The significant others in the JFK plot

James Robbins:

Reading the indictment against the four would-be JFK airport bombers, Russell Defreitas, Abdul Nur, Kareem Ibrihim and Abdul Kadir, I was struck by the phrase “together with others” which frequently followed their names. It is on page 1, page 2, page 3, twice on page 4. In the course of the document we are introduced to these others, known only as Individuals A-G. There must be some legal rationale why we can’t know their identities. It surely can’t be to conceal from the Individuals that we know what they were up to; they must have figured out who is which letter by now. But until we know who Messrs. A-G are, we can’t know the extent of the network, or the magnitude of the threat.

Of the six, the most interesting are A and E. “A” is one of the ringleaders of the plan, playing a key role in conceptualizing and promoting it. Yet for some reason, he was not indicted. “E” is even more important — a businessman in Georgetown Guyana, who funds jihadists on their missions and comes across in the indictment as extremely knowledgeable in matters of terrorism. It seems as though he has done this many times before. He served as a mentor for the prospective attackers, but eventually pulled out of the plan when he thought it might be compromised. Good instincts.

“E” is also a friend and associate of Yasin Abu Bakr, leader of the Trinidad and Tobago extremist group Jamaat al-Muslimeen (JAM). He is referred to as “the JAM leader” throughout the indictment, though his identity is well known in the Caribbean. Abu Bakr had fomented a coup against the government in 1990, which failed quickly. Since then he had been in intermittent trouble with the law. The plotters seem fixated on meeting with Abu Bakr, perhaps to obtain funding from him or his sources. Abdul Nur, the only named conspirator still at large, who had previous ties to Abu Bakr, met with him in May and discussed the plan in general terms. Abu Bakr liked the idea and wanted another meeting, but first wanted to do checks on some of the others involved.

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The conspirators planned to launder whatever support they received through Abdul Kadir’s Islamic Information Centre in Linden. Kadir is a Shiite, and tied closely to the International Islamic College for Advanced Studies, which is underwritten by Iran. The college’s former Director, Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi, was kidnapped and murdered in 2004. Kadir took over as interim head. But just as Kareem was sending his emissary (who for some reason is not identified as “Individual H”) to brief the plan to the contacts abroad, arrest warrants were issued and three of the four named conspirators were taken into custody.

Once the case goes to trial one name that may pop up is Adnan Gulshair Muhammad El Shukrijumah — alias Abu Arif, or Jafar Al-Tayar. He is a computer engineer, born in Saudi Arabia, son of a Wahabbist missionary who moved to Guyana when Adnan was three. He later spent many years in Trinidad where he was associated with the Darul-Uloom Insitute, another of the ubiquitous Islamic study centers. He also stayed for a time in south Florida. He has been closely involved with al Qaeda, and it is said he was hand picked by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to maintain the terror network in the Americas. In 2002 he was in Canada looking for “dirty bomb” components, and in 2003 a warrant was issued for his arrest. In 2004 he was named as a prime suspect in a planned attack on the United States, and Attorney General John Ashcroft described Shukrijumah "as the most dangerous of seven Al-Qa'ida operatives suspected of planning strikes in the US." There is a $5 million reward for information leading to is arrest. If word was out in that community about a planned attack on the U.S., Shukrijuma would be someone the plotters would have liked to have met, and vice versa.

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There is more in this story and more to this case. Eventually we will know who A through G are and why they were not at least named as unindicted co conspirators as John Murtha was in the Abscam case. Robbins also makes a great point about the international character of the characters in this plot. They certainly should not be described as "home grown." Only one was a US citizen and he was naturalized.