From The New York Times
.... The men, who were identified in court papers as Shahawar Matin Siraj, 22, of Queens, and James Elshafay, 19, of Staten Island, 19, twice conducted surveillance of the station, including once last week, drawing diagrams of the entrances and exits. ....
Last September, a paid police informant began having conversations with the two men, and about eight months later, Mr. Siraj began talking to the informant about setting off bombs in the New York City area and "doing harm to United States military personnel and law enforcement officers," according to a complaint filed yesterday by federal prosecutors. It provided no details about the informant or how he met the men. The complaint did say that the informant, at the instruction of law enforcement officials, told the two men he was a member of an Islamic "brotherhood" that had approved their mission. The brotherhood, according to the complaint, did not exist.
During some conversations, the men "at times stated that they wanted to cause economic harm and disruption but that they wanted to avoid killing anyone." But in tape-recorded conversations with the informant this month, both men can be heard repeatedly discussing plans to plant bombs on the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge and in subway stations, according to the complaint, and Mr. Elshafay had drawn a map of the bridges and police precincts on Staten Island. |