View Full Version : Breaking News - Terrorist plot in the US
Breaking News
Was just on the radio about a terrorist plot arrest. Not much info but it said the threat was serious enough that congress was to be briefed.
Said it was an individual from the Middle East.
Nothing showing yet on Drudge.
Small note at SeeBS
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/09/14/national/main5310601.shtml?tag=stack
From Reuters:
New York City police are conducting an investigation into suspected terrorism in the borough of Queens, a spokesman said on Monday.
"There was activity in Queens last night by the NYPD and the FBI that was part of an ongoing joint terrorism taskforce investigation," Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.
The FBI conducted searches early on Monday morning but would not say it they were terrorism related, NY1 television reported, citing the FBI.
There have been no arrests, NY1 said.
In Washington, a federal law enforcement official said searches had taken place but could not provide any details.
And Pravda on the Hudson:
Law enforcement agents raided residences in New York City on Monday as part of a terrorism investigation, and prepared to brief Congress about the probe.
New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed that searches were conducted in the borough of Queens by agents of a joint terrorism task force. He would not discuss the matter further.
Separately, federal authorities planned to brief senior lawmakers in Congress on the case later Monday.
A person briefed on the matter, who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity, said the raids were the result of previous law enforcement surveillance of individuals.
Update. ;)
Richard
Terrorism Task Force Raids Queens Apartments
Raymond Hernandez and Karen Zraick, NYT, 14 Sep 2009
At least two apartments in Queens were raided on Monday after they had been visited in the last week by a suspected associate of Al Qaeda, according to officials.
No arrests were made and no explosives or other weapons were found in the raids, which were conducted by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York, the officials said. Law enforcement officials also did not identify any specific terror plot or any target of a planned attack.
“I would characterize the raids as preventative,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, who was briefed Monday afternoon by Robert S. Mueller, the F.B.I. director, and other law enforcement officials.
Mr. Schumer said there was no truth to rumors that the raids were spurred by an imminent terrorist attack or out of concern about President Obama’s safety during his visit to New York on Monday.
An official who was briefed on the investigation but said he was not authorized to speak on the investigation said the raids occurred after a man of Afghan descent under surveillance because of suspected Al Qaeda ties visited New York City over the weekend and then left.
One raid was conducted at a seven-story building at 144-67 41st Avenue in Flushing. Naiz Khan, one of the men who was questioned at the building, said the agents were most interested in an acquaintance who had stayed at the apartment on Thursday but was not there when the raids occurred.
Mr. Khan said the acquaintance lived in Flushing at one time, attending the same Afghan mosque in Queens, Masjid Hazrat Abubakr, as the five men who live in the apartment that was raided. The man moved to Colorado about eight months ago, but had returned to New York to resolve a problem with a permit that he had for a coffee cart he had operated in Lower Manhattan.
“I couldn’t imagine some of the kinds of questions they asked,” Mr. Khan said. “Too many questions about” his friend from Colorado, although he noted that the agents never explained their interest.
“I told them everything I know,” Mr. Khan said, adding that because he works six days a week, he has “no time for politics.”
“This is our country,” he said. “We’re going to be citizens soon. We work here, we live here, we love this country as much as you.”
Agents arrived at the building on 41st Avenue at about 2:30 a.m. on Monday, according to Mr. Khan and Amanullah Akbari, 30, who lives in the fifth-floor apartment that was raided.
Mr. Akbari said he was sleeping when about 10 to 15 people, who he believed to be federal agents, knocked down the door.
Four of the five residents of the two-bedroom apartment were home at the time, he said. They were told to face the wall, and were handcuffed, while the agents searched the apartment. The agents removed a computer and several cellphones.
He said the agents were respectful, and stayed for about four hours. They asked where the residents were from and what they did for a living, Mr. Akbari said. “Believe me, I didn’t know why they came here,” he said. “I am scared.”
He denied anyone in the apartment had anything to do with terrorism: “No way. Everybody is working hard. I work seven days a week.”
He said he came to this country 10 years ago and supports a wife and five children in Afghanistan.
All of the tenants are of Afghan descent, and are from the same area of Afghanistan; Mr. Akbari said he has a green card and drives a taxi. Two roommates operate pushcarts, he said.
The F.B.I. also raided an apartment on 146th Street in Flushing, according to a man who lives there and said he was Mr. Khan’s father. He said that some of the authorities told his wife that people had reported smelling a gas leak, and then conducted a thorough search of the apartment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/nyregion/15terror.html?_r=1&ref=us
TOMAHAWK9521
09-15-2009, 16:10
According to news reports on the radio today the FBI is focusing on a terrorist cell out here in Denver which the plot in NY was traced back to.
incarcerated
09-15-2009, 17:13
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE58E7RV20090915
U.S. police alerted about bomb makers after NY raids
Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:50pm EDT
By Edith Honan
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Federal anti-terrorism officials alerted local police departments around the United States about how to track evidence of bomb-making after authorities raided New York homes on Monday in an apparent search for homemade explosives.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security advised the police to look for burn marks typically found on suspects of a particular kind of bomb-making. The note was issued following searches of at least three apartments where a man suspected of sympathizing with al Qaeda had visited.
