Officials: 4 in bomb plot were amateurs

NEWBURGH, N.Y. (AP) — The four men were ex-convicts who envisioned themselves as holy warriors, ambitious enough to concoct a plot to blow up synagogues and military planes, authorities said.

But they were amateurs every step of the way. They had trouble finding guns and bought cameras at Wal-Mart to photograph their targets. One was a convicted purse snatcher; another smoked marijuana the day the plot was to be carried out.

Muslims fueled by hatred of America and Jews, they spent months scouting targets and securing what they thought was a surface-to-air missile system and powerful explosives — all under the watch of an FBI informant.

The four were arrested late Wednesday outside a synagogue in the Bronx, after a long line of homegrown, headline-making terror plots since Sept. 11 that never came close to reality because the FBI inserted itself in the earliest stages.

The bombs they planted outside two synagogues Wednesday were useless, packed with inert explosives supplied by the FBI instead of the Pakistani terrorist group they had pledged to support, according to a criminal complaint.

Still, officials see the case as a vivid reminder of risks the U.S. faces from homegrown terrorists.

“It’s hard to envision a more chilling plot,” assistant U.S. attorney Eric Snyder said. “These are extremely violent men.”

James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen were calm as they appeared in court Thursday with their hands shackled, to answer charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles. They did not enter pleas and were held without bail; they face life in prison if convicted.

Besides destroying the two synagogues in the heavily Jewish Riverdale section of the Bronx, they intended to shoot down planes at the Air National Guard base in Newburgh, about 50 miles north of New York City, prosecutors said.

Relatives said the defendants were down-on-their-luck men who worked at places such as Wal-Mart, a landscaping company and a warehouse when they weren’t behind bars. Payen’s lawyer said he was “intellectually challenged” and on medication for schizophrenia. Marilyn Reader said he has “a very low borderline” IQ.

David Williams’ relatives were floored by the allegations against a man they knew as a good father to his 7-year-old daughter and newborn son.

“You don’t raise your children to be terrorists,” said Aahkiyaah Cummings, his aunt. “I don’t know that guy that was arrested.”

Just four years ago, David Williams, now 28, told a parole board that prison was a wake-up call after his conviction on drug and weapons charges — drugs he said he sold because was making only $150 a week in his job.

Onta Williams, 32, and Cromitie have also served prison sentences for drug convictions — Cromitie said in court he had used marijuana as recently as Wednesday. He said he was 55, though law enforcement records give his age as 44.

Payen, 27, did time for attempted assault — in 2002, he and others fired a BB gun out an SUV window, hitting two people in the head. He snatched purses from two women later the same day, said state Division of Parole spokeswoman Heather Groll.

Payen appears to be a Haitian citizen, and the other three are Americans. The Williamses are not related.