By Michael D. Roberts
He was a rastaman before he became a Muslim who came to the United States about 25 years ago and at age 63 was facing some very hard times. Several years ago he was laid off from his cargo handling job at John F. Kennedy International Airport and resorted to sleeping on trains from time to time, collecting welfare, and selling incense and books at street corners. Sometime ago, say people who knew him, he even dabbled in fixing air conditioners to sell in his native Guyana – a scheme that went belly up because he was not mechanically inclined.
This is the profile of the terrorist mastermind whose cell which included three others, according to US law enforcement officials, was planning to blow up fuel farms and pipelines at JFK International. Guyana-born and a naturalized US Citizen Russell DeFraitas is now under arrest and charged for this crime under US anti-terrorism laws. His arrest came after an 18-month investigation, numerous trips to Guyana and Trinidad and recorded statements that led authorities to believe that this was the real deal.
In a 33-page indictment DeFraitas, Abdul Kadir and Abdel Nur, both of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad are all charged as co-defendants. The press reaction has been predictably swift and acerbic with people like New York’s Police Commissioner Ray Kelly obliquely implying that the Caribbean may be the new frontier in the war on terror. Not to be outdone the mainstream media entered into a feeding frenzy and gorged themselves full on this brand new terror plot involving immigrants.
When the news broke out sundry news reporters and organizations all rushed to outdo each other in hyping the plot. Sensationalism replaced cold sober investigative journalism as politicians, media outlets, and newly minted terrorism experts all tripped over themselves in their mad scramble to supply the public with the most salacious tit-bits with an eye on the ratings. The strident noises and deafening shouts proclaimed that had the attack succeeded it would have been more devastating than September 11. Of course, no evidence to substantiate these claims was presented.
But the opening gambit in the case should have raised a red flag since it bore the now very familiar hallmarks and modus operandi of recent home-grown terror charges. First and foremost in the words of law enforcement the suspects had carried out no acts of terror and apparently, judging from the statements by officialdom, lacked the means to do so since, again, in their own words, the plan was “only operational.”
Then there is the methodology that resulted in the indictments. The central figure in the alleged plot was a paid informant working for the FBI and whose history and motivation raises quite a few concerns.
But while the networks cherry picked the most media-attractive statements found in the indictment they conveniently refused to examine and analyze the contents of the indictment since raising questions and thinking has become a very difficult and demanding exercise for many mainstream journalists and their news organizations. And its is not that one dismisses out of hand any allegation of a terrorist plot but the fact that he mainstream media all now march to the terrorism drumbeat.
Characterizing the foiled plot as the worst threat since 9-11 the networks deliberately ramped up the fear factor by canvassing JFK international airport and asking suggestive questions to ill-informed passengers about their supposed “brush with death.” All the while seeking to demonize these Caribbean nationals without ever once reaching out to their consular representatives in New York City, community leaders or government representatives back in the region to strike a journalistic balance.
Vying to outdo each other the New York Post – no friend of immigrants – concluded that the alleged plot was “an inferno plan” and that the plot was going “to do calamitous damage to JFK International Airport and surrounding residential neighborhoods underscores yet again the overarching threat Islamist terrorism poses to America.”
The Daily News trumped and followed suit carrying five pages of “plot” news waxing idiotic with a front-page headline caption “Evil At At Table 8” after interviewing a waitress who served a meal to DeFraitas minutes before he was arrested by the cops at a Brooklyn diner.
The indictment sheds light on the entire sordid scenario and anybody with a modicum of common sense would soon realize that the government’s star witness, simply called”the source,” was identified as a convicted drug trafficker who cut a deal with law enforcement to have a pending jail sentence reduced and for money, and who agreed to be an informant and penetrate the alleged terrorist cell. While one must recognize the important role of informants in obtaining quality intelligence and information the character of the informant is very important since it goes to motivation, lying and embellishments.
Indeed, the evidence, according to the indictment, rests on a series of recordings that took place between the informant and the defendants since July 2006. There is also a record of meetings and conversations between DeFraitas and individuals in Guyana, identified in the indictment as “Individuals A through F.” This is where the plot, pardon the pun, thickens.
