The plot as painted by law enforcement officials was cataclysmic: A home-grown Islamic terrorist had in mind detonating fuel storage tanks and pipelines and setting fire to John F. Kennedy International Airport, not to mention a substantial swath of Queens."Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths, and destruction," Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the US attorney in Brooklyn, said in a press release that announced charges against four men. She added at a news conference, "The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded are just unthinkable."
Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly then stepped to the lectern with a vision only a bit less grim. "Once again, would-be terrorists have put New York City in their crosshairs," he said. Kelly said a disaster had been averted.
But a reading of the criminal complaint filed by the federal authorities against the four defendants in the case -- one of them remained at large yesterday -- suggests a less than mature terror plan, a proposed effort longer on evil intent than on operational capability.
Read More
