New Delhi: A plan to set off explosives in the fuel line that feeds John F Kennedy International airport was foiled Saturday. Four people, including a former member of Guyana's parliament, were charged for plotting to blow up New York's John F Kennedy International Airport, the FBI officials were quoted as saying by CNN.
The officials warned it could have been a major catatostrophe had the terrorists succeeded. The plan—described by US Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf as “one of the most chilling plots imaginable”—involved a former airport worker who is a US citizen of Guyanese descent and a former member of the Guyanese parliament, who is also an imam.
The target, law enforcement officials say, was not airplane flights but fuel tanks and fuel lines. A wiretap transcript the FBI gave CNN indicated the plotters targeted the airport because of the popularity of its namesake.
"Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States.... This whole country will be in mourning. It's like you can kill the man twice," the transcript quotes one suspect as saying.
Officials said the plot was revealed when the conspirators tried to recruit a person who was police informer. The plot had been in the works since January last year and law enforcement officials said the conspirators planned to tap into the international network of Muslim extremists in the United States, Guyana and Trinidad.
The plot allegedly involved Jamaat Al Muslimeen, described by officials as an international network of Muslim extremists from the US, Guyana, and Trinidad, according to the Justice Department. The four suspects were charged with conspiring to attack JFK airport by planting explosives to blow up the airport's major jet fuel supply tanks and pipeline. Officials said the jet fuel pipeline the plotters planned to target is 64 km long and carries jet fuel to two other New York area airports - LaGuardia and Newark Liberty.
The investigators said the airport was never in danger and the attack as planned was not "technically feasible".
News of the alleged plot comes just weeks after six alleged Islamic radicals were charged with plotting an attack on a US Army base in the northeastern state of New Jersey.
The six were detained last month and charged with plotting to kill "as many soldiers as possible" at the Fort Dix base.
Federal authorities said the group -- which included three brothers from the former Yugoslavia, one man born in Turkey and another born in Jordan -- were not believed to have any connection with foreign Islamic militant groups.
With inputs from agencies
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