Najibullah Zazi
Encyclopedia
Najibullah Zazi is an Afghan-American
Afghan American
An Afghan American refers to an American with heritage or origins in Afghanistan.-History and population:Afghan Americans have a long history of immigrating to the United States, as they may have arrived as early as the 1920s...

 who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group
2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group
In September 2009 several individuals fell under suspicion, and were arrested due to fears that a suspected jihadist cell in New York was planning to explode bombs in the United States...

 accused of planning suicide bombings on the New York City subway system
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...

, and has pled guilty as have two other defendants. U.S. prosecutors said Saleh al-Somali
Saleh al-Somali
Saleh al-Somali is described as being an al Qaeda leader.He was killed by a missile fired from an unmanned predator drone on December 8, 2009.The missile strike was on a suspect compound in Janikhel village near Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas....

, Al-Qaeda's head of external operations, and Rashid Rauf
Rashid Rauf
Rashid Rauf was an alleged Al-Qaeda operative. He was a dual citizen of Britain and Pakistan who was arrested in Bhawalpur, Pakistan in connection with the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot in August 2006, a day before some arrests were made in Britain...

, an Al-Qaeda operative, ordered the attack. Both were reportedly later killed in drone attacks.

Zazi underwent weapons and explosives training at an al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 training camp in Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

 in 2008. On September 9, 2009, he drove from his home in the Denver, Colorado
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state that encompasses much of the Rocky Mountains as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the Great Plains...

, area to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, intending to detonate explosives on the New York City subway during rush hour as one of three coordinated suicide "martyrdom" bombings. Spooked, however, by surveillance by U.S. intelligence, and warned by a local imam that the authorities were inquiring about him, he abruptly flew back to Denver. He was arrested days later.

On February 22, 2010, he pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. He said he was recruited by al-Qaeda in Pakistan for a suicide "martyrdom" attack against the U.S., and that his bombing target was the New York City subway system. Zazi faces a possible life sentence without possibility of parole for the first two counts, and an additional sentence of 15 years for the third count. Sentencing was initially scheduled to take place on June 24, 2011.

Two of his high school classmates who had traveled with him to Pakistan, his father, his uncle, and an imam from Queens, New York, have also been indicted on related charges. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder
Eric Holder
Eric Himpton Holder, Jr. is the 82nd and current Attorney General of the United States and the first African American to hold the position, serving under President Barack Obama....

 referred to the planned attack as "one of the most serious terrorist threats to our nation since September 11th, 2001."

Early life

Zazi was born in a small village in the Paktia
Paktia Province
Paktia , is one of the thirty-four provinces of Afghanistan, in the east of the country. Its capital is Gardez. The population is predominantly Pashtun.- History:...

 region of eastern Afghanistan. He is a middle child, with two sisters and two brothers. At the age of 7 in 1992, he and his family moved to the city of Peshawar
Peshawar
Peshawar is the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and the administrative center and central economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan....

 in Pakistan where they settled as Afghan refugees
Afghans in Pakistan
Afghans in Pakistan are mostly refugees who fled Afghanistan during the 1980s Soviet war as well as diplomats, traders, businesspersons, workers, exchange students, tourists and other visitors. As of March 2009, some 1.7 million registered Afghan nationals were reported to be living in Pakistan,...

.

In 1999, he and the family left Pakistan and immigrated to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. They moved into a two-bedroom apartment in the Flushing, Queens
Flushing, Queens
Flushing, founded in 1645, is a neighborhood in the north central part of the City of New York borough of Queens, east of Manhattan.Flushing was one of the first Dutch settlements on Long Island. Today, it is one of the largest and most diverse neighborhoods in New York City...

 section of the city. Mohammed Wali Zazi
Mohammed Wali Zazi
Mohammed Wali Zazi , currently a naturalized U.S. citizen, residing in Arapahoe County, Colorado, is a suspect in matters related to terrorism.-2009 Terror Plot:...

, Najibullah's father and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, found work as a New York City taxi driver.

From 1999–2009, Zazi lived with his family in Flushing. While he was a teenager, he and his family lived in the same apartment building and attended the same mosque, the Afghan Hazrat-i-Abu Bakr Sadiq mosque
Hazrati Abu Bakr Siddique
Hazrati Abu Bakr Siddique is a mosque in Flushing, Queens, New York, United States.The mosque came to national attention when it was revealed that it had been regularly attended by Najibullah Zazi, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, all three charged with issues related to terrorism....

