JFK plotter gets life in prison

A former member of Guyana's parliament was sentenced to life in prison for plotting to blow up fuel tanks at Kennedy Airport after insisting he was wrongly convicted.

"At no time did I have any intention or believe in bringing any harm to the people of this country by the terrorist acts I happened to be identified with," Abdul Kadir told a judge in federal court in Brooklyn.

U.S. District Court Judge Dora Irizarry responded that there was ample evidence Kadir was a key player in "a plan that would have caused devastation unimaginable."

Kadir and Russell Defreitas, a former Kennedy cargo handler, were charged with multiple counts of conspiracy in 2007 after an informant infiltrated the plot and recorded them discussing it. They were convicted earlier this year.

Prosecutors alleged the pair wanted to kill thousands and cripple the American economy by blowing up the fuel tanks and the underground pipelines that run through an adjacent Queens neighborhood. They said they sought the help of militant Muslims, including an al-Qaida operative, in Guyana.

The government relied heavily on the informant's secret recordings, which captured Defreitas bragging about his knowledge of the airport and its vulnerabilities.

"For years, I've been watching them," he said of the fuel tanks while on a reconnaissance mission with the informant. In other tapes, Defreitas ranted about punishing the United States with an attack that would "dwarf 9/11."

Kadir testified in his own defense, denying he was a militant Muslim who spied for Iran for years before joining the Kennedy scheme. He told jurors that he warned the plotters: "Islam does not support aggression or killing innocent people."

- AP