Guyanese convicted for JFK terrorist plot deported to Guyana

…after serving 7 years in US jail

Compton Eversley, better known as Abdel Nur, the Guyanese who was convicted in 2011 for plotting with others to bomb the John F Kennedy (JFK) International Airport, has been deported to Guyana.

This was confirmed by Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn, who revealed that Nur was handed over to the Guyanese authorities on December 10 by the United States (US) Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), having completed his sentence earlier this year.
Nur, alongside now deceased fellow Guyanese and former People’s National Congress (PNC) parliamentarian Abdul Kadir, Guyanese born naturalised US citizen Russell Defreitas, the suspected ringleader and Trinidadian Imam Kareem Ibrahim, were convicted for the 2007 JFK airport bomb plot.
The 2007 John F Kennedy International Airport attack plot was an alleged Islamist terrorist plot to blow up a system of jet fuel supply tanks and pipelines that feed fuel to John F Kennedy International Airport (JFK) in Queens, New York.
These pipelines travel throughout the undergrounds of New York City, in densely populated areas. But the plot was foiled when an undercover law enforcement official was recruited to the homegrown terrorist cell.
Defreitas allegedly was clandestinely recorded telling an informant that “Anytime you hit Kennedy, it is the most hurtful thing to the United States. To hit John F Kennedy, wow – They love JFK – he’s like the man. If you hit that, the whole country will be in mourning. It’s like you can kill the man twice.”
Defreitas had allegedly seen arms and missiles being shipped to Israel which he felt would be used to harm Muslims. The men are alleged to have named the plot “Chicken Farm”. Extensive surveillance of the targets had been done, including the use of satellite photographs and attempts had been made to reach out to another Islamist terrorist group. No explosives had been bought.
When it came to Nur, 70, investigators determined he played a significant part in the plot by serving as a liaison to gain the support of known terrorist organisations.
According to a Newsday report on the terror plot, New York investigators were probing a possible Iran connection to the plot because Abdul Kadir planned to visit that country. In Trinidad, Police reportedly investigated whether Kareem Ibrahim had ties to Iraq and Iran.
According to US court documents, Kadir was the disciple of Mohsen Rabbani, an Iranian diplomat accused of being one of the masterminds behind the 1994 AMIA bombing in Buenos Aires.
Defreitas was arrested in Brooklyn, New York. Kadir and Ibrahim were arrested in Trinidad on June 3, 2007. Nur surrendered to Police two days later in Trinidad. On June 25, 2008, Kareem Ibrahim, Abdel Nur and Abdul Kadir were extradited to the United States. They pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to “cause greater destruction than in the September 11 attacks”.
On August 2, 2010, Kadir and Defreitas were convicted in the JFK airport bomb plot; while, in 2011, Nur and Ibrahim were found guilty of the crime. Nur received a 15-year sentence in January 2011, while Ibrahim was sentenced to life in prison in February 2012.
In August 2017, the former A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government seized assets belonging to the two Guyanese accused of terrorism activities in the United States of America.
Nur’s co-conspirator, Kadir, died in June 2018 in a US penitentiary. The former APNU/AFC Government sparked controversy when it passed a resolution in the National Assembly last year paying tribute to the former PNC parliamentarian turned terrorist, with many including the US Embassy in Georgetown condemning the act. (G3)