Terror suspect Zazi pleads guilty in NYC bomb plot

Saying he was just days away from a suicide bomb attack on Manhattan subways when he was captured last fall, Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty to terrorism charges Monday and told a Brooklyn federal judge that he wanted to "sacrifice" himself on a mission for al-Qaida.

Zazi, 25, a Denver airport bus driver who grew up in Flushing, told U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie that al-Qaida hand-picked him and trained him with others in Pakistan in 2008, and helped choose targets for a "martyrdom" plan.

"It meant I would sacrifice myself to bring attention to what the U.S. military was doing to civilians in Afghanistan by sacrificing my soul for the sake of saving other souls," said Zazi, a tall, bearded man who wore a gray prison smock and orange tennis shoes and spoke without hesitation as he laid out the plot in a packed courtroom.

Zazi said he moved to Denver in 2009 to work on the plan, and drove to New York City last fall, arriving Sept. 10 with "detonators" and bombmaking materials, including hydrogen peroxide. He said he intended to finish his bombmaking on the weekend following Friday, Sept. 11, and then attack on the following Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

Dearie asked if he planned to make one bomb, or more than one. "Bombs," Zazi answered. "Plural?" Dearie asked. "Plural," Zazi responded.

When the plot was discovered and Zazi learned the FBI was looking for him, he said, he disposed of his materials and fled back to Colorado. He was arrested on Sept. 19.

A native Afghan and U.S. legal resident, Zazi pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support for a terrorist organization. He will face up to life in prison at his sentencing, scheduled for June.

Law enforcement officials said Zazi had been cooperating, The Associated Press reported. Prosecutors had Dearie seal the terms of Zazi's plea agreement, and Zazi's lawyer Monday refused to comment on that report.

Attorney General Eric Holder, who has been under attack for his plans to put accused terrorists detained by the military on trial in civilian courts in Manhattan or elsewhere, said the plot could have been "devastating" but the plea demonstrated the effectiveness of traditional prosecution.

"The criminal justice system has proved to be an invaluable weapon for disrupting plots and incapacitating terrorists," Holder said in a Washington news conference. "The criminal justice system also contains powerful incentives to induce pleas . . . and gain intelligence."

In other details of the plot, Zazi said Monday that it began in August 2008 when he and others flew to Peshawar, Pakistan, to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military in Afghanistan. He did not indicate how he was originally radicalized.

On the trip, he said, he was recruited by al-Qaida, taken to a training camp in Waziristan, recruited for a suicide operation and trained in how to make bombs. He said he discussed targets, including the subways, and e-mailed notes on explosives to himself, which he consulted when he returned to the United States.

In addition to Zazi, two classmates from Flushing High School - Adiz Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay - have been indicted on related charges. Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, has been indicted on charges of attempting to destroy evidence of the plot.