Badat, who is a British national, claimed on Monday he met the al-Qaida founder shortly after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
He recounted his meeting with bin Laden. “He said the American economy is like a chain. If you break one link of the chain, the whole economy will be brought down.
“So after September 11 attacks, this operation will ruin the aviation industry and in turn the whole economy will come down.”
The 33-year-old’s videotaped testimony was played in Brooklyn, New York, in the federal trial of Adis Madunjanin, who is accused of plotting to bomb Manhattan subways in 2009.
Badat, who trained to be a shoe-bomber a decade ago, claimed he was due to carry out simultaneous bomb attacks with failed shoe-bomber Richard Reid, but eventually backed out.
Convicted in 2003 in London for a plot to bring down an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami with explosives hidden in his shoes, Badat is free after serving six years of an 11-year prison sentence.
He is co-operating in the hope to be one day able to testify against Khalid Sheik Mohammed, who while in US custody has claimed he was the architect of the September 11 attacks.
Badat said Mohammed gave final orders to himself and Reid, who is serving a life sentence.
The Briton said he believed Mohammed and others like him exploit vulnerable youths to carry out terrorism attacks.
In the same trial, the prosecution called to the witness stand Bryant Neal Vinas, who trained with al-Qaida in Pakistan for a 2007 attack against US soldiers.
The 29-year-old Long Island man said he had suggested to others in al-Qaida in 2008 that they bomb a Long Island Rail Road train and a Walmart store, because “it would cause a very big economy hit”.
Vinas has pleaded guilty to terrorism charges in Brooklyn and now co-operates with the US government.
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