, as Saifur Rahman Halimi
Saifur Rahman Halimi
Saifur Rahman Halimi was born in Afghanistan, and became a legal resident of the United States.Following the arrest of bombing suspect Najibullah Zazi, and his father Mohammed Wali Zazi, the Associated Press characterized Saifur Rahman Halimi as Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's "chief representative".In 1996,...

. Halimi was a vocal pro-global-jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

imam
Imam
An imam is an Islamic leadership position, often the worship leader of a mosque and the Muslim community. Similar to spiritual leaders, the imam is the one who leads Islamic worship services. More often, the community turns to the mosque imam if they have a religious question...

. He was also chief representative to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar is an Afghan Mujahideen leader who is the founder and leader of the Hezb-e Islami political party and paramilitary group. Hekmatyar was a rebel military commander during the 1980s Soviet war in Afghanistan and was one of the key figures in the civil war that followed the...

, an Afghan warlord
Warlord
A warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...

 who was declared a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist
Specially Designated Global Terrorist is a designation authorized under U.S. Executive Order 13224 , among other executive orders, and Title 31, Parts 595, 596, and 597 of the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations, among other U.S. laws and regulations. SDGT designations are administered and enforced...

" by the U.S. in 2003. Halimi and the Zazi family joined others who split from their Queens mosque because the imam there, Mohammad Sherzad, spoke out against the Taliban. According to one of his friends, Zazi liked listening to Zakir Naik
Zakir Naik
Zakir Abdul Karim Naik is an Indian public speaker on the subject of Islam and comparative religion. He is the founder and president of the Islamic Research Foundation , a non-profit organization that owns the Peace TV channel based in Dubai, UAE. He is sometimes referred to as a televangelist...

, an Indian Muslim televangelist who is an expert on comparative religion and theology.

Zazi struggled as a student at Flushing High School
Flushing High School
Flushing High School is a four-year public high school in Flushing, in the New York City borough of Queens. The school is operated by the New York City Department of Education....

 in Queens
Queens
Queens is the easternmost of the five boroughs of New York City. The largest borough in area and the second-largest in population, it is coextensive with Queens County, an administrative division of New York state, in the United States....

, eventually dropping out. From 2004–09, he operated a coffee and pastries vending cart on Stone Street
Stone Street (Manhattan)
Stone Street is a street in Manhattan's Financial District. It originally ran from Broadway to Hanover Square, but was divided into two sections by the construction of the Goldman Sachs building at 85 Broad Street in the 1980s...

 in Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan
Lower Manhattan is the southernmost part of the island of Manhattan, the main island and center of business and government of the City of New York...

's Financial District. He displayed a “God Bless America” sign on his cart.

In 2006, he traveled to Pakistan and married his 19-year-old cousin in an arranged marriage
Arranged marriage
An arranged marriage is a practice in which someone other than the couple getting married makes the selection of the persons to be wed, meanwhile curtailing or avoiding the process of courtship. Such marriages had deep roots in royal and aristocratic families around the world...

. He claimed several trips he made to Pakistan between 2006 and 2008 were to visit his wife. In the course of his visits, Zazi and his wife had two children, whom he planned to move to the U.S.

Al-Qaeda training and direction

During the spring and summer of 2008, Zazi conspired with others in Queens, New York, to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military and its allies. On August 28, 2008, they flew from New York to Peshawar, Pakistan, a city just east of Pakistan's volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas
Federally Administered Tribal Areas
The Federally Administered Tribal Areas are a semi-autonomous tribal region in the northwest of Pakistan, lying between the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, and the neighboring country of Afghanistan. The FATA comprise seven Agencies and six FRs...

 (the FATA). The Center for Strategic and International Studies
Center for Strategic and International Studies
The Center for Strategic and International Studies is a bipartisan Washington, D.C., foreign policy think tank. The center was founded in 1962 by Admiral Arleigh Burke and Ambassador David Manker Abshire, originally as part of Georgetown University...

 describes the FATA as:
ground zero
Ground zero
The term ground zero describes the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation...

 in the U.S. Jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

ist war, and home to many al-Qaeda operatives, especially the numerous foreigners from the Arab world, Central Asia Muslim areas of the Far East, and even Europe who flock to this war zone for training [and] indoctrination.


