas, an official briefed on the arrest said yesterday. The flight between Port of Spain and Caracas, which usually takes less than an hour, had taken off but the crew was told to return to Trinidad, the official said.

The third suspect, Kareem Ibrahim, 61, was arrested in Trinidad. The extradition of both Mr. Kadir and Mr. Ibrahim was being sought.

The fourth suspect, Abdel Nur, 57, remained a fugitive, the officials said, and was believed to be in Trinidad.

If convicted, all four suspects could face life in prison.

It's curious that when law enforcement does manage to disrupt these attacks, the far left fringe accuses law enforcement of trumping up such plots and those who report and opine on the disruptions are gullible.

For the left, they complain when the US engages in military action to eliminate terrorists overseas, but also complain about law enforcement actions that disrupt terrorist attacks. Very curious.

UPDATE:
Rudy Giuliani has come out and used the thwarted JFK plot as a reason to vote for him and the GOP in the 2008 election:

Giuliani told a crowd of 700 gathered at a Broward County Republican fundraiser that Democrats ignore the Islamic terrorist threat and that he is the Republican candidate best capable of handling it.

"I've had the most experience dealing with terrorism," Giuliani said, citing his experience as a federal prosecutor and later as mayor of New York City, where he served during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"There are some very good people on the Republican side that understand terrorism, I do not find too many on the Democratic side that do, but I think of the people that do, I understand it the best and can keep the country focused on being on offense," Giuliani said.

Early in his nearly 30-minute speech, Giuliani mentioned the arrests of men who authorities say were part of a Muslim terrorist cell. He later held a press conference to make a statement about the alleged plot.

"Today's arrests remind us that we're at war," Giuliani said. "It should remind us that the terrorists are at war with us, both overseas and here in the United States."

UPDATE:
Brendan Loy examines whether the terrorists' plot to blow up the pipelines would have been feasible. He concludes that they wouldn't.

I still think the greater risk would have come from an attack directly on the tank farms at the airport, where if explosives were placed at various points within the tank farm, a massive conflagration could have devastated the equipment and shuttered the airport for a lengthy period of time.

UPDATE:
Gothamist writes the following:

Officials are claiming that the successful execution of the plot would have resulted in the deaths of thousands of New Yorkers. The Daily News, however, writes that the owner of the pipeline and various security experts were doubtful that the plan could have been pulled off. While not willing to discuss the details, they said that there were definite precautions installed in the pipeline that would restrict the chain reaction these terrorists were plotting. And while some might be cyncical regarding the seriousness of the arrests, if the FBI said we caught some guys who were planning on simultaneously hijacking four commercial jets and then flying them into the Pentagon and the Twin Towers, causing them to fall, our first reaction would be "Yeah right, like that could ever happen."

Technology is not foolproof and a determined group of terrorist could have caused serious damage. Whether they could have pulled off an attack of the magnitude they envisioned is debatable. The importance of stopping them is not.

UPDATE:
The NY Post notes that pipeline security is 'a joke.'

Three years ago, Fossella highlighted major security shortfalls surrounding a mostly submerged portion of the pipeline in Brooklyn, at the 65th Street rail yard on Fourth Avenue in Bay Ridge.

Fossella showed that the security fence was consistently left open and that parts of the gate were sometimes missing. Security was so bad that homeless people have been seen roaming the yards.

"It makes me feel unsafe for me and my family that we are living over this," said Matthew Cartelli, one of 2,000 people who live across the street from the rail yard in the Bay Ridge Towers apartment complex.

Fossella said there has been immense confusion over whose bears responsibility for security at the rail yards falls to since it is owned by the Long Island Rail Road and leased to New York and Atlantic Railway.

Message left at the agencies were not returned yesterday afternoon.

Buckeye officials said authorities kept the company informed of the threat from the beginning and that an explosion at a fuel tank or portion of the conduit would not ignite the entire pipeline.

"There's been a lot of overblown statements concerning the consequences of 'blowing up a pipeline,' " said company Vice President Stephen Muther. "Pipelines can usually be repaired and put back into operation within a matter of days."

He added there are foot and aerial patrols guarding the pipeline and that all security measures are approved by federal authorities.

"We feel we have adequate security provisions in place to protect the pipelines," Muther said. However, there have been mishaps.

The Daily News wonders just how deadly such an attack could have been.

Michael Ledeen, meanwhile, also notes the possible links to Venezuela and Iran. Venezuela's Chavez and Iran's Ahmadinejad have been quite cozy recently and their anti-US rhetoric has been steadily increasing for years. Chavez has even announced a form of mutual support for Iran should Iran be attacked - they would withhold oil from the market if Iran is attacked.

Terror Plot Thwarted at JFK Airport?

Four men have been charged in a terror plot to blow up jet fuel storage tanks at JFK Airport in New York City. One of the four may have worked at the airport:

According to NewsChannel4's Jonathan Dienst, sources said federal investigators have made arrests in an alleged terror plot on Kennedy Airport.

Four people have been charged. One is in custody in New York.

Sources said the plot involved a plan to blow up a jet-fuel pipeline at JFK setting off a potential massive explosion.

