U.S.: 'Unthinkable' terror devastation prevented

Fourth suspect sought
Since Defreitas retired from his job at the airport in 1995, security has significantly tightened and his knowledge of the operation was severely outdated.

He was arraigned Saturday in federal court in Brooklyn, where he was held pending a bail hearing Wednesday. His court-appointed lawyer told the judge that officials were not revealing the full story, according to published reports.

Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, were in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.

Trevor Paul, the top police official in Trinidad and Tobago, a twin-island nation off Venezuela’s coast, said Kadir and Ibrahim would likely be extradited to the U.S. after court hearings in Trinidad.

Authorities said Kadir and Nur were longtime associates of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, which launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead.

Phone calls to Yasin Abu Bakr, the radical group’s leader, went unanswered Saturday.

Kadir, a member of Parliament in Guyana until last year, was arrested in Trinidad for attempting to secure money for “terrorist operations,” according to a Guyanese police commander who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Wife defends suspect
Isha Kadir, the Guyanese suspect’s wife, said her husband flew from Guyana to Trinidad on Thursday. She said he was arrested Friday as he was boarding a flight from Trinidad to Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a travel visa to attend an Islamic religious conference in Iran.

“We have no interest in blowing up anything in the U.S.,” she said Saturday from the couple’s home in Guyana. “We have relatives in the U.S.”

The U.S. Joint Terrorism Task Force recorded and surveilled the men, learning that Defreitas drove around and videotaped JFK four times in January.

When Defreitas returned from Guyana in February, U.S. customs officials searched his belongings and found Kadir’s name and telephone number in Defreitas’ address book. At that time, Defreitas told an informant he was suspicious the U.S. government was aware of the plot.

Authorities decided to pounce after Defreitas said on May 27 that he was happy to see that the plan, code named “chicken farm,” was moving forward, according to the criminal complaint.

Defreitas was nabbed Friday night walking out of a Brooklyn diner.

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