A federal complaint unsealed Wednesday in Albany said the vehicle-mounted radiation gear was intended to be remotely controlled and capable of aiming a high-energy lethal beam of radioactivity at human targets. The concept was that victims would mysteriously die from radiation poisoning within days.
The FBI on Tuesday arrested Glendon Scott Crawford, 49, of Providence, Saratoga County, and Eric J. Feight, 54, of Stockport, who are accused of developing "a radiation emitting device that could be placed in the back of a van to covertly emit ionizing radiation strong enough to bring about radiation sickness or death against Crawford's enemies," according to an FBI agent's sworn complaint.
Crawford, who was suspended from his job at GE in Schenectady this week, and Feight, who previously worked for an electronics company near Hudson, are acquaintances who over the past year had devised a plan to build and sell the weapon to a terrorist organization, according to the FBI. Crawford's role was to design and build the radiation device and its power supply, the complaint states.
Feight's role was to design and build the electronic triggering device that could be used to activate the weapon from a safe distance, the complaint states.
The men, both married, were charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists for use of a weapon of mass destruction. They face up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
They never actually obtained a radiation source and the device was not fully constructed, officials said.
Crawford was arrested Tuesday at an out-of-business auto body shop in Rensselaer County where he went to assemble and test the device, authorities said.
A plot to design a radiation weapon that could fit in a small van and be used to silently kill humans was unraveled by an FBI task force that charged two men — a General Electric Co. industrial mechanic from Saratoga County and a computer software expert from Columbia County -— with conspiring to sell the weapon to Jewish groups or a southern branch of the Ku Klux Klan.
"a radiation emitting device that could be placed in the back of a van to covertly emit ionizing radiation strong enough to bring about radiation sickness or death against Crawford's enemies,"
Glendon Scott Crawford?s home Wednesday, June 19, 2013, on Hinds Raod in Galway N.Y. Crawford, 49, of Galway, is accused in a federal complaint of developing ?a radiation emitting device that could be placed in the back of a van to covertly emit ionizing radiation strong enough to bring about radiation sickness or death against Crawford?s enemies,? states the complaint attributed to an FBI agent. Eric J. Feight, 54, of Hudson, is identified as a co-conspirator and listed in the complaint as Crawford?s acquaintance. (Lori Van Buren/Times Union)
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