Two found guilty in JFK bomb plot face life in prison

NEW YORK - Two men charged with plotting to blow up fuel tanks at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport have been found guilty by a federal jury in Brooklyn.

The verdict against mastermind Russell Defreitas, a former airport cargo worker, and Abdul Kadir, a former member of the Guyanese parliament, came after five days of deliberations.

Sentencing was set for December 15, where both men face life in prison.

A third defendant, Abdul Nur, had earlier pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists. He faces up to 15 years in prison.

The three men were busted in 2007 by federal agents who had busted their spectacular plot-which they called “The Shining Light”-to cause an explosion which prosecutors described as “so massive … that it could be seen from far, far away”.

Authorities said that the men had tapped into an international network of Muslim extremists to develop the plot.

The men were accused of obtaining satellite photos of the airport, while DeFreitas also conducted surveillance and identify potential targets and escape routes.

Much of the plot was uncovered when an informant secretly taped conversations in which DeFreitas boasted of the symbolic blow such an attack would do.

“Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States,” the New York Daily News quoted DeFreitas, as saying in the conversations.

“If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It’s like you kill the man twice,” he added. (ANI)