Foiled bomb plot in JFK airport was "home-grown", says officials

ATTENTION - ADDS quotes ///

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2007 (AFP) - A foiled plot to bomb New York's main international airport was a "home-grown" plan not directly linked to Al-Qaeda, though the militant Islamic network may have inspired it, a top US justice official said Sunday.

The plotters had "as far as we know, no direct ties to Al-Qaeda," FBI Assistant Director John Miller told ABC news on Sunday.

But he appeared to connect the planned attacks to the Al-Qaeda 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 unraveled 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 plot against the JFK airport allegedly was linked to Jamaat Al Muslimeen, described by justice officials as an international network of Muslim extremists from the United States, Guyana and Trinidad.
Jamaat Al Muslimeen is "a group that's been engaged in violence. They've taken hostages," Miller said.

Four suspected Islamic extremists from South America and the Caribbean have been charged over the plot, including a US citizen Russell Defreitas who was a cargo handler at the airport, and Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament. Three of the suspects have been arrested and a fourth, Guyanese national Abdel Nur, is still being sought.

In Port-of-Spain, Commissioner of Police Trevor Paul said Saturday that Kadir and Trinidadian Kareem Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on Friday and Saturday respectively.

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 1,000 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," Miller said.

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

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there was "no direct connection to core Al Qaeda" but said the suspects were attracted to the terror network's ideas.

"It's a philosophy. And they're motivated by the same hatred that motivates Al Qaeda," Kelly said on CBS television.

Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein praised authorities for disrupting the plot but said the country was still under threat from a possible terrorist attack.

"Clearly, this was nipped in the bud before it developed, and I think that's very impressive and we all should be very thankful," Feinstein told CNN television.

"Having said that, our alert status has to remain," she said.

The plot was uncovered barely three weeks after another alleged "home-grown" terror plan was uncovered with the arrest of six suspected Islamic radicals on charges of conspiring to attack the US army base of Fort Dix in New Jersey.

Other alleged plots believed to have been thwarted in New York since the September 11 attacks included plans to blow up a subway station and to bomb commuter train tunnels linking Manhattan to New Jersey.

Miller downplayed earlier reports that Al-Qaeda had a minimal presence in the United States, stressing that the movement's "propaganda" aimed to inspire home-grown plotters.

"Qaeda continues every day to try and plan the larger, spectacular attack, something along the lines of a 9/11 equivalent," he said, referring to the massive attacks on the United States in 2001.

"At the same time, they pump out an awful lot of propaganda aimed at getting those who think they can find the wherewithal to act on their own to do that."