Revenge cause of terrorist plot

NEW YORK – Two men accused in a terrorist plot hoped to cause a spectacular explosion that would kill thousands at New York’s Kennedy International Airport and avenge United States oppression of Muslims, a prosecutor said yesterday at the men’s trial.The defendants wanted to blow up jet fuel tanks at the sprawling airport, causing an explosion “so massive . . . that it could be seen from far, far away,” Assistant US Attorney Zainab Ahmad said in closing arguments in federal court in Brooklyn.Defence attorney Mildred Whalen countered by accusing a government informant of manipulating a ragtag crew of delusional dupes who had “seen too many Bruce Willis movies”. She called her client Russell Defreitas a “weak-minded, foolish man with a big mouth”.Defreitas, 66, a former JFK cargo handler, and Abdul Kadir, 58, once a member of Parliament in Guyana, were arrested in 2007 after the informant – a convicted drug dealer – infiltrated the plot and made a series of secret recordings. (AP)