"To Fight With the Taliban"

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Aspiring al Qaeda suicide bomber Najibullah Zazi in his own words.

THE DEFENDANT: Your Honor, during the spring and summer of 2008, I conspired with others to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military and its allies. We made this agreement in Queens, New York, to carry out this agreement. At the end of August 2008, we flew from New York airport to Peshawar, Pakistan.

THE COURT: Your purpose in going to Pakistan?

THE DEFENDANT: Was to join Taliban.

THE COURT: For the purpose of?

THE DEFENDANT: To fight alongside with the Taliban against the U.S. ... Also, our plan was to go to Afghanistan and fight with the Taliban. While we were in Peshawar, we were recruited by Al Qaeda, instead. We were taken by Al Qaeda to training camp in Waziristan, where we received weapons training.

During the training, Al Qaeda leaders asked us to return to the United States and conduct martyrdom operation. We agreed to this plan. I did so because of my feelings about what the United States was doing in Afghanistan.

Later, I received more training from Al Qaeda about how to construct the explosives for attack in the United States or to carry martyrdom operation. During my training, I had discussion with Al Qaeda ... leaders, including target locations, such as New York City subways.

In January 2009, I come back to United States. Beginning around June 2009, I accessed my bomb-making notes and began researching where to find the ingredients for the explosives.

I also took trips to New York, and meet with others to discuss the plan, including the timing of the attack, and where to make the explosives. I then used the bomb-making notes to construct explosive for the detonators in Denver. The explosive was hydrogen peroxide.

In early September 2009, I drove to New York with the detonator explosive and other materials ... necessary to build bombs.

I arrived in New York City on Thursday, Sept. 10. And we intend to obtain and assemble the remaining components to build a bomb over the weekend. The plan was to conduct martyrdom operation on subway lines in Manhattan as soon as the material were ready, Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.

When I arrived in New York City, I realized that law enforcement was investigating me. At that point, we threw away the detonator explosives and other materials, and I flew back to Denver, and I was arrested just a few days after.

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