While there, they were recruited by al-Qaeda instead, and taken to a training camp in Waziristan
Waziristan
Waziristan is a mountainous region near the Northwest of Pakistan, bordering Afghanistan and covering some 11,585 km² . The area is entirely populated by ethnic Pashtuns . The language spoken in the valley is Pashto/Pakhto...

, where they received training on several kinds of weapons. Al-Qaeda leaders asked them to return to the U.S. and conduct a suicide bombing martyrdom operation, and they agreed to do so. Later, he received additional training at the camp on explosives construction for an attack in the U.S., or to carry out a martyrdom operation. He took lengthy notes and emailed them to himself, so he could access them upon his return to the U.S. Al-Qaeda leaders also discussed target locations with Zazi, such as New York City subways. He gave money and computers to al-Qaeda before leaving Pakistan.

Bryant Neal Vinas

Zazi met American Bryant Neal Vinas
Bryant Neal Vinas
Bryant Neal Vinas is a Hispanic Muslim American convicted of participating in and supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S....

 in Pakistan in 2008. Vinas, born in Queens, had also traveled to Pakistan (in November 2007) to join a jihad
Jihad
Jihad , an Islamic term, is a religious duty of Muslims. In Arabic, the word jihād translates as a noun meaning "struggle". Jihad appears 41 times in the Quran and frequently in the idiomatic expression "striving in the way of God ". A person engaged in jihad is called a mujahid; the plural is...

ist
group to fight against the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Vinas was also recruited by al-Qaeda, and taken to a training camp in Waziristan. There, he also underwent weapons and explosives training (from late 2007 through August 2008). A senior Al-Qaeda leader also discussed the operation of the New York City transit system with Vinas, in his case to help plan a bomb attack on a Long Island Railroad commuter train in New York's Penn Station. Vinas was arrested in Peshwar, Pakistan, in November 2008, and pleaded guilty in the U.S. in February 2010 to participating in and supporting al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S.

Jihad Jane plot

Over the internet, Zazi befriended Jamie Paulin-Ramirez, a Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...

-born medical assistant from Leadville, Colorado
Leadville, Colorado
Leadville is a Statutory City that is the county seat of, and the only municipality in, Lake County, Colorado, United States. Situated at an elevation of , Leadville is the highest incorporated city and the second highest incorporated municipality in the United States...

, who had converted to Islam, according to her family. She was arrested in March 2010 in the Jihad Jane plot to wage jihad and murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks
Lars Vilks
Lars Endel Roger Vilks is a Swedish artist. He is best known for his drawings of Muhammed, prophet of Islam.- Personal background :...

, collecting the bounty offered by an al-Qaeda affiliate for his assassination.

Return to U.S.

On January 15, 2009, Zazi returned to the U.S. Within days of his return, he moved to Aurora, Colorado
Aurora, Colorado
City of Aurora is a Home Rule Municipality spanning Arapahoe, Adams, and Douglas counties in Colorado. Aurora is an eastern suburb of the Denver-Aurora-Broomfield, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area . The city is the third most populous city in the Colorado and the 56th most populous city in the...

, to live with his aunt and uncle. He worked as a driver for a company named "Big Sky", and then for ABC Airport Shuttle, driving a 15-person airport shuttle van between Denver International Airport
Denver International Airport
Denver International Airport , often referred to as DIA, is an airport in Denver, Colorado. By land size, at , it is the largest international airport in the United States, and the third largest international airport in the world after King Fahd International Airport and Montréal-Mirabel...

 and downtown Denver
Downtown Denver
Downtown Denver is the main financial, commercial, and entertainment district in Denver, Colorado. There is over of office space in downtown Denver, with 130,000 workers....

. Zazi filed for bankruptcy in New York State on March 26, 2009, with $51,000 in debts, and his bankruptcy was discharged on August 17, 2009.

He lived with his aunt and uncle until July 2009, when his uncle kicked him out for not paying rent. His parents moved to Aurora from New York, and the three took a residence together.

Beginning around June 2009, he accessed his bomb-making notes, and began researching where to find ingredients for the explosives. He also conducted several internet searches for hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid
Hydrochloric acid is a solution of hydrogen chloride in water, that is a highly corrosive, strong mineral acid with many industrial uses. It is found naturally in gastric acid....

