Informant is key to NY synagogues bomb plot case

NEW YORK — Four Muslim men charged with trying to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down military planes will be reunited at their trial with someone who was in on the plot every step of the way: a wire-wearing FBI informant named Shaheed Hussain.

The government credits Hussain with rooting out radical Muslims at a mosque in Newburgh, a small town north of New York. The defense has sought to portray him as a "fraudster" who lured down-and-out dupes into a phony scheme by offering them a pile of cash.

Hussain's credibility will be tested as the government's star witness at the trial, which is set to begin with opening statements this week in federal court in Manhattan.

James Cromitie, Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen have pleaded not guilty to charges that they engaged in a conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles to kill U.S. officers and employees. They face possible life prison terms if convicted.

Authorities last year called the case a "chilling plot" involving "extremely violent men" who represented a growing, dire homegrown terrorism threat. But the government also concedes the men — targets of an elaborate, tightly scripted sting involving fake weapons, 100 officers and a spy plane — had no ties to actual terrorists.

Pressing that point with prosecutors, U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon said at a recent hearing she had been referring to the case privately as "the un-terrorist case"

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