Their plot was uncovered by U.S. intelligence, but the details show the continuing necessity of taking the fight to the terrorists around the world lest they be free to organize attacks against the U.S. homeland. Ahmedzay told the court that he and his pals tried to join the Taliban in Afghanistan to “wage jihad against the U.S. occupation and the corrupt and imposter Karzai government, to help overthrow it, and establish the perfect justice of Allah.”

When they were denied entry in Kabul, they flew to Pakistan and were recruited in the summer of 2008 by a pair of top-ranking al Qaeda operatives and told they could better serve jihad by returning to the U.S. and killing innocents. “They said the most important thing was to hit well-known structures and to maximize the number of casualties,” said Ahmedzay, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to use WMD and other charges but seems to have little remorse.

The plot was disrupted last September when police stopped plot leader Najibullah Zazi’s car as it entered New York. Prosecutors also disclosed Friday that the two al Qaeda operatives who recruited the American jihadists have since been killed in Predator strikes in Pakistan. Lawyers in the case refuse to say if Ahmedzay is cooperating, which leaves open the question of whether our spooks have squeezed out all they can from him without aggressive interrogation. But the case is one more illustration that the terror threat continues to be grave, and that wiretaps and targeted killing with Predators are essential to U.S. security.