NEW YORK — A former airport shuttle driver from Aurora who was accused of buying beauty supplies to make bombs for an attack on New York subways pleaded guilty Monday, admitting he agreed to conduct an al-Qaeda-led “martyrdom operation” because of U.S. involvement in his native Afghanistan.
Najibullah Zazi told a judge the terror network recruited him to be a suicide bomber in New York, where he went to high school and once worked a coffee cart blocks from the World Trade Center site.
“I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the U.S. military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan,” Zazi, 25, said in court.
The Associated Press learned earlier this month that the jailed Zazi had recently volunteered information about the bomb plot in the first step toward a plea deal. His cooperation suggests prosecutors hope to expand the case and bring charges against other suspects in one of the most serious terrorism threats in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the terror investigation is ongoing.
Zazi pleaded guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization. He faces a life prison sentence without parole at a sentencing in June.
The bombings “could have been devastating,” Attorney General Eric Holder said in Washington. “This attempted attack on our homeland was real, it was in motion, and it would have been deadly.”
Training, planning
Zazi said in court that he traveled to Pakistan in 2008 to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military but was recruited by al-Qaeda in Peshawar and went into a training camp in Warziristan, a region of Pakistan where the terrorist network is known to operate.
Zazi said he received weapons training at the camp and learned about explosives. He also said in court that he had been in contact with al-Qaeda operatives while in Pakistan, but he did not identify them.
“During the training, al-Qaeda leaders asked us to return to the United States and conduct martyrdom operation,” he said. “We agreed to this plan.”
The Pakistan Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Zazi’s case.
Zazi admitted using notes taken at the training camp to build homemade explosives with beauty supplies purchased in the Denver area and cooked up in a hotel room in Aurora. He then drove the materials to New York just before the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
His plan was to assemble the bombs over the weekend and detonate them in the following days.
While entering the city, he was stopped by police for a routine traffic violation on the George Washington Bridge. Suspicious officers allowed him to go free but kept a close watch on his movements.
“The plan was to conduct martyrdom operation on the subway lines in Manhattan as soon as the material was ready,” he said, adding the attack involved a number of bombs.
Days later, authorities raided several Queens apartments, including a friend’s home where Zazi had stayed.
Asked by federal Judge Raymond J. Dearie whether he had been willing to be a suicide bomber, Zazi said, “Yes, your honor.”
Sometime after the traffic stop, Zazi realized New York authorities were investigating him.
“At that point, we threw away the detonator explosives and other materials,” he said.
One of the people familiar with the investigation said Zazi told prosecutors that he made roughly 2 pounds of a powerful and highly unstable explosive called triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.
One of the people familiar with the Zazi case told the AP that Zazi decided to cooperate after being warned that his mother could face criminal immigration charges. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is in progress.
“Plea speaks for itself”
Others charged in the terror case include Zazi’s father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, also of Aurora, who was accused this month of trying to get rid of chemicals and other evidence.
After Monday’s hearing, Najibullah Zazi’s attorney, William Stampur, would say only: “The plea speaks for itself.” The written plea agreement is sealed.
Arthur Folsom, Zazi’s Colorado attorney, said he was not surprised his former client pleaded guilty.
“That’s kind of where it was heading from the first minute I started working on it,” Folsom said. “My former client from the very beginning was willing to talk to them and tell them what he had done and what his involvement was.”
Zazi, however, had told his attorney that he had gotten rid of all of the explosives by the time he had traveled to New York. In court Monday, Zazi said he had brought the bomb-making materials with him.
Folsom said he had been under the assumption Zazi had given up his plans and was being prosecuted for something he was never intending to do. But upon hearing Zazi’s plea, Folsom has a different view.
“If that’s true, then it certainly changes my opinion of things,” he said. “There is a big difference in my mind about someone who thinks about doing something wrong and doesn’t do it, and someone who thinks about doing something and doesn’t do it because they get caught. That is a world of difference.”
Denver Post staff writer Jeremy P. Meyer contributed to this report.