. He then used his bomb-making notes to construct an explosive for the detonator
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....

s. The explosive was hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide
Hydrogen peroxide is the simplest peroxide and an oxidizer. Hydrogen peroxide is a clear liquid, slightly more viscous than water. In dilute solution, it appears colorless. With its oxidizing properties, hydrogen peroxide is often used as a bleach or cleaning agent...

. He took trips to New York, meeting with others to discuss the plan, the attack's timing, and where to make the explosives.

Over the course of several months, the FBI listened to Zazi's phone conversations. In August 2009, the FBI overheard him speaking about mixing chemical substances. It learned that in July and August 2009 he and his three associates were buying large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and acetone products from beauty supply stores around Denver, Colorado
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...

. Security videos from a beauty shop showed Zazi pushing a cart full of hydrogen peroxide.

He checked into an Aurora motel suite on August 28 and on September 6 and 7, to experiment with heating chemicals that could create a bomb in his room's kitchenette. Authorities examined the kitchenette, and discovered traces of acetone
Acetone
Acetone is the organic compound with the formula 2CO, a colorless, mobile, flammable liquid, the simplest example of the ketones.Acetone is miscible with water and serves as an important solvent in its own right, typically as the solvent of choice for cleaning purposes in the laboratory...

, found in nail polish remover.

Hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and acid, readily available in beauty supply stores, are components used in Triacetone triperoxide (TATP; also known as acetone peroxide)-based deadly bombs. TATP was also used in the 2005 London subway bombings
7 July 2005 London bombings
The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

, and by Richard Reid
Richard Reid (shoe bomber)
Richard Colvin Reid , also known as the Shoe Bomber, is a self-admitted member of al-Qaeda who pled guilty in 2002 in U.S. federal court to eight criminal counts of terrorism stemming from his attempt to destroy a commercial aircraft in-flight by detonating explosives hidden in his shoes...

, the "shoe bomber".
On September 9, 2009, he began a 1800 miles (2,896.8 km) drive in a rented car from Denver to New York with the detonator, explosives, and other materials necessary to build bombs. Agents followed him.

The day after he left Denver, two New York City Police Department
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...

 Intelligence Division detectives asked imam Ahmad Wais Afzali
Ahmad Wais Afzali
Ahmad Wais Afzali is an imam from Queens, New York, who has also been an informant for the New York City Police. Afzali moved to the U.S. in 1981....

, a Muslim cleric whom they had developed as an informant
Informant
An informant is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law enforcement world, where they are officially known as confidential or criminal informants , and can often refer pejoratively to the supply of information...

, to identify and provide information with regard to four individuals whose photographs they showed him. Afzali identified Zazi, who had prayed at Afzali's mosque, and two of the other three photos. One law enforcement official said the police department had been specifically asked not to reveal the investigation to its informants, but went ahead anyway.

Zazi arrived in New York City on the afternoon of September 10, and spent the night at the residence of his childhood friend Naiz Kahn in Flushing, Queens. He intended to obtain and assemble the remaining components to build a bomb over the weekend.

The Plan—NYC Subway

The plan was, as soon as the material was ready, for him and two high school friends to conduct coordinated suicide bombings.
They planned to detonate backpack bombs on New York City Subway
New York City Subway
The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the City of New York and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, a subsidiary agency of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and also known as MTA New York City Transit...

 trains near New York's two busiest subway stations, the Grand Central and Times Square stations in Manhattan, during rush hour
Rush hour
A rush hour or peak hour is a part of the day during which traffic congestion on roads and crowding on public transport is at its highest. Normally, this happens twice a day—once in the morning and once in the evening, the times during when the most people commute...

. They planned to board the middle of packed trains on the 1, 2, 3, and/or 6 lines, to cause maximum casualties. Zazi rode the Subway a number of times to the Grand Central and Wall Street stations, scouting for the best location to kill the maximum number of people. Zazi and his friends intended to obtain and assemble the remaining components of the bombs, and conduct the attack on September 14 (the most likely date), 15, or 16, 2009.

Georgetown University
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private, Jesuit, research university whose main campus is in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic university in the United States...

 professor and terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman
Bruce Hoffman
Bruce Hoffman is the Director of the Center for Peace and Security Studies at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service and a specialist in the study of terrorism and counter-insurgency...

 characterized the plot as representing a "new magnitude" of threat to the U.S. that, if carried out, could have "eclipsed" the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed almost 200 people.

According to TIME
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...

