JFK airport plot charges criticized June 8, 2007
Posted by Scarecrow in 06/07/07 Miami Herald 2.trackback
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
June 7, 2007
JFK airport plot charges criticized
A leader of Jamaat al Muslimeen, a Caribbean Muslim group officials linked with a plot to blow up New York’s JFK airport, said the charges were politically motivated.
BY NIALA BOODHOO
MUCURAPO, Trinidad –
Members of the Muslim group Jamaat Al Muslimeen Wednesday denounced allegations of a plot to blow up John F. Kennedy International airport as an “international conspiracy.”
The group’s leader, Yasin Abu Bakr, is scheduled to begin trial here Monday on charges of inciting terrorism by threatening violence against Muslims in Trinidad and Tobago unless they tithe to mosques.
”This is an international conspiracy against the Jamaat al Muslimeen,” said one of the group’s top leaders, Kala Aki-Bua, who lashed out at local and international media, especially Fox News, as well as local politicians he accused of using the JFK allegations to influence the outcome of Abu Bakr’s trial.
CHARGES CHALLENGED
”We are no strangers to conflict, but we have moved on,” Aki-Bua told a news conference just outside the group’s mosque in northwestern Trinidad.
He challenged Trinidad Attorney General Sen. John Jeremie, who has said that he believes there are links between the four suspects of the JFK plot and the Abu Bakr group, to ”come forward” with any evidence.
In 1990, Abu Bakr and his followers tried to overthrow the twin islands’ government in a six-day coup attempt that resulted in 24 deaths. He and his men later received amnesty.
On Saturday, the U.S. government charged four men — three from Guyana and one Trinidadian citizen — with conspiring to blow up the New York airport by bombing its jet-fuel supply tanks and pipeline.
UNAWARE OF TALKS
According to the complaint, one of the suspects, Abdel Nur of Guyana, told others that he had discussed the plot with senior Jamaat Al Muslimeen leaders in order to enlist their support.
Aki-Bua said he was not aware of any such meeting, and that the group has not been contacted by local police or U.S. officials since the plot was announced.
He said the one Trinidadian citizen who has been charged, Kareem Ibrahim, was a ”good Muslim” who was not capable of such a plot, and that the allegations against Nur were laughable.
Abu Bakr’s trial on Monday stems from televised statements he made during a sermon almost two years ago, in which he threatened Muslims who refused to tithe 2.5 percent of their income, as required by Islam.
