A federal grand jury in New York has indicted a 24-year-old airport shuttle bus driver on charges of conspiring to explode bombs in the United States.
The indictment was unsealed Thursday shortly before the young Afghan, Najibullah Zazi, was to appear in a Denver court on charges of lying to federal authorities investigating a terrorism case. Prosecutors had been signaling that they were likely to add more charges before Zazi's court appearance today, so the New York indictment was not a complete surprise.
The indictment says Zazi "knowingly and intentionally conspired to use one or more weapons of mass destruction against people and property in the United States" — meaning bombs.
The Justice Department also released a permanent order of detention for Zazi. It said he is both a danger to the community and a flight risk and therefore should not be released on bail. The order says that "evidence at trial will prove that the defendant conspired with others to detonate improvised explosive devices within the United States."
Prosecutors say Zazi received intensive bomb-making instructions in Pakistan, purchased components of improvised explosive devices and was conspiring to use them. Zazi has denied that he is a terrorist or was part of any plot to attack the U.S.
Law enforcement officials have been investigating what they have called the most serious terrorist threat against the U.S. since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Details of what they had discovered about Zazi have been dribbling out for a week.
Officials said he had admitted to traveling to Pakistan and training in explosives at an al-Qaida camp, but he denied a plot was afoot. Today was the first time the Justice Department laid out its reasons for thinking otherwise.
Prosecutors allege that Zazi was among a group of men who traveled from New York to Pakistan in 2008. They say days after he returned to the U.S., he left the New York City borough of Queens, where he had grown up, and moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora, Colo.
Prosecutors say Zazi had three e-mail accounts and on two of them officials say they found graphics files of notes in his handwriting. The notes were instructions on how to manufacture and handle different kinds of explosives. Zazi allegedly e-mailed these instructions to himself. The notes laid out how to mix the same kind of explosives that were used in the 2005 London train bombings. The main ingredients are hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and a strong acid — items that can easily be picked up locally.
Investigators say Zazi began buying unusually large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and acetone products from beauty supply stores in the Denver area in June. Acetone is found in nail polish remover, and hydrogen peroxide is a component in many beauty products. Investigators say they have Zazi on surveillance cameras purchasing the chemicals. They also say he went to home improvement stores in the Denver area to pick up more chemicals he needed, and that others helped Zazi buy the products. Their arrests, if they have occurred, have not yet been announced.
So far, authorities have announced three arrests: Zazi, his father, Mohammed, and an imam from Queens. Until this morning's superseding indictment on the younger Zazi, the three men were being held on the relatively minor charge of lying to federal authorities.
The Justice Department says that on Sept. 6, Zazi checked into a hotel in Aurora. The FBI tested his hotel room and found acetone residue in the vent above the stove. In order to get chemicals like hydrogen peroxide or acetone down to the right concentrations for explosives, they need to be boiled down. Zazi was also apparently trying to contact another individual around the same time to get advice on concentrations of the chemicals. This kind of detail explains why law enforcement authorities have been working around the clock and have been hunting for explosives.
The government is seeking to move Zazi to New York on Thursday. Zazi's lawyer in Denver asked the judge there for a continuance.
Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org. 9(MDAzMjM2NDYzMDEyMzc1Njk5NjAxNzY3OQ001))
