Accused JFK Airport Plotter Was a `Homegrown Extremist,' Prosecutor Says

An ex-airport employee accused of plotting to blow up fuel lines and tanks at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport was a “homegrown extremist,” a prosecutor said in closing arguments at his terrorism trial.

“The years Russell Defreitas spent in this country have been years of quiet, seething rage,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Zainab Ahmad told jurors in federal court today in Brooklyn, New York. “Russell Defreitas gave voice to that anger by devising a plot to blow up JFK.”

Defreitas, a former Evergreen Airlines cargo worker, and Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana who served in that country’s parliament, are charged with participating in a plot hatched in January 2006. They circulated their plan to an international network of Muslim extremists, the government alleges.

The attacks were designed to destroy “the whole of Kennedy,” the largest airport in the New York City area, Defreitas said in a taped conversation played for the jury. The plot was foiled in the planning stages with the aid of an informant, according to prosecutors.

The trial of Defreitas, 67, a U.S. citizen and native of Guyana, and Kadir began June 30 with opening statements. The jury is scheduled to begin its deliberations tomorrow. The two men face life in prison if convicted.

“Russell Defreitas is a man with a small mind, a big mouth and an ugly imagination,” Mildred Whalen, one of his lawyers, told jurors today. “Those are character flaws, not crimes.”

Pushed to Plot

Whalen said the government informant, Steven Francis, pushed Defreitas to pursue the plot, and without him Defreitas wouldn’t have been able to conduct surveillance of the airport.

Defreitas was “a man who takes what’s on offer,” including an apartment the government paid for and rides from Francis “all over New York City,” Whalen said.

The moment Defreitas and Kadir agreed to destroy the airport, they became guilty of conspiracy, and their actions after the fact show they were serious and determined, Ahmad said.

She played tapes in which Kadir instructed Defreitas to get images of the airport from Google Inc.’s Earth mapping service and said he would try to connect him with Abu Bakr for funding and support. Abu Bakr is the head of Jamaat Al Muslimeen, which staged a coup attempt in Trinidad in 1990.

Ahmad said the plotters wanted to get to Abu Bakr to meet “a seasoned terrorist,” Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, who is wanted in connection with possible terrorist threats against the U.S. and who is a member of al-Qaeda, the Muslim terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden.

Failure to Connect

“Lucky for us, the plotters never found Shukrijumah,” Ahmad said.

The mention of Shukrijumah underscores the absurdity of the charges, said Whalen, Defreitas’s lawyer.

“At this point it’s clear that these guys have seen too many Bruce Willis movies and don’t have enough to do with their time,” she told the jurors. “When does stupid, ugly talk become a conspiracy to commit a crime?”

Defreitas could be heard on tape boasting that he worked 20 years at Kennedy, when he worked there only three years, and complaining that he loaded U.S. weapons bound for Israel, when there was testimony that no such weapons are shipped from Kennedy, Whalen said.

Ahmad told the jurors that Kadir’s testimony that he never agreed to be part of the plot and was hoping to “rehabilitate” the others wasn’t credible.

Kadir’s Role

Kadir agreed to let the plotters keep money for the plan in one of his bank accounts and advised Francis to be careful with a Google Earth printout of the airport on a trip to Trinidad with Defreitas to try to meet Bakr, the prosecutor said.

“Kadir gives Steven Francis good advice because he wants the plot to succeed,” she said.

No evidence was introduced to show that Kadir ever contacted anyone on behalf of the alleged plotters, including Bakr or Shukrijumah, and the money would go into his account for his mosque, not a terror plot, Kafahni Nkrumah, a lawyer for Kadir, told the jurors today.

When Kadir mentioned Google Earth to the others, he hadn’t yet been told of the JFK plot, Nkrumah said.

“Abdul Kadir at no time ever had the intent to join this conspiracy,” Nkrumah said. “Abdul Kadir at no time ever assisted Steven Francis or Russell Defreitas in advancing the objectives of this conspiracy.”

A third defendant, Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad, was granted a separate trial at a later date due to a medical condition. Abdel Nur, a citizen of Guyana, pleaded guilty June 29 to one count of providing support to terrorists.

The case is U.S. v. Defreitas, 07-cr-00543, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

To contact the reporter on this story: Thom Weidlich in Brooklyn, New York, at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.

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