A U.S. Justice Department spokesman said on Tuesday the advisory was a direct result of Monday's raids, carried out by a joint anti-terrorism task force that included New York police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Authorities declined to say whether anyone was arrested….
"We believe it is prudent to share information with our state and local partners about the variety of domestically available materials that could be used to create homemade explosives," the federal agencies said in a statement.
New York police and the FBI have provided few details about the raids. Witnesses described an operation in which dozens of heavily armed FBI agents arrived in a phalanx of unmarked vehicles and stormed the building in the early morning….
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http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/15/terror.raid/
Afghans were targets of New York terror raid, source says
updated 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The targets of a federal anti-terror raid were Afghan nationals who all attended or circulated at a New York-area mosque, a source with direct knowledge of the investigation said Tuesday.
The Joint Terrorism Task Force raided several locations Monday, searching for explosive devices or components intended to be used on targets in the New York area, the source said.
None were found, according to the source. Publicity and the searches themselves may have "spooked" the people in the alleged cell or those connected to it, the source said.
It's the first time anyone can recall that Afghan nationals were suspected of involvement in a plot to attack the United States, the source said....
FBI unit set for more anti-terror raids in Queens; Fears of Madrid-style subway bombings - sources...
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/16/2009-09-16_fbi_unit_set_for_more_antiterror_raids_in_queen s_sources_fears_of_madridstyle_su.html
"...Fearful of a Madrid-style subway train bombing, authorities are poised to make more raids to seize bomb-making materials at locations in Queens, sources said Wednesday.
The FBI's elite Hostage Rescue Squad arrived in New York in anticipation of the offensive to thwart a Denver-based terror cell with ties to Al Qaeda, police sources told the Daily News................"
Utah Bob
09-17-2009, 08:44
FBI Raid in Colorado (http://www.ksl.com/?nid=157&sid=7930340)
TrapLine
09-18-2009, 14:09
So much for Zazi being "in the wrong place at the wrong time."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,551893,00.html
Maybe his lawyer will come up with a new story:rolleyes:.
Utah Bob
09-19-2009, 11:18
His mouthpiece is still denying everything.
frostfire
09-19-2009, 12:12
Najibullah Zazi, the Aurora, Colorado man.
goodness gracious :(...anywhere but Colorado, especially that close.
A dearest somebody needs to get CCW and develop the "mindset."
peroxide-based explosives
Too many loopholes that are almost impossible to close allow synthesis of such material. OTOH, large quantities are no-go as they're very hard to stabilize, and very friction-and-shock sensitive esp. when they cavitate.
incarcerated
09-19-2009, 12:50
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/suspects-computer-show-sports-stadiums-fashion-sites/story?id=8618732
Suspect's Computer Said to Show Sports Stadiums, Fashion Sites
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, BRIAN ROSS and CLAYTON SANDELL
Sept. 19, 2009
A computer belonging to alleged al Qaeda suspect Najibullah Zazi showed he had researched baseball and football stadiums and sites used in the recent Fashion Week event in New York City, law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com....
....The officials said text messages sent by Zazi suggest the plot was nearing the attack phase. One message said the "wedding cake is ready," which authorities say may have been code to indicate the attack was ready. Al Qaeda operatives have frequently used references to weddings to disguise planned terror attacks....
....Authorities who have been briefed on elements of the alleged plot said it was a "varsity level" plan similar in scope to the 2005 attacks on London's subways and busses.
A recipe for homemade explosives found on Zazi's computer would have produced a bomb of the same size and type used in London, authorities said.
The suicide bombers in London used backpacks and plastic containers to carry the explosive mixtures.
....The New York Daily News reported Saturday that seven New York men with ties to Zazi had unsuccessfully attempted to rent a large rental truck on Sept. 10, the day before Zazi arrived from Denver.
BigJimCalhoun
09-19-2009, 16:24
Some of the locals are investigating too...:eek:
http://www.9news.com/news/article.aspx?storyid=123554&catid=339
FBI stop men with guns at terror suspect's apartment complex
ARAPAHOE COUNTY - Three man clad in camouflage pants were stopped by federal agents overnight after they were found walking around the apartment complex where a terror suspect lives. Two of the men were carrying loaded firearms.
Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation stopped the men as they walked through the parking lot of the Vistas at Saddle Rock Apartments, located at 22959 East Smoky Hill Road. The FBI was at the complex because they've been investigating terror suspect Najibullah Zazi, who lives there.
The Arapahoe County Sheriff's Department says one of the men, 37-year-old Brian Laro, was armed with a loaded AR-15 rifle slung over his shoulder and another man, 24-year-old Timothy Guinn, had a .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol tucked into his waistband. The third suspect was unarmed.
The men told agents they had been at Laro's apartment "having a few beers" when they heard what they thought was a gunshot, then they went to investigate.
Authorities say Laro had a blood alcohol level of .123, while Guinn's registered at .020.
