‘Newburgh Four’ Judge: “The FBI invented the conspiracy; identified the targets; manufactured the ordnance”

5 min readJan 31, 2024

What kind of government picks out the most impoverished and mentally vulnerable from the public, and sets them up with a fake terror plot with the goal to arrest them to expand its “counterterrorism” budget? [11][12]

To the uninitiated this sounds like a story about a tin-pot dictatorship from a 3rd world country. But in reality this is a tradition of the US ‘national security’ agencies that has been in practice for nearly a century. To put it bluntly, it is an ongoing covert-war the national security state is waging on its citizens, with the purpose of furthering the growth of their police state. [1][2]

The following is just one example out of literally thousands of others. [1][2]

The Plot

The Masjid Al Ikhlas mosque where the FBI was recruiting

To “blow up two Bronx synagogues” and shoot “a plane out of the sky”, was the plan cooked up by the FBI with the help of their informant Shahed Hussain.

In 2009 Hussain met and recruited James Cromitie from a Newburgh NY mosque along with 3 other men; Onta Williams, Laguerre Payen, and David Williams. They were offered thousands of dollars as payment, with Cromitie being offered $250,000, his own barbershop and a BMW. [4]

The FBI asset was no rag-tag prophet however, and projected a credible image of wealth in contrast to his victims who were impoverished and mentally unwell. Payen for example, kept urine bottles in his squalid apartment, in contrast to the FBI’s Hussain who “was flash, drove expensive cars and treated people to gifts of cash and food”. This no doubt gave some credibility to his promised rewards. [4]

The four proved to be pretty inept and not interested in Hussain’s attempts at teaching them “radical Islam”. On one instance, Hussain gave Cromitie a camera to carry out reconnaissance on their targets, but Cromitie ended up selling the camera instead. [4]

Cromitie began to have doubts and avoided Hussain for periods at times, but eventually gave in after losing his job. When doubts creeped up again, Hussain threatened him with decapitation, courtesy of his overseas “brothers”. [4]

Considering the ineptitude and obvious lack of explosives-training by the Newburgh 4, it was the FBI who provided them with phony explosives, and a stinger missile. And to top it off, the FBI even drove them across state lines to “federalize the charges” and ensure longer prison sentences. [5][6]

Hussain then drove the men to plant the phony bombs at the Riverdale Jewish Center and Riverdale Temple, and the four were quickly arrested by an armored truck and dozens of officers. They were later sentenced to 25 years in prison. [5][6]

Politicians and law enforcement then went on to act as if the plot was real to propagate their ‘Jihadi terror’ PsyOp and keep the population scared and in ‘need’ of a police state.

“They wanted to make a statement,” a law enforcement source said. “They were filled with rage and wanted to take it out on what they considered the source of all problems in America — the Jews.” [3]

“This incident shows that we must always be vigilant against terrorism, foreign or domestic.” — Chuck Schumer [3]

14 Years Later

“A person reading the crimes of conviction in this case would be left with the impression that the offending defendants were sophisticated international terrorists committed to jihad against the United States,” Judge McMahon wrote. “However, they were, in actual reality, hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals.” [6]

In 2023, 14 years after their incarceration, Judge McMahon declared the plot “an F.B.I.-orchestrated conspiracy”, and released Payen and the two Williams. Cromitie was released less than a year later in 2024. [6][7]

Shahed Hussain

A Pakistani immigrant, gas-station owner, and brother of billionaire Malik Riaz Hussain. In 2001 Shahed became an FBI “terror recruiter” after getting caught using fake documents, to obtain a driver’s license for an individual who paid him $1,000. His new career helped him avoid deportation, and federal charges. [8][9]

In 2004 he entrapped a Pizzeria owner and an Imam from an Albany mosque, through the fake plot of killing a Pakistani diplomat with a missile. The missile deal involved a money loan which additionally got them involved in a faux FBI money laundering scheme. This landed the two men 15 years in prison. [10]

In 2009 he recruited the Newburgh 4, which earned him $100,000 of tax dollars from the FBI. During the trial, the FBI said that Hussain was back in Pakistan. The informant was also receiving money from undisclosed sources in his home country. [5]

Years later Hussain began running a state-inspector-dodging limousine company. One of his vehicles was involved in a crash that killed 20 people, due to faulty breaks and other issues. Hussain’s son Nauman was convicted of manslaughter, but luckily for Hussain he was in Pakistan “dealing with health issues”. [9]