| FBI arrest documents showed prime suspect
Najibullah Zazi, 25, an Afghan, visited the city from Colorado on
the 9/11 anniversary carrying a laptop with bomb-making notes he
wrote. Specific attack plans or targets remain unknown, a Justice
Department statement said.
The case erupted last week when New York-based agents raided
several Queens apartments that Zazi visited on the eve of the 9/11
anniversary after driving all night from Colorado. He flew back
Sept. 12th. Najibullah Zazi is employed as an airport
shuttle driver at the Denver airport. Zazi rented a
car in
Colorado and made a 1,600-mile trek across the heartland to
New York. He was quoted that he wanted to experience the
American countryside from a car. He also told reporters that
he the reason he came to New York was to resolve an issue with a
coffee cart he owned.
The FBI and NYPD grew alarmed that Zazi and his pals might be
planning an imminent attack when they found backpacks and cell
phones in an apartment. They also learned Afzali and other Zazi
associates tried to rent a 26-foot U-Haul truck the day before
Zazi got to Queens from Colorado. Zazi, who authorities say
appears to be the ringleader of the alleged plot, has been tracked
by the FBI and the CIA for more than a year, during which time he
has traveled twice to Pakistan for explosives training from al
Qaeda.
Zazi, a legal resident of the U.S. who immigrated in 1999, told
the FBI that he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes on
bomb-making as part of a religious book and that he deleted the
book "after realizing that its contents discussed jihad."
Court records show Zazi ran up more than $50,000 in debt on 20
credit cards, leading to FBI agents concerns he was preparing for
a suicide mission. He declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Mar. 2009,
and while he told investigators he had been traveling to Pakistan
see his wife, he checked the "not married" box on his application
form. The FBI picked up on a message from Zazi to others that the
"Wedding Cake is Ready" authorities believed it meant that
attack is ready and were unwilling to wait any longer before
acting on the cell. This is an amazing job by our law
enforcement agencies working together to keep America safe..
Zazi has publicly denied being involved in a terror plot, and
defense lawyer Arthur Folsom dismissed as "rumor" any notion that
his client played a crucial role
In a criminal complaint, the FBI alleges they found nine
handwritten pages on the manufacture and handling of explosives,
detonators and the fusing system in Zazi's possession. "When Zazi
was questioned about whether or not he knew anything about these
written notes, and they were shown to him, he denied that
knowledge," said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. Kelly said Mohammed Zazi was arrested "because he lied about the phone call that he
made to his son when he was in New York."
Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old airport shuttle driver, and his
father Mohammed made their first court appearance in a Denver
federal courtroom today, handcuffed and dressed in the same
clothes they were arrested in Saturday night. They are charged
with lying to federal agents during an investigation into the
alleged terror plot that has been described as "the real deal" by
authorities. The government is not seeking to keep his father, but
his travel will be restricted to Colorado and he'll wear an
electronic monitoring bracelet. He will have to remain in custody
for two days until the monitoring system is set up.
The third man arrested this weekend, Queens, NY resident Ahmed Afzali,
appeared in a Brooklyn court today as well, but no plea was entered. Afzali is also charged with making false statements to federal agents.
He is alleged to have falsely told authorities that he didn't tell the
Zazis he had been asked by officials about them. Afzali's
attorney Ron Kuby told ABC News that his client, a respected imam
at a Queens, NY mosque who had worked as a source for law
enforcement in the past, was doing what authorities asked him to
do. According to Kuby, Afzali has been in the United States
since 1981, when he came as a child with his family. He has
relatives, including a first wife and children, who live in
Virginia, and because of his activities as a Muslim community
leader in Queens, he had occasionally been called upon by the
Joint Terrorism Task Force to help in investigations.
Al Qaeda has long sought operatives with "clean" passports who
can travel easily into the U.S., as Zazi did for years after
visiting Pakistan. His most recent trip was in January, the FBI
said.
Zazi has repeatedly denied being a terrorist. The court documents
confirm that he offered to admit to the feds that he visited Al
Qaeda training camps. Najibullah Zazi is at the center of
the investigation. New York City police and the FBI moved
aggressively to investigate the Afghan immigrant last week before
the men could take significant steps to launch such a plot,
officials said. As a result, there is much that the U.S.
government doesn't know about the men's intentions, or their
possible connections to a wider network of militants here and
overseas, especially in Pakistan, officials acknowledged.
Investigators have worried most about the possible use of
backpack bombs on New York City trains, similar to attacks carried
out in London and Madrid. "You can't make a definitive
statement about how big this is because it's unclear how much more
is going to come out," said a law enforcement official involved in
the inquiry. Like others, the official spoke on condition of
anonymity, citing the urgency and secrecy of the investigation and
the search for more suspects.
But the official added: "There is a lot more to come. This isn't
over by any means." The senior official said the feds
believe the plot is now "compromised" and would be "hard to bring
forward." "We think we have a pretty good handle on the
threat, but we'd know a lot more if Afzali hadn't tipped them in
the beginning," another insider said |
