New Indictments in Subway Bomb Plot

By A. G. Sulzberger

Two men already in custody were indicted on Thursday on charges of participating in an Al Qaeda plot to detonate explosives on the New York subway system.

The two men, Adis Medunjanin, 25, and Zarein Ahmedzay, 25, were charged in a new indictment with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization.

The charges come just three days after a former high school classmate of the men, Najibullah Zazi, pleaded guilty to those same charges. Mr. Zazi, who had been the only man publicly charged with participating in the subway bombing plot, has been cooperating with federal authorities.

Mr. Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay — who were arrested in January — had originally faced charges related to a trip they took with Mr. Zazi to Pakistan, where Mr. Zazi said he was recruited and trained by Al Qaeda.

They are scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges in United States District Court in Brooklyn on Thursday. They face life in prison.

While Mr. Medunjanin and Mr. Ahmedzay were before Judge Raymond J. Dearie, F.B.I. agents and police detectives from the Joint Terrorist Task Force executed a search warant at Mr. Medunjanin’s home, a law enforcement official said.

Before the new indictment, Mr. Medunjanin had been charged with conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving military training from a terrorist organization. Mr. Ahmedzay had been charged with lying about his trip to Pakistan. Those charges remain.

While speculation as to the identity of Mr. Zazi’s co-conspirators had centered on Mr. Medunjanin and Mr. Ahmedzay, they had not been formally implicated in the domestic terrorism plot until the new indictment.

The men abandoned their attack plans in September just days before they had been planning to carry it out, after realizing they were under government surveillance. Mr. Zazi was arrested later that month.

“The facts alleged in this indictment shed further light on the scope of this attempted attack and underscore the importance of using every tool we have available to both disrupt plots against our nation and hold suspected terrorists accountable for their actions,” Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in a statement. “This attack would have been deadly, and the many agents, prosecutors and intelligence professionals who worked together seamlessly to thwart it deserve our thanks.”

Comments are no longer being accepted.

Pat Sullivan February 25, 2010 · 11:51 am

I wonder if they had considered what a hassle it is to get luggage through one of those turnstiles, or even buy a ticket at one of those confusing machines.

Ranit Patil February 25, 2010 · 12:20 pm

All these terrorists, if found guilty should be hanged.
Need to send a strong message.
Ranjit

Tim Bal February 25, 2010 · 12:54 pm

Lock them up and throw away the key.

I hope they rot in prison.

It is not exactly “paradise”.

Another win for the good guys, and a loss for the crazy religious nuts.

DavidNevada February 25, 2010 · 12:56 pm

America should allow no dual citizenships, whether it be Israeli, European, Japanese, Chinese, Indian, Arab, African, Muslim or whatever. Dual citizenships negate total loyalty to the USA .and leads to fifth columns in our midst.

I am all for diversity plus the melting pot. If as an American you are not Anglo-Saxon, white and protestant and can’t stand to live here, please leave. Many non-whites of different cultures and religions have succeed as Americans nonetheless the hard work and discriminations of the past.

As for disloyal dual-Americans who engage in terrorism to destroy our cities, I say hang them all.

Bruce February 25, 2010 · 1:05 pm

Don’t gold your breath, Ranit. Eric Holder would prefer they be eligible for parole for good behavior.

P February 25, 2010 · 1:16 pm

No one dared to try this while Hon. George W. Bush was in charge. Everyone knew he means business and he would hunt them down. As soon as Mr. Bush left town, there we are.

Torture is just fine. In India we use torture and it works.

Qwukj February 25, 2010 · 1:25 pm

It is important that America stays on the offense and keep up the good work in Afghanistan, in Iraq, and if I may dare to say, start the good work in Iran. It is essential for the very survival of the United States—nothing less than the very survival of United States is at stake here.

Neither civilian, nor the military courts are equipped to deal with these cases. Civilian courts are not for national security, they are for law enforcement purposes. The Congress should create a new court system in which the proceedings are quick, close door, and secret. This is the only way to protect America.

We are wasting time debating what to do with the so called torture lawyers, John Yoo and Jay Bybee (please shameless Times editorial), while terrorists out there planning to attack America. Let’s not be naïve. America has always tortured people and it is just fine. I can live with a couple of people being water-boarded to protect American people.

When all this is over, we can then sit down and talk about what is right and what is wrong.

T February 25, 2010 · 1:25 pm

^but wait, wasn’t there some other terrorist attack while Bush was in office? I can’t remember…hmmm…

Peter Heinegg February 25, 2010 · 1:29 pm

Wow, a whole shipload of crazies and racists come weighing in…

ROK88 February 25, 2010 · 1:36 pm

No one dared try to implement terrorist acts in the US under Bush? Then why did that administration consistently declare that potential terrorist plots had been foiled?

Terrorists who aim to attack us – whether they be foreign or domestic — could care less about the party in power.

An American, a real one February 25, 2010 · 1:36 pm

Stop talking about prosecuting CIA officers, good lawyers (Jay Bybee &John Yoo), and should American torture or not. It is time to stop acting like a child who has just realized that his/her parent(s) is/are imperfect. We were living in a fantasy land, in which America was a perfect country always taking the morally high ground. It is time for us to grow up, start living in reality, and accept the fact that America is imperfect. American has always tortured people and shall continue to do so. American has always used Saudis, Egyptians, Moroccans, . . . to have people tortured.