Laro was arrested and taken to the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office Detention's Facility where he was held on a $750 bond on charges of prohibited use of a weapon and disorderly conduct.
Guinn was released at the scene and his deputies say his concealed weapons permit was confiscated pending a review of the incident.
Deputies say the firearms were placed into evidence
Utah Bob
09-19-2009, 16:29
http://www.abcnews.go.com/Blotter/suspects-computer-show-sports-stadiums-fashion-sites/story?id=8618732
Suspect's Computer Said to Show Sports Stadiums, Fashion Sites
By RICHARD ESPOSITO, BRIAN ROSS and CLAYTON SANDELL
Sept. 19, 2009
A computer belonging to alleged al Qaeda suspect Najibullah Zazi showed he had researched baseball and football stadiums and sites used in the recent Fashion Week event in New York City, law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com....
....The officials said text messages sent by Zazi suggest the plot was nearing the attack phase. One message said the "wedding cake is ready," which authorities say may have been code to indicate the attack was ready. Al Qaeda operatives have frequently used references to weddings to disguise planned terror attacks....
....Authorities who have been briefed on elements of the alleged plot said it was a "varsity level" plan similar in scope to the 2005 attacks on London's subways and busses.
A recipe for homemade explosives found on Zazi's computer would have produced a bomb of the same size and type used in London, authorities said.
The suicide bombers in London used backpacks and plastic containers to carry the explosive mixtures.
....The New York Daily News reported Saturday that seven New York men with ties to Zazi had unsuccessfully attempted to rent a large rental truck on Sept. 10, the day before Zazi arrived from Denver.
It has taken them longer than I thought to realize that you don't terrorize America by hitting symbolic and political targets. You do it by hitting everyday targets like markets, stadiums, etc. A bad sign that they are beginning to think this way.
incarcerated
09-20-2009, 00:53
Mr. Zazi is now in custody:
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN2028807320090920
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UPDATE:
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gT-Kwm3eHQPp5qw5B5yzpuy07XuwD9AQSPGO0
3 arrested for false statements in terror probe
By STEVEN K. PAULSON (AP) – 1 hour ago
DENVER — A 24-year-old Colorado airport shuttle driver and his father were arrested on formal charges of making false statements to federal agents in an ongoing terror investigation, and the Justice Department says a third man was arrested in New York City on the same charges.
Najibullah Zazi, 24, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, were arrested by federal agents late Saturday at their suburban Denver homes. Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of Flushing, N.Y., also was arrested, the Justice Department said.
Each was charged with knowingly and willfully making false statements to the FBI "in a matter involving international and domestic terrorism," the department said in a statement.
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UPDATE:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/men-arrested-fbi-nyc-terror-plot/story?id=8618732
....In New York, the FBI arrested the leader of a Queens mosque, Ahmad Afzali, who authorities allege had been a New York police department informant but "went bad" and tipped off Zazi, his father and others to the investigation.
Afzali's alleged double cross compromised the case and led the FBI to move in on the suspects much earlier than they had wanted and led to extreme tensions between the Denver office of the FBI and the NYPD. One law enforcement official said the NYPD had been specifically asked not to reveal the investigation to its informants, but went ahead anyway.
In affidavits filed in connection with the arrests, agents say they discovered nine pages of handwritten notes in Zazi's computer with details on how to make a homemade bomb.
According to the affidavit, Zazi initially denied knowing anything about the notes when he was shown them by the FBI during a three day interrogation.
Later, Zazi admitted the notes were his and that he attended an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan and received instructions on weapons and explosives.
Law enforcement and intelligence officials say the case began in 2008 when the CIA twice picked up on Zazi's presence in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, a place often used by al Qaeda to arrange meetings with foreigners.
Zazi maintained publicly that he had no ties to al Qaeda and had gone to Peshawar only to visit his wife.
According to the FBI affidavits, Zazi went to Peshawar in Aug. 2008 and again in Jan. 2009....
Too many loopholes that are almost impossible to close allow synthesis of such material. OTOH, large quantities are no-go as they're very hard to stabilize, and very friction-and-shock sensitive esp. when they cavitate.
Yes but they're perfect as primary explosives/detonators. In small quantities they're dirt cheap, easy to make, reliable and can be made safe for storage and transport simply by being wet. There also have other interesting characteristics which I won't share on a public forum.
incarcerated
09-20-2009, 16:44
The neighbors at Mr. Zazi's apartment complex are a little nervous...
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_13377270
FBI stops armed men outside Aurora apartments
The Associated Press
Posted: 09/19/2009 03:45:26 PM MDT
AURORA, Colo.—A man faces charges after he was spotted walking around an apartment complex in Aurora with a loaded rifle.
Arapahoe County sheriff's officials say FBI agents stopped 37-year-old Brian Laro, 24-year-old Timothy Guinn and an unarmed man around 1:14 a.m. Saturday. The men said they were having beers at Laro's apartment when they went to investigate what they thought was a gunshot.
Sheriff's officials say Laro had a rifle slung over his shoulder, and Guinn had a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol in his waistband. The guns were taken as evidence.
Laro faces misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and prohibited use of a weapon.
