. . . trial of Kadir and DeFreitas begins
New York — Opening statements have begun in the New York terrorism case , U.S. vs. Russell DeFreitas, 07-cr-00543, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn), in which two men are  accused of plotting explosions at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Guyanese-born, US citizen and former Evergreen airlines cargo worker at JFK, Russell  DeFreitas, and Abdul Kadir, a former  Member of Parliament and Mayor of the mining town of Linden, are accused of conspiring to blow up JFK’s jet-fuel supply tanks and pipeline in 2007.
The trial of the two men is being held before Judge Dora Irizarry at the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn.
The men, along with two other Guyanese, Abdel Nur and  Trinidad national, Kareem Ibrahim, were charged in 2007 with conspiracy to attack a public transportation system, conspiracy to destroy a building with fire and explosives, conspiracy to attack aircraft and aircraft materials, conspiracy to destroy an international airport and conspiracy to attack a mass transportation facility.
Kadir was also charged with surveillance of a transportation facility.
Nur, in a surprise move on Tuesday, pleaded guilty  to providing material support to terrorists, which is a lesser charge.  As a result of his plea, Nur now faces about 15 years in prison and not a life sentence if he is convicted by the court.
Ibrahim’s case was severed after he became ill, having gone on a hunger strike while in prison.
Prosecutors have said the men tapped into an international network of Muslim extremists to develop the plot and start work toward carrying it out.
Their target, the Buckeye Pipeline, carries more than eight million gallons of fuel each day to the city from a facility in Linden, N.J., through Staten Island and into JFK. The pipeline’s two 12-inch lines enter the borough along the West Shore and run underground near the Staten Island Expressway, Brooklyn and Queens, before exiting in Rosebank by the Alice Austen House.
New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said officials were concerned not only about a possible attack on the airport, but also about an attack on the 40-mile aviation fuel pipeline that runs from a fuel tank farm at JFK through Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens. A criminal complaint accuses the men of obtaining satellite photos of the airport and using DeFreitas to conduct surveillance and identify potential targets and escape routes.
An informant secretly taped conversations in which DeFreitas allegedly described the symbolic importance of targeting JFK, the complaint says.
“Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States,” he allegedly said, according to the complaint. “If you hit that, this whole country will be in mourning. It’s like you kill the man twice.”
De Freitas, Kadir and Nur were all arrested in 2007 in Trinidad and extradited to the United States after a court in Trinidad and Tobago rejected their attempt to avoid extradition.
Their lawyers had earlier argued that Trinidad and Tobago law does not allow for extradition on terrorism conspiracy charges.
( CNN/ Reuters/NY 1 )