Text by Andrea Shalal-Esa of Reuters. [Un-spun by Winter Patriot]
The Caribbean and Latin American links of people charged in an alleged plot to blow up [a fuel line leading to] New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport underscores the spread of global extremism [FBI entrapment], analysts said on Sunday.
But they warned about overstating the threat from America's southern neighbors, and said the case showed that U.S. counterterrorism efforts were working to avert [simulate] another attack like that of September 11, 2001.
U.S. officials on Saturday said they had charged four people, including a former member of Guyana's parliament, with planning to blow up the Kennedy airport's jet fuel tanks and part of the 40-mile (64-km) pipeline feeding them [even though the alleged plot was "not technically feasible"].
Three of the four suspects, who included a former airline cargo handler, have been arrested, federal law enforcement officials said. The fourth was being sought in the Caribbean.
There was no [apparent] connection to al Qaeda, officials said, but at least two of the suspects were [allegedly] linked to Jamaat Al Muslimeen, an Islamist extremist group in Trinidad that was [allegedly] behind a 1990 coup attempt on the island.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the plot was "different in its distinct [purported] ties to the Caribbean, a region that is rarely thought of in terms of terrorism but of increasing concern [use] to us as a crucible in the foment of Islamic radicalism [source of brown and black patsies and dupes]."
Kelly told the CBS program "Face the Nation" the suspects were [allegedly] trying to get funding from the Trinidad group.
"We see no direct connection to core al Qaeda. But clearly [we have been instructed to mention al-Q'aeda at every opportunity] ... it's a movement, it's a philosophy. And they're motivated by the same hatred that motivates al Qaeda [we're motivated by the desire to keep people afraid and in line]," he said.
NO HISTORY OF U.S. OPERATIONS
Helmut Sonnenfeldt, a former senior U.S. official and scholar at the Brookings Institution, said the incident showed U.S. law enforcement [the FBI entrapment program] was doing its job, but vigilance was key.
"It looks as though the system that tries to get a hold of [foment] those kind of threats has worked quite well ... but it also means we've got to continue to pay close attention [hire more agents provocateur]," he said.
Sonnenfeldt said lingering concerns about the treatment of detainees at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may [or may not] have been used by extremists to fan anti-American sentiments in the region. "It's very hard [impossible] to wipe it away [especially since the Bush administration hasn't shown any sign of willingness to revert to civilized standards]," he said.
U.S. officials say about 95 [5] percent of the 380 suspected militants held at the camp are connected to Al Qaeda, the Taliban or their associates. [And now, under the newly "relaxed" rules of evidence, they say they have enough evidence to lay charges against 12 or 14 people].
Chris Zambelis, an analyst with the nonprofit Jamestown Foundation who has studied Islamic extremism in the Caribbean for years, said he was surprised by the alleged link to the Trinidad Muslim group, which he said had focused its attention to date solely on island politics. [Experts who have been studying the FBI's world-wide entrapment program were unavailable for comment.]
"They have absolutely no history of operating outside of Trinidad, let alone planning something like this," he said. [But the FBI has a long history of operating outside the U.S., and a long history of planning events exactly like this one.] He said he saw no evidence of a rising Islamic threat in Guyana.
...
The U.S. State Department on Sunday said it had not issued any new travel advisories for the Caribbean warning U.S. citizens to avoid any certain country, but continued to recommend "worldwide caution" for U.S. citizens abroad. [In other words there's nothing to be concerned about but you should be very frightened anyway.]
Text by Andrea Shalal-Esa of Reuters. [Un-spun by Winter Patriot]