Alleged New York Bomb Plotter Contacted by Al Qaeda

US NewsOctober 2009 • Views: 1,423

Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, accused of planning a series of bombings in New York, may have been in contact with the head of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

NEW YORK – The airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a bombing in New York had contacts with al-Qaida that went nearly all the way to the top, to an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terrorist group’s leader in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press.

Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian reputed to be one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to contact Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi as the 24-year-old man hatched a plot to use homemade backpack bombs, perhaps on the city’s mass transit system, the two intelligence officials said.

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36 comments

Jetpilot1101 Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:49:57am

God bless the men and women of law enforcement who helped avert a potentially major attack.

Randall Gross Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:50:34am

Thanks to all the federal employees and local police who helped to stop this. I guess that government is occasionally good for something.

Dark_Falcon Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:51:30am

I'm off to work, but I'm heartened that this clown will be spending the next few decades behind bars.

Douchecanoe and Ryan Too Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:53:10am

Congratulations and thank you for this big breakthrough. I hope that the guys that caught this bastard can follow up on his connections and take down some even bigger fish.

redshirt Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:54:50am

I sure hope we were listening in on his phone calls!

Charles Johnson Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:55:03am

Note that Zazi never even got close to actually carrying out any attacks.

Spider Mensch Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:59:22am

re: #6 Charles

Note that Zazi never even got close to actually carrying out any attacks.

I can't remember the source unfortunately, and correct me anyone if I'm mixed up on this, but I remember in the begining of the arrest it was stated they had wanted to play the investigation out further but something happened where they felt they had to act quicker than the investigators wanted to...???

Sol Berdinowitz Fri, Oct 16, 2009 10:59:58am

Also means we gotta stick it out in Afghanistan.

sattv4u2 Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:02:26am

re: #6 Charles

Note that Zazi never even got close to actually carrying out any attacks.

FISA?
Patriot Act?
something worked!

RogueOne Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:03:03am

Charles,

Thank You! I tried to figure out how to send a private message, but I couldn't figure it out.

SeaMonkey Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:03:48am

re: #7 Spider Mensch

I can't remember the source unfortunately, and correct me anyone if I'm mixed up on this, but I remember in the begining of the arrest it was stated they had wanted to play the investigation out further but something happened where they felt they had to act quicker than the investigators wanted to...???

Yeah, the NYPD screwed it up and jumped the gun or something.

Ojoe Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:05:03am

Civilization's conflict with the jihadis is far, far from over.

arethusa Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:05:51am

Some key provisions of the Patriot Act (roving wiretaps of suspected terrorists/foreign agents, electronic monitoring of suspects without a warrant (this one has never been invoked, apparently), and warrants for "business records" - like medical or library records - of suspects) are up for renewal at year's end. The Obama Administration is already on record as supporting their renewal, so I hope Congress agrees.

Randall Gross Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:07:59am

I'm betting the contact happened in Pakistan too. Yazid and the rest of AQ are mostly there.

Randall Gross Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:09:41am

re: #13 arethusa

It will be interesting to see if any right wing bloggers come out against them just because it's Obama asklng and the rightbloggers are now in bed with birchers, paulians, and other assorted troofer kooks.

Guanxi88 Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:10:34am

re: #15 Thanos

It will be interesting to see if any right wing bloggers come out against them just because it's Obama asklng and the rightbloggers are now in bed with birchers, paulians, and other assorted troofer kooks.

Their chief objection to certain of the provisions would be that it would expose their communications with their Euro-fascist allies to greater scrutiny.

arethusa Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:11:56am

re: #15 Thanos

That would be so unbelievably stupid of them, wouldn't it? And splat would go the right's reputation of being stronger on national defense than the left.

redshirt Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:12:18am

Michael Moore was on Hannity last week (which I never watch, but I was flipping by and if you saw the 2 of them sitting together, you all know you would have stopped as well) and Moore said there there were probably only a few hundred terrorists in the world, and they were training on monkey bars. We need to really expose these terrorism "deniers" who through their words and actions weaken our vigilance against this threat.
Just imagine all the plots that have been stopped that we will never know about. Props to Bush and Obama for getting the job done right.
Let's hope our diligence continues to pay off.

