Accused NY plotter's behavior made others wary

NEWBURGH, New York (Reuters) - Muslims in the rundown town that was home to four men accused of plotting to blow up synagogues recalled one of them on Thursday as unkempt and so nosy that members of the local mosque tried to avoid him.

Annoying behavior by the accused plotter, Laguerre Payen, had angered worshipers who feared he might be a government informant, said Hamin Rashada, assistant imam at the Masjid Al Ikhlas mosque that Payen had attended since February.

Payen is one of four men accused of plotting to blow up two New York synagogues and shoot down U.S. military planes. New York police said all four, who were arrested late on Wednesday, may have first met in prison.

News of the alleged plot renewed fears of an attack in New York City, where nearly 3,000 people died in the September 11 assault by hijacker airliners in 2001 that destroyed the World Trade Center.

Payen was a familiar face at the 17-year-old Newburgh mosque who pestered other people, said Rashada, who added that none of the four accused men had been seen there together.

"He was nosy," Rashada said. "People would say, 'Something is up with this dude, I don't trust him, he asks too many questions that have nothing to do with him, is he a snitch?'

"People started to be careful around him," he said, and others had threatened him with violence.

Just last week, a mosque member said "The next time I hear that he's asked about me, I'm taking him out," Rashada said, standing outside the brown and tan domed mosque decorated with the words "Come to Pray and Salvation."

ACTED "PARANOID"

The mosque sits apart on a back street in Newburgh, an impoverished city along the Hudson River about 60 miles north of New York City, amid vacant lots and shabby buildings.

Payen did not arouse any suspicion that he had any violent intentions because he stayed composed, Rashada said.

"If an individual would get upset with him and confront him, he was just as calm and cool as the other side of the pillow," he said.

He said Payen could neither read nor write, never talked about himself, sometimes acted "paranoid" and that "his hygiene left a lot to be desired."

Payen never displayed any radical or anti-American views, said the head of the mosque, Imam Salahuddin Muhammad.

"If we heard someone espousing that kind of stuff we'd tell them, 'We don't want you here because you've got this whole thing wrong,'" he said. "'You're not welcome here.'"

Authorities said they had the four men under investigation for nearly a year. They said the mosque was the site of a meeting last summer between the plot's accused ringleader, James Cromitie, and an unidentified informant.

The imam said the mosque, with about 75 families as members, has good relations with its Jewish and Christian neighbors in Newburgh.

"That's what hurts," he said. "Someone is going to say something about something going on in our mosque, like somebody hatching a plot to do some type of terroristic pact. It's not something that we do."

Neighbors said the mosque was quiet and the worshipers

kept to themselves.

Yvonne Murphy, who works as an aide at a nearby assisted living center, said she was not concerned about any allegations of dangerous activity at the mosque. "I believe in God and God is my protector," she said. "I'm not worried."

(Editing by Chris Wilson)