Feds: Subway bomb plan was modeled after London attacks

Najibullah Zazi and two Flushing High School classmates planned three coordinated subway suicide bombing attacks during rush hour in Manhattan last September that were to be modeled after the deadly London Underground bombings of 2005, prosecutors revealed Thursday.

The new details of the plot came days after former Denver airport bus driver Zazi pleaded guilty, as prosecutors unsealed new terrorism charges against his two alleged accomplices, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay, and said they expected soon to also charge other individuals from "overseas."

"Their bombing plot was undertaken at the direction and under the control of al-Qaida leadership," prosecutor Jeffrey Knox during the arraignment of the two in federal court in Brooklyn. "Both in terms of location and type of explosion . . . and manner of attack, it was similar to al-Qaida's London subway attack back in July of 2005."

Fifty-two people died and hundreds were injured in the July 2005 London attacks. Three simultaneous suicide bombs exploded at different subway locations during the morning rush hour, and there was a later bus attack. The bombers used peroxide-based explosives - the same chemical Zazi brought from Denver to New York to make bombs.

The new indictment was widely expected after Zazi's Monday guilty plea and disclosure that he was providing information to authorities. The three men, officials say, traveled together to Pakistan in 2008, were trained by al-Qaida, and planned their bombings for last Sept. 13, 14 or 15.

Ahmedzay and Medunjanin, both 25, are charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and to commit murder in a foreign country, as well as supporting and getting training from al-Qaida. Ahmedzay also is charged with lying to the FBI.

Both men pleaded not guilty before U.S. District Judge Raymond Dearie and are being held without bail. They were arrested last month on related charges but were not charged with the bomb plot until Thursday.

Medunjanin, an ethnic Bosnian, is a Queens College graduate who worked as a building superintendent. Ahmedzay, an ethnic Afghan, worked as a taxi driver. Zazi, who was born in Afghanistan, said Monday he was motivated by anger at what U.S. troops had done to Afghanis.

One key side issue in the case involves claims from Medunjanin's lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, that federal agents illegally kept him away from his client after his arrest while they sought to elicit incriminating statements. Last month, Dearie ordered prosecutors to retain all records relating to that issue.

Thursday, Gottlieb disclosed that he was required by prosecutors to agree to a special gag order on any media discussions or court pleadings relating to certain documents as a condition of receiving information from the government.

And prosecutors told Dearie that one hospital videotape relating to Medunjanin's custody might have been destroyed since the judge's order. Dearie called that "disappointing, to say the least" and ordered an inquiry.