In this Sept. 17, 2009 file photo, Najibullah Zazi, the admitted mastermind of a foiled plot to bomb New York City subways, arrives at the offices of the FBI in Denver for questioning. Zazi on Tuesday April 17, 2012 testified at the trial of his high school classmate Adis Medunjanin, who is on trial on terrorism charges in the Brooklyn borough of New Yorl. Medunjanin is accused of traveling to Pakistan with Zazi and another classmate to seek terror training there so they could launch terror attacks back home. (AP Photo/Ed Andrieski, File)TOM HAYS, Associated Press
NEW YORK (AP) – The full beard he wore at the time of his arrest well over two years ago was gone, replaced by closely cropped hair both on his face and head.
In an impassive monotone, Najibullah Zazi took the witness stand in federal court in Brooklyn on Tuesday to begin recounting his role in what U.S. authorities have called one of the most ominous terror threats since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks: a foiled al-Qaida plot to spread death and destruction in the New York City subways with suicide bombers.
The seeds for the scheme were planted about five years ago with a discussion in the parking lot of a Queens mosque, where Zazi, Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay worshipped together, Zazi said in his debut as a government witness at Medunjanin’s trial.
The men made an oath to leave the United States for good and “fight alongside the Taliban,” Zazi testified. He said they were inflamed by recordings of U.S.-born extremist Anwar al-Awlaki and other radical clerics.