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JFK plot was 'home-grown'
03/06/2007 21:13 - (SA)
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| New York's John F Kennedy International Airport is seen in this
June 2 2007 picture. (Seth Wenig, AP)
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Washington - A foiled plot to bomb New York's main international airport was a "home-grown" plan not directly linked to al-Qaeda, a top US intelligence official said on Sunday, although the militant Islamic network may have inspired it, he said.
The New York plotters had "as far as we know, no direct ties to al-Qaeda", FBI assistant director John Miller told ABC news on Sunday. But he appeared to link the planned attacks to the al-Qaeda network's influence.
"They pump out the propaganda encouraging it, while they plan the next big one (attack), and I think you can see that in the eight or so plots that have been unravelled in the last roughly two years" on US soil, he said.
"When you're looking at inspired through the internet, home-grown extremists, well they can pop up anywhere." Jamaat Al Muslimeen
The New York plot allegedly was linked to Jamaat Al Muslimeen, described by justice officials as an international network of Muslim extremists from the United States, Guyana and Trinidad.
Jamaat Al Muslimeen is "a group that's been engaged in violence. They've taken hostages", Miller said.
Four suspected Islamic extremists from South America and the Caribbean have been charged over the plot, including an American citizen who was a cargo handler at the airport, and Abdul Kadir, a former member of Guyana's parliament.
According to US authorities, the plot went back to January last year and would have involved blowing up buildings, fuel tanks and pipelines at the airport, which handles 1 000 flights and more than 120 000 passengers daily.
"They had done up to four surveillances. They were searching for funding and explosives. So on that level, it was certainly operational," Miller said. Queens
Authorities said the explosions would also have devastated large portions of nearby Queens, a borough of New York City.
The plot was uncovered barely three weeks after the arrest of six suspected Islamic radicals on charges of plotting to attack the US army base of Fort Dix in New Jersey.
Other alleged plots believed to have been thwarted in New York since the September 11 attacks included plans to blow up a subway station and to bomb commuter train tunnels linking Manhattan to New Jersey.
Miller downplayed earlier reports that al-Qaeda had a minimal presence in the United States, stressing that the movement's "propaganda" aimed to inspire home-grown plotters.
"Qaeda continues every day to try and plan the larger, spectacular attack, something along the lines of a 9/11 equivalent," he said, referring to the massive attacks on the United States in 2001.
"At the same time, they pump out an awful lot of propaganda aimed at getting those who think they can find the wherewithal to act on their own to do that."
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