The Daily News has new details on the Zazi plot — which would have targeted Times Square and Grand Central Stations in New York in the days following the anniversary of the September 11 attacks.
The cooperation of would-be lead bomber Najibullah Zazi has helped law enforcement officials piece together a fuller picture of the evil plan to kill innocent straphangers around the 9/11 anniversary last year.
Zazi and his two Queens friends allegedly planned to strap explosives to their bodies and split up, heading for the Grand Central and Times Square stations – the two busiest subway stations in New York City.
They would board trains on the 1, 2, 3 and 6 lines at rush hour and planned to position themselves in the middle of the packed trains to ensure the maximum carnage when they blew themselves up, sources said.
During Zazi’s brief visit to Queens from his home in Denver last September, he rode the subway multiple times to the Grand Central and Wall St. stations, scouting where to best spread death and mayhem, the sources said.
Zazi has confessed that he, Medunjanin and Ahmedzay – all buddies from Flushing High School – traveled to Pakistan in August 2008 to fight with the Taliban against U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
There they were recruited by Al Qaeda for the Manhattan “martyrdom” mission.
They received military training at a terror camp in the Waziristan region, and Zazi was taken aside and given special bomb-making training because of his knowledge of the subway system.
The new information came in part from an unnamed man arrested in Afghanistan in connection with the plot. The Daily News reports that this man will likely be extradited to the United States to be tried in civilian court.