New York man convicted in plot to target Muslims with X-ray weapon

He could face 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

Crawford is scheduled to be sentenced on December 15 at 9 a.m.by the Honorable Gary L. Sharpe, Chief United States District Judge for the Northern District of New York.

“You didn’t know if he was serious guy or a wacky guy?” defense attorney Kevin Luibrand asked. A General Electric industrial mechanic, he has been jailed since his arrest two years ago.

Crawford wasn’t the only one charged in this investigation.

With undercover agents, Crawford discussed placing the radiological device within a van or truck, parking the vehicle near the entrance to the target location, and then remotely activating the device so that it would direct lethal doses of radiation at people coming in and out of the target location. But he told jurors that if Crawford was guilty of anything it’s sharing his ideas. He replayed earlier Friday the first secretly taped conversation of Crawford with another FBI informant in which Crawford said, “I think Islam is an opportunist infection of DNA” and “Radiation poisoning is a attractive thing”.

According to prosecutors, Crawford planned to acquire and use the X-ray to “silently eradicate Muslims”. The evidence showed he was “cold, calculated” and “committed”.

The Federal Government said this device was never up and running. “The government produced it, ordered it, paid for it”. While co-defendant Eric Feight has pleaded guilty to supporting terrorists by building a remote control for the machine, he and Crawford didn’t conspire to obtain the actual device, the defense lawyer said.

Belliss held up a glass-enclosed metal “X-ray tube” that he said was similar to the device, saying it was proof that Crawford did “more than hand out pamphlets”. The other two charges are conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction and distributing information with respect to a weapon of mass destruction. “Terrorists are thinking outside the box, we have to do so as well”, said Hartunian.

Andrew Vale, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Albany Division, said, “No matter how extraordinary the plot seemed, the threat was real”.