Yesterday, Zarein Ahmedzay pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and other charges in connection with a foiled September 2009 plan to bomb NYC subways. The 25-year-old cabdriver from Queens told the judge that he, Najibullah Zazi and Adis Medunjanin went to an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan, ready to join the Taliban. But Al Qaeda instead told them that they would be, Ahmedzay said, "more useful if we returned to New York City ... to conduct operations." He also said, "I personally believed that conducting an operation in the United States would be the best way to end the wars."
Ahmedzay also revealed that Al Qaeda leaders "wanted my input because I was familiar with the city. I was a New York City taxi driver, and knew the city very well. They said the most important thing was to hit well-known structures and to maximize the number of casualties," but months later, "Because of the amount of explosives he believed he could make, Zazi and I decided the three of us would conduct suicide attacks on subway trains, rather than targeting large structures, like a building."
The Post has his entire statement; Ahmezay told the judge, "I strongly urge the American people to stop supporting the war against Islam. And this will be in their own interest. And I’m thankful for myself, that I do not do anything to harm anyone. But I fear that someone else might do the same thing. And I believe that the real enemies of this country are the ones destroying this country from within. And I believe these are the special group, the Zionist Jews, I believe, who want a permanent shadow government within the government of the United States of America." Zazi pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in February and implicated Ahmedzay and Medujanin.
