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4 Arrested in Plot to Bomb New York City Jewish Temple May 20

by Amy Judd | May 20, 2009 at 07:10 pm

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Four men have been arrested in a plot to bomb a New York City Jewish temple tonight. They had been under observation for some time and seemed to have been planning this for a while.

The four men are James Cromitie (also known as Abdul Rahman), David Williams (also known as Daoud or DL), Onta Williams (also known as Hamza) and Laguerre Payen (also known as Amin and Almondo).

They had planned to detonate a car filled with plastic explosives outside a Jewish temple in the Bronx area called Riverdale.

Rep. Peter King of New York, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, was briefed on the case following the arrests.

"This was a long, well-planned investigation, and it shows how real the threat is from homegrown terrorists," said King.

They had also planned to shoot military planes at the New York National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York with stinger surface-to-air guided missiles.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg made this statement to the press:

“I want to congratulate the men and women of the NYPD, the New York State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force who tonight foiled a terrorist plot that targeted Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx for bombing. The same plot also targeted U.S. military aircraft in Newburgh for Stinger Missile attacks. While the bombs these terrorists attempted to plant tonight were – unbeknownst to them – fake, this latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism.”

The four men will appear in court tomorrow; each one is charged with one count of conspriacy to use a weapon of mass destruction within the United States, and one count of conspriacy to "acquire and use anit-aircraft misslies", both of which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison.

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Uwe Paschen

at 19:19 on May 20th, 2009

This is insane. I am glad that they failed.

Amy Judd

at 19:37 on May 20th, 2009

Me too - it was such a close situation that could have gone so much worse.

R.B. (not verified)

at 20:07 on May 20th, 2009

[edited by staff]

JackieChao (not verified)

at 21:48 on May 20th, 2009

These guys seemed to be Muslim converts and know little about Islam .. Please check the names, all of the names are non-Muslim names ...

A true Muslim believer has zero motivation for such kind of attacks. Specifically, Muslims are not known for attacking places of worship.

It seems to me that it is another example of thought crime where people r prosecuted for thinking something and in reality there was little substantiated plan that had been materialized. Try to understand the lesson from the movie "Minority Report".

Around Europe there has been rising Islamophobia, R.B., if thats what u wanted to mention. Muslims are now getting threatened and attacked in the mosques, labelled as terrorists they r the victims of discrimination in jobs, schools, medicals, politics.

Muslims can not be trusted u say? So whats your proposal, there should be another holocaust where all the Muslims will be burned and killed just becuase they are Muslims? At least part of this plan has been implemented in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Gaza. Now you wanted to give the same treatment to the rest?

Unfortunately u seems to ve become the very same giant that u r afraid of.

Merry Rebel

at 03:00 on May 21st, 2009

I agree.

Babel-Fish

at 00:03 on May 21st, 2009

Ok I will just add them to my religious list.

Don't trust Jews.

Don't trust Christians.

Don't trust Muslims.

Now each and every one of theses groups have fundamental fanatics that seem to think its right to kill in their Gods name. Hmmm

Should we brand all the billions for the sake of a few million fanatics or less?

I am not casting the first stone and have now burned my list.

Merry Rebel

at 03:08 on May 21st, 2009

I agree with this one too, fanaticism exists everywhere without the demarcation of religion, creed or race.

Also, blaming billions for the acts of few is totally insane and ridiculous, for good and bad exists everywhere in the world.

And remember, terrorists have no religion, for NO religion allows terrorism.

Peace!

Albert Milliron

at 22:04 on May 20th, 2009

Thanks for the Breaking News. Glad the plot was foiled

A. Tran

at 17:50 on May 21st, 2009

According to local news, the authority has been tracking these four men all along as the FBI had set up a sting operation since June, 2008.

The prosecutor told the court the men were "eager to bring death to Jews" and that one of them had complained that the "best target" the World Trade Centre, had already been taken.

They have been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire an anti-aircraft missile.

The men did not know that the bombs and the Stinger surface-to-air missile were all fake.