The Nation - Barbados

SECURITY FORCES in Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago were last night engaged in round-the-clock cooperation with United States authorities probing a terrorist bombing plot at JFK International Airport in New York involving four West Indians. The quartet of alleged bomb plotters, said by United States Justice Department officials to have "links with al Qaeda", have been identified as Russell Defreitas, Guyanese-born American citizen, Abdul Kadir, a former parliamentarian in Guyana, Kareem Ibrahim, of Trinidad, and Tobago and Abdul Nur, of Guyana.

Beyond confirming cooperation with United States authorities and the arrests of Kadir and Ibrahim, both Police Commissioners, Henry Greene of Guyana and Trevor Paul of Trinidad and Tobago, said they could not provide details at this time of the alleged criminal offences of those now in custody.

In a brief statement, the Guyana Government said it was in possession of "the shocking news" of the reported involvement of three Guyanese in the bombing plot. As a partner in the global fight against terrorism, it said, Guyana would "cooperate fully"in the investigations under way. Intelligence personnel in the United States were successful in foiling the massive bombing plot with the collaboration of an informant of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) who had been unsuspectingly recruited by Defreitas. The FBI agent was able to produce secretly taped conversations he had with Defreitas, the alleged mastermind of the attack.