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JFK Plotters Courted Extremist Group

FBI more concerned about JAM than bomb

By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff

Posted Jun 3, 2007 3:12 PM CDT
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(Newser) – The four men accused of plotting to terrorize New York’s JFK airport were courting the support of Jamaat al-Muslimeen, a Caribbean-based extremist group. In a blow-by-blow of the plotters' movements and motives, the New York Times reveals plans to meet the group notorious for a botched 1990 coup in Trinidad, but now better known as drug runners.

The JAM connection is one reason the FBI blew the whistle on the four schemers. "They didn’t have the money and they didn’t have the bombs,” an official told the Times, “but if we let it go it could have gotten there; they could have gotten the J.A.M. fully involved, and we wouldn’t know where it could have gone.”

U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf, left, Mark J. Mershon from the FBI, center, and New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly lead an FBI news conference in New York, Saturday, June 2, 2007. Three people were arrested and one other was being sought Saturday in connection to a plan...
U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf, left, Mark J. Mershon from the FBI, center, and New York Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly lead an FBI news conference in New York, Saturday, June 2, 2007. Three...   (Associated Press)
A plane passes over the Lindenwood Diner toward John F. Kennedy Airport, Saturday, June 2, 2007 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK air cargo employee, was arrested outside of the diner in a plot to destroy John...
A plane passes over the Lindenwood Diner toward John F. Kennedy Airport, Saturday, June 2, 2007 in the Brooklyn borough of New York. Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK...   (Associated Press)
Armed Port Authority Police Department officers keep watch inside the British Airways terminal of JFK Airport in this, Aug. 10, 2006, file photo in New York. Federal authorities announced Saturday, June 2, 2007, they had broken up a suspected Muslim terrorist cell planning a chilling attack to destroy John F....
Armed Port Authority Police Department officers keep watch inside the British Airways terminal of JFK Airport in this, Aug. 10, 2006, file photo in New York. Federal authorities announced Saturday, June...   (Associated Press)
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FBI suspects wider extremist involvement
Los Angeles Times

 
terrorism • terror plots • extremists • homeland security • JFK Airport • Jamaat al Muslimeen

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