Bronx terrorists ‘wanted to commit jihad’
May 21, 2009

WASHINGTON (JTA) – The four men who planned to blow up two synagogues in the Bronx and shot down U.S. military planes said they "wanted to commit jihad," the New York Police Commissioner said.

James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh 60 miles north of New York, were arrested Wednesday night. Payen is a native of Haiti. All four of the men are Muslim, and three are recent converts to Islam, according to reports.

“They stated that they wanted to commit jihad,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Thursday morning during a news conference at the Riverdale Jewish Center. “More information about their motives I’m sure will be developed as the case progresses, but right now, they stated they wanted to make jihad. They were disturbed about what was happening in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that Muslims were being killed. They were making statements that Jews were killed in this attack and that would be all right — that sort of thing.”

Kelly said the men, who are scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning in Federal District Court, were not acting on behalf of any terrorist organizations and described them as "petty criminals" with multiple arrests for minor crimes.

According to the U.S. attorney’s statement, an informant working with the FBI this month provided the four men with a disabled anti-aircraft missile launcher and disabled explosives. The men on Wednesday planted the fake explosives, which they believed to be real, in cars parked outside Riverdale Temple, a Reform synagogue, and the Riverdale Jewish Center, an Orthodox synagogue.

Last month, according to the statement and to the criminal complaint, the defendants photographed several synagogues and a Jewish community center in the Riverdale section of the Bronx as well as the Air National Guard Base at Newburgh.

Cromitie, who according to the complaint told the informant that his parents once lived in Afghanistan, allegedly expressed an interest in working with the Pakistan-based Islamist terrorist group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.

“While the weapons provided to the defendants by the cooperating witness were fake, the defendants thought they were absolutely real," said acting U.S. Attorney Lev Dassin said in the statement. "The defendants planned to strike military planes with surface-to-air guided missiles and to destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives.”

Corrected version and appended request from JCRC:

A Message from the President of the Jewish Federation of Greater Des Moines

Israeli ground troops are now operating inside Gaza in the next phase of Israel's campaign to defend its citizens in the southern part of the country from ongoing rocket attacks by the terrorist organization Hamas. Hamas' actions in breaking the cease-fire agreement and intensifying its rocket barrage are consistent with its stated mission of eliminating the Jewish state of Israel.

Israel has the right and the obligation to protect its citizens. The current US administration, President-Elect Obama and the international community support that right.

Israel is doing all that it can to minimize civilian casualties, including calling Palestinians in advance of airstrikes. Unfortunately, Hamas intentionally places its installations and launching pads in residential areas, and stores illegally-obtained weaponry from Iran in homes, schools, hospitals and mosques. Thus, some civilian casualties are inevitable. The responsibility for the safety of Palestinian civilians lies squarely with Hamas, which has callously chosen to place civilians in harm's way.

Please join me in praying for the safety of the Israel Defense Forces, its pilots, tank commanders and ground troops who are on the front lines, ensuring Israel's survival. Please also join me in praying for peace for Israelis, and for the innocent Palestinians who are the victims of their leaders' misguided fanaticism.

Am Yisroel Chai! The people of Israel live!

Neil Salowitz
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JCRC would encourage you to forward the above message from the President of the Jewish Federation to members of the general community, to discuss the message's content with friends and colleagues, and to consider writing letters to your local newspapers in support of Israel's defense against terrorism.

Terrorism planned and implemented by Radical Islam

See articles below about Radical Islamic terrorism in Yemen and calls for jihad in North Africa.

There was a "terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy [in Yemen] last Wednesday," September 17, reports the Egyptian newspaper Al Ahram.

"The extremist religious discourse was behind the recent violent attacks in Yemen including the last one against the US Embassy, says Ahmed Al-Sufee, director of the Yemeni Institute for Development of Democracy, a local NGO. "We should think of removing the sources of terrorism which are related to our system of education, mosques, schools and curriculums," Al-Sufee told the Weekly.

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Al-Qaeda calls for holy war in North Africa
afrol News, 23 September

Al-Qaeda's North Africa wing chief has urged all Muslims to join jihad (holy war) and slammed governments in the region where group has claimed frequent attacks, United States monitoring service said.

The group has also issued new threats against Western interests, including France, Spain and US States.

Threat comes close on heels of last week's deadly suicide-bomb attack on heavily fortified US embassy in Yemeni capital Sana'a, claimed by terrorist outfit Islamic Jihad in Yemen.

"Unite around holy war that is the only alternative power to apostate regimes that dominate over our lands," Abu Musab Abdul Wadud, leader of Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), said in an audio speech posted on Sunday on Islamist militant websites, said SITE Intelligence Group.

Mr Abdul Wadud blasted regimes in Mauritania, Algeria and other North African countries, charging that Mauritania has become a nest of foreign intelligence at its forefront Mossad, and has become a station of crusader colonial ambition," he said, according to a SITE transcript.

"History will continue to mention that this is first Arab country, outside of Tawq (Arab nations surrounding Israel) that recognised state of Israel and exchanged ambassadors with it," he said.

Al-Qaeda in Islamic Maghreb has repeatedly claimed responsibility for deadly attacks in Algeria, including an increase of bombings in July and August, and also been blamed for an ambush on a Mauritanian patrol last week that killed 12 Mauritanians and found 11 soldiers and one civilian.