, authorities believe Zazi was possibly planning an attack using back-pack bombs, as previously used in the Madrid and London subway bombings.

The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...

reported that the plot had been uncovered by Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard
Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

, which intercepted an e-mail from a senior al-Qaeda member in Pakistan to Zazi, instructing him how to implement his attack. The e-mail was intercepted as part of "Operation Pathway
Operation Pathway
Operation Pathway was a British counterterrorism operation.The operation first came under public scrutiny when details of its activities were accidentally released in April 2009....

". Scotland Yard notified the FBI, which led to the operation that resulted in his arrest.

Spooked

On September 10, as he crossed the George Washington Bridge
George Washington Bridge
The George Washington Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Hudson River, connecting the Washington Heights neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City to Fort Lee, Bergen County, New Jersey. Interstate 95 and U.S. Route 1/9 cross the river via the bridge. U.S...

 headed for New York City, he was pulled over by Port Authority Police, acting at the FBI's request, for what he was told was a routine random drug search, and his car was searched. They did not find anything of note, and he was allowed to go. Afzali's lawyer later wrote the court: "Even though [Zazi] is not the brightest bulb in the terrorist chandelier, the thinly-transparent ruse of a 'random' checkpoint stop did not fool him."

On September 11, Afzali called Zazi's father. Zazi's father then spoke with Zazi, told him that "they" had shown Afzali his photos and photos of others, said Afzali would call him and he should speak with him as soon as possible, and added "So, before anything else, speak with [Afzali]. See if you need to go to [Afzali] or to make ... yourself aware, hire an attorney." Afzali called Zazi, and told him that the authorities had asked him about "you guys." He also asked Zazi for the telephone number of one of the other men whose photos he had been shown, and set up a meeting with him.

Later that day, Zazi's rental car was towed due to a parking violation, and was searched. Agents found a laptop with a JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....

 image of nine handwritten pages on how to make initiating explosives, main explosive charges, detonator
Detonator
A detonator is a device used to trigger an explosive device. Detonators can be chemically, mechanically, or electrically initiated, the latter two being the most common....

s, and fuse
Fuse (explosives)
In an explosive, pyrotechnic device or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the word fuse is used indiscriminately...

s. The FBI asserted the nine pages of handwritten notes were in Zazi's handwriting.

Zazi called Afzali, said his car had been stolen and he feared he was being "watched", and that the people watching him took his car. Afzali asked if there was any "evidence" in the car, and Zazi said no.

Zazi realized that law enforcement was investigating him. At that point, he and his colleagues threw away the detonator explosives and other materials.

Arrest and incarceration

On September 12, Zazi flew back to Denver. FBI agents searched several homes in New York on September 14, and found his fingerprints on an electronic scale and several AA batteries at the home he had stayed at in Queens, as well as a dozen black backpacks. An alert was issued to American law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for hydrogen peroxide-based bombs.

On September 16, Zazi voluntarily appeared and was interviewed by members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force
Joint Terrorism Task Force
A Joint Terrorism Task Force is a partnership between various U.S. law enforcement agencies that is charged with taking action against terrorism, which includes the investigation of crimes such as wire fraud and identity theft...

 at the Denver FBI offices in the presence of his lawyer. During his eight-hour interview, he denied knowing anything about the nine-page handwritten document found on his hard drive, and speculated he must have accidentally downloaded it in August as part of a religious book which he had downloaded and later deleted. In subsequent interviews on September 17 and 18, however, he acknowledged receiving explosives and weapons training in the tribal areas of Pakistan.

On September 19, 2009, authorities arrested Zazi, and on September 21 they charged him in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado
United States District Court for the District of Colorado
The United States District Court for the District of Colorado is the Federal district court whose jurisdiction is the state of Colorado. The United States Congress organized Colorado as a single judicial district on June 26, 1876, by 19 Stat. 61...

 with making false statements in a matter involving international and domestic terrorism.

Najibullah Zazi

New charges and allegations were filed against Zazi in the Eastern District of New York on September 23, 2009, and the prior charges dropped. A federal grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...

 there returned an indictment charging him with conspiracy
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...

 to use weapons of mass destruction
Weapons of mass destruction
A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...

.

Zazi was initially held as a federal inmate
Federal Bureau of Prisons
The Federal Bureau of Prisons is a federal law enforcement agency subdivision of the United States Department of Justice and is responsible for the administration of the federal prison system. The system also handles prisoners who committed acts considered felonies under the District of Columbia's...