The Sanity Inspector Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:12:52am

re: #7 Spider Mensch

I can't remember the source unfortunately, and correct me anyone if I'm mixed up on this, but I remember in the begining of the arrest it was stated they had wanted to play the investigation out further but something happened where they felt they had to act quicker than the investigators wanted to...???

Yes. Events outpaced the investigators, and they were forced to pounce earlier than they wanted to. They may therefore have to ring him up on lesser charges.

The Sanity Inspector Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:17:02am

re: #18 redshirt

Michael Moore was on Hannity last week (which I never watch, but I was flipping by and if you saw the 2 of them sitting together, you all know you would have stopped as well) and Moore said there there were probably only a few hundred terrorists in the world, and they were training on monkey bars. We need to really expose these terrorism "deniers" who through their words and actions weaken our vigilance against this threat.
Just imagine all the plots that have been stopped that we will never know about. Props to Bush and Obama for getting the job done right.
Let's hope our diligence continues to pay off.

Moore is probably still astonished that there are people in the world who America even more than he does.

The Sanity Inspector Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:20:23am

re: #12 Ojoe

Civilization's conflict with the jihadis is far, far from over.

Hear, hear. News cycles come and go, but the thankless job of waging the war, both in and out of the shadows, goes on.

Guanxi88 Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:20:35am

re: #15 Thanos

It will be interesting to see if any right wing bloggers come out against them just because it's Obama asklng and the rightbloggers are now in bed with birchers, paulians, and other assorted troofer kooks.

I'll add, too, that I sure as hell hope someone somewhere is watching the growth of the nexus between euro-fascists and American neo-fascists. These alliances have a nasty habit of making trouble, to say the least.

The Sanity Inspector Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:21:34am

re: #13 arethusa

Some key provisions of the Patriot Act (roving wiretaps of suspected terrorists/foreign agents, electronic monitoring of suspects without a warrant (this one has never been invoked, apparently), and warrants for "business records" - like medical or library records - of suspects) are up for renewal at year's end. The Obama Administration is already on record as supporting their renewal, so I hope Congress agrees.

Thank goodness it's not an election year.

The Sanity Inspector Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:24:22am

re: #15 Thanos

It will be interesting to see if any right wing bloggers come out against them just because it's Obama asklng and the rightbloggers are now in bed with birchers, paulians, and other assorted troofer kooks.

I'll bet that not a few left-leaning voices, in the blogs and in the op-ed columns, will deplore the renewal of these provisions, because they disapprove of Obama not dumping the Bush legacy fast enough. Gitmo's still open, troops are still going to Afghanistan, etc, and now this.

dugmartsch Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:25:23am

re: #15 Thanos

It will be interesting to see if any right wing bloggers come out against them just because it's Obama asklng and the rightbloggers are now in bed with birchers, paulians, and other assorted troofer kooks.

Yeap.

As a liberal guy I don't have any problem with the patriot act, as long as the government isn't conducting warantless wiretapping. Someone outside the executive has to be applying a check on who's being investigated and where the investigation is going.

arethusa Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:26:45am

re: #23 The Sanity Inspector

To be fair to Obama, he did take a lot of heat last summer in the middle of the campaign for voting for a new wiretapping law that allowed the warrantless monitoring of Americans who communicate with suspected terrorists overseas. Hopefully Congress follows his lead on this.

SixDegrees Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:41:57am

re: #26 arethusa

To be fair to Obama, he did take a lot of heat last summer in the middle of the campaign for voting for a new wiretapping law that allowed the warrantless monitoring of Americans who communicate with suspected terrorists overseas. Hopefully Congress follows his lead on this.

I don't even understand the objections to this provision. I view it the same way I view luggage: when I enter the country, my bags are subject to search, period, no warrant, suspicion or even excuse required. If the custom's agent says open 'em up, they get opened, end of story. Once I'm in the country, it's a different story - under pretty much all circumstances, you need a warrant or at least probably cause to search my belongings. But not upon entry.

The same applies to phone calls originating outside the US. They're subject to surveillance, without any sort of warrant being required. Calls made within the US are covered by more restrictions.

