The state’s key witness, FBI informant Shahed Hussain took the stand today in the trial of for four men accused of plotting to blow up two Bronx synagogues and shoot down military planes.

Hussain was the confidential informant who interacted with all four defendants: James Cromitie, Onta Williams, David Williams and Laguerre Payen.

Hussain told jurors he started working with the FBI after he was busted for driver’s license fraud in 2003. He said he took a plea deal and agreed to root out radicals at a mosque in Newburgh, New York. To do so, he posed as a wealthy extremist with ties to a terrorist organization interested in hatching a plot against two Riverdale synagogues.

Cromitie was the first person Hussain met. Hussain testified that when they first met in the parking lot of the mosque, Cromitie said during monthly meetings that he, “wanted to do something to America.”

In their second meeting, Cromitie allegedly told Hussain that he “hated Jews and Jewish people. He hated American soldiers and the American government.” Hussain said that Cromitie was “full of hate on those subjects.”

The two then met monthly and Hussain recorded the conversations for the FBI.

According to Hussain, Cromitie said that because of the military action in Pakistan and Afghanistan, he would kill former President George W. Bush 700 times because of his actions abroad and called Bush “the anti-Christ.”

“If Allah doesn’t kill him, one of my brothers will,” Cromitie allegedly told Hussain.

Cromitie, Payen, and David and Onta Williams were arrested in 2009 on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and conspiracy to obtain and use missiles to kill U.S. officers. They all face life in prison if convicted.

Hussain is set to continue his testimony on Monday.

(Source: NY1)