Does the FBI think there’s a connection between the JFK plot and international Shiite terrorist groups?
Trinidad and Tobago, where two of the conspirators in the plot were arrested over the weekend, is swarming with foreign press today, and much of the information coming out of the Caribbean country is murky, reflecting how unexpected it is that a terror plot could have emerged from such an unlikely place. But just when it appeared that the JFK bombing plot couldn’t get much weirder — the fuel tanks that the conspirators sought to detonate would most likely fail to detonate the underground fuel pipeline running from Pennsylvania to the airport, for instance — word comes from the local press that the FBI has told law enforcement officials to look for connections between the plotters and… Iran and Iraq. Reports the Trinidad & Tobago Express:
Police intelligence in Trinidad and Tobago and the US say the group that planned to blow up fuel depots at JFK airport might be linked to radical Shia groups based in southern Iraq or Iran….Sources from the Police Special Branch say they are in the “process of trying to determine whether [alleged conspirator Kareem] Ibrahim has links to radical Shia groups in the Middle East based on information passed on to us the FBI.” [sic]
FBI agents are in Trinidad investigating this and other aspects of the case involving Ibrahim and [Abdul] Kadir. …
The Shia community is very “close knit and well organised” one leading Muslim told the Sunday Express.
“Shias all over the world are linked and the communities live close together and are well known for their extremism especially self-flagellation.”
We’ll check back in shortly on whether the FBI is really looking to Iran and Iraq for connections to the plot. Given that it doesn’t appear from the criminal complaint (pdf) released over the weekend that the conspirators were actually able to secure the assistance of Jamaat al-Muslimeen, the Trinidadian criminal gang, it’s hard to credit the idea that any Shiite terrorist group — let alone Shiite state — would consider the four conspirators a credible vehicle for attacking the United States.