The only difference is that in the case of a phone call, both ends of the conversation are, of necessity, monitored. And this may in fact lead to withdrawal of charges against anyone in country. A small price to pay.

Ben Hur Fri, Oct 16, 2009 11:42:17am

I hope he didn't contact him by phone.

Dar ul Harb Fri, Oct 16, 2009 12:08:10pm

re: #12 Ojoe

Civilization's conflict with the jihadis is far, far from over.

It's good to see that LGF still covers this kind of news as well.

The other news lately is just too depressing.

(I mean, we came dangerously close to Rush Limbaugh owning a part interest in an NFL team.)

J.S. Fri, Oct 16, 2009 12:15:58pm

We must all recall that these are allegations, yet to be proven in a court of law...

J.S. Fri, Oct 16, 2009 12:36:39pm

In Canada, an alleged al-Qaeda operative, named Adil Charkaoui, was held on what's known here as a "security certificate" -- that was to keep the suspect in detention until he could be deported. But, as the honorable Federal judge has ruled, his rights have been viciously violated, and "National security' is a question of perspective", according to the judge. Thus, Charkaoui, the pizza delivery boy, is now free. (The only question now is the amount of money he'll now seek in compensation for the evil behavior of the Canadian government -- his lawyer states that the sum will be substantial...There's another case, btw, for those who follow Canadian "justice" -- that involves a Somali who's claiming that she was detained in Kenya due to evil immigration officials, and now seeks millions in compensation...there is another side to the story...but the Liberal Party of Canada is demanding that the government settle out of court -- as was done in the Arar 10 million dollar case...) Oh, and the Toronto Star, that grand bastion of "social justice" is urging Canada to "help out" Obama and get all those Gitmo detainees released and resettled to Canada. yeah, now there's a proposition I can support! An absolutely excellent suggestion -- perhaps they too can then turn around and sue AmeriKKKa for torture and illegal imprisonment at Gitmo. (also hear that a Canadian court is suing for libel an American writer who had said some utterly audacious things about a certain university and "terrorists" -- no, wait, make that "supplicants for social justice".

watching you tiny alien kittens are Fri, Oct 16, 2009 1:29:46pm

It is good to see that the FBI and our intelligence assets are doing something right, although scary to know that they have yet to recover all that hydrogen peroxide and the other chemicals he bought. Its too bad he got tipped and they had to move in on him early, but at least he wont be walking free anytime in the next couple of decades.

Red Lion Fri, Oct 16, 2009 1:54:20pm

If a high-level Al Qaeda operative has to reach out to a 24-year-old bus driver, maybe that explains why there have been no major terror attacks here since 9/11 ... they're on the run. So let's keep up the pressure, and let's hope the good guys are tracking back Zazi' spathways through the underworld ...

Maui Girl Fri, Oct 16, 2009 3:06:25pm

Wow. Judging from the number of comments left on this particular thread, it would appear that many of our fellow Lizards have left the anti-terrorism room to join all the Glenn Beck dissenters, creationist alarmists and "all conservatives are Republicans" group. Not that this is the case but it just seems to me that what's really important like the overall state of our union economically has been left at the doorstep.

Oh yea, and I forgot the global warming-cooling-change enthusiasts. Does anyone REALLY know absolutely what the hell is going on? Anyone?

/my 10 cents (what with the decline in the value of the dollar and all)

Maui Girl Fri, Oct 16, 2009 3:16:04pm

re: #31 J.S.

If I could upding you a thousand times I would. Speaking of Canadians, being of dual citizenship myself, I have to laugh everytime they rave about the fact that their healthcare is free and readily available and not anywhere near as bad as we "uninformed 'mericans" think it is.

They seem to forget that it's not free in that they pay out the ass in federal and provincial taxes and they only have upwards of $30 million people living in their country as opposed to $300 million.

J.S. Sat, Oct 17, 2009 9:44:59pm

re: #35 Maui Girl

In Canada, you'd be counted amongst the "insane" to think/believe that there's anything remotely "wrong" with giving former Gitmo detainees millions of dollars in "compensation." (Only Islamophobes and racists have a problem with transferring millions of dollars in taxpayers monies to alleged "terrorists"..)

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