Judge orders release of 3 of ‘Newburgh Four’ and assails FBI’s role in a post-9/11 terror sting

By MICHAEL R. SISAK and JENNIFER PELTZ
Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Three men convicted in a post-9/11 terrorism sting have been ordered freed from prison. U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon on Thursday deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust.” She decried the FBI’s role in radicalizing the men known as the “Newburgh Four” in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down National Guard planes. McMahon granted Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen compassionate release, effective in three months. The judge says the men were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals” caught in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant. The U.S. attorney’s office is declining to comment.