Jury Ponders Fate of Accused Terrorist

By ELIZABETH COLUCCIO AND MICHAEL HEUSNER

An accused Al Qaeda conspirator, Abid Naseer smiled and chatted with court officers on Tuesday while a jury began deliberating his fate.

Naseer, who is representing himself, objected to the jury’s request to see pictures of known Al Qaeda operatives that he may have had contact with saying, “This request is too specific.”

But the judge allowed the jury’s request in addition to emails between Naseer and his alleged co-conspirators.

Naseer, a Pakistani, is accused of planning an attack on a shopping mall in Manchester, England. He was linked to the plot through emails he sent to an Al-Qaeda handler whom he claims he did not know.

Naseer argues that the messages sent between him and the email account, sana_pakhtana@yahoo.com were innocent and focused on girls and cars, while the prosecution maintained that the conversations were littered with code words foreshadowing a pending attack.

Naseer conspired with three other men from Queens who planned a simultaneous attack on the New York City subway, all of whom communicated with the Al-Qaeda handler through the same email account, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Zainab Ahmad.

The case was marked by a cloak-and=dagger atmosphere with British intelligence spies testifying in disguise and the defendant acting as his own lawyer in a manner that many observers considered quite skilled.

One avowed conspirator and key witness, Najibulah Zasi testified after striking a plea deal that Naseer’s references to a marriage in his emails were code for a bombing plot.

Naseer was charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiring to support to a foreign terrorist organization, and aiding and abetting others to provide support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Naseer, 28, denies all allegations of Al-Qaeda affiliation. He faces life in prison if convicted.