Exclusive: FBI Raids Denver Home of Terror Suspect

[RamboLiberal]

Source: ABC News

FBI agents have raided the suburban Denver home of the man authorities say is at the center of an alleged al Qaeda plot to carry out attacks in New York.

The agents arrived at the home of 24-year old Najibullah Zazi late this afternoon. One of the agents told ABC News the squad was carrying out a search warrant but declined to comment further.

Zazi's travels to New York last weekend triggered a round of highly publicized raids in the New York area. Authorities told members of Congress the raids had helped to disrupt a plot to carry out a major attack on New York.

Law enforcement officials tell ABC News that agents discovered 14 brand new black backpacks in the New York raids, leading to concern the men may have been planning to use the backpacks to carry suicide bombs.

The men responsible for the attacks on the London subways and the Madrid commuter rail system used backpacks to carry their homemade explosives.



Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/alleged-nyc-terror-plot-s...

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In the car, sources said the feds found documents and papers about bomb-making and bombs. The massive federal response was "an indication of just how serious a threat they see this as," said Frances

In the car, sources said the feds found documents and papers about bomb-making and bombs. The massive federal response was "an indication of just how serious a threat they see this as," said Frances

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/16/200...

[rd_kent]

1. Backpacks: the new face of terror!

Must report all backpacks I see.

[uppityperson]

2. Next thing you know you'll be in danger if you have a map

oh wait, they already did that also, didn't they. Bunch of new backpacks=dangerous? I do hope there was more to it than that.

[RamboLiberal]

4. And just maybe the FBI is on to something

London subway was bombed as were Madrid trains. Backpacks are a method of carrying bombs. How many people buy 14 new backpacks at a time unless you are the Duggar family?

I'm willing to wait and see if the FBI may have broken up a plot. They apparently were moving on info they got from emails, wiretaps and an informant. And this guy had just come from Pakistan.

This is after all Obama's Justice Dept and FBI - I trust things are being run better than under hapless Bush administration.

[Pavulon]

8. He had documentation for making tatp.

a high explosive.

[mike_c]

13. *I* have documentation about TATP (and related explosives) AND a black backpack....

Actually, I have several black backpacks. I'm not a terrorism suspect though, probably because I don't have brown skin or a Pakistani wife.

Most reports about this guy make it sound unlikely that he has any terrorist aspirations, beyond cutting in front of other taxi drivers at the DIA curb.

Friends: Zazi "never said a bad word about the U.S.

The 24-year-old Aurora man at the heart of a national terrorism investigation is a hard-working cabdriver who regularly attends prayer services and is working to put down roots in the United States.

In interviews on the phone and at his condominium Tuesday, Najibullah Zazi denied any terrorist ties.

"Calling me an extremist. What does that mean?" Zazi asked. "I'm just normal. I pray five times a day. I observe Ramadan."

(snip)

But a terrorist?

"Impossible," Jaji said. "We have a much better life here than in Afghanistan. He wants to become a citizen and bring his wife here from Pakistan."

Zazi fasts, prays, adheres to the five pillars of Islam and worships at an Aurora mosque every Friday. There is no hint of anti-American zealotry, according to Jaji.

"He never said a bad word about the U.S.," Jaji said. "He always talked business, how many customers he had a day."

more@link: http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13345476

[RamboLiberal]

15. Yep and how many times after a mass killing

The neighbors say "oh he was such a nice quiet man."

We'll see how this plays out.

I just think on DU the FBI is damned if they do arrest someone they suspect of being a terrorist and would be equally damned if they didn't and a terrorist action happened while they had the info.

If they had just listened to their field agents in Phoenix and Minnesota in 2001 they may have stopped 9-11.

BTW the guy hasn't been arrested yet - they contacted him and he has an attorney and they want to talk to him.

Oh and Mueller and Holder are not breathlessly announcing this ala Ashcroft and the Bushies when they broke up some Al Qaeda wannabes.

[Gedankenaustausch]

32. I feel you, wow it was a relief to read your post.

As long as everything is done legally, and if the FBI has enough evidence on him to try him, then take it to trial and lets lock him up. It's sad that bush did so much to people's trust of the gov that some still think that EVERYTHING the FBI does is wrong/against the constitution/racist/ etc. etc. etc. Is it possible for a DUer to be hard on terrorism these days?

[The Stranger]

38. Yep, and how many times after a massive media product launch, high-profile arrest press conference,

we have found that there was nothing there, that maps or tourist videos were -- OH SHIT -- just maps and tourist videos.

And after the fact, the media splash is gone.

[Pavulon]

20. Did you fly to pakistan and meet with guys known to be alq?

no, then why play some stupid skin card. Documentation, you download the process. Good luck, dont blow up your neighbors.

[mike_c]

25. his wife lives in Pakistan....

I'd call that a perfectly legit non-terrorist reason to visit Pakistan. As for meeting "guys known to be alq" can you say for sure that you never have, or that anyone else never has? Do they wear al Qaida signs and stamp your hand at the door? And just what does one have to do to become "known alq?" Carry a secret decoder whistle and a Captain OBL Junior Terrorist card?

