Robert Dreyfuss / The Nation – 2009-05-25 22:48:43
http://www.alternet.org/world/140209/fbi_blows_it%3A_supposed_terror_plot_against_ny_synagogues_is_bogus/
NEW YORK (May 23, 2009) — By the now, it’s maddeningly familiar. A scary terrorist plot is announced. Then it’s revealed that the suspects are a hapless bunch of ne’er-do-wells or run-of-the-mill thugs without the slightest connection to any terrorists at all, never mind to Al Qaeda. Finally, the last piece of the puzzle: the entire plot is revealed to have been cooked up by a scummy government agent-provocateur.
I’ve seen this movie before.
In this case, the alleged perps — Onta Williams, James Cromitie, David Williams, and Laguerre Payen — were losers, ex-cons, drug addicts. Al Qaeda they’re not. Without the assistance of the agent who entrapped them, they would never have dreamed of committing political violence, nor would they have had the slightest idea about where to acquire plastic explosives or a Stinger missile. That didn’t stop prosecutors from acting as if they’d captured Osama bin Laden himself. Noted the Los Angeles Times:
Prosecutors called it the latest in a string of homegrown terrorism plots hatched after Sept. 11. “It’s hard to envision a more chilling plot,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Eric Snyder said in court Thursday. He described all four suspects as “eager to bring death to Jews.”
Actually, it’s hard to imagine a stupider, less competent, and less important plot. The four losers were ensnared by a creepy FBI agent who hung around the mosque in upstate New York until he found what he was looking for. Here’s the New York Times account:
Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, the imam at the mosque where the authorities say the confidential informant first encountered the men, said none of the men were active in the mosque. …
Mr. Cromitie was there last June, and he met a stranger. He had no way of knowing that the stranger’s path to the mosque began in 2002, when he was arrested on federal charges of identity theft. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, and became a confidential informant for the F.B.I. He began showing up at the mosque in Newburgh around 2007, Mr. Muhammad said.
The stranger’s behavior aroused the imam’s suspicions. He invited other worshipers to meals, and spoke of violence and jihad, so the imam said he steered clear of him. “There was just something fishy about him,” Mr. Muhammad said. Members “believed he was a government agent.”
Mr. Muhammad said members of his congregation told him the man he believed was the informant offered at least one of them a substantial amount of money to join his “team.”
So a creepy thug buttonholes people at a mosque, foaming at the mouth about violence and jihad? This is law enforcement? Just imagine if someone did this at a local church, or some synagogue. And the imam says the people “believed he was a government agent.”
Preying on these losers, none of whom were apparently actual Muslims, the “confidential informant” orchestrated the acquisition of a disabled Stinger missile to shoot down military planes and cooked up a wild scheme about attacking a Jewish center in the Bronx.
It gets even more pathetic:
The only one of the four suspects who appears to have aroused any suspicion was Payen, a Haitian native who attended the Newburgh mosque. Assistant imam Hamid Rashada said his dishevelment and odd behavior disturbed some members, said the assistant imam, Hamid Rashada.
When Payen appeared in court, defense attorney Marilyn Reader described him as “intellectually challenged” and on medication for schizophrenia. The Associated Press said that when he was asked if he understood the proceedings, Payen replied: “Sort of.”
Despite the pompous statements from Mayor Bloomberg of New York and other politicians, including Representative Peter King, the whole story is bogus. The four losers may have been inclined to violence, and they may have harbored a virulent strain of anti-Semitism. But it seems that the informant whipped up their violent tendencies and their hatred of Jews, cooked up the plot, incited them, arranged their purchase of weapons, and then had them busted. To ensure that it made headlines, the creepy informant claimed to be representing a Pakistani extremist group, Jaish-e Muhammad, a bona fide terrorist organization. He wasn’t, of course.
It is disgusting and outrageous that the FBI is sending provocateurs into mosques.
The headlines reinforce the very fear that Dick Cheney is trying to stir up. The story strengthens the narrative that the “homeland” is under attack. It’s not. As I’ve written repeatedly, since 9/11 not a single American has even been punched in the nose by an angry Muslim, as far as I can tell. Plot after plot —
• The destruction of the Brooklyn Bridge!
• Bombing the New York Subways!
• Taking down the Sears Tower!
• Bombing the Prudential building in Newark! —
proved to be utter nonsense.
Robert Dreyfuss is the author of “Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam” (Henry Holt/Metropolitan Books).
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Rabbis, Ministers Vow to Stand by
Newburgh Mosque’s Members after
Alleged Terror Plot
Doyle Murphy / Times Herald-Record
CITY OF NEWBURGH (May 23, 2009) — Half a dozen religious leaders of various denominations gathered at a Newburgh mosque Friday to pledge support for the city’s Muslim community after federal agents on Wednesday revealed a homegrown terror plot.
“We deplore the whole thing,” Rabbi Larry Freedman said of the alleged plot, “but we’re here as friends, and we’re here as neighbors.”
For two days, the phone had rung at Masjid al-Ikhlas. People all over the world had begun to hear the name of the mosque on Washington Street in Newburgh. A complaint filed by the FBI claimed one of the four men accused of plotting simultaneous attacks in the Bronx and at Stewart Airport did part of his planning at the masjid. Questions came fast. Television satellite trucks camped out in the parking lot, and everyone wanted to know what had happened there.
So the mosque held a news conference Friday. They called every reporter they could, and then they turned over the microphone – to Rabbi Freedman, to Newburgh Deputy Mayor Regina Angelo, to the Rev. Charles Campbell and on and on.
The mosque has roots that stretch back 17 years in the city. Members have held health fairs where doctors provided basic health care to the legions of Newburgh’s poor. They’ve invited strangers in for dinner. They’ve grown to 100 or so regular members and swell well beyond that for holidays. Their membership is as diverse as the city: Doctors pray next to soldiers, teenagers and ex-prisoners.
Two suspects accused in the foiled attacks passed through sporadically, members said – they do not represent what happens there.
Imam Salahuddin Muhammad hoped people would separate the allegations against the suspects, and the actions of the hundred or so Muslims who regularly attended the mosque and the millions of other Muslims around the world.
The supporters who joined him in front of the microphones and television cameras said they understood. “They’re very dear to me,” the Rev. Steve Ruelke said of his friends at the mosque. When it was over, Muhammad sank into a folding chair set up just outside the door and stared out over an empty parking lot.
Posted in accordance with Title 17, Section 107, US Code, for noncommercial, educational purposes.
