The Afghan-born man at the center of an anti-terrorism probe was determined to make a bomb and perhaps detonate it in New York City on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, before he was thwarted by authorities, a US prosecutor said on Friday.
Assistant US Attorney Tim Neff summed up the government’s case against Najibullah Zazi, 24, in a Denver courtroom before the suspect was flown in federal custody to New York to face a charge of plotting bomb attacks in the US.
Zazi, linked by authorities to al-Qaeda, was making his third appearance before a federal judge in Denver. He was ordered to remain held without bail, then put aboard a US Marshals Service jet for the cross-country flight. His first New York court appearance is set for Tuesday.
Zazi is accused of receiving bomb-making instructions during a trip to Pakistan last year, then buying and preparing chemicals for use in home-made explosives like those employed in the deadly London mass transit bombings in 2005.
A grand jury in New York has charged Zazi, a legal US resident born in Afghanistan, under federal anti-terrorism laws with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, an offense outlined in an indictment unsealed on Thursday. He faces a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.
Law enforcement experts have called the suspected conspiracy, if proven, one of the most significant security threats in the US since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Authorities say the case is unrelated to two other security arrests this week in Dallas and Springfield, Illinois.
Before his arrest, Zazi denied wrongdoing in media interviews and through his lawyers.
The investigation came to light earlier this month after Zazi drove across the country from Colorado, arriving in New York City on Sept. 10 in a rental car in which authorities say he carried a laptop computer with detailed bomb-making notes.
Neff, arguing in court that Zazi should remain in custody, said the evidence showed “a chilling, disturbing sequence of events that indicate the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, perhaps using such items.”
“The evidence suggests the defendant was in the throes of making a bomb,” he said.
Prosecutors say Zazi, who worked as a shuttle bus driver at the Denver airport after moving to Colorado this year, traveled to Pakistan three or four times and to Canada twice during the past 10 years. Neff also said Zazi’s wife was in Pakistan and “is having trouble getting into this country.”
Documents accompanying the indictment against him refer to at least three other unnamed associates purchasing large amounts of hydrogen peroxide and acetone products from beauty supply stores over the summer.
Authorities have said they are continuing an investigation that has so far focused on Zazi, suggesting more arrests are possible in New York and Colorado. They have not made clear whether they consider Zazi a conspiracy leader or someone acting at the behest of others.
He was arrested last Saturday on charges of lying to federal agents investigating the case following three days of intense questioning by the FBI in Denver.
US Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered him to remain held without bond and moved to New York.
Dressed in a white T-shirt and tan trousers, he said little during the hearing, answering only, “Yes, your honor,