By Connor Adams Sheets
New details have come to light about a September plot to bomb the New York City subway system that was spearheaded by a former Flushing High School student and foiled by law enforcement officials, who arrested two of his classmates.
An unnamed fourth suspect in the scheme was arrested weeks ago in Pakistan, law enforcement officials told the Associated Press Monday.
The four men accused in the case planned to carry out a series of suicide bombings during rush hour on trains at the Times Square and Grand Central Terminal subway stations, the AP reported.
The suspects’ targets were going to be selected from the Nos. 1, 2, 3 trains on the Seventh Avenue line and the No. 6 trains on the Lexington Avenue line, the officials told NBC News.
The information comes on the heels of a guilty plea in Brooklyn federal court by mastermind Najibullah Zazi, which he was offered in exchange for cooperating with officials investigating the terror threat.
Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay, friends of Zazi’s who grew up in the same Flushing neighborhood, are charged with traveling to Pakistan to seek terrorist training — a crime Zazi admitted — according to court records.
Medunjanin and Ahmedzay maintain their innocence and remain in custody in New York as does Zazi.
The fourth suspect, a citizen of Pakistan, may not ultimately be charged in connection with the plot, the law enforcement sources told the Associated Press.
Federal prosecutors publicly confirmed weeks ago that federal agents were searching for suspects outside the United States.
Zazi, 25, pleaded guilty in February to plotting with al-Qaeda associates to carry out a string of bombings in the New York City subway system within days of Sept. 11, 2009.
Zazi, an Afghan immigrant who lived in Flushing for years, told Judge Raymond Dearie in federal court in Brooklyn that he participated in the plot after being recruited by al-Qaeda operatives in Pakistan in 2008.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to al-Qaeda. He will face a maximum of two life sentences plus 15 years in prison as well as $750,000 in fines at his sentencing hearing June 25.
Zazi said he went to Peshawar, Pakistan, “with others” in 2008 to join the Taliban in order to fight against U.S. military and allied forces in Afghanistan, but when they arrived there he said they were instead recruited by al-Qaeda to carry out a bombing plot.
He described the plot in court as a “martyrdom operation” aimed in part at avenging mistreatment and killing of civilians by the U.S. military in Afghanistan.
Flushing imam Ahmad Wais Afzali pleaded guilty last month to lying to federal authorities about Zazi, who attended his mosque.
Reach reporter Connor Adams Sheets by e-mail at csheets@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718-260-4538.
