The Newburgh Sting

May 20, 2009. A media frenzy erupts surrounding an alleged homegrown terror plot by four men from Newburgh, NY, a depressed city 60 miles north of NYC. According to the FBI, their plan was twofold: to plant bombs outside two synagogues in Riverdale, and to use a Stinger missile to blow up a military plane at Stewart airport. The men were characterized as violent Muslims, but what the media didn’t report was that they were brought together by an undercover informant named Shahed Hussain – sent to Newburgh by the FBI in 2008 on a mission to find domestic terrorists.

The Imam and assistant Imam of Mesjid al-Ikhlas, Newburgh’s mosque, recall their first encounters with Hussain. Representing himself as a businessman, he drove expensive cars and made inflammatory statements about women and jihad. Suspicious, the Imams told a few of their congregants to stay away from Hussein, but one man, James Cromitie, bought into his story. Cromitie, a low-level drug dealer who worked the night shift at the local Walmart, was attracted to Hussain’s apparent wealth, and the two struck up a friendship. As seen in hidden-camera footage, Cromitie tried to impress Hussain by telling him that he had been to Pakistan, even though he hadn’t, and bragged about crimes he hadn’t committed, while Hussain claimed to be connected with the known terrorist network Jaish e-Mohammad. The two had casual conversations about their hatred of the West and Hussain prompted Cromitie into discussions about potential targets in the area. Hussain also urged Cromitie to recruit more people – insisting that they be “good Muslim brothers.” (Source: HBO)