US officials said they foiled a plot by four Americans to blow up a New York synagogue and shoot down a US warplane in a year-long undercover operation, amid fierce debate Thursday over national security. The alleged terrorists, all US citizens, were arrested Wednesday as they laid what they believed were bombs - in fact duds supplied by undercover agents - outside a Jewish temple in New York's Bronx neighbourhood.
The four were due to appear in federal court in the New York state town of White Plains later Thursday. The allegations that they attempted to blow up a synagogue and intended to use what they believed to be a Stinger missile against a plane at a National Guard air base fuelled a growing political debate in Washington on how to deal with terror plots.
President Barack Obama Thursday vowed to protect the nation in a major address laying out his vision for the future of the country's security. "My single most important responsibility as president is to keep the American people safe," he said at the National Archives, against the backdrop of the Declaration of Independence and US Constitution. "That is the first thing that I think about when I wake up in the morning. It is the last thing that I think about when I go to sleep at night."
He has been accused by Republicans, notably former vice president Dick Cheney, of opening the country to new 9/11-style attacks amid his plans to close the Guantanamo Bay camp and end "enhanced interrogation" techniques. Cheney began giving his own speech on security later Thursday. The alleged plot in New York lacked the sophistication of the September 11, 2001 attacks, when terrorists hijacked commercial airliners and destroyed the World Trade Center in Manhattan.
However, the fact that the four men allegedly believed they were about to cause carnage at a Jewish center, then use a sophisticated weapon to shoot down a plane has sparked serious concern. That all four were apparently born in the United States also raised the specter of a rise in home-grown terrorists who may be harder to detect than foreign infiltrators.
The suspects - identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen - were all residents of Newburgh, New York and had been tracked for over a year.The charges, which include conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to use anti-aircraft missiles, carry a minimum sentence of 25 years in prison to a maximum of life imprisonment. Three of the men were US citizens and one was of Haitian descent, according to New York Governor David Paterson.
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