Shoshanna Utchenik

Authorities called it one of the most serious terrorist plots against America since 9/11.

On Tuesday,  28-year-old Adis Medunjanin of Queens paid for that ambitious plot.

Medunjanin was convicted on terror charges on Tuesday in New York fed court after a 4-week trial exposed the depth of his plots with former high school classmates, Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay.

In 2008, the three received training from al Qaeda in Waziristan, states a Justice Department press release, where they were advised to return to New York for a maximum impact suicide-bombing mission. The plotters planned to blow themselves up at rush hour in a Manhattan subway because, as Zazi testified, the transit system is “the heart of everything in New York City.”

However, the trio noticed they were being observed before they could carry out the plot. Zazi remembered telling his co-conspirators “I think law enforcement is on us. We are done.”

After the FBI searched Medunjanin’s apartment in 2010, he attempted to martyr himself by crashing his car on the Whitestone Expressway at high speed. Before doing so he called 9-1-1 and identified himself and shouted an al-Qaeda slogan:

“We love death more than you love your life.”

He faces up to  life imprisonment at his Sept 7 sentencing.

To read more click here.

By Allan Lengel

A man accused of plotting to bomb the N.Y. subway considered himself a prisoner of war after he was arrested in New York last year, an FBI agent testified in court, according to Newsday.

FBI agent Farbad Azad testified in federal court that he interviewed bombing suspect Adis Medunjanin at a Queens hospital, and the suspect asked to be part of a prisoner of war exchange with the Taliban for an American Service man, Newsday reported. The suspected was hospitalized after crashing on the Whitestone Expressway.

“The defendant viewed himself as a prisoner of war caught on the battlefield,” FBI agent Farbad Azad said, according to Newsday. “He asked if he could be exchanged for a U.S. serviceman, a prisoner captured by the Taliban.”

Medunjanin is charged with plotting to attack New York City subways with Najibullah Zazi and Zarein Ahmedzay. The two others have already pleaded guilty.

By Allan Lengel

Mohammed Zazi, the father of the New York subway bomb plotter Najibullah Zazi, is facing additional charges including allegations of lying and witness tampering, Newsday reported.

In a superseding indictment, authorities charged that he tried to destroy evidence after learning in 2009 that his son was under FBI investigation.

His son Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado airport shuttle bus driver, pleaded guilty this year to plotting an attack on New York City’s subways and has been cooperating with authorities, Newsday reported.

The father Mohammed Zazi lives in Denver and has been free on bail since being charged in the case in January, Newsday reported.

Newsday reported that authorities charged that the father destroyed some of his son’s bomb-making equipment and tried talking a witness out of speaking to the FBI.

George Washington Bridge/istock photo

Here’s a goof that could have been costly.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the FBI warned Port Authority police to search suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi’s car last September when he drove up to the George Washington Bridge that spans the Hudson River.

But noooo. Instead, the police waved Zazi, the subway bombing plotter, across without finding two pounds of explosives that was hidden inside, the Wall Street Journal reported.

To read more click here.

A co-conspirator in the aborted plot to blow up of the New York subway during rush hour pleaded guilty Friday in Brooklyn federal court. He warned America to stop fighting Islam and blamed the Jews, the New York Daily News reported.

At the same time, a prosecutor said in court that the conspirators in the plot had met with two senior Qaeda leaders in Waziristan, Pakistan, who ordered the attack, according to the New York Times.

Terror suspect Zarein Ahmedzay, who pleaded guilty Friday,  told the federal judge, according to the Daily News : “Your honor, I strongly urge the American people to stop supporting the war against Islam. It would be in their interest.”

“I’m thankful for myself that I did not do anything to harm anyone. But I fear someone else might do the same.”

He then went on to say that the “real enemy of this country are the ones destroying the country from within…I believe it’s a special group – Zionist Jews, I believe, who want a permanent shadow government.”

Ahmedzay, Najibullah Zazi and Adis Medunjanin were charged with plotting to carry out the subway bombings. A fourth person was recently arrested in the case in Pakistan, the Daily News reported.

By Allan Lengel

A Queens imam who admitted lying to FBI agents in the case of the aborted bombing plot of the New York City subway got a break: he won’t be heading off to prison.

A Brooklyn federal judge gave Afghan-born Imam Ahmad Afzali time served, which was four days, the Associated Press reported. But Afzali was ordered to leave the country within 90 days. He admitted tipping off  Najibullah Zazi, a key person in the plot, that the FBI was looking for him.

The FBI broke up the plot before it could be executed.

”I take full responsibility for my actions,” the 38-year-old Afzali said in a tearful statement, the AP reported. “‘It was never my intention to help those idiots for what they did in the name of Islam.”

He said he’s not sure what country he’ll go to, the AP reported. ”I’m going to start shopping around,” he said.

Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado airport van driver, who was plotting to blow up the New York subway,  pleaded guilty and is cooperating with authorities. Two other suspects have pleaded not guilty.

By Allan Lengel

A remorseful New York imam, as expected, pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to FBI agents in the subway bombing plot.

The Associated Press reported that a tearful Ahmad Afzali told the judge that he wanted to help authorities but lied under grilling by the FBI.

He had tipped off al Qaeda associate Najibullah Zazi that he was under surveillance by authorities in New York.  Zazi pleaded guilty to plotting to blow up the New York subway system.

AP said his guilty plea spares him serious jail time, but will force him to leave the country.

He also  told the judge  he was sorry for lying about his conversations with Zazi.

“In doing so, I failed to live up to my obligation to this country, my community, my family, and my religion,” he said, according to AP. “I am truly sorry.”

The plea agreement says that Afzali could get up to six months in jail and that he would have to leave the country within 90 days after serving his sentence.

To read more click here.

By Allan Lengel

The former Denver airport shuttle driver who planned to bomb the New York subway is now a convicted terrorist.

Najibullah Zazi, 25, an Afghan native, admitted in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn Monday to the plot and said he was recruited by al-Qaida in Pakistan for a “martyrdom plan” against America, the Associated Press reported.

“I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the U.S. military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan,” Najibullah Zazi, 25, told a federal judge in a Brooklyn courtroom, according to the AP.

The wire service reported that he pleaded guilty to weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization.

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