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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

New Yorker Sentenced on Plot to Kill Muslims

ALBANY, N.Y. (CN) - A man who helped design a machine for a Klansman plotting to kill Muslims received an eight-year federal prison sentence Wednesday.

Eric Feight, 55, of Hudson, N.Y, will serve 97 months in prison for providing material support to terrorists, according to a statement from the Justice Department.

When Feight pleaded guilty on Jan. 22, 2014, he admitted to helping modify an industrial-grade radiation device that Glendon Scott Crawford plotted to use against Albany-area mosques.

At the time of the plot, Crawford, of Galway, N.Y., belonged to the Ku Klux Klan and worked as an industrial mechanic with General Electric in Schenectady.

The FBI had been tracking Crawford since April 2012 when he approached local Jewish organizations to recruit like-minded co-conspirators. Prosecutors say Crawford was looking for "people who might help him develop technology to be used against people whom he perceived to be enemies of Israel."

A jury convicted Crawford after a trial this summer, finding that he "scouted mosques in Albany and Schenectady and an Islamic community center and school in Schenectady as possible targets" of an X-ray machine that he wanted to weaponize to disperse lethal doses of radiation.

"Crawford also suggested the New York governor's mansion as a potential target," according to a statement from the DOJ.

Feight copped to helping Crawford by designing and building a remote-initiation unit that could activate the radiation device from a distance.

The Justice Department notes that Crawford wanted the KKK to help fund his project, and that he and Feight both met with individuals they believed to be KKK financiers.

In reality, the "financiers" had been undercover FBI agents.

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin called Feight and Crawford's plot "abominable."

U.S. Attorney Richard Hartunian said the case is an example of "when hatred and bigotry beget domestic terrorism and violent extremism."

"This case illustrates the importance of vigilance by community members and an immediate, comprehensive investigation by our Albany FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force, which thwarted the diabolical plan Feight supported," Hartunian added.

Andrew Vale, the special agent in charge of the FBI's Albany office, said the case adds to the picture investigators are putting together as they "assess the terrorism threat and identify those who would go beyond hateful rhetoric and extremist views to commit violent, criminal acts."

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