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| Pakistani immigrant plotted to bomb Herald Square subway in 2004 |
| 2006-05-03 |
| Prosecutors at the trial of a Pakistani immigrant accused of conspiring to bomb the Herald Square subway station in 2004 played a secretly recorded videotape for the jurors in the case today. The tape showed the man talking about the plan with a police informer and another man, who has since admitted to taking part in the plot. The immigrant, Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, agrees to guide a bomber into the Herald Square subway station at West 34th Street, which he has visited on a number of occasions as he developed the plot. He agrees to check the area in advance of the bomber's entry into the station and to point out to him where to place one or two back-pack bombs. But speaking in disjointed English, he refuses to place the bombs himself, saying he does not want to be blamed for any deaths. He also says he needs to ask his mother. "I will work with those brothers, that's it," he says, on the black and white video, which was projected on a large screen on the courtroom wall and lasted about 45 minutes. "As a planner or whatever. But to putting there? I'm not sure." Later he explains to the informer, Osama Eldawoody, a 50-year-old Egyptian who was naturalized as a United States citizen: "I don't want to carry neither I want to put it, from my hands. What if that guy who will be going to come out of the train will be Muslim. Thing about every single thing." He says several times that he wants only to cause economic damage, not to kill anyone. The government has sought to portray Mr. Siraj as a dangerous man bent on carrying out a devastating attack. His lawyers, however, contend that the young man, who came to New York from Karachi, Pakistan, in 1999 to join his parents, was duped. They have said that when a fuller picture is presented, it will be clear that Mr. Siraj was manipulated by the police informer, who they contend orchestrated the plot for money, nearly $100,000 that the Police Department paid him over two years and nine months, much of it while he was working on this case. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 Send him back to Karachi. Clearly he isn't suited for the temptations of life in America. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-03 22:54 |