Officials said the plot may also have included plans to hit the JFK terminal buildings and aircraft, in addition to the fuel lines.
In discussing JFK airport as a target, Defreitas exulted over JFK airport’s symbolic importance, according to a U.S. Justice Department complaint:
“Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F. Kennedy, wow …. They love John F. Kennedy like he’s the man …. If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It’s like you can kill the man twice. ”
In a later recorded conversation with his coconspirators in May 2007, Defreitas compared the plot to attack JFK airport to the attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, stating, “even the Twin Towers can’t touch it,” adding that, “this can destroy the economy of America for some time.”
Sources said the planning stages of the plot involved surveillance of JFK airport as well as scouting out US properties in Guyana for possible attacks.
Aviation officials said there is no major threat to air travel related to this plot since it was caught in the developmental stages.
One law enforcement official said: “[There was] credible intent to commit violence but it was not operational.”
Officials said the suspects never got hold of explosive devices.
“This was the ultimate hand-and-glove operation between NYPD and FBI,” said U.S. Rep. Peter King, a Republican from Long Island.
The arrests mark the latest in a series of alleged homegrown terrorism plots targeting high-profile American landmarks.
Sounds like what KSJ is doing to TEC and getting away with it…
I don’t see how a pipeline could cause extensive damage….
Now, if a means were developed to ignite the whole tankfarm there would be quite a fire.
DonGander
Very important: these guys are not Palestinians, Arabs or Iranians. These are not guys who have any “dog in the fight” other than Islam.
What matter is their nationality? The war on terror is against militant Islam, not any one nation. Where the extrimists go for refuge depends on how much support a nation gives them, but they are not limited to fighting in the name of the nation, but rather in the name of their religion.
I’ve seen this in muslims here at home — in fact when my daughter asked a friend how she could do something which was contrary to American culture, she responded, “But I’m not American, I’m a muslim.”
Which is what makes this war so difficult — we don’t have a clear identity of the enemy!
Invade the world, invite the world.
I’m glad to see the plan got nipped in the bud. I seems to me that it wouldn’t take too many sticks of dynamite or a bag of C4 to do the job on one tank of fuel and that could give rise to an interesting chain of blow-ups. Of course our liberal minded meadia pooh-poohed the whole idea as not being workable.
I know of one explosive expert, years ago, that proved he could split a multi-ton boulder with two quarter sticks of dynamite and proceeded to prove it – after studying the boulder for awhile. He noted the weakness of the boulder, it’s grain structure, drilled and few holes in which to place the explosives and with a poof that was hard to hear the rock slid apart. The amateurs standing around were dumbfounded. They had tried to shatter the rock with a frontal assault with no sucess.