Two men charged with plotting to blow up the Herald Square subway station were also planning a "holy war" rampage against seven other crucial targets around the city — including at least two other stations, three police precincts and the Verrazano Narrows Bridge, officials said yesterday. "They had the intention to cause damage, to kill people," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. But "they did not immediately have the means to do it."
| No doubt they'd have found it eventually... |
Shahawar Matin Siraj, 21, a "loose cannon" from Pakistan, and James El Shafay, 19, a Pakistan-born U.S. citizen from Staten Island, were charged with conspiracy. Cops say they plotted to use backpack bombs to blow up the 34th Street-Herald Square subway station. It's just a block from Madison Square Garden, where the Republican National Convention kicks off tomorrow. "Last week, they actually went to the station and drew a map," said Kelly. "We had them under surveillance, but we couldn't guarantee [they wouldn't act]. Their motive, basically, was hatred for the system."
| I wonder what their imam has to say about that... |
The two men were picked up by the FBI on Friday after authorities tape-recorded several conversations with an NYPD informant in which the two men asked for help building a bomb. The feds first got wind of the plot last September, when an NYPD informant said he spoke to one of the men about bombs. But things picked up steam earlier this year when the suspects grew angry after seeing photos of the infamous abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison.
"Ahah! See that, James? I knew we had something to seethe about!"
"We must have Dire Revenge™!" |
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