America has always supported world’s most brutal dictators (Saddam Hussain would be one) and still supports them. I think Dick Cheney is the most mature, realist leader America has ever produced, he knows that the parent (America) is imperfect, the world is imperfect and that is just how it is.

An American, a real one February 25, 2010 · 1:40 pm

We ought to stop talking about prosecuting CIA officers, Jay Bybee, and John Yoo, and if use torture or not. It is time to get up and face the reality. It is time to stop acting like a child who has just realized that his/her parent(s) is/are imperfect. We were living in a fantasy land, in which America was a perfect country always taking the morally high ground. It is time for us to grow up, start living in reality, and accept the fact that America is imperfect. American has always tortured people and shall continue to do so. American has always used Saudis, Egyptians, Moroccans, . . . to have people tortured.

America has always supported world’s most brutal dictators (Saddam Hussain would be one) and still supports them. I think Dick Cheney is the most mature, realist leader America has ever produced, he knows that the parent (America) is imperfect, the world is imperfect and that is just how it is.

Karen February 25, 2010 · 1:56 pm

Torture is not fine, and we do not want to become another brick in the wall of violence. Thank God and the agents who watch them, they were caught before this attack became a reality

A Piper February 25, 2010 · 1:58 pm

What is it with the short memories of the Busheeple – No one tried this when we tortured? – what about the shoe bomber?

I swear I get Orwellian chills hearing the rhetoric of Cheny and Rumbaugh reverberating from the masses.

“Torture is fine” – not if you’re innocent, it certainly isn’t, and even with as well developed of a criminal justice system as we have here in the US, all sorts of innocent people have been executed, never mind tortured.

Neither are what a loving Creator would want us to do, under any religion. I do commend the great work of the men and women that put the pieces together and, through vigilance and righteousness, kept us safe.

Zasi wasn’t tortured and now we will prosecute his accomplices as well in an US court and they will be held responsible for their actions. We do so much more for our National safety when we act with integrity and honor on the world stage.

I believe that we didn’t with Iraq, (and the Zionist’s didn’t with Palestine) and that’s why we’re in the current economic and social malaise we’re experiencing. How to restore that integrity after it’s been squandered as it has can take great effort and time. That’s the only way we’ll rise above the threat of terrorism. We need to stop giving others reasons to want to kill us.

P February 25, 2010 · 2:01 pm

I wonder what His Excellency Richard Cheney is thinking about these indictments.

Richard Navas February 25, 2010 · 2:03 pm

-P, all sorts of things like this were going on during Bush’s reign. Torture works in India? Is that why they have almost no terrorism in India? Now that is a difficult claim to back up.

P February 25, 2010 · 2:22 pm

A. Piper, you are a saint, you believe whatever you would like to believe (I would like to believe I am Julius Caesar but folks here would put me in an institution). Reality of course is different (ABU GARIB PRISON).

As I humbly stated earlier, torture is just fine. Torture made America great. We use here in India all the time. We have an impressive conviction rate. Almost everybody caught is guilty.

And I am not a Bushpeoppel. I am an Indian people.

A Piper February 25, 2010 · 4:37 pm

-P

You demonstrate your lack of appreciation of American values with your response. I am an American citizen and I have been unjustly detained in the past, and in fact expect due process even if I deserve detention (I believe in the exercise of civil disobedience as a means of changing law). I am proud of the system that has evolved from the work of the founding Patriots and believe in honoring those principles. Torture has never been a recognized activity of the US Government (though Native genocide was), and when it was done it had been covertly, until Bush.

To say that we have always tortured so it’s fine is as silly as saying we always have had slavery (and still do in parts of the world) so it’s fine. Again, not if you’re the slave or the tortured…

Believing one is a historical figure is indeed hysterically insane. Believing in doing the right thing, ( treating others as they would want to be treated ), is not.
Even terrorists have human motivations, and to dismiss them as irrelevant is foolish.

CW February 25, 2010 · 9:24 pm

@P-

You say:

“No one dared to try this while Hon. George W. Bush was in charge. Everyone knew he means business and he would hunt them down. As soon as Mr. Bush left town, there we are.

Torture is just fine. In India we use torture and it works.”

Except for one small fact you conveniently ignore: in this case, where we caught the would-be terrorists before they committed terrorism on U.S. soil, it wasn’t George W Bush who was at the helm. So, your statement is totally wrong. As soon as Bush left, we CONTINUED to track them down. And, I have to add- Bush never ‘hunted down’ the one person- bin Laden- whom he claimed he would hunt down. So, you are 0-for-2 on cogent arguments.

Next time do your homework before you start talking trash about how we Americans have done or should go about our business.

turkeyneck February 26, 2010 · 12:15 am

“Everyone knew {Geo. W. Bush] means business and he would hunt them down.”

Yeah-like he hunted Osama Bin Laden down.

Gimme a break, revisionist historians, Chicken Littles, Obama haters. This guy was trying to cook TATP in his hotel room kitchen. Left alone, he might have met Allah all by himself. At least now he’ll have the rest of his life to contemplate those ethereal virgins.

Ta-ta, terror-mongers!

CH February 26, 2010 · 11:49 am

some of the above comments are more terrifiying than the news report!

Freddy Clinton February 26, 2010 · 1:49 pm

If the US were to adopt folkways and governmental methods of India then in the US we could forget about expensive terrorist prevention and punishment and instead paint the subway cars with sacred cow dung. Then we’d need never fear a nuclear attack. Painting homes with cow dung occured in northern parts of India when a nuclear strike by Pakistan was feared as a result of clash over Kashmir.

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