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Four arrested over alleged New York terrorist bomb plot

Four men accused of trying to wage a holy war against America were due in court today over an alleged terrorist plot to bomb two New York synagogues and shoot down military planes.

The men were arrested last night after leaving what they believed were explosives in cars outside Riverdale Temple and the Riverdale Jewish Centre in the Bronx area of the city, authorities said. The bombs were fakes and obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to officials.

The New York police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said that following the arrests one of the men had said they wanted to kill Jews.

Speaking at news conference today, he said: "They stated that they wanted to commit Jihad. They were disturbed about what happened in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that Muslims were being killed."

None of the four suspects had any known connection to al-Qaida, Kelly said.

The arrests came after a long-running investigation that began in Newburgh, about 70 miles (110km) north of New York city. The four men were expected to appear in court charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, the US attorney's office said.

The men were also allegedly plotting to shoot down military planes from the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart airport in Newburgh.

The New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg, said: "While the bombs these terrorists attempted to plant tonight were – unbeknownst to them – fake, this latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real."

The men were identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen.


Three of them are said to be converts to Islam, include Payen who occasionally attended a Newburgh mosque. His statements on Islam often had to be corrected, according to its assistant imam, Hamin Rashada.

The plot was discovered after the men bought inactive missiles and explosives from the FBI informant.

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie, who said his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war and the killing of Muslims by the US military. Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America", it is alleged.

In October that year the informant began meeting with the defendants at a Newburgh house fitted with hidden cameras and microphones.

Last month, the four men selected the synagogue and the community centre they intended to hit, according to prosecution papers. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard base.

The New York state governor, David Paterson, said three of the men were US citizens and one of Haitian descent. "This case clearly illustrates that the threat of terrorism in New York is persistent ... (and) affects all of our communities, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity," he told Reuters.

Post je objavljen 21.05.2009. u 23:19 sati.