THE DAILY BLADE: We Fight Them Over There So We Don’t Have To Fight Them Over Here?: Part XIV
After five days of deliberations, a federal jury convicted two Guyanese men of conspiring to attack Kennedy International Airport by blowing up fuel tanks to set off explosions along a pipeline that cuts through New York City, reports The New York Times:
The defendants, Russell M. Defreitas and Abdul Kadir, had been monitored from an early stage in the plot by the informant, who posed as a member of the group, which included a number of other participants.
The informant, Steven Francis, had recorded the men at the airport during surveillance missions and on international trips to secure financial and logistical support for the attack.
The recordings were used by federal prosecutors to portray Mr. Defreitas, 67, an immigrant who became a United States citizen and is a former cargo handler at the airport, as the “homegrown extremist” who conceived and drove the plot.
Mr. Kadir, 58, a prominent Guyanese politician who served in Parliament and as mayor of a major city, initially emerged as a secondary figure, one of several conspirators portrayed as facilitating the plot by providing advice and contacts. But in testifying in his own defense, he opened himself to questions about whether he had spied for Iran. …
Mr. Defreitas and Mr. Kadir face possible sentences of life in prison after their convictions on five counts of conspiring to commit acts of terrorism. Mr. Defreitas was also convicted of surveillance of an airport; Mr. Kadir was acquitted of that charge. They are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 15. Their lawyers said they planned to appeal.
Two other men, Abdel Nur and Donald Nero, have pleaded guilty to participating in the plot. Another man, Kareem Ibrahim, is awaiting trial.
Their attorneys had described the defendants as “clueless trash-talkers who were led astray by the informant, a convicted drug dealer,” reports The Washington Times.
The Definition of Chutzpah: Part XI
A man who robbed a Wendy's drive-through employee at gunpoint called the restaurant - twice - to complain that the $586 in the cash drawer wasn’t enough, reports The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
About 11:15 p.m., a man wearing a ski mask and holding a gun walked up to the drive-through window at the Wendy's at 1940 Piedmont Road, police said. He told an employee to put the cash drawer on the counter.
After grabbing the drawer and running away, the robber discarded the drawer in the bushes at the nearby InTown Suites. Police dusted the drawer for fingerprints. However, the robber was seen wearing yellow gloves at Wendy's.
Life Imitates “The Simpsons” (Again)
In "Pranks and Greens" (sixth episode, 21st season) Marge Simpson is excoriated by environazi mothers in Springfield for serving unhealthy snacks at their "Midday Mommies" meeting, then spends a fortune clearing her cupboards and replacing all the food in the house with pricey organic food that promptly rots because it is preservative-free - in any case the environazis react in horror when she serves them and their kids from non-stick bakeware and plastic drinking bottles at their next get-together. Facebook must know how she felt. MediaPost's “SearchBlog” reports that Greenpeace International has started a Facebook fan page to protest Facebook’s decision to build a server farm in Prineville, OR:
The center will use 30 MW of electricity, enough to power 30,000 homes, to support Facebook's 500 million members. Facebook says the environmentally friendly facility will have all the latest technology, but evidently Greenpeace doesn't see it that way. The biggest problem: The region's utility server, Pacificorp, gets 58% of its power from coal plants in Wyoming and Utah, which is higher than the national average.
Greenpeace, however, wants the social network to commit to 100% renewable energy and set up guidelines on its Fan page to lead the company toward cleaner burning energy. The group requests that Facebook commit to use its purchasing power to choose only clean, renewable sources of electricity; advocate for strong climate and energy policy changes at all levels to ensure that as the IT industry's energy demand increases, so does the supply of renewable energy; and share the information publicly on its Web site, so its millions of members know the company leads in environmental client issues.
The OR facility will create construction jobs for 150 to 200 workers, and 35 long-term jobs.
In Memoriam
Mitch Miller, July 4, 1911 - July 31, 2010
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