Three men ensnarled in an infamous post-9/11 terrorism sting have been ordered freed from prison by a judge who deemed their lengthy sentences “unduly harsh and unjust” and decried the FBI's role in radicalising them in a plot to blow up New York synagogues and shoot down National Guard planes.
Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen — three of what's known as the “Newburgh Four" — were “hapless, easily manipulated and penurious petty criminals" caught up in a scheme driven by overzealous FBI agents and a dodgy informant, US District Judge Colleen McMahon said in her ruling Thursday.
