JFK, the tragedy that did not happen

I would find it quite impossible to believe that anybody could have missed the news about the frustration of a plan to blow up some pipelines that feed New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport this week. But there are reasons to hear about it everywhere. Believe me, the frustration of such plan is indeed big news, maybe one of the most magnificent hits against terrorist cells lately.

The plan couldn't be more sanguinary: to set fire on pipelines that carry fuel to JFK, (and possibly also to La Guardia, and even Newark) international airport. The pipeline runs from New Jersey into New York, and it passes through many suburbs and residential areas. The fire would have caused the pipelines to explode, devastating entire neighborhoods and severely affecting the infrastructure of the city and its airports, and worst of all, causing probably thousands of deaths.

Who could ever think of such insane plan? Could that be Osama Bin Laden again?

There's no information available to know whether Bin Laden and his terrorist group Al Qaeda had any sort of influence in this plan (which, fortunately, never left the planning stage). But the US authorities have arrested three individuals in connection with this idea, and they're still seeking for a fourth individual who is allegedly hiding somewhere in Trinidad and Tobago, in the Caribbean.

One of the arrested suspects, and the only one currently held in the US, is Russell Defreitas, a former employee of the JFK international airport, and current member of an Islamic group based in Trinidad and Tobago called Jamaat Al Muslimeen. The other individuals arrested in connection with the plot are Abdul Kadir, a former member of the Guyanese Parliament, and Kareem Ibrahim, from Trinidad and Tobago. Both of them are in custody somewhere in Trinidad. The fourth suspect, and the only one who hasn't been located by the authorities yet, is Abdel Nur.

What could drive people to commit such kind of crimes? I don't know. I can't imagine that there could be a valid explanation for that. Is it that anybody could?

If the fourth suspect is hiding in Trinidad, as the authorities believe, then I don't think that it could take much time to bust him, because Trinidad is an tiny island. There's no escape, if the authorities manage to take care of the situation properly. And once the quartet is complete, long interrogation sessions will await them. But how long should we wait to get news about more scum of societies trying to achieve record highs of deaths and destruction?

To read the original report from BBC, click here.