Inside the ’09 plot to bomb NYC subways

By Bob Orr

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Terrorism in the U.S.

(CBS News) September 2009 might have been one of those dates etched in our history. That is when al Qaeda terrorists planned to walk onto New York City subway trains and into Grand Central Terminal with bombs in their backpacks. Those trains are ridden by more than 5 million people each day.

Details of the plot came from an admitted terrorist — now a government witness — at the trial of an alleged co-conspirator. CBS News correspondent Bob Orr is following the case.

These notes are the handwritten recipe for bombs Najibullah Zazi hoped to explode on New York subway trains. The nine pages of instructions were written by Zazi in 2008, after he attended al Qaeda training classes in Pakistan.

The notes, complete with scientific formulas and diagrams of lab beakers, detail how to build bombs with cooking oil, nail polish remover, hair bleach and ball bearings.

Watch a video below of Najibullah Zazi talking about the downloaded book which bomb-making information came from: