“Your Honor, I would like to quote from the Qur’an.”
“Quote, Verily, Allah has purchased of the believers their lives and their wealth for the price of Paradise, to fight in the way of Allah, to kill and get killed. It is a promise binding on the truth in the Torah, the Gospel and the Qur’an, end of quote.
“In the summer of 2008, Najibullah Zazi, another individual and I took this offer from Allah, and planned to go to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and wage jihad against the US occupation and the corrupt and imposter Karzai government, to help overthrow it, and establish the perfect justice of Allah. This is Pamishiya and the Calapay. This meant that we were presented to kill the occupying forces, including the United States military.
“At the end of the summer, we traveled from Newark Airport to Peshawar, Pakistan.
“Two thousand eight, Your Honor.
“From Newark Airport, to Peshawar, Pakistan.
“The third individual and I tried to get into Afghanistan once we got there, but we were turned back.
“A few days later, the three of us met a man in Peshawar, who recruited us into al-Qaeda, and took us into Waziristan.
“We arrived at a compound in Waziristan, where two Al-Qaeda leaders showed up to meet with us. They both .¤.¤. Yes, this is Waziristan.
“They spoke English very well. We told these two individuals that we wanted to wage jihad in Afghanistan, but they said that we would be more useful to them and to the jihad if we returned to New York and conducted operations there.
“We understood that they wanted us to conduct suicide operations.
“Like suicide bombing operations.”
“We told these two individuals that we needed time to make a decision.
“Al-Qaeda arranged for the three of us to receive training at a compound in Waziristan. We received light weapons training, which are weapons that a person can carry.
“During the training, we met a third al-Qaeda leader. This individual and one of the two leaders we had already met continued to talk to us, the three of us, about conducting attacks in New York.
“We discussed the matter amongst ourselves, and we agreed to go forward with the plan. I personally believed that conducting an operation in the United States would be the best way to end the wars.
“We then told the al-Qaeda leaders of our decision. We had more conversations with them, him [sic] about the timing of the attack and possible target locations in Manhattan.
“They wanted my input because I was familiar with the city. I was a New York City taxi driver, and knew the city very well. They said the most important thing was to hit well-known structures and to maximize the number of casualties.
“At the end of the training, Zazi and I went back to our families in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The third individual returned to New York.
“The plan was for Zazi and I to return to Waziristan about a month later for explosives training. After I arrived in Afghanistan to my family, I abandoned a plan to attend explosives training and also doubted whether I would continue with the plan. Zazi went to al-Qaeda explosives training by himself, and I later looked at his notes.
“I returned to New York in January 2009. When I first got to New York, I still had my doubts about continuing forward with the suicide bombing, but a few months later, I changed my mind and committed to going forward with the plan.
“Around that time, Zazi traveled to New York from Colorado, and the three us [sic] met in Queens and decided to go — to continue with the plan to conduct suicide bombings during the month of Ramadan.
“Zazi would prepare the explosives. Zazi and I would assemble the devices in New York. And the three of us would carry out the bombing. I looked up potential targets in Manhattan.
“During another trip that Zazi took from New York, we talked more about the attack. Zazi already had started to experiment with explosives. Because of the amount of explosives he believed he could make, Zazi and I decided the three of us would conduct suicide attacks on subway trains, rather than targeting large structures, like a building. And all three of us agreed to this plan.
“Zazi drove back to New York in September. Plan was to finish assembling explosive devices within a few days and the three of us would conduct the attack as soon as the devices were ready.
“When Zazi returned to here — to New York, that is — we met in Queens, and then he gave me a detonator, explosives, that I understood was a mixture of acetone and peroxide.
“Became more and more suspicious of law enforcement. They were tracking us. And we decided to abandon the operation. We throw away containers of chemicals and other materials at a location in Queens, and I got rid of the detonator. I saw a third individual, and I told him that the operation was off.
“Yes. Um, Your Honor, I strongly urge the American people to stop supporting the war against Islam. And this will be in their own interest.
“And I’m thankful for myself, that I do not do anything to harm anyone. But I fear that someone else might do the same thing.
“And I believe that the real enemies of this country are the ones destroying this country from within. And I believe these are the special group, the Zionist Jews, I believe, who want a permanent shadow government within the government of the United States of America.”