Guinn's concealed weapons permit was confiscated pending a review of what happened.
The neighbors at Mr. Zazi's apartment complex are a little nervous...
http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_13377270
FBI stops armed men outside Aurora apartments
The Associated Press
Posted: 09/19/2009 03:45:26 PM MDT
AURORA, Colo.—A man faces charges after he was spotted walking around an apartment complex in Aurora with a loaded rifle.
Arapahoe County sheriff's officials say FBI agents stopped 37-year-old Brian Laro, 24-year-old Timothy Guinn and an unarmed man around 1:14 a.m. Saturday. The men said they were having beers at Laro's apartment when they went to investigate what they thought was a gunshot.
Sheriff's officials say Laro had a rifle slung over his shoulder, and Guinn had a .45-caliber semiautomatic pistol in his waistband. The guns were taken as evidence.
Laro faces misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and prohibited use of a weapon.
Guinn's concealed weapons permit was confiscated pending a review of what happened.
No, not nervous....just stupid. :rolleyes:
It is Aurora after all. :rolleyes:
And so it goes...
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Reasons For Afghan Men's Terror-Related Arrests Detailed By Justice Dept.
NPR, 21 Sep 2009
The Federal Bureau of Investigation late last night provided details from the affidavits related to the terrorism-related arrests Saturday evening of two Aurora, Colo.-men Najibullah Zazi, his father Mohammed Zazi and a sometime-FBI informant named Ahmad Afzali in New York.
The men were arrested for allegedly lying to law-enforcement officials. They allegedly lied to FBI agents by denying that they knew certain information of which the FBI says it determined the men were aware because the agency had legally listened to phone conversations between the men. The agency also obtained evidence through a search of a rental car being driven by Najibullah, a 24-year old shuttle bus driver.
Here are some relevant details from a Justice Department press release:
According to affidavits filed in support of the three criminal complaints, the FBI is investigating several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere, relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices in the United States.
Records from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reflect that, on Aug. 28, 2008, Najibullah Zazi flew to Peshawar, Pakistan from Newark International Airport via Geneva, Switzerland and Doha, Qatar. CBP records further reflect that Najibullah Zazi traveled from Peshawar to John F. Kennedy International Airport on or about Jan. 15, 2009.
According to the affidavits, on or about Sept. 9, 2009, FBI agents observed Najibullah Zazi depart his residence in Colorado in a rented car. He drove to New York City, arriving the following day, and spent the night at a residence in Flushing, Queens ("the Queens Residence.")
On Sept. 10, 2009, New York City Police Department (NYPD) detectives met with defendant Afzali, whom the NYPD had utilized as a source in the past. According to the affidavits, the detectives questioned Afzali about Najibullah Zazi and others and showed him photographs of Najibullah Zazi and others. Afzali allegedly told the detectives he recognized Najibullah Zazi and several of the men in the photographs.
According to affidavits, on Sept. 11, 2009, defendant Mohammed Zazi placed a call to Afzali which lasted approximately 20 minutes. That same day, the FBI lawfully intercepted a phone conversation between Mohammed Zazi and his son, Najibullah Zazi. An affidavit alleges that, during the conversation, Mohammed Zazi told his son that he had spoken to Afzali who had informed him about being visited by law enforcement and shown photographs. Mohammed Zazi told his son that Afzali would call him and he advised his son to speak with Afzali "before anything else," according to affidavits.
In the midst of this phone call, Najibullah Zazi allegedly received a call from Afzali, who discussed his meeting with law enforcement the day before. According to a draft summary of the transcription, Afzali allegedly stated: "I was exposed to something yesterday from law enforcement. And they came to ask me about your characters." Afzali also allegedly asked Najibullah Zazi about his last trip to Pakistan and added, "Listen, our phone call is being monitored."
According to the affidavits, in another legally intercepted phone conversation on Sept. 11, 2009, Najibullah Zazi told Afzali that his car had been stolen and that he feared he was being "watched." Afzali allegedly asked if there was any "evidence in his car," and Najibullah Zazi said no.
That same day, FBI agents conducted a legally authorized search of Najibullah Zazi's rental car, which was parked near the Queens residence. During the search, agents found a laptop computer containing a jpeg image of nine-pages of handwritten notes. According to the affidavits, the notes contain formulations and instructions regarding the manufacture and handling of initiating explosives, main explosives charges, explosives detonators and components of a fuzing system. On Sept. 12, 2009, Najibullah Zazi flew from La Guardia Airport in New York to Denver.
On Sept. 16, 2009, FBI agents interviewed Najibullah Zazi in Denver. According to an affidavit, when he was asked about and shown handwritten notes regarding explosives found on his laptop computer, Najibullah Zazi falsely asserted that he had never seen the document before and stated he had not written the notes.
On Sept. 17 and 18, 2009, Najibullah Zazi was further interviewed by the FBI in Denver. According to affidavits, Najibullah Zazi admitted in the interviews that during his 2008 trip to Pakistan, he attended courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at an al-Qaeda training facility in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan.
