JFK airport bomb plot mastermind given life term

CONVICTED ex-air cargo worker Russell Defreitas, has received a life sentence for his role as mastermind behind the John F Kennedy International Airport bomb plot he hoped would rival 9/11.


The 67-year-old Guyanese-born US citizen recruited fellow conspirators Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament and Abdel Nur, a Guyanese citizen, who plotted to "cause major economic loss in the United States", said prosecutors.


Defreitas told an informant on a recruitment drive in 2006 that he began planning the attack when working at the airport in the 1990s "before terrorism started in this country", reported the Wall Street Journal.


Before his arrest, the government informant had provided accommodation to Defreitas in Brooklyn, New York over five months. Defence lawyers said the former air cargo worker's plot did not materialise into "concrete" steps.


During the time period between 2006 and 2007 he sought to gain links with the Trinidad terrorist group Jamaat al Muslimeen (JAM), allegedly to finance and gain technical and personnel expertise.


The 61-year old Kadir received a life sentence in August for his part in the plot to blow up buildings, fuel tanks and the Buckeye JFK pipeline that feeds eight million gallons of jet fuel into the airport.


Nur's sentence of 15 years will be carried out at a federal medical centre while being treated for lung cancer, reduced through a plea appeal.


A fourth accused, Kareem Ibrahim, will go to trial in April but denies any part in the fuel tank bomb plot.
(Source:http://www.schednet.com)