Yesterday, during the trial of suspected subway bomb plotter Shahawar Matin Siraj continues, prosecutors played tapes of Siraj talking to the police's informant. Siraj explained why Bill Gates had to be killed, perhaps they should get uranium from Area 51 (though he says Area 52), and that various bridges had to be destroyed because they impact the economy. Here's a tidbit of the tapes, from the NY Times:
Speaking to his driver, he derides a passing policeman: "Hello, pig. Hi, pig. Bye, pig. Pig, you have a problem?" Then, "You, pig, will learn the lesson someday." And also sings — apparently mimicking a song. "Brooklyn Bridge is falling down. Falling down. Falling down. The black guys used to sing this song, remember?"
The Daily News emphasizes that Siraj's lawyers are trying to spin him as a "harmless, easily led dimwit." Siraj is on trial for an elaborate scheme to blow up the Herald Square subway station, among other landmarks and police precincts.
And in another big, terror-related trial, the jurors in the Zacarias Moussaoui trial were not allowed to have a dictionary, but they are allowed to ask definitions of words. Also, on Monday, the Times had a good article about how the NYPD uses informants.
