The Plot to Blow up JFK Airport

A four man terrorist cell with a poorly conceived but quite grandiose plan to blow up the fuel pipelines running into JFK Airport have had their plot nipped in the bud. The plotters included an ex JFK cargo-handler and a former member of Guyana's parliament. We are being told that the plot was foiled with the aid of an informant recording their conversations. However it's equally (and probably more) likely that the plotters were being spied upon by the covert communications intercept satellite system known as ECHELON (link). Echelon has been in use for US domestic phone, fax and data intercepts since shortly after 911. Its computers grind through phone conversations looking for key terrorist-related words from a National Security Agency dictionary of tens of thousands of distinctive words and giveaway phrases in many different languages. Satellite ground stations in the UK, France, Australia, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Japan (and many others) pass the downloaded intercepts for decryption, analysis and collation direct to NSA HQ in Fort Meade, just outside Washington DC. To comply with constitution based rules against US intelligence agencies spying on its own citizens, the "product" is sifted and further assessed for intelligence value by an FBI team before being disseminated to additional government departments (and the Pentagon). Authorities say that two suspects were taken into custody on Friday in Trinidad and Tobago. They include Abdul Kadir, a citizen of Guyana and former member of its parliament, and Kareem Ibrahim, a citizen of Trinidad and Tobago. Their extradition was being sought. Russell Defreitas, a US citizen and native of Guyana was arrested in New York on Friday. The suspects are linked to an Islamist extremist group in Trinidad. Comments by the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, at a news conference in New York, were to the effect that: "The devastation that would be caused... is just unthinkable." However experts say that the plot to blow up the 64km pipeline from New Jersey to JFK would have failed, as any explosion would have been localized and not propagated along the pipe to "on airport" fuel farms. Disruption of supplies would have been limited to the time taken to re-link the pipe.The investigation has been ongoing since January 2006. Despite doubts that the plot would have proceeded, let alone succeeded, attention is once again being drawn to the involvement of airport "insiders" in such a plan.