Two men of Guyanese origin have been found guilty of plotting a terror attack that involved blowing up fuel tanks and pipelines at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport.
The two suspects were Abdul Kadir, a former MP in Guyana, and Russell Defreitas, a JFK Airport cargo, arrested over three years ago when an informant revealed their plot to the authorities.
Both faced multiple terror-related charges including the “intent to cause death and serious bodily injury,” and “extensive destruction” of the airport's systems and facilities.
Authorities were reported as saying the men received the support of certain militant groups including an Al-Qaeda operative in Guyana and that they planned to detonate an explosion “so massive ... that it could be seen from far, far away,” according to the U.S. Assistant Attorney Zainab Ahmad.
However unlike other recent high-profile cases of planned terror attacks in the U.S., most notably the Christmas-day bomber Umar Farooq Mutallabh and the Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, this plot did not get any further than the conceptual stage.
Further the informant, who recorded the conversations between the two men, was also said to have played an “enabling role” in getting the plot to advance, and the New York Times reported that “the threat as officials described it at the time of the arrests seemed to exceed the suspects' capacity”.
Arguing that the two men's intentions were something else, Mr. Kadir's attorney was quoted as saying that his client had maintained his innocence and “Obviously, he's totally disappointed... There's more than just the evidence Mr. Kadir was coming up against... There's the atmosphere of fear in the country ... of Muslims, Islam and fear of terrorists, especially in New York City.”
The two men will be sentenced on December 15, facing the possibility of life in prison at. Both defendants were reported to be planning to appeal.
