[We all knew the Newburgh 4 thing stunk. But it seems it actually stunk beyond what I at least imagined. As did almost all the other famous plots, which this article goes into. (I cut them out here for space resons. Also Tom Englehardt's intro is excellent about why we can be definitive after 1.5 years that Obama will never change anything about the GWOT except for the name.]
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175270/tomgram%3A_stephan_salisbury%2C_plotting_terrorism__/
Tomgram
July 6, 2010.
Stage-Managing the War on Terror: Ensnaring Terrorists
Demands Creativity
By Stephan Salisbury
<snip>
The "Un-Terrorism Case"
In the years following 9/11, when I was reporting my book,
Mohamed's Ghosts: An American Story of Love and Fear in the
Homeland, many defense and immigration attorneys I interviewed
insisted that the mere mention of "terrorism" has often been
enough to knock down any and all defenses. In the Newburgh
conspiracy, however, the federal judge, Colleen McMahon, has
shown a more questioning attitude toward what, in a May 28, 2010,
pre-trial hearing, she took to calling the "un-terrorism case."
After their May 2009 arrests, the four Newburgh conspirators were
portrayed as Jew-hating Muslim converts who intended to blow up
synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes based at
Stewart Airport in Newburgh. "It's hard to envision a more
chilling plot," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Snyder at the
time, describing the defendants as "extremely violent."
The men were indeed arrested only after placing bogus bombs
(courtesy of the FBI) near two Bronx synagogues. New York Police
Chief Raymond Kelly said the plotters believed "it would be
alright" to kill Jews. The Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a
statement noting that the uncovered plot cooked up by "the
jihadist terrorists" showed "that the dangers from such
fanaticism have not passed and that American Jews must maintain
their vigilance." New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg reiterated
that vigilance remains a necessity for all concerned.
With their anti-Semitic bona fides established and the men caught
in the act, all that seemed left was a perfunctory trial,
followed by life in prison for James Cromitie, David Williams,
Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen. A decade earlier, Cromitie had
been arrested for dealing drugs behind a school. Payen, a Haitian
immigrant, is a crack addict and certified paranoid
schizophrenic, often found living on the street; his earlier
deportation had been on hold due to his mental instability. Onta
and David Williams, not related, had pasts pocked by drug busts
and spotty work at minimum wage jobs scrounged from Newburgh's
depressed economy. All four men were black.
Almost immediately, however, questions about the conspiracy began
to arise. For one thing, the FBI informer who broke the case was
a Pakistani named Shaheed Hussain, who arrived in Newburgh in the
summer of 2008 driving a flashy Mercedes, showing lots of money,
and promising jobs to down-and-out African American hangers-on at
Masjid al-Ikhlas, Newburgh's main mosque. Convicted in a
fraudulent driver's license scheme in 2002, he agreed to work
undercover for the FBI shortly afterward to avoid deportation and
turned out to have been an informer in a previous terrorism case
in Albany in 2004.
The Albany case, in which an imam and a pizza shop owner were
convicted of money laundering as part of a phantasmagorical
scheme to kill a Pakistani diplomat with a missile, was bitterly
contested by defense attorneys. They claimed that the elaborate
plan had been concocted by Hussain himself. The jury didn't buy
it, convicting both imam and pizza shop owner.
The Newburgh case shares much with the Albany case, especially a
fondness for baroque plotting, the flashing of great wads of
money in front of needy people, and the aggressive use of an
informant by the FBI in a house of worship, in this case Masjid
al-Ikhlas. The intricate plotting and the use of an informer made
it into the criminal complaint, but all that flashing money
didn't. There was no mention of the enticing job offers made by
the seemingly well-to-do informer. Nothing about his offer of a
$250,000 payment for carrying out the plot. Nothing about the BMW
he pushed on Cromitie, who didn't even have a driver's license.
Nothing about the $25,000 he was ready to pay anyone willing to
act as a "lookout."
Maybe Cromitie wasn't the brightest hustler in town, but he was
quite capable of grasping the significance of such sums of money
in distressed Newburgh. He assured Hussain that dangling cash
would lure participants, no matter what. "They will do it for the
money," he said. "They're not even thinking about the cause."
Nor did the complaint mention, as the defense now maintains, that
even the anti-Semitic talk was triggered by the informant. He
baited the defendants, telling them that Jews were responsible
for the U.S. wars in the Middle East and for other acts of
violence against Muslims. Cromitie had an unexpected reaction
during one of these conversations, according to government
transcripts. "I'm not gonna hurt anybody," he said, after being
badgered about possible attacks. "The plane thing... is out of
the question."
On the streets of Newburgh, relatives and neighbors say that they
have never heard the four men even mention Jews or jihad, let
alone link the two together in murderous rants. Lord McWilliams,
the severely ill brother of David Williams, called such a
characterization "crazy." Hussain, he insisted, had promised his
brother so much money that he would have been able to pay for the
liver transplant that Lord desperately needed.
In fact, more substantial members of the mosque had pegged
Shaheed Hussain as an informer almost the moment he arrived, but
had no idea what to do about him. "Maybe the mistake we made was
that we didn't report him," Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, imam at
Masjid al-Ikhlas, told congregants shortly after the May 2009
arrests. "But how are we going to report the government agent to
the government?"
<end excerpt>
I recommend the whole post and the intro at: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175270/tomgram%3A_stephan_salisbury%2C_plotting_terrorism__/
Michael