NEW YORK -- A cousin of admitted terrorist Najibullah Zazi publicly revealed for the first time Monday that he was in on Zazi's chilling 2009 plot to attack New York City subways with suicide bombers.
Testifying at the federal obstruction-of-justice trial of Zazi's father, the cousin told jurors that he had introduced Zazi to a cleric in Pakistan who arranged for Zazi and two childhood friends from Queens to get training at an al-Qaida outpost.
"There are three guys who want to go to Waziristan," cousin Amanullah Zazi, 24, who was living in Pakistan at the time, recalled telling the cleric.
Najibullah Zazi has pleaded guilty, admitting that he returned from Pakistan to his family's home in Colorado to cook up homemade bombs. He then drove to New York City in September 2009 with plans to attack the subway system in a "martyrdom operation" that was foiled by the FBI.
Amanullah Zazi pleaded guilty in secret and agreed to become a government witness in federal court in Brooklyn against Najibullah Zazi's father, who was charged in an alleged cover-up.
The father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, "tried to cover Najibullah Zazi's tracks by concealing facts and destroying evidence," Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Goldsmith said Monday in opening statements.
The elder Zazi has denied knowing anything about a plot that left New Yorkers severely shaken but unharmed.
"He was confused and in the dark," defense attorney Justine Harris said in her opening statement.
Amanullah Zazi testified that he decided to plead guilty in January 2010 and cooperate in hopes of avoiding a maximum 30-year sentence.
Najibullah Zazi and one of the two friends charged as would-be suicide bombers are awaiting sentencing. The third man has pleaded not guilty and could go to trial later this year.
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