The affidavits allege that, on Sept. 17, 2009, Afzali was interviewed by authorities in New York where he falsely asserted in a written statement that he did not tell Najibullah Zazi or Mohammed Zazi that authorities had approached him seeking information about Najibullah Zazi. According to the affidavits, Afzali also falsely asserted that he never told Najibullah Zazi that they were being monitored on the phone and that he never asked Najibullah Zazi about evidence in his car.
The affidavits further allege that, on Sept. 16, 2009, Mohammed Zazi was interviewed by the FBI in Denver where he was asked whether anyone had called him and told him about his son's activities and any trouble regarding his son. According to the affidavits, Mohammed Zazi falsely stated that he had never called anyone in New York other than his son and he had never received a call from anyone in New York. He allegedly revised his statement to say he had received one call from an individual who informed him that his son had missed his flight. According to the affidavits, Mohammed Zazi was later asked if he knew anyone by the name of Afzali and he said he did not.
The full affadavits can be accessed through links on the NPR web-site at:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/09/reaons_for_afghan_mens_terrorr.html
incarcerated
09-22-2009, 00:30
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-terror-arrests22-2009sep22,0,5320039.story
Terror probe widens in U.S.
By Josh Meyer and Tina Susman
September 22, 2009
Reporting from Washington and New York -
Federal authorities have tied as many as a dozen people to a suspected Al Qaeda-linked bomb plot on U.S. soil as they continue to gather evidence to indict on terrorism charges the young Afghan immigrant at the center of the case, law enforcement officials said Monday.
Authorities said that they did not know the exact number of potential suspects or many of their identities, but that they had been connected through electronic intercepts, surveillance, seized evidence and interviews.
A federal law enforcement official and others, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the high level of secrecy surrounding the investigation, said the suspects appeared concentrated in the New York area, with possibly others in the suspect's home state of Colorado and elsewhere.
Of particular interest are several individuals that Najibullah Zazi, 24, had met or communicated with on a trip to New York two weeks ago....
And so it goes...;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
How Using Imam In Terror Inquiry Backfired On Police
William Rashbaum and Al Baker, NYT, 22 Sep 2009
A decision to enlist a Queens imam in an effort to develop information about the man at the center of a long-running cross-country terrorism investigation backfired earlier this month.
In fact, federal prosecutors have now charged the imam, a onetime source of information for the New York Police Department, contending that he betrayed the police by warning the suspect and then lied about it, and maybe even coached him on what to say if he was questioned.
Several law enforcement officials have said the imam’s disclosures went a long way toward forcing their hand in an extremely sensitive investigation of a possible Qaeda plot. The situation left them scrambling to conduct raids and arrest the suspect sooner than they might have otherwise, a development that they said could make it harder to identify others involved and develop evidence against them.
Several officials — all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because much of the investigation is classified — have said that the inquiry, which had been under way for months, could well have continued, tracking the communications, meetings, plans and associates of the suspect, Najibullah Zazi, 24.
And one official said that the public nature of the new phase of the inquiry would probably require more work and more resources to accomplish its goal: to determine whether a bomb plot was far along and to identify its target and the operatives involved.
Current and former police and federal officials said the approach to the imam, and the resulting disruption, added to a long history of tensions and rivalry between the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in recent years have developed a new dimension: a clash of sorts within the Police Department, between its two primary antiterrorism units.
Those tensions, according to police and federal officials, have led to communication and coordination problems between the two police units and between one of them, the Intelligence Division, and the F.B.I. The other unit, the Counterterrorism Bureau, oversees the more than 100 detectives assigned to work with the F.B.I. on the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Current and former police and federal officials said that the effort on Sept. 10 to enlist the imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, was undertaken by detectives from the Intelligence Division. They showed him pictures of the central suspect and three other men, some of the officials said.
In the subsequent hours, Mr. Afzali spoke both with the suspect, Mr. Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle bus driver, and his father. Court papers say he told the younger Mr. Zazi, who had driven from Colorado to Queens on Sept. 9 and 10, that the authorities had been looking for him.
Neither the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, nor Joseph M. Demarest Jr., the assistant director in charge of the F.B.I.’s New York office, would answer questions about what had happened with the imam. But the two men issued a joint statement on Tuesday evening.
“The F.B.I. and the N.Y.P.D. work together on joint investigations and side by side in task forces on a daily basis,” the statement said. “We have a particularly close partnership between the F.B.I. and the N.Y.P.D.’s Counterterrorism Bureau and Intelligence Division. This collaboration is an essential part of what helps to protect New York City from another terrorist attack.”
Indeed, their efforts through the Joint Terrorism Task Force have led to any number of successes, some that have been made public and some that have not.
Since taking over the department three months after the attack of Sept. 11, 2001, Mr. Kelly has greatly expanded both the intelligence and counterterrorism divisions. The intelligence unit, run by one of Mr. Kelly’s close advisers, David Cohen, a former top Central Intelligence Agency official, has created a network of informants around the city, sent agents overseas and conducted investigations independent of the F.B.I. and the police detectives assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The two units sometimes clash, and while in years past police investigators often complained that the F.B.I. withheld information, complaints about access to sensitive information have recently come from F.B.I. agents and task force detectives.
