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U.S.-Based Plotters On January 8, 2007, Shahawar Matin Siraj, a Queens, New York resident, received a thirty-year jail term after being convicted of conspiring to plant explosive devices at a New York City subway station. On March 2, 2007, James Elshafay, a Staten Island, New York resident, received a five-year prison sentence for his involvement in the plot; he had pled guilty in October 2004. The Target: The Herald Square Subway Station Siraj and Elshafay planned to target Manhattan’s Herald Square (34th Street) subway station, which United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Roslynn R. Mauskopf labeled...

A federal judge slapped a would-be terrorist, who plotted to blow up the Herald Square subway station, with 30 years behind bars yesterday - heeding calls from prosecutors who said the young radical was "perfectly willing to have people die." Shahawar Matin Siraj, 24, was convicted in May of conspiring to place an explosive device inside a garbage can or under a bench in the crowded West 34th Street subway station, which sits just beneath Macy's flagship department store. He wanted to bomb the station in retaliation for war abuses against Iraqis. "The defendant's role was central . . ....

Recent reports outlining what Time magazine has called the "untold story" of a cancelled al Qaeda plot against the New York subway system have excited considerable media hype and public consternation. The account is part of Ron Suskind's new book, The One Percent Doctrine, that was excerpted in the June 26 edition of Time. According to Suskind, al Qaeda developed a "revolutionary new WMD device" that would generate cyanide gas, and these weapons -- which he refers to as "mubtakkar" devices -- were to have been planted on subways by operatives who were in place and preparing to act in...