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Parliament honours ex-MP convicted for terrorism
Abdul Kadir, deceased
When the National Assembly convened on Friday, it honoured Abdul Kadir, a former Member of Parliament who served on the list of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNC/R), and as former Mayor of Linden.
Kadir was born Michael Seaforth, but changed his name in 1974 when he converted to Islam. He was a chemical engineer by profession.
Minister Valarie Adams-Yearwood noted that, “being a man who travelled extensively, throughout the Caribbean, South America, Canada, England and the Middle East, Abdul Kadir was fluent in English, Spanish, French and Arabic.”
“The people of Linden and Guyana have lost a great man, a stalwart, a bold and courageous man,” she had told the Assembly.
Despite those praises, Kadir’s life was marked by a controversy that reverberated across the globe.
He was arrested on June 2, 2007 in Trinidad, while en route to Caracas, Venezuela, where he planned to pick up a visa in order to attend an Islamic conference in Iran. He was then extradited to America.
Kadir was investigated for being involved in a plot, which resulted in him being sentenced to life in prison. It was concluded that he conspired to attack John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, by exploding fuel tanks and the fuel pipeline under the airport.
A US Federal Jury convicted Kadir and one of his co-conspirators, Russell DeFreitas, in July 2010, after a nine-week trial.
Records from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) report that, “Kadir and his coconspirators believed their attack would cause extensive damage to the airport and to the New York economy, as well as the loss of numerous lives.”
The FBI had concluded that Kadir, a trained engineer with connections to militant groups in Iran and Venezuela, provided the conspirators with links to individuals with terrorist experience, advice on explosive materials, and a bank account through which to finance the terrorist attack.
It further found that the members of the plot attempted to enlist support from prominent international terrorist groups and leaders, as well as the government of Iran, including Abu Bakr, leader of the Trinidadian militant group Jamaat Al Muslimeen, and Adnan El Shukrijumah, an Al Qaeda leader.
Other co-conspirators in the case were Kareem Ibrahim and Abdel Nur.
Kadir died in prison on June 28, 2018.
The National Assembly presented a motion of sympathy for his death.
The motion was passed with the resolution that the Parliament directs an expression of its sympathy to his sorrowing widow, children and relatives.
Former Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, in a release, said that, while he does not wish to speak ill of the dead, “the issue is much larger than the deceased”.
Had Kadir succeeded in his plot, Nandlall said, the damage would have been monumental to “property and loss of lives and injuries, possibly, including dozens of Guyanese, who may have been passing through or who work at the said airport.”
He added that Guyana would have faced multiple international sanctions, including being placed on the terror watch list.
“Guyana is still not fully compliant with the international requirements regarding its anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime. In fact, only recently, the [current] Attorney General so conceded.”
He added that Guyana was identified by the Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF) and the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) as a country that poses a risk of money laundering and the financing of terrorism.
Nandlall said that against that background and the recent spike in terrorists attacks in various countries, Guyana “did not send the right signal” by paying tribute to a convicted terrorist.
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