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A New York FBI employee is greeted at City Hall by New York FBI Assistant Director in Charge Joseph M. Demarest and, from right foreground, New York's Governor David A. Paterson, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.

In light of the May 20 arrest of four people charged with plotting to blow up Jewish targets and shoot down military planes in New York, about 70 investigators from local, state, and federal agencies who worked the terrorism case were honored today in a ceremony at New York City Hall.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg—along with New York Governor David Paterson, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, and New York FBI Assistant Director in Charge (ADIC) Joseph Demarest—presented each member of the group with a certificate of appreciation for their work on the case.

Thanking the investigators, Mayor Bloomberg said, “We know we live in very dangerous times, but thankfully we have an excellent system of defenses to protect us. And in the first line of these defenses are our superb law enforcement officers, including those we honor today.”

Demarest stressed the importance of continuing cooperation among all the members of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force and the other law enforcement agencies who participated in the year-long investigation. 

The four defendants in the case have been charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction in the United States and conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles.

The four allegedly plotted to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of the Bronx, New York and to shoot military planes located at the New York Air National Guard Base at Stewart Airport in Newburgh, New York. They obtained what they thought were three Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) and a Stinger surface-to-air guided missile from a source. Their “source” turned out to be an FBI informant who gave them a Stinger that wasn’t capable of being fired and IEDs that contained over 30 pounds of inert C-4 plastic explosives.

The mayor said that the case was the result of the cooperative efforts of several agencies, including the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, the FBI, the New York Police Department, the Newburgh City Police Department, the Town of New Windsor Police Department, the U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigations, and the New York State Office of Homeland Security.

Resources:
- New York press release
- More FBI counterterrorism stories 

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