Najibullah Zazi Indictment, Detention Document
9/23/2009: Najibullah Zazi indictmentThis is an indictment for planned use of Weapons of Mass Destruction (in this case, bombs).
9/24/2009: Affidavit in support of detention of Najibullah ZaziThis is a much more informative document detailing why Zazi is a flight risk.
An interesting note: Zazi rented a hotel room with a stove specifically so he could cook up TATP, a fairly powerful improvised explosive.
Ramzi Yousef, working in a Manila apartment in 1995, also used a stove to prepare explosives, and TATP was found in his apartment after it was exposed.
Yousef's footprint has loomed large for years after his incarceration.
* September 11 was at least inspired by Yousef, if not wholly concocted by him.
* The 2006 London airliner bomb plot -- the reason you can't take shampoo on a plane -- involved smuggling TATP or its components onto a plane or planes. In addition to the chemical explosive coming up again, the method of smuggling and the number of targets were both extremely similar to Yousef's Bojinka plot, which would have deployed lquid explosives against a dozen U.S.-bound airliners).
* The "shoe bomb" concept used by Richard Reid is reminiscent of some of Yousef's plan for smuggling bomb components onto airplanes in the heels of his shoes. That bomb also used TATP.
* Yousef's chemical recipes and specific bomb designs continue to be distributed online through jihadi forums and at terrorist training camps.
Labels: INTELFILES, Najibullah-Zazi
Najibullah Zazi, Queens Suspect, Criminal Complaint and FBI Affidavit
Criminal complaint for Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan-American suspected of ties to Al Qaeda, and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi. According to the complaint:
[T]he defendant NAJIBULLAH ZAZI traveled to Peshawar, Pakistan from Newark International Airport via Geneva, Switzerland and Dohha, Qatar. ...
On or about September 11, 2009, FBI agents conducted a legally-authorized search of the defendant ZAZI's rental car, which was parked near the Queens Residence. During the search of the car, a laptop computer was found containing a jpeg image of nine-pages of handwritten notes (the "handwritten notes"). The handwritten notes contain formulations and instructions regarding the manufacture and handling of initiating explosives, main explosives charges, explosives detonators and components of a fuzing [sic] system.According to the complaint, the FBI obtained the passwords to three of Zazi's email accounts, through unspecified means. One of the accounts was "known to law enforcement" prior to the FBI's search of Zazi's laptop. Media reports have said Zazi traveled to an Al Qaeda-linked training camp in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border area, but the complaint does not contain this allegation.
The complaint also says Zazi's father and an individual referred to as "the imam" from New York both warned Zazi that he was under investigation.
"The imam" was an "individual known to law enforcement, whom the NYPD has utilized as a source for information in the past," the complaints state. "The imam" said in a phone call to Zazi:
"I want to speak with you about something . . . I want a meeting with you [and others]. You probably know why I'm calling you for this meeting . . . I was exposed to something yesterday from the authorities. And they came to ask me about your characters. They asked me about you guys....
"I'm not sure if somebody complained about you. I'm not sure what happened. And I don't want to know. They [the authorities] said, 'Please, we need to
know who they are ... what they're all about.' I told them that they are innocent, law abiding. ...
"They [the police] came to the masjid to ask for help. That is a good sign. Trust me that is a good sign. The bad sign is for them coming to you guys and picking you up automatically."
Complaint against Najibullah ZaziComplaint against Mohammed Wali ZaziLabels: INTELFILES, Najibullah-Zazi
