Arrests in Plot to Bomb NYC Temple

The FBI arrested four men in New York City on Wednesday evening in an alleged plot to detonate a bomb outside a Jewish temple. Officials told The Associated Press the arrests came after a long-running undercover operation that began in Newburgh, N.Y.

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The defendants planned to "destroy a synagogue and a Jewish community center with C-4 plastic explosives," Acting U.S. Attorney Lev L. Dassin said.

The religious targets were the Riverdale Temple, founded in 1947, and the Riverdale Jewish Center on Independence Avenue in the Bronx, authorities said.

"I want to congratulate the men and women of the NYPD, the New York State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Joint Terrorism Task Force who tonight foiled a terrorist plot that targeted Riverdale Temple and Riverdale Jewish Center in the Bronx for bombing," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a statement. "[T]his latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real and underscores why we must remain vigilant in our efforts to prevent terrorism."

The investigation had been under way for about a year.

James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, all of Newburgh, were charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, the U.S. attorney's office said.

The men had planned to detonate a car with plastic explosives outside a temple in the Bronx neighborhood of Riverdale and to shoot military planes at the New York Air National Guard base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh with Stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, authorities said.

In June 2008, the informant met Cromitie in Newburgh and Cromitie complained that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and he was upset about the war there and that many Muslim people were being killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan by U.S. military forces, officials said.

Cromitie also expressed an interest in doing "something to America," they said in the complaint.

Rep. Peter King, the senior Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, was briefed on the case following the arrests.

"This was a long, well-planned investigation, and it shows how real the threat is from homegrown terrorists," said King, of New York.

The defendants, all arrested in New York City, were expected to appear in federal court in suburban White Plains on Thursday.

They were jailed Wednesday night and couldn't be contacted for comment. The FBI didn't immediately return a telephone message Wednesday night seeking information on whether the men had lawyers.