According to the indictment the six men only named “A through F” are alleged to have proposed a wide range of terrorist activities including in true Alice in Wonderland style smuggling “mujahideen from Asia into Guyana and then into the United States,” blowing up US helicopters at the Guyanese airport and the plan to blow up the JFK fuel system.
On this last proposal, these unnamed individuals also suggested the use of dynamite and chemical explosives and sought advice on how to obtain these materials. One of these individuals also proposed that the plotters seek the assistance of a Trinidadian Islamist group, Jamaat al Muslimeen. In the account of these conversations, Defreitas is not quoted as saying much of anything.
Naturally, this begs the question as to if and when these six “individuals A through F” will be charged and why has the mainstream media not revealed this to the public. The blood-curdling accounts in the media largely reflected the highly charged language of US prosecutors and police officials in presenting the indictment. For example, Roslynn Mauskopf, the US attorney in Brooklyn, New York, in announcing the charges, said, “Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction.” She added, “The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable.”
But even this kind of apocalyptic language that conjures up images of “mushroom clouds” and four horsemen with flaming swords was quickly downplayed when airport security officials and pipeline experts scoffed at the idea of the dramatic damage and explosion at the fuel farm would have caused. In fact, the federal indictment’s claim that such an explosion could travel along pipelines wreaking havoc along Linden Boulevard, Brooklyn, New Jersey and all across Queens has been debunked by JFK’s own experts who say the pipelines are equipped with safety valves that shut off the flow of fuel in the event of a leak and that there is simply not enough oxygen in the pipelines to sustain a prolonged fire.
Indeed, the New York Times also published an article that was not only highly skeptical about the plot but quoted a legal expert as saying that “there unfortunately has been a tendency to shout too loudly about such cases.” Such overstating the sophistication of alleged terror plots helps to sustain a climate of fear that forces the public to look away when constitutional desecration is being conducted and civil liberties are being eroded.
The problem for the Bush Administration is that in recent times there has been a succession of terror cases that have been hyped, played up in the media for all of three days only to be never heard about again. All have involved informants whose character and motivations were questionable. Of course, no one should ever minimize the threat of terrorism or the fact that here are many people who would want to do America harm. Or the fact that home-grown terrorists and terrorism is a fact of life in a post-9-11 world.
Nor can one fail to see that each new alleged case of terrorism helps the Administration justify its war on terror and “staying the course in Iraq.” The screeching headlines and even more strident bombast and chest-thumping that occurs on national television and radio as soon as these plots are revealed, foiled or uncovered help to cow the citizenry and remove attention away from the chronic social problems at home and the carnage in Iraq.
Things become all the more questionable when one considers that the organization in Trinidad and Tobago that the alleged plotters were wooing for money, means and blessings is a major league joke. Jamaat al Muslimeen is an organization led by Yasin Abu Bakr (Lenox Phillip) whose claim to fame is that it staged a failed coup in 1990. Today, the organization tries to do humanitarian work and some of its members have been put on trial for criminal activity.
Abu Bakr, is a lucky loud-mouth who dodged a jail sentence in 1990 and then in 2006. Most Trinidadians feel that he’s a nuisance and that operating in Trinidad as a terrorist organization is near impossible given the people’s disdain for the Muslimeen. He has little support in Trinidad and his organization is at best a criminal enterprise that operates on the basest of instincts – greed and exploitation. In short, the Jamaat al Muslimeen is nothing but a roving street gang plying its trade of theft, extortion, murder and mayhem.
Lastly, there is the evidence as presented by the government that DeFraitas took photos of JFK and videotaped key installations. My wonder is why he did not simply use Google Earth instead and save himself the hassle of having to physically go to JFK. Then there is the question of the men’s ages. DeFraitas is 63, Abdul Kadir is 55, Kareem Ibrahim is 61 and Abdel Nur is 57. These men are Caribbean born and bred and many in the New York Caribbean – American community say that it is very hard to envision these over-the-hill men engaging in terrorism.
DeFraitas is described as a mixed up, divorced and a sometime homeless man, Nur sells goods between Guyana and Trinidad, Kadir is basically poor and hustles a living any way that he can and Ibrahim may have been simply the contact man. Hardly the kind of fanatics who want to blow up JFK. But stranger things have happened and I suspect that the federal government will present a case against these men. Perhaps all that the indictment alleges is true down to the last detail. Maybe the informant even now is cutting his deal.
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