Alleged conspirator claims to not know Al Qaeda operative
In a courtroom showdown between would-be terrorists, an accused Al Qaeda operative acting as his own lawyer got his alleged co-conspirator to acknowledge they have never met and that he never even heard of him.
Federal prosecutors contend that Abid Naseer, who is on trial in Brooklyn Federal Court for plotting to bomb a shopping center in Manchester, England, attended the same terrorist training camp, and shared the same email account and Al Qaeda trainer as wannabe New York City subway suicide bomber Najibullah Zazi.
Zazi testified over the past two days that he and two of his Flushing High School classmates had traveled to Pakistan in 2008 to learn how to wage jihad against the United States.
"Do you know the defendant," asked Naseer — referring to himself in the third person — on cross-examination.
"I don't happen to remember your face," Zazi replied.
Naseer, 28, pressed: "Have you heard the name 'Abid Naseer' in any of the training camps?"
"Not that I remember," Zazi said.
Zazi also testified that he had never heard of a terrorist mission in Manchester and referred to his Al Qaeda handler by a different name than the one to whom prosecutors say Naseer reported.
Naseer put further distance between himself and Zazi when he asked about coded messages.
Zazi testified that he used the terms "wedding" and "marriage," but he never heard of using women's names as codes for bombs, which prosecutors say was a tactic used by Naseer.
"You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to know what a criminal organization like Al Qaeda would do to draw attention from authorities," Naseer told the witness.
Naseer also appeared to have succeeded in his attempt to show that flour and "ghee," a cooking oil, may be bomb-making ingredients, but they are also are common ingredients for cooking and could be found in bulk amounts in Pakistani kitchens.
"My family used it every day," Zazi agreed.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Zainab Ahmad followed up by getting Zazi to confirm that Al Qaeda officials did not share the names of its operatives nor did he disclose his name to anyone else at the terrorism training camp.
Source http://nydailynews.com/news/crime/alleged-conspirator-claims-not-al-qaeda-operative-article-1.2120129
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