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Alleged Subway Bomb Plotter Accuses Cops' Informer

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May 16, 2006 6:03 am US/Eastern

Alleged Subway Bomb Plotter Accuses Cops' Informer

Reportedly Planned To Blow Up Herald Square Subway During 2004 GOP Convention

NEW YORK (AP) ―

Click to enlarge 1 of 1: Shahawar Matin Siraj (file image).
CBS

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A Pakistani immigrant accused of plotting to bomb a subway station took the stand in his defense -- saying that he never had a violent thought before he met a paid police informer who inflamed his anger toward the United States.

Shahawar Matin Siraj, 23, said Monday that the informer showed him dozens of images, including pictures of prisoners being abused at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. The informer also had talked about "blowing up the buildings and blowing up the Wall Street places," the defendant said.

"I used to just listen to him, but I never said 'yes, I was going to do it,' or 'no' until the Abu Ghraib thing came up," he said.

When asked by his lawyer who he felt was the leader of the conspiracy, Siraj named the informant, 50-year-old Osama Eldawoody.

Defense attorneys have characterized Siraj as a naive young man who was entrapped by the older informant, who was paid to infiltrate a Brooklyn mosque. Siraj is accused of planning to bomb the Herald Square subway station during the 2004 Republican National Convention, which was held nearby.

Testifying Monday, Siraj said he came up with the subway plot to impress Eldawoody. The defendant said he had become jealous when the informant praised another bombing plan put forward by accused coconspirator James Elshafay, who has pleaded guilty.

Siraj also said that Eldawoody told him that there was a fatwa, or religious edict, permitting the killing of U.S. soldiers and law enforcement agents.

Jurors at the United States District Court in Brooklyn have heard tapes of Siraj musing about trying to inflict harm on the U.S. economy by bombing a nuclear plant or by assassinating captains of industry.

In one of the recordings made by Eldawoody, he also can be overheard chuckling as he recalls the Sept. 11 attack on the World Trade Center and singing, "Brooklyn Bridge is falling down, falling down."

During cross-examination on Monday, prosecutor Marshall Miller suggested that Siraj had approved of suicide bombings long before he had met the informant -- citing specific conversations he suggested the defendant had in 2002 with a friend.

"Sir, did you say to Kamel at any point, 'Inshallah, America will be attacked again very soon'?" Miller asked, using the Arabic word for "God willing." He also asked about a conversation about suicide bombings in Israel.

Siraj said he did not remember either conversation.

On the stand, Siraj claimed that he tried to back out of the plan when Eldawoody could not guarantee that civilians would not be hurt.