JFK bomb plot was 'home-grown'

A FOILED plot to bomb New York's main international airport was a "home-grown" plan not directly linked to al-Qa'ida, a top US intelligence official said yesterday, although the militant Islamic network may have inspired it, he said.

The New York plotters had "as far as we know, no direct ties to al-Qa'ida", FBI assistant director John Miller told US news group ABC News. But he appeared to link the planned attacks to the al-Qa'ida network's influence.

"They pump out the propaganda encouraging it, while they plan the next big one (attack), and I think you can see that in the eight or so plots that have been unravelled in the last roughly two years" on US soil, he said.

"When you're looking at inspired through the internet, home-grown extremists, well they can pop up anywhere."

The New York plot allegedly was linked to Jamaat al-Muslimeen, described by justice officials as an international network of Muslim extremists from the US, Guyana and Trinidad.

Jamaat al-Muslimeen is "a group that's been engaged in violence. They've taken hostages," Mr Miller said.

Four suspected Islamic extremists from South America and the Caribbean have been charged over the plot.

According to US authorities, the plot went back to January last year and would have involved blowing up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at the airport, which handles 1000 flights and more than 120,000 passengers daily.

"They had done up to four surveillances. They were searching for funding and explosives. So on that level, it was certainly operational," Mr Miller said.

Authorities said the explosions would also have devastated large portions of nearby Queens, a borough of New York City.

Three of the four suspects, who included a former airline cargo handler, have been arrested, federal law enforcement officials said. The fourth man, Abdel Nur, was being sought in the Caribbean. Abdel Nur is believed to be at large on the island.

US officials were seeking the extradition from Trinidad and Tobago of Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament, and Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago.

Russell Defreitas, a US citizen and native of Guyana, was arrested in New York. Authorities said he was a former airport employee who conducted surveillance for the group, using his knowledge of the site to identify targets and escape routes.

According to court papers and investigators, a convicted drug dealer who agreed to pose as a potential terrorist among the suspects was used as an informant in the investigation.

The informant began working for the Government in 2004, after his second drug-trafficking conviction in New York. He quickly proved to be a credible source.

He was sent to meet with Mr Defreitas last year and was introduced by an unidentified third party. Mr Defreitas quickly accepted the informant as legitimate, saying he was sure they knew each other through a Brooklyn mosque.

The informant was convincing. Mr Defreitas, according to a federal complaint, believed the informant "had been sent by Allah to be the one" to pull off the bombing.

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 the attack on an underground jet-fuel pipeline conspired to give counter-terrorism agents insight and evidence that was otherwise unattainable.

While Mr Defreitas made four reconnaissance missions to the airport with the informant, federal authorities recorded each one on audio and video.