Talk Bronx New York

James Cromitie, one of the men arrested in an alleged terrorism plot, was escorted by federal agents from 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan

Four men were arrested Wednesday night in what the authorities said was a plot to bomb two synagogues in the Bronx and shoot down military planes at an Air National Guard base in Newburgh, N.Y.

The men, all of whom live in Newburgh, about 60 miles north of New York City, were arrested around 9 p.m. after planting what they believed to be bombs in cars outside the Riverdale Temple and the nearby Riverdale Jewish Center, officials said. But the men did not know the bombs, obtained with the help of an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation, were fake.

The arrests capped what officials described as a “painstaking investigation” that began in June 2008 involving an F.B.I. agent who had been told by a federal informant of the men’s desire to attack targets in America. As part of the plot, the men intended to fire Stinger missiles at military aircraft at the base, which is at Stewart International Airport, officials said.

“This 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,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement. The mayor was expected to appear at 6:45 a.m. Thursday at the Riverdale Jewish Center morning services, joined by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. Read more..

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Gloria Cruz, at St. Ann’s Church, leads Bronx chapter of New Yorkers against gun violence.

 The last Saturday in April was a hot, sunsplashed day, but Gloria Cruz spent it in Immaculate Conception Church on Melrose Ave. and E. 150th St., one of the sites of the gun buyback program sponsored by the Police Department and District Attorney Robert Johnson.

People walked in with all kinds of firearms, and got a $200 cash card in exchange for handguns, rifles and shotguns - $20 for air pistols and BB guns.

Cruz was there as leader of the Bronx chapter of New Yorkers Against Gun Violence.

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Kandahar city’s north side, Loya Wala, is about as tough and low-down dirty as it gets. One fellow I know calls it The Bronx.

  I had an opportunity to walk through it the other day, with Canadian troops and an RCMP officer from Surrey, B.C. We arrived at a police substation and were briefed by the Afghan cop in charge, whose rank, I was told later, is equivalent to a Canadian military corporal.

The Taliban are all around, he said. This is their turf. Local residents don’t rat them out because if they do, they will die. The insurgents are the local Mafia and they rule The Bronx. Read more..

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Taxi drivers, grocery store owners and a group of mothers are all backing Saturday’s first gun buy-back program in the Bronx.

“It’s to our personal concern that programs like this do work,” said Fernando Mateo, head of the New York State Federation of Taxis and the Bodegero Association. “These are the industries most affected by gun violence in New York City.”

As he directed dozens of taxi drivers and bodega owners to hang up posters for the No Questions Asked event co-sponsored by the Bronx district attorney’s office and the NYPD, he thought of Crown Heights bodega owner Mohammed Monsoor Abuzaid and his son Abdul, 18, who were shot and killed during a robbery. Read more..

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The Times’ Jeffrey Gettleman has a dispatch from Boosaaso, Somalia — the booming, lethal heart of the country’s pirate trade. Think of it as the South Bronx, circa 1989. But instead of slinging rock, hustlers there are taking boats.

People [here] describe a certain high-rolling pirate swagger. Flush with cash, the pirates drive the biggest cars, run many of the town’s businesses — like hotels — and throw the best parties, residents say. Fatuma Abdul Kadir said she went to a pirate wedding in July that lasted two days, with nonstop dancing and goat meat, and a band flown in from neighboring Djibouti.

“It was wonderful,” said Ms. Fatuma, 21. “I’m now dating a pirate.”

But the best pirate story of the day is this remarkable segment on Marketplace. Here’s a snippet, from Kelly McEvers’ reporter’s notebook from Belakang Padang, Indonesia:

The pirate, Agus, told us he used to earn $7 a day farming cocoa in a village more than 1,000 miles away. His earnings were barely enough to support his wife, three children, parents, and siblings…
 
The conditions have to be right before pirates will head out “shopping” for a cargo ship to rob: a moonless night, a lull in patrols, and enough money to buy weapons and fuel for the motorized canoes.
 
Once they identify a suitable victim, seven to nine men don ski masks and black shirts, motor out into international waters, sidle up to the ship, and climb on board using a long bamboo pole with a hook on one end.
 
They threaten the captain and crew with long machetes, then steal all the money in the ship’s safe… If they succeed in getting the cash, each pirate can clear between $600 and $2,000. Read more..

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