One federal official said the rivalry between the police antiterrorism units had in some cases led the Intelligence Division “to freelance around and do their own thing.”
With the investigation continuing, it is unclear precisely what led Intelligence Division detectives to approach the imam.
No one has suggested that the detectives who approached Mr. Afzali were doing anything other than what they believed their supervisors wanted. The unit is tightly managed by Mr. Cohen, who has long irritated relations between the Police Department and the F.B.I., according to several police and federal officials. He makes no secret of his disdain for the bureau, they said.
Both F.B.I. and police officials said that much effective investigative work had been done in the case, including over the last 10 days. Arrests had been made, they said, and critical information gathered.
On Tuesday, Mr. Kelly said the investigation might actually have just begun. He said that leads were being followed, that investigators were focused on a number of Mr. Zazi’s associates and that more arrests may follow.
One government official said that some of the people under investigation were cooperating with the authorities and others were not, and that the inquiry was at a critical juncture.
“It’s a fluid thing,” the official said of this aspect of the investigation. “We are at a critical stage where people can come forward and decide to tell the truth.”
Mr. Kelly’s efforts to bolster the city’s antiterrorism program have been rooted in his belief that the federal government failed to protect New York from the Sept. 11 attacks. His aggressive, often independent initiatives have been widely praised.
“Is the guy in Colorado under arrest, the guy who went to training camps in Pakistan? Yes,” said the Police Department’s chief spokesman, Paul J. Browne, noting that two additional people, including the imam, had been arrested.
Mr. Zazi and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, were arrested late Saturday in Denver on charges that they made false statements during a terrorism investigation. Mr. Afzali was arrested early Sunday in Queens. The younger Mr. Zazi and Mr. Afzali were held pending bail hearings scheduled for Thursday. The elder Mr. Zazi will be released on $50,000 bond.
A lawyer for Mr. Afzali, Ronald L. Kuby, said on Monday that his client did not lie to federal authorities. “They blew their own investigation, and now they are trying to blame my client,” Mr. Kuby said.
Mr. Browne said any criticism of the investigation by current or former officials was regrettable and unfounded.
“In the face of success, some people can’t resist taking pot shots,” Mr. Browne said. “It’s chronic, but fortunately they are in the minority.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/23/nyregion/23terror.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
The two units sometimes clash, and while in years past police investigators often complained that the F.B.I. withheld information, complaints about access to sensitive information have recently come from F.B.I. agents and task force detectives.
One federal official said the rivalry between the police antiterrorism units had in some cases led the Intelligence Division “to freelance around and do their own thing.”
I see this every day between Federal LEO's and Fed and Local Agencies. It sometimes causes a lot of difficulties and the measuring who is bigger just gets old. The funny thing is that neither agency see's anything wrong with their narrow view and propriety outlook.
I just hope that the Terrorists do not get off on some technicality caused by this rivalry. I have seen it happen and it sickens me each time.
Utah Bob
09-24-2009, 12:25
Looks like this guy might have been pretty far along in planning.
Source (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33002562/ns/us_news-security/?GT1=43001)
NBC News and news services
updated 12 minutes ago
NEW YORK - A grand jury has indicted terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi on a charge of conspiracy to detonate bombs after the U.S. government alleged that he plotted for more than a year, had recently bought bomb-making ingredients and was looking for "urgent" help in the past two weeks to make explosives.
Zazi, arrested in Denver last weekend on a count of lying to terrorism investigators, was charged in New York with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
The two-page indictment offers few details, but a separate document released Thursday — a government motion seeking to deny bail to the 24-year-old Afghan immigrant — lays out evidence gathered by investigators in a long investigation into a possible al-Qaida plot.
The airport shuttle driver began plotting to "use one or more weapons of mass destruction" between Aug. 1, 2008, and September 2009 against the United States, the papers say.
In July and August, Zazi purchased unusually large amounts of hydrogen peroxide and acetone products from beauty supply stores in the Denver metropolitan area, the document says.
He also searched the Internet for home improvement stores in Queens before driving a rental car for a two-day trip to the city, the document says.
The document says that on Sept. 6 and Sept. 7, Zazi tried on multiple times to communicate with another individual "seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives."
"Each communication," the papers say, was "more urgent than the last."
Chemical residue allegedly found
On those days, Zazi rented a suite at a hotel where he lives in Aurora, Colo., authorities charge. The room had a kitchen, and subsequent FBI testing for explosives in the suite found chemical residue in the vent above the stove.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said that "we are investigating a wide range of leads related to this alleged conspiracy, and we will continue to work around the clock to ensure that anyone involved is brought to justice.
"We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted," he added.
Senior counterterrorism officials, speaking with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said investigators are "actively" monitoring multiple suspects in New York and Denver.
The number keeps changing, said one official, depending on analysis of contacts that Zazi has had in the U.S. in recent weeks. At one point last week, the number had reached eight in New York and five in Denver.
