Trial Begins for 4 Accused in New York Temple Bomb Plot

NEW YORK – NEW YORK -- Four men charged with trying to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down military planes were caught on videotape plotting and praying together before setting out to launch the attack, a prosecutor said Tuesday in opening statements at their trial.

"You will see them pray for success," Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Hickey told jurors in federal court in Manhattan.

The prosecutor said that alleged mastermind James Cromitie also was caught on tape complaining that "the best target has been hit" -- a reference to the World Trade Center. But the defendant also suggested the George Washington Bridge, a military transport plane and especially a synagogue were worthy targets.

"I hate those Jewish bastards," the prosecutor quoted Cromitie as saying. "I would like to get a synagogue for me personally."

Cromitie's lawyer countered by calling the 100 hours of videotape from the sting operation a "movie" produced and directed by a paid FBI informant.

"The movie is not a documentary," said the attorney, Vincent Briccetti. "It's actually a work of fiction."

Cromitie and three men recruited as lookouts -- Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen -- have pleaded not guilty to a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles to kill U.S. officers and employees.

The men were arrested on May 20, 2009, after they went to the synagogues in the Riverdale section of the Bronx to plant bombs at the synagogues and prepare to launch missiles at planes coming from the nearby Air National Guard base in Newburgh, unaware that weapons were inert devices supplied by the FBI.

Authorities say the informant, Shaheed Hussain, met Cromitie at a mosque in Newburgh, a small town north of New York City, in June 2008. Hussain was posing as a wealthy representative of a Pakistani terrorist organization.

The informant worked for months on the investigation, testing the defendants repeatedly to see if they were willing to go through with acts of terrorism, Hickey said Tuesday.

"Every one of these defendants jumped at those opportunities without hesitation," he said. "They were prepared to go all the way through with their destructive and murderous plans."

The prosecutor warned jurors to reject defense arguments that Hussain entrapped the defendants, but he conceded that the informant "was no wallflower. He acted like a facilitator for a terrorist group, planning, supplying, supporting."

Briccetti labeled Hussain "a master manipulator" who offered the defendant large sums of money and even a BMW to men who were uneducated and mostly unmotivated. He did so to entrap Cromitie in "a phony plot that he certainly would not have joined otherwise," the prosecutor said.

The lawyer added: "But for his lies, his tricks, his financial inducements and relentless pressure, James Cromitie and the other defendants could not and would not have been involved in any activity."