 (registration # 36553-013) at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn
Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn
The Metropolitan Detention Center located at 80 29th Street near Gowanus Bay, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues on 29th Street, in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, New York, is one of several MDCs operated by the United States Federal Bureau of Prisons....

. He is being held without bail, and is scheduled to be sentenced June 25. By mid-April 2010, however, he had been moved to a secret location.

Friends; Adis (Mohammad) Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay

On January 7, 2010, the FBI also arrested two of his high school classmates from Queens, Adis Medunjanin (also known as Mohammad) and Zarein Ahmedzay, who had traveled with him to Pakistan in 2008. They are being held without bail.

Medunjanin is a Bosnian immigrant who came to the U.S. in 1994, was naturalized in 2002, and lives in Flushing, Queens. He was a running back
Running back
A running back is a gridiron football position, who is typically lined up in the offensive backfield. The primary roles of a running back are to receive handoffs from the quarterback for a rushing play, to catch passes from out of the backfield, and to block.There are usually one or two running...

 and wide receiver
Wide receiver
A wide receiver is an offensive position in American and Canadian football, and is the key player in most of the passing plays. Only players in the backfield or the ends on the line are eligible to catch a forward pass. The two players who begin play at the ends of the offensive line are eligible...

 on his high school football team, graduated from Queens College with a major in Economics in June 2009, and works as a building manager at a property management company. He was arrested after he led the FBI on a high-speed chase in Queens, during which he invoked the name of Allah
Allah
Allah is a word for God used in the context of Islam. In Arabic, the word means simply "God". It is used primarily by Muslims and Bahá'ís, and often, albeit not exclusively, used by Arabic-speaking Eastern Catholic Christians, Maltese Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox Christians, Mizrahi Jews and...

 in a 911 emergency call, according to a law enforcement official, and told the 911 dispatcher: "We love death more than you love life!"—a refrain al-Qaeda trainers use to inspire recruits to commit murder and suicide. He reportedly told authorities he trained with Zazi in the al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan. He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and receiving military-style training from al-Qaeda. On February 25, 2010, he pleaded not guilty to additional charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to al-Qaida. He faces life in prison if convicted.

Ahmedzay, a New York City cab driver born in Afghanistan and living in Flushing, Queens, took the civil service
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....

 test to become a city firefighter in 2007. He initially pleaded not guilty to a charge of making false statements to the FBI—specifically, that he lied about the places he had visited in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and about whether an unnamed third party attended al-Qaeda camps. On February 25, 2010, he also pleaded not guilty to additional charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to al-Qaida. But on April 23 he pled guilty to the charges. He told the court that two Senior Al-Qaeda leaders sought him out because of his familiarity with New York, that the leaders "said the most important thing was to hit well-known structures and to maximize the number of casualties,” he made the decision to attack the subways, a decision that was based on the amount of explosives. His motive was to end alleged wars against Islam. At one point he had doubts, but later resolved to carry out the plot. He then claimed "the real enemies of this country are the ones destroying this country from within. And I believe these are the special group, the Zionist Jews, I believe, who want a permanent shadow government within the government of the United States of America." He faces life in prison if convicted.

Additionally, both are indicted for receiving military-type training from al-Qaeda. If convicted, the suspects could receive up to maximum 10 years for this offense.

Father; Mohammed Wali Zazi

On September 19, 2009, authorities also arrested his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi
Mohammed Wali Zazi
Mohammed Wali Zazi , currently a naturalized U.S. citizen, residing in Arapahoe County, Colorado, is a suspect in matters related to terrorism.-2009 Terror Plot:...

, on conspiring, inter alia, by pouring chemicals down a drain and shredding containers, to destroy evidence consisting of glasses, masks, liquid chemicals, and containers. He was released on $50,000 bond to his home in Aurora under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...

, and must wear an electronic bracelet. He is permitted to leave home only to work, meet his lawyer, go to court, receive medical treatment, and attend religious services. He was convicted in July 2011 of destroying evidence and lying to investigators to cover up his son's plot. As of November 2011, he was free on bail pending sentencing on December 2011, in which he faces up to 40 years in prison.