Yeah, I suppose I distrust damn nearly everything the FBI has to say about terrorism.

[Pavulon]

28. Nope but we do watch people

who are alq. But hey, dont worry I am sure positive thinking will take care of everything. I dont pay money to fund stuff, or talk logistics for the NSA to pick up.

No one would ever bother attacking us..

[winter999]

37. So you got a backpack. How about 14 of them?

[mike_c]

39. not recently, but I have actually made bulk purchases of bookbag style...

...backpacks several years ago, to provide for students in a summer ecology program. We didn't blow anything up, either.

My point in this thread is that we have become WAY too paranoid about normal things, like curiosity regarding freely available information, or purchases that have more innocent explanations than harmful ones.

[Ian David]

17. I bet he got it from an FBI informant during the Bush Admin. n/t

[Pavulon]

29. Sure, lets just give him a tax payer funded

tug job and stop all investigations. I mean, what's the point? No one will dare attack us, I mean spain was just weak like london and nyc...oh wait.

[Ian David]

30. ...

[Pavulon]

31. What is your position? cant seem to find one(nt)

[Honeyporter735]

33. thank you n/t

[tularetom]

3. Shit, they had 75,000 of them right in their back yard last Saturday

But they didn't have the right kind of names.

[Pavulon]

9. All of them flew to pakistan to meet

with people under surveillance there.

[Ruby the Liberal]

19. No kidding

Those people scare me. All it will take is one who believes s/he is on a 'mission from God'.

[RamboLiberal]

5. FBI unit set for more anti-terror raids in Queens; Fears of Madrid-style subway bombings - sources

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 Team 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.

Another source said an earlier raid uncovered nine backpacks and cell phones, raising memories of the March 2004 bombings in Madrid.

A series of terrorist bombs detonated aboard commuter trains killed 191 people. The source said authorities feared a potential attack on the city subway, with its 5.2 million daily riders.

FBI Director Robert Mueller, speaking at a Senate hearing Wednesday, said the plot posed "no imminent danger."

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/16/200...

[kestrel91316]

6. When are they gonna go after the RW terrorists??? I am a LOT more afraid of them

than the brown people with funny names.

[nolabear]

7. Gawrsh, you mean they're stopping them before they attack?

Why didn't GW think of that?

[DCKit]

10. Series!11!! And it sounds as if they did it legally, with warrants, investigatin' and everything!

Dick Cheney must be sobbing right about now.

Note to self: Ditch the black backpack.

[Ian David]

18. Wow! Warrants? What are they, commies??? n/t

[bluesmail]

11. The Fourth Reich. The Nazi's were handed the keys to our cities

after WWll. (don't forget about Roswell, they may be connected).

[curlyred]

12. the local media was on this guy's doorstep this morning

asking him if he was a terrorist. It was very surreal. Why would the FBI leak something like this instead of just arresting him?

[El Supremo]

14. Shit! This guy lives about three miles from me.

I hope our men in blue know what they're doing.

[Ian David]

16. Completely identical black backpacks?

That's kind of like ALWAYS using Ryder trucks for bombs.

I don't know why they wouldn't mix it up a little.

Different brands, maybe a couple with Hello Kitty on them, etc.

[Pavulon]

21. Lets just ignore this shit. I mean what could go wrong?

[Xipe Totec]

24. A backpack did that?!

Oh wow!

I better get rid of my backpack before it goes off by itself.

[Pavulon]

27. no worries, happy thoughts will keep us all safe

and unicorns, they will protect us.

[Ian David]

26. I'm not saying we should ignore it.

[Ruby the Liberal]

22. Bulk discount?

[RamboLiberal]

23. From NPR

Here's part of the discussion between Dina and Robert:

DINA: The chatter that was happening among this group, it seemed like they were talking about attacks. And they seem to be really careful about phone conversations they were having and e-mails they were sending. And it worried law enforcement enough that they didn't feel like they were getting enough from their wiretaps. So they recently inserted an informant in the group.

And what worried them was that the men that they were watching had expertise that other so called terrorist groups that we have in this country generally don't have. And it's unclear exactly what that expertise was but it may have been bomb-making experience. And that's what made this investigation so sensitive. One former law enforcement official descriebd it to me as the first time since the 9/11 attacks that the FBI thought they had a group that could actually launch an attack in the U.S...

Robert asked the question that's on a lot of minds.

ROBERT: ...Dina, two things here don't seem to fit. On the one hand talk of this as one of the most sensitive terrorism investigations in years, no actual plan alleged, as you've said, and no arrests. What kind of a big super important investigation results in nobody being arrested?

DINA: That's a really good question. I think what's really going on here is law enforcement is trying to figure out what they've got...

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/09/new_yorkden...

[underpants]

34. I heard that today, sounds like someone actually stopped an attack

we haven't seen that in a looooong time

[western mass]

35. Time for our Bi-Monthly Fake Terror Plot again?

yawn.

[The abyss]

36. Patriot Act Provisions

I guess we really do need those extensions after all

<>

Sleep safe citizens.