Updated on
Summary
An Afghan immigrant pleaded guilty on Monday to planning a suicide bomb attack on New York City subways with Al Qaeda training for what would have been the worst attack on the United States since Sept. 11, 2001.Najibullah Zazi, 25, also admitted in Brooklyn federal court that he had received bomb-making and weapons training from Al Qaeda in Pakistan's Waziristan region, which borders Afghanistan. Attorney General Eric Holder has called the plot one of the most serious security threats to the United States since 2001. Earlier this afternoon, Najibullah Zazi, a citizen of Afghanistan, a permanent legal resident of the United States pleaded guilty in New York to three criminal charges. He admitted to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction against persons or property in the United States, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material to Al Qaeda. Zazi has admitted that he brought explosives to New York City on September 10, 2009 and that he and others intended to detonate them on board the New York City subway system, US attorney general Eric Holder told. Zazi pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to Al Qaeda. The guilty pleas, termed an agreement between prosecutors and the defense, suggest Zazi was willing to cooperate with investigators, but lawyers in the case declined to comment. Prosecutors said Zazi took a bomb-making course at an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, had notes on how to make explosives on his laptop computer and acquired materials similar to those used in bomb attacks in London in 2005, buying acetone and hydrogen peroxide at beauty supply stores.
