A 51-year-old Guyanese man took the stand yesterday in the trial of former PNC parliamentarian Abdul Kadir and ex-airline employee Rusell Defreitas and testified that he was recruited for the plot to blow up the JFK airport which was called “The Shining” because the inferno would have lit up the entire borough of Queens.
According to the New York Daily News, Guyanese Donald Nero, said he was recruited to join the conspiracy by alleged ringleader Defreitas, a former airport worker with a grudge against America.
“According to Mr Defreitas when the explosion takes place, you can see the explosion of the airport throughout Queens,” Nero told the Brooklyn Federal Court.
The plan to blow up fuel tanks and fuel lines in 2006 was motivated by Defreitas’ hatred of the US for supporting Israel, Nero said.
“America was putting missiles, bombs, war equipment on planes to send to Israel to kill Palestinians,” Nero said. “He [Defreitas] said he put those things personally on planes,” Nero was quoted as saying in the report.
Assistant US Attorney Berit Berger then asked the witness if the plotters were aware an attack would cause carnage beyond economic damage.
“According to what was said about ‘The Shining’ of Queens, there was going to be destruction of a lot of buildings,” Nero replied. “At the airport there’s a lot of people going in and out of the airport,” he further added.
“There was talk about people getting killed. Women, children, pregnant women. Some people was saying this is a sacrifice we have to make. Some people were saying ‘collateral damage,‘“ the witness said. According to the Daily News, Nero said before he backed out of the plot, he heard discussions about seeking support from high-ranking Al Qaeda terrorist Adnan Shukrijumah implicated this week in another plot to bomb Manhattan subways.
The defendants acknowledged they needed financial and logistical help to carry out the airport attack. “We thought he (Shukrijumah) would be able to bring his (mujahadeen) fighting skills to us,” Nero testified.
Defreitas and co-defendant Abdul Kadir face life in prison if convicted of the terror charges.
Nero said he has pleaded guilty to his role in the conspiracy. Asked where he now lives, he said, “Bureau of Prisons, United States of America.”
Kadir and Defreitas face life in prison if they are convicted.
One of their co-defendants, Abdel Nur, also a citizen of Guyana, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to one count of providing support to terrorists while the fourth person charged, Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, has been granted a separate trial at a later date owing to a medical condition.
