Terror Plot Foiled, 4 Arrested

UPDATE, May 22, 2009: Terror plot suspects have lengthy criminal records

The four men accused of plotting to bomb New York City synagogues and shoot down military airplanes with missiles are down-and-out ex-convicts living on the margins in a faded industrial city.

One is a petty criminal who spent a day in 2002 snatching purses and shooting at people with a BB gun from an SUV. His lawyer calls him "intellectually challenged."

Three have histories of drug convictions, one of them for selling narcotics in a school zone. The man prosecutors portrayed as the instigator of the scheme said he smoked pot the day he planned to blow up the temples.

They went to Wal-Mart for cameras to photograph their targets and had to call around to various contacts to get guns, prosecutors said.

But if they sometimes seemed amateurish, the men were dangerous people fueled by their hatred for Jews and America, prosecutors said.

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James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen were planning to carry out terrorist attacks in New York.

Someone should alert Janet Napolitano, Department of Homeland Security secretary. Her concern about Right-wing extremism, especially the danger that U.S. veterans and pro-life proponents pose to the country, is misguided.

On the eve of Obama's speech about issues related to the closing of Gitmo, we have an example of a real threat.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The FBI arrested four men Wednesday in what authorities called a plot to detonate a bomb outside a synagogue and to shoot military planes with guided missiles.

Officials told The Associated Press the arrests came after a long-running undercover operation that began in Newburgh, N.Y., about 70 miles north of New York City.

James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, the U.S. attorney's office said.

Three of the defendants are U.S. citizens and one is of Haitian descent, officials said.

The men had planned to detonate a car with plastic explosives outside a temple in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale and to shoot military planes at the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, authorities said.

The defendants planned to "destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives," Acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said.

The religious targets were the Riverdale Temple, founded in 1947, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, authorities said.

"This latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor is expected to appear at Riverdale Jewish Center morning services with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

The defendants, in their efforts to acquire weapons, dealt with an informant acting under law enforcement supervision, authorities said. The FBI and other agencies monitored the men and provided an inactive missile and inert C-4 to the informant for the defendants, a federal complaint said.

The investigation had been under way for about a year.

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.

Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," they said in the complaint.

...Beginning in April 2009, the four men selected the synagogue and the community center they intended to hit, it said. They also conducted surveillance of military planes at the Air National Guard Base, it said.

The suspects were arrested Wednesday night, shortly after planting a mock explosive device in the trunk of a car outside the Riverdale Temple and two mock bombs in the backseat of a car outside the Jewish Center, authorities said.

Because this plot was foiled, American lives were spared. Thanks to the FBI and all those involved in breaking up this plan to kill innocents.

The investigation of the four men had been underway for about a year.

Would any Leftists like to complain about the Bush administration's methods of surveillance to thwart terror?

As Mayor Bloomberg says, we have to remain vigilant.

The world hasn't changed just because Obama sits in the Oval Office.

Terror is no less of a concern because Michelle Obama is now the first lady and wears sleeveless dresses.

I was thinking that if these four men had been arrested in May 2002, the reaction to this story would have been so different.

In the months after 9/11, people took the threat of terror more seriously. The images of 9/11 were still so vivid. This story would have been the BIG news of the moment.

For the most part, I get the feeling these arrests are being taken in stride. While the story is getting some attention, I don't think it's causing the alarm that it would have seven years ago.

More, from the New York Times:

Law enforcement officials identified the four men arrested as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh. Some of the men were of Arabic descent, and one is of Haitian descent, according to law enforcement officials. At least three were United States citizens, according to officials. They are all Muslim, a law enforcement official said.

Mr. Cromitie, who is of Afghan descent, had told the informant that he was upset about the war in Afghanistan and that that he wanted to “do something to America.” Mr. Cromitie stated “the best target” — the World Trade Center — “was hit already,” according to the complaint.

Cromitie was upset about the war in Afghanistan, the one that Obama is escalating.

These Muslim men, three of them U.S. citizens, wanted to "do something to America."

Apparently, Obama being in office didn't give them the sort of hope for change that they were moved to scratch their plans to bomb synagogues and shoot down U.S. military planes.

The people who believed that President Bush was the root of anti-Americanism and terror are nuts.

They fail to acknowledge all the terrorist attacks on U.S. soil and U.S. interests during the Clinton administration. That had nothing to do with President Bush.

If they could have succeeded in their plot, these men would have killed. Obama didn't change their mindset.

Bottom line: We cannot let down our guard. We must remind Obama and the Democrats that they cannot jeopardize our safety to score political points.