Shrouded in mystery, the gripping trial of a suspected al-Qaida terrorist who posed as women online while allegedly plotting to blow up the New York subway began to unfold in a Brooklyn courtroom this week.
James Bond-style agents testifying in wigs and make-up; classified documents found in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden; a radicalized jihadi bomber turned informer; women's names signifying types of explosives; and a Pakistani cricket star serving as his own lawyer.
It all sounds like the international terror script of a Hollywood movie. But this is a real-life scenario that will be playing out in a federal court over the coming weeks, with President Barack Obama's Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch having a front row seat,
The Daily Beast reported.
Abid Naseer, 28, is charged with being part of an al-Qaida bombing conspiracy that allegedly targeted the New York City subway system, a Danish newspaper, and a shopping mall in Manchester, England.
Federal prosecutor Celia Cohen claimed during her opening argument that Naseer had posed as women when emailing from the U.K. to his al-Qaida superiors in Pakistan, while using such aliases as Huma in his correspondence.
"[He was] using women's names because they were less likely to attract attention," said Cohen, who also alleged that Naseer employed female monikers as code to reveal what explosives he would utilize. "The defendant used women's names to describe bombs — what he meant was which bomb."
Cohen said that Naseer favored an explosive device called "Nadia," and emailed a superior named Sohaib that he was going to "marry" her, the Beast reported. He was employing a code word used during the 9/11 atrocities, which the attackers called a "wedding."
"With all the talk of marriage and women, the defendant made it look like he had an active love life," Cohen told the jury, while also pointing out that an email about the international plot went right to the al-Qaida leader himself. "None other than Osama bin Laden."
With the jury transfixed by her every word, Cohen added: "You will see that chilling reminder in the letter to Osama bin Laden that al-Qaida's goal was to attack infidels in their home territories."
The letter is one of eight documents from the secret trove of material recovered by the SEAL Team 6 raid on the bin Laden compound that the prosecution plans to introduce at the trial.
The government case is also expected to include the testimony of six agents from the British intelligence service MI5 who investigated Naseer and the "Manchester cell" before his arrest in the northern city in 2009. He was extradited to the U.S. in 2013.
The Beast reported that the judge is allowing the agents to use "personal identification numbers" instead of their names and "light disguises" involving "only wigs and light makeup."
"Neither of which, according to the government, will interfere with the defendant's or jury's ability to view the witnesses' full facial expressions," the judge wrote in his decision.
With a black beard and looking as fit as his days as a cricket star, the Beast said that Naseer opened his defense by declaring that he had been "no help to al-Qaida at any time."
Naseer claimed, in fact, he had been trying to find a wife online, especially on Qiran.com, which touts "matches made in heaven" and a "safe, halal, trusted and comfortable matrimonial experience for all Muslim singles."
He admitted that he had posed as women online, but only so that he could converse with Muslim females "who would not chat with a male." Naseer also claimed that he used the fake female identities to play pranks on friends.
A central part of the case against Naseer will be based on the testimony of a Najibullah Zazi, a Queens, N.Y., dropout who was radicalized by the recorded teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki, the head of al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula killed by a U.S. drone in 2011.
Zazi, who was clean shaven, was prepared to testify that he had seen Naseer during weapons and explosives training in Pakistan. Naseer was expected to cross-examine Zazi on Wednesday.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.