"Guilty Plea Made in Plot to Bomb New York Subway" by A. G. SULZBERGER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, New York Times
Excerpt
The Afghan immigrant at the center of what the authorities described as one of the most serious threats to the United States since 9/11 pleaded guilty Monday to terrorism charges in what he said was a Qaeda plot to detonate a bomb in the New York subway.
The man, Najibullah Zazi, admitted that he came to New York last year near the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks to kill himself and others on the subway using a homemade bomb. He characterized the plot as a “martyrdom operation” that he was just days away from executing when he said he realized he was under government surveillance.
Mr. Zazi, 25, pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Brooklyn to charges that included conspiracies to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country, and to provide material support for a terrorist organization. He faces a possible life term when he is sentenced on June 25.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said at a news conference in Washington that the Zazi case represented one of the most serious threats to the United States since the 9/11 attacks.
“Were it not for the combined efforts of the law enforcement and intelligence communities it could have been devastating,” he said. “This attempted attack on our homeland was real, it was in motion, and it would have been deadly.”
Mr. Holder, who has faced criticism by some who favor prosecuting more terror suspects before military tribunals, also repeated his defense of the civilian court system as “an invaluable weapon for disrupting plots and incapacitating terrorists.” He said it “contains powerful incentives to induce pleas that yield long sentences and gain intelligence.”
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