New York airport terrorism suspect convicted in bombing plot
sfgate.com
A New York terrorism suspect was found guilty of participating in a failed plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Kareem Ibrahim, 65, of Trinidad, was convicted today by a federal jury in Brooklyn, New York. Prosecutors accused Ibrahim of joining the plan in May 2007 and of convincing the plotters to seek financial and logistical assistance from Iran. The scheme was foiled in its planning stages with the aid of a government informant who infiltrated the group and recorded its conversations.
"The defendant in this case was caught red-handed, captured on tape committing the very crimes with which he is charged," Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall Miller told jurors in his closing argument on May 24. "Kareem Ibrahim agreed to join the plot to attack JFK Airport."
The attacks, hatched by Russell Defreitas, a former cargo worker at the airport, were designed to blow up fuel lines and tanks and, ultimately, "the whole of Kennedy," Defreitas said in a recorded conversation. Three men, including Defreitas, have already been sentenced in the case. Ibrahim's trial, presided over by U.S. District Judge Dora Irizarry, began with opening statements May 10.
Ibrahim, an imam and leader of the Shiite Muslim community in Trinidad and Tobago, is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21. He faces life in prison.
Other Plotters
"We're going to be thinking about the appropriateness of an appeal," Michael Hueston, a lawyer for Ibrahim, said after the verdict.
Defreitas, 67, a U.S. citizen and native of Guyana, and Abdul Kadir, 59, a former member of Guyana's parliament, were sentenced to life in prison after a jury convicted them in August. Abdel Nur, 61, a Guyanese citizen who pleaded guilty on the eve of last year's trial, was sentenced to 15 years. The informant, Steven Francis, testified at both trials.
Ibrahim, who was slated to be tried last year with the others, was granted a separate proceeding due to a medical condition.
"I just went along and hoped it would fizzle out," Ibrahim testified at his trial on May 23. "It wasn't my intention to further the plot."
Become Martyrs
Ibrahim admitted on cross-examination that he told Defreitas they would have to blow up the airport's control tower and that the attackers must be prepared to become martyrs by dying while carrying out the plan.
The plot members sought support from Abu Bakr, leader of the group Jamaat Al Muslimeen, or JAM, which had staged a 1990 coup attempt in Trinidad that resulted in two dozen deaths, according to prosecutors.
They hoped to get help either from JAM directly or by JAM introducing them to Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, according to prosecutors. Shukrijumah is wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the U.S. and is a member of al-Qaeda, the Muslim terrorist group formerly led by Osama bin Laden, according to court papers.
Ibrahim convinced the JFK plotters to approach revolutionary leaders in Iran instead of using JAM because Bakr had recently been criminally charged in Trinidad, according to prosecutors in the office of U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn.
Kadir, who was a friend of Ibrahim, was arrested on a plane en route to Iran.
'Right Hands'
Defreitas, in a meeting with Ibrahim present, compared the scheme to the Sept. 11 attacks, and said, "Even the Twin Towers can't touch it," according to the complaint. "This can destroy the economy of America for some time if it falls into the right hands."
"In pursuit of a radical terrorist agenda, bent on the destruction of John F. Kennedy Airport and the murder of innocent civilians, Imam Kareem Ibrahim abandoned the true tenets of his religion," Lynch, the federal prosecutor, said in a statement today.
The case is U.S. v. Defreitas, 07-cr-00543, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).
--With assistance from Tiffany Kary in Brooklyn, New York. Editors: Mary Romano, Andrew Dunn