Zazi has publicly denied any terrorist plotting but authorities have said he admitted to the FBI that he took a bomb-making course at a training camp in Pakistan.
One official said there are conflicting signals about whether the alleged plot is connected to al-Qaida. Among those under surveillance are immigrants from at least three predominantly Muslim states, suggesting the involvement of an international terror group, the official said.
Officials say sponsorship of the camp where Zazi allegedly received terrorist training is uncertain, with the possibility that it was not an al-Qaida camp but run instead by one of the various Islamic militant groups in Pakistan. Officials noted that two Pakistani groups, Lashkhar e Taiba and Jaish e Muhammed, both have camps.
"It doesn’t really matter," said one of them. "The camps all espouse the same basic philosophy and teach the same basic techniques. It’s about killing the infidel."
There is no indication of involvement by al-Qaida leaders Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri, one official said.
Other pieces of evidence developed by investigators show a lack of sophistication that would be unusual for an al-Qaida plot, including the fact that three of those suspected of involvement visited a U-Haul office in Queens to rent a trailer but none had credit cards, an official said.
Obama briefed regularly
Still, say officials, the case is viewed as serious enough for President Barack Obama to receive daily updates — sometimes twice a day — from law enforcement and intelligence officials. The documents released Thursday don't specify a specific time and place of a possible attack, but counterterrorism agents feared he and others might have been planning to detonate homemade bombs on New York City commuter trains.
Newsweek reported Thursday that investigators have not yet recovered all of the explosives components they accuse Zazi of purchasing. Two counter-terrorism officials close to the investigation said recovery of the materials was part of the "ongoing investigation."
Utah Bob
09-24-2009, 12:30
More:
Authorities plan to transfer Zazi to the federal court in the New York borough of Brooklyn to face the new charge.
Facing an earlier charge of lying to investigators, Zazi and his father appeared in a Denver court Thursday, while a New York City imam also went before a Brooklyn court.
Zazi's hearing was delayed until Friday after his lawyer said he had not yet received the new charges.
His father, Mohammed Zazi, was ordered freed under court supervision until an Oct. 9 hearing. Afzali was released in New York on $1.5 million bond.
Authorities earlier said they found bomb-making instructions on a hard drive on Zazi's laptop computer but still were unsure of the specific target or scope of a possible terrorist attack.
The arrests came after the raids of several apartments in the Queens neighborhood, where Zazi had driven from Denver to visit earlier this month, and were followed by a flurry of nationwide warnings of possible strikes on transit, sports and entertainment complexes.
On Wednesday, hundreds of federal agents and NYPD investigators again fanned out in the neighborhood where apartments were searched — and backpacks and cell phones removed — over a week ago, to re-interview "people previously encountered" during previous raids there, and to locate others who know them, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe.
The effort also includes a review of phone and other records that could link potential suspects to one another or identify new ones.
"Many of the people we've spoken to have been cooperative," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the investigation is ongoing.
The official said business owners also are on the list of possible witnesses in a potential homemade-bomb plot. The official declined to identify those businesses, but authorities regularly monitor sales by suppliers of chemicals that could be used in improvised explosives.
U.S. intelligence and law enforcement had been monitoring Zazi for a year, suggested one official. Their initial interest was spurred by contacts he had made in Pakistan with "well known bad guys with reputations and histories," that is terrorists along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The contacts were mostly “message traffic”, said the official, that is telephone conversations and e-mail. Once US intelligence understood Zazi was a US resident, the case was turned over to federal law enforcement. Officials would not reveal the identity of which terrorists Zazi had been in contact with.
Was surveillance botched?
But questions lingered about whether early missteps hindered the investigation. A criminal complaint suggests police acting without the FBI's knowledge might have inadvertently blown the surveillance and forced investigators' hand by questioning Afzali — considered a trusted police source in the community — about Zazi and other possible plotters.
The imam, it says, turned around and tipped off Zazi by calling him the next day and saying in a recorded conversation, "They asked me about you guys."
The detectives referred to in the recently unsealed criminal complaint work for a division that operates independently from an FBI-run terrorism task force.
Police officials say that their investigators reached out to Afzali — showing him pictures of four possible suspects to identify, including Zazi — only after receiving fresh information from the terrorism task force that a terrorism plot was possibly in progress.
In a joint statement, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Joe Demarest, head of the FBI office in New York, denied reports that the questioning of Afzali and his alleged betrayal had caused a rift between the agencies.
The New York Times, quoting unnamed current and former police officials, reported in Thursday editions that the New York Police Department transferred two commanders this week, including one from its counterterrorism bureau. NYPD top spokesman Paul Browne would not confirm the transfers or comment late Wednesday.
Good summary so far - points out complexity of aspirational vs operational plotters of those with strong anti-govt sentiment. :lifter
And so it goes...;)
Richard's $.02 :munchin
Terror Case Called One of Most Serious in Years
David Johnston and Scott Shane, NYT, 24 Sep 2009
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, senior government officials have announced dozens of terrorism cases that on closer examination seemed to diminish as legitimate threats. The accumulating evidence against a Denver airport shuttle driver suggests he may be different, with some investigators calling his case the most serious in years.
