WASHINGTON — Weeks after arriving in Pakistan on a flight from New York, Bryant Neal Vinas plunged into holy war: He volunteered to train for a suicide attack and fought in the wilds of Afghanistan.
By the time he was captured in November, 14 months later, the Muslim convert from Long Island had journeyed into the innermost circles of Al Qaeda, according to a statement he gave investigators.
Vinas befriended fellow trainees who wanted to bomb stadiums in Europe. He learned to assemble explosives vests. And he had "detailed conversations" with top terrorists about attacks on Western and U.S. targets, according to a French-language summary of the statement he gave to Belgian investigators, which was obtained Thursday by Los Angeles Times reporters in Washington.
Vinas has pleaded guilty to federal charges, including conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to a terrorist organization. He is cooperating with authorities.
In his time abroad, the 26-year-old son of Latin American immigrants left behind a tangible trace of his odyssey: He was one of a group of masked fighters in an Al Qaeda propaganda video released last fall featuring Abu Yahya al Libi, a leader and frequent spokesman.
"Vinas pointed himself out in the video during conversations with investigators," said a European anti-terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
Investigators were alarmed by Vinas' contact with Libi and Rashid Rauf, a Pakistani British operative reportedly involved in a 2006 plot to bring down U.S. flights and in the 2005 London bombings.
A U.S. missile strike killed Rauf in Pakistan on Nov. 21, days after Vinas was captured and gave detailed accounts about camps and leaders, investigators said. A warning of a potential threat against New York commuter trains was issued Nov. 25, hours after Vinas admitted to talking to Al Qaeda bosses about bombing a Long Island Rail Road train, officials said.
The six-page summary of Vinas' statement is part of a court case in Brussels. It will be used as evidence today at a status hearing for three Belgians of North African descent facing terrorism charges. The defendants belong to a group of half a dozen militants who allegedly crossed paths with Vinas in Pakistan.
Vinas spoke with the Belgian investigators in the New York offices of the FBI on March 10 and 11, according to the document, about two months after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges. He told investigators that he was born in Queens, N.Y., and converted to Islam in 2004.
