JFK Jihadists Update. "3 to be extradited in alleged JFK plot" by Andrew O. Selsky for the Associated Press:
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad - A judge Monday ordered three men extradited to the U.S. to face charges in an alleged plot to attack New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and a confidential U.S. document said they planned to seek help from Iran.
Chief Magistrate Sherman McNicolls rejected without comment a defense argument that the men could not be extradited on conspiracy charges under Trinidadian law.
Taped conversations between the alleged conspirators show they planned to seek Tehran's help in a strike intended to dwarf the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a 28-page document signed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Marshall C. Miller and delivered to lawyers here.
"We can try to send someone to Iran to get the movement, the revolutionary movement, and they can discuss that plan there," Trinidadian suspect Kareem Ibrahim, an Islamic cleric, was quoted as saying in the confidential report, which was shown to The Associated Press.
Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen who worked as a cargo handler at the airport until 1995 and is now in custody in New York, told Ibrahim that when contact was made with the Iranians, they should be told the attack should be staged late at night in the winter, because "these are the times they don't respond to nothing. Traffic slow down. Security slow down. Everything slows down," according to the document.
In another conversation, Ibrahim said he had recruited one of his associates, described in the document only as "individual F," who would "travel to Iran and present the plot to militants there."
"He say he will go," Ibrahim is quoted as saying. "All he has to do is renew his passport."
But then U.S. authorities stepped in, apparently before the overture to Iran could be made.
[...]
Richard Clarke-Wills, a lawyer for Abdel Nur — the third defendant in the extradition hearing — said he would appeal the ruling to the country's High Court and a decision should take at least six weeks.
Attorney Rajiv Persad, who represents Ibrahim and Kadir, said he had to speak to the men before deciding whether to pursue an appeal.
David West, a senior official in the Trinidad Attorney General's office, said the U.S. document is convincing.
"The evidence, in my view, was sufficient to warrant the magistrate to commit the defendants to be extradited," West said in a telephone interview.
But Clarke-Wills insisted that a confidential U.S. government informant entrapped the men into plotting to attack the New York airport.
"If it were not for the intervention of this source you would not have these three men before the courts," Clarke-Wills said before the ruling. "They had no terrorist aspirations or ideals ... I have no doubt whatsoever this is a clear case of entrapment."
[...]
He underscored his point with a white T-shirt that proclaimed "No Extradition by Entrapment" in black letters on the back.
Ibrahim, who is from Trinidad, said of the allegations: "It's a movie."
So he's the sort of person U.S. authorities were alluding to when they mentioned "bad actors."
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Here's a 5 star review for Robert Spencer's new book over at Amazon.com.
Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is And Islam Isn't
Brilliant, meticulous, humane, and scrupulously faithful to the facts, August 6, 2007
To the doctrinaire or rigid ideologist, facts are often inconvenient. But Robert Spencer, though superbly logical, is no ideologist. If there is any rigidity in him, it's only in his unbending faithfulness to facts despite frequent death threats made against him by Islamic jihadists. Spencer takes a reportorial, not ideological, approach to his subject. He often bends over backward to be fair in his statements.
The book is powerful, and provided one can suspend one's prejudices and stick with it, it grows increasingly powerful the further into it one reads. The book reveals anew the roots of our civilization, its central historical threads. It will be extremely valuable for those who want to see religious freedoms defended in a world where such freedoms are under global assault by a growing totalitarian religious movement with hundreds of millions of adherents.
Jihadists want to murder Spencer because he tries to tell the truth about Islam, warts and all. With his last two books, and now this new one, he has transformed the cultural landscape. Many leaders and elite opinion-makers in the U.S. have been increasingly influenced by reading Spencer's works. And now, whether the jihadists know it or not, it's too late for Spencer's would-be assassins, as any violent action against him will only propel his books to stratospheric bestseller status. I think that's especially true about his recent works, which have already been bestsellers: 1) The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam, and 2) The Truth about Muhammad. Now The Religion of Peace? Why Christianity Is And Islam Isn't also deserves bestseller status.
The book is a quick and fascinating read. I finished it within a couple of days of receiving it. Its length seemed just right to me: 210 pages, not including the notes and index at the end.
I found this book to be one of the most valuable ever for understanding the roots and development of Western civilization.