Documents filed in Brooklyn against the driver, Najibullah Zazi, contend he bought chemicals needed to build a bomb — hydrogen peroxide, acetone and hydrochloric acid — and in doing so, Mr. Zazi took a critical step made by few other terrorism suspects.
If government allegations are to be believed, Mr. Zazi, a legal immigrant from Afghanistan, had carefully prepared for a terrorist attack. He attended a Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, received training in explosives and stored in his laptop computer nine pages of instructions for making bombs from the same kind of chemicals he had bought.
While many important facts remain unknown, those allegations alone would distinguish Mr. Zazi from nearly all the other defendants in United States terrorism cases in recent years. More often than not the earlier suspects emerged as angry young men, inflamed by the rhetoric of Osama bin Laden or his associates. Some were serious in intent. More than a few seemed to be malcontents without the organization, technical skills and financing to be much of a threat. In some cases, the subjects appeared to be influenced by informants or undercover agents who pledged to provide the weapons or even do some of the planning.
In two cases unrelated to Mr. Zazi in which charges were announced on Thursday, in fact, the subjects dealt extensively with undercover agents.
The Zazi case “actually looks like the case the government kept claiming it had but never did,” said Karen J. Greenberg, executive director of the Center on Law and Security at New York University law school.
Her center has studied all the prosecutions of terrorism-related crimes since 2001, and she said many had turned out to be “fantasy terrorism cases” where the threat seemed modest or even nonexistent.
This time, she said, “the ingredients here are quite scary,” and the government’s statements have had none of the bombast and exaggeration that accompanied some previous arrest announcements.
Jarret Brachman, author of “Global Jihadism” and a consultant to the government about terrorism, said some details — like what individuals trained Mr. Zazi in Pakistan — remained to be learned. But he said the case was “shaping up to be one of the most serious terrorist bomb plots developed in the United States,” one resembling the London public transit attacks of July 2005.
“You don’t manufacture homemade TATP explosives unless you want to kill people and destroy infrastructure,” Dr. Brachman said, using the abbreviation for the combination of chemicals said to be involved in the Zazi plot.
In some earlier investigations, federal officials seized on what were widely viewed as marginal cases in an apparent effort to show results and justify aggressive steps being taken in the campaign against terrorism. As a result, people in and out of government have become dubious about assertions of the grave danger posed by any particular group of defendants.
In August, for example, William Webb, a federal magistrate in North Carolina, ordered Daniel P. Boyd, an antigovernment militant, and several other men detained on terrorism charges. But the judge expressed skepticism in court when prosecutors asserted that by talking about “going to the beach,” a defendant meant he intended to engage in violent acts overseas.
But even cases that appear insubstantial can be more complex. For example, on Thursday, Mr. Boyd and two other defendants were charged with additional crimes: conducting reconnaissance of the Marine Corps base at Quantico, Va., and obtaining armor-piercing ammunition with the intent to attack Americans, court documents say.
Even in Mr. Zazi’s case, veteran counterterrorism investigators who regard it as significant acknowledge that important facts remain unknown. Unclear are whether Mr. Zazi had selected a target or a date for a bombing or had recruited others to help.
Moreover, it is not understood fully whether he had built an operational bomb, officials briefed on the case said. Nor is it known why, after practicing with explosive recipes in Colorado, Mr. Zazi drove to New York without chemicals or equipment, the officials said.
Some of the earliest terrorist operatives arrested after the 2001 attacks had direct ties not just to Al Qaeda, but to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the chief organizer of Sept. 11.
But in recent years, foiled plots announced with fanfare in Washington have sometimes involved unsophisticated people who seemed hardly capable of organizing a major attack.
In some cases, the role of Al Qaeda has been played by an F.B.I. informant or undercover agent who seemed to provide much of the energy for the plotting.
For example, on Thursday prosecutors in Illinois charged a 29-year-old man with trying to kill federal employees by detonating a car bomb at the federal building in Springfield. He tried to carry out the attack while accompanied by an undercover officer of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to government legal papers. The vehicle was supplied by the F.B.I., which had placed a dummy device inside.
In yet another case disclosed on Thursday, F.B.I. agents in Texas arrested a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from Jordan and charged him with trying to bomb a 60-story office tower in Dallas. Again, F.B.I. undercover agents posing as members of a Qaeda sleeper cell met with the man for months and supplied a Ford Explorer containing inert material resembling a bomb.
In a 2006 case, a group of Haitian-born men in Miami who had spoken of trying to take down the Sears Tower in Chicago were supplied by an informant with cash, video cameras and boots. The first two attempts to try the men ended in mistrials, but five men were convicted in May in that case after a third trial.
F.B.I. officials have admitted that such cases are “aspirational” rather than operational. But they note that if the Sept. 11 hijackers — some of whom were unsophisticated recent arrivals to the United States — had been interrupted early on, they might have looked amateurish and the notion that they could turn jetliners into missiles far-fetched.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/25/us/25zazi.html?partner=rss&emc=rss