Law enforcement officials said the plot may involved a former airport worker.

This situation is developing, and a press conference is scheduled for this afternoon.

UPDATE:
Some background statistics on JFK Airport and the aviation gas facilities:

JFK has a total storage capacity of 32 million gallons. It features:
- 62 tanks in bulk storage and 40 tanks in satellite
- 50 miles of underground pipe
- Five piers
- Transfers of fuel to nine unit terminal buildings (UTB) through 28 separate fuel systems
- Fuel tank farms protected by high pressure foam systems
- More than one billion gallons of fuel were dispensed in 2002.

An attack on the fuel tank farm could lead to a major shutdown of air operations at the airport, beyond the initial need to close the airport to traffic due to the fire and smoke.

Aerial imagery of the airport here.

UPDATE:
Buckeye Pipe Line Company is a major jet fuel provider at the airport.

The NYT reports that three have been arrested and a fourth is still being sought:

Three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plot to set off explosives at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials close to the investigation said.

The plot, which never got past the planning stages, did not involve airplanes or passenger terminals, according to the two officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the arrests had not yet been announced.

UPDATE:
The FoxNews report indicates the target was a pipeline that feeds the JFK airport fuel tank farm:

Sources said the plot involved a plan to blow up a jet-fuel pipeline at JFK setting off a potential massive explosion.

Details were to be given out at a 1 p.m. news conference.

The pipeline takes fuel from a facility in Linden, N.J., to the airport. Other lines service LaGuardia Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport.

UPDATE:
Hot Air, LGF, and QandO are all blogging the developing situation.

UPDATE:
Don Surber wonders how the feds found out about the plot. Good question. I am betting that it was some astute civilian observer who noted something out of order and called in the feds who launched an investigation, much as the Fort Dix Six were discovered by a Circuit City store clerk.

UPDATE:
Identities of some of those involved have been made public:

A senior law enforcement official told FOX News that of the three arrests, one was in New York and two were in Trinidad. The New York suspect has been identified as Russell Afreitas, a former JFK employee who allegedly planned to attack the airport's fuel supply because he thought he could do more damage than attacking a passenger terminal. Afreitas is a Muslim U.S. citizen from Guyana.

In carrying out the alleged plot, Afreitas unknowingly recruited an FBI informant, and surveillance on Afreitas began.

One of the other suspects arrested in Trinidad was identified as Abdul Kabir, a member of Parliament of Guyana.

Very curious.

UPDATE:
The names of the four involved are: Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir. Hot Air points out that there's one al Qaeda bigwig who has connections to Trinidad and has been itching to hit at the US for some time, though CBS claims that the four do not have ties to al Qaeda.

No, they have ties to another Islamic terrorist group, the Jamaat al-Muslimeen.

Via nj.com: CNN claims that the plot was a level below the Fort Dix plot in that no explosives had been purchased and no set date had been made for the attack.

UPDATE:
More detail on the steps taken by the plotters in furtherance of an attack:

The official said the plotters had conducted surveillance on giant jet fuel tanks at JFK and the Buckeye pipeline that runs from New Jersey to the airport. They had taken surveillance video of the targets and took it to Trinidad to review the tape, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the arrests were not yet announced.

UPDATE:
WNBC:

Sources said the plot involved putting explosives inside the fuel pipeline but realized that “it was not technically feasible.”

Other jihadis have attempted to put together terrorist attacks against other facilities around the country, including one that would have attacked the cables of the Brooklyn Bridge in order to destroy the bridge. That too was considered not a feasible way to destroy the bridge. However, it did raise concerns that someone might try again, and the anchorages for the bridge were made more secure.

The same jihadis involved in this current plot could just have easily decided to directly attack the tank farm or one of the points on the pipeline where it might cause serious damage to the surrounding area.

UPDATE:
Possible ties to al Qaeda after all?

FBI agents feared but never confirmed the three men accused of plotting to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York were linked to one of the most wanted al Qaeda leaders, Adnan Shukrijumah, known to have operated out of Guyana and Trinidad.

Officials tell the Blotter on ABCNews.com that they heard repeated references to “Adnan” during the extensive wiretaps conducted on the suspects’ telephone conversations, including calls to Guyana and Trinidad.

There is a $5 million reward for information on Shukrijumah, who officials consider extremely dangerous because of the years he spent living in the Miami area and his known ties to al Qaeda. Some of the 9/ll hijackers attended a south Florida mosque run by Shukrijumah’s now deceased father.

UPDATE:
Ed Morrissey points out there are possible ties to Germany, which for the observant among us, was where Mohammad Atta and the 9/11 gang set the wheels of that attack in motion.

Others blogging: Bill's Bites, Junkyard Blog, Suitably Flip, Jammie Wearing Fool, Counterterrorism Blog, Jay Tea at Wizbang, and Blogs of War.

UPDATE:
Here's a copy of the complaint. Strangely enough, none of the major left-leaning blogs have threads devoted to this subject. Very curious.

UPDATE:
The Justice Department also released a statement on the matter.