Court documents reveal that Bryant Neal Vinas, an American citizen who converted to Islam, has admitted to providing Al-Qaeda with information for a plot to attack the subway system, reports the Associated Press.

Vinas changed his name to Bashir al-Ameriki following his 2004 conversion at a Long Island mosque mostly attended by Pakistanis. He then began going to radical Islamic websites, quit his job in 2007, and went to Lahore, Pakistan on September 10, according to The New York Times.

After being trained by Al-Qaeda between March and August of last year, he participated in a rocket attack on a U.S. base in Afghanistan.

He was arrested in Peshawar, Pakistan in November, and then provided his interrogators with the information about a plot to attack New York City's subway system, according to TIME Magazine.

The story of Vinas' decision to become a terrorist is intriguing counter-terrorism analysts.

"His background is clearly unusual. I am not aware of other Americans who went with him or who have trained recently in [Pakistan]. . . . He stands out. A Latino American is an unusual profile," the Los Angeles Times quoted one "senior European official" as saying.