JFK plot: 145;Unthinkable146; damage averted

8220;The devastation that would be caused8230;is just unthinkable,8221; US Attorney Roslynn R Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it 8220;one of the most chilling plots imaginable8221;.

One of the four men has been quoted as saying the foiled plot would 8220;cause greater destruction than the September 11 attacks,8221; destroying the airport, killing several thousand people and destroying parts of New York8217;s borough of Queens, where the pipeline runs underground.

The FBI on Sunday said the four charged had no 8220;direct8221; ties with the al-Qaeda.

8220;And while people will say it wasn8217;t operational, they had done up to four surveillances. They were searching for funding and explosives. So on that level, it was certainly operational,8221; FBI8217;s Assistant Director John Miller said on a Sunday talk show.

He said the four belonged to a regional extremist organisation in the Caribbean called the Jamaat al-Muslimeen.

One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a US citizen native to Guyana and former JFK air cargo employee, was arraigned Saturday in a US federal court in New York, where he was held pending a bail hearing that will be held on Wednesday. Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, are in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, is being sought in Trinidad.

Kadir, a member of Parliament in Guyana until last year, was held in Trinidad for trying to secure money for 8220;terrorist operations,8221; according to a Guyanese police officer.

Defreitas said the airport named after the slain president was targeted because it is a symbol that would put 8220;the whole country in mourning8221;. Defreitas 63, said he first hatched the plan more than a decade ago. Since Defreitas retired from his job at the airport in 1995, security has significantly tightened and his knowledge was outdated.

Kadir and Ibrahim would likely be extradited to the US after court hearings in Trinidad, said Trevor Paul, the top police official in Trinidad and Tobago.

Authorities said Kadir and Nur were longtime associates of a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which launched an unsuccessful rebellion in 1990 that left 24 dead.

Isha Kadir, the Guyanese suspect8217;s wife, said her husband flew from Guyana to Trinidad on Thursday. She said he was arrested Friday as he was boarding a flight from Trinidad to Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a travel visa to attend an Islamic religious conference in Iran. 8220;We have no interest in blowing up anything in the US,8221; she said on Saturday. 8220;We have relatives in the US.8221;

Authorities said the men were motivated by hatred toward the US and Israel.

Despite their efforts, the men never obtained any explosives, authorities said.