Imam Ahmad Wais Afzali

They also arrested imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, a resident of Flushing, Queens, and legal permanent resident of the U.S., born in Kabul, Afghanistan. He was an imam at a Queens mosque, and ran the Islamic Burial Funeral Service, a Queens funeral parlor. He was charged with having tipped off the younger Zazi that he was under scrutiny, and lying to the FBI (on both September 13 and September 18, when he denied tipping off Zazi), in a matter involving terrorism. He initially pleaded not guilty, faced up to eight years in prison and deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...

 if convicted, and was freed on $1.5 million bail. On March 4, in a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...

 he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of lying to U.S. federal agents, and said he was sorry. He faces up to six months in prison, and as part of the plea arrangement the government agreed not to request any jail time. Brooklyn federal judge Frederic Block
Frederic Block
Frederic Block is a United States federal judge.Born in Brooklyn, New York, Block received an A.B. from Indiana University in 1956 and an LL.B. from Cornell Law School in 1959. He was a clerk to the New York Supreme Court, appellate division, from 1959 to 1961...

 will sentence him on April 8. As part of his plea agreement, Afzali will voluntarily leave the U.S. within 90 days after completing any prison sentence imposed by the judge. As a felon
Felony
A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

, he will not be allowed to return to the U.S.

Uncle; Naqib Jaji

Zazi's uncle by marriage, Naqib Jaji, had lived in Queens before moving to Colorado. He was also arrested. Jaji was brought before a judge in a secret federal proceeding on January 14, 2010. He is believed to have pleaded not guilty to one felony count for participating with Zazi's father in the attempt to dispose of evidence. A court docket for the sealed indictment identified the defendant as 'John Doe,' a designation that often indicates a defendant is cooperating with prosecutors. He was released on January 22. The uncle told CNN that he blamed his nephew, who had lived with him for several months, for dragging his family into the national spotlight.

Fourth suspect

On April 12, 2010, it was reported that a fourth suspect, an as-yet unidentified Pakistani citizen, was arrested in Pakistan. It is anticipated that he will be extradited to the U.S., and tried in Brooklyn Federal Court with Medunjanin and Ahmedzay on charges that he helped orchestrate the planned attack. One or two more suspects are being sought outside the U.S.

Guilty plea

Zazi cooperated after being told that his mother, as well as his father, could face criminal immigration fraud charges, and criminal penalties.

On February 22, 2010, Zazi pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction (explosive bomb), conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization, before Chief Judge
Chief judge
Chief Judge is a title that can refer to the highest-ranking judge of a court that has more than one judge. The meaning and usage of the term vary from one court system to another...

 of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the entirety of Long Island and Staten Island...

 Raymond J. Dearie
Raymond J. Dearie
Raymond Joseph Dearie is a senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of New York. He was nominated by President Reagan on February 3, 1986, to a new seat created by 98 Stat...

. His guilty plea was the result of a plea bargain
Plea bargain
A plea bargain is an agreement in a criminal case whereby the prosecutor offers the defendant the opportunity to plead guilty, usually to a lesser charge or to the original criminal charge with a recommendation of a lighter than the maximum sentence.A plea bargain allows criminal defendants to...

 with the prosecution.

He refused to name which subway line was the target of the plot. He said the intent of his suicide mission was to draw the attention to activities of the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Zazi faces a possible life sentence without possibility of parole for the first two counts, and an additional sentence of 15 years for the third count. Sentencing was initially scheduled to take place on June 24, 2011.

See also

  • 2010 Times Square car bomb attempt
  • September 11 attacks
  • 2004 Madrid train bombings
  • 2005 London subway bombings
    7 July 2005 London bombings
    The 7 July 2005 London bombings were a series of co-ordinated suicide attacks in the United Kingdom, targeting civilians using London's public transport system during the morning rush hour....

  • 2010 Moscow Metro bombings
    2010 Moscow Metro bombings
    The 2010 Moscow Metro bombings were suicide bombings carried out by two womenduring the morning rush hour of March 29, 2010, at two stations of the Moscow Metro , with roughly 40 minutes interval between...

  • Shahawar Matin Siraj
    Shahawar Matin Siraj
    Shahawar Matin Siraj is a Pakistani American who planned to bomb the Herald Square of Manhattan, New York, when police arrested him in 2004. A New York court found Siraj guilty of plotting to commit a terrorist act in U.S. v. Shahawar Matin Siraj . Siraj worked at an Islamic bookstore in Bay...

