As important as a plea would be, Zazi may be far more valuable to investigators as a source for information about co-conspirators in the United States and Pakistan.1010wins reports that Zazi had been cooperating for the past several weeks. That intel could prove quite useful for US and Pakistani intel services as well as help create and expand profiles of terrorists who are currently known or who had not been known to the services.
Three people with inside knowledge of the investigation confirmed that the jailed Zazi volunteered information during a recent sit-down with his attorney and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. The sit-down, known as a proffer session, typically signals that a defendant has begun cooperating in a bid for a plea deal.
Zazi's attorney, William Stampur, didn't immediately return a telephone message Monday.
Zazi — accused of receiving explosives training in an al-Qaida terrorism camp in Pakistan — told prosecutors that he was armed with bomb-making components while en route to New York City last year, but got rid of them along the way, the people said.
Zazi and his cohorts were accused of plotting to blow up parts of the NYC transit system.
UPDATE:
Zazi has entered a guilty plea in Brooklyn federal court on charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and supporting terrorism.
The 25-year-old former Denver airport shuttle driver also pleaded guilty Monday to counts of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support for a terrorist organization.
He faces a life prison sentence without parole in the plea deal.
He was arrested in the fall after arousing authorities' suspicions by driving cross-country from Denver to New York around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
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