    , arrested on 2004 and convicted of plotting to bomb the 34th Street – Herald Square station of the New York City Subway
  • Michael Finton
    Michael Finton
    Michael C. Finton, also known as Talib Islam , a convert to Islam and a part-time cook at a fish and chicken restaurant, attempted to bomb the Paul Findley Federal Building and the adjacent offices of Congressman Aaron Schock in downtown Springfield, Illinois, on September 24, 2009...

    , attempted bombing of U.S. target with FBI agent he thought was al-Qaeda member, in 2009.
  • Nidal Malik Hasan
    Nidal Malik Hasan
    Nidal Malik Hasan, USA is a United States Army officer and sole suspect in the November 5, 2009, Fort Hood shooting, which occurred less than a month before he would have deployed to Afghanistan....

    , Fort Hood shooter, attacked U.S. target, in 2009.
  • Colleen LaRose
    Colleen LaRose
    Colleen Renee LaRose , also known as JihadJane and Fatima LaRose, is an American citizen charged with terrorism-related crimes, including conspiracy to commit murder and providing material support to terrorists. Most recently, she lived in the Philadelphia suburb of Pennsburg, in Montgomery...

    , American Muslim convert who also used the name JihadJane, charged with trying to recruit Islamic terrorists to wage jihad and murder Swedish artist Lars Vilks
    Lars Vilks
    Lars Endel Roger Vilks is a Swedish artist. He is best known for his drawings of Muhammed, prophet of Islam.- Personal background :...

    .
  • Sharif Mobley
    Sharif Mobley
    Sharif Mobley is a suspected al-Qaeda and al-Shabab member who was arrested in Yemen in March 2010 by counter-terrorism officers following a shooting in which he was allegedly the perpetrator. Mobley had moved to Yemen two years prior...

    , American suspected al-Qaeda member, arrested in Yemen in 2010 and suspected of killing guard in escape attempt
  • Richard Reid
    Richard Reid (shoe bomber)
    Richard Colvin Reid , also known as the Shoe Bomber, is a self-admitted member of al-Qaeda who pled guilty in 2002 in U.S. federal court to eight criminal counts of terrorism stemming from his attempt to destroy a commercial aircraft in-flight by detonating explosives hidden in his shoes...

    , al-Qaeda member, attempted TATP attack.
  • Faisal Shahzad
    Faisal Shahzad
    Faisal Shahzad is a Pakistani American who attempted the May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing. On , 2010, in Federal District Court in Manhattan he confessed to 10 counts arising from the bombing attempt...

    , Pakistani-American, trained in Waziristan training camp to commit 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
    2010 Times Square car bombing attempt
    The attempted car bombing of Times Square on May 1, 2010, was a planned terrorist attack that was foiled when two street vendors discovered the car bomb and alerted a NYPD Patrolman to the car bomb threat after they spotted smoke coming from a vehicle...

    .
  • Aafia Siddiqui
    Aafia Siddiqui
    Aafia Siddiqui is an American-educated Pakistani cognitive neuroscientist who was convicted of assault with intent to murder her U.S. interrogators in Afghanistan. The charges carried a maximum sentence of life in prison; in September 2010, she was sentenced by a United States district court to 86...

    , U.S.-educated alleged al-Qaeda member, arrested in Afghanistan with bomb-making documents.
  • Bryant Neal Vinas
    Bryant Neal Vinas
    Bryant Neal Vinas is a Hispanic Muslim American convicted of participating in and supporting Al-Qaeda plots in Afghanistan and the U.S....

    , American Muslim convert who traveled to Pakistan, trained in al-Qaeda training camp in Waziristan, and helped al-Qaeda plan a bomb attack on the LIRR
    Lirr
    Lirr or LIRR may refer to:*Long Island Rail Road, a commuter railroad in Long Island, New York, USA*Lapeer Industrial Railroad, in Lapeer, Michigan*Leeds Inner Ring Road, a motorway and A-road circling Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

  • 2009 detention of Americans by Pakistan
    2009 detention of Americans by Pakistan
    Five Muslim Americans with suspected ties to terrorism were detained on December 9, 2009, in Pakistan. The five men, part of an increasing trend in homegrown terrorism, in their late teens to early twenties and from the Washington, D.C., suburbs, were detained during a police raid on a house with...

    , five Muslim Americans charged by Pakistan in 2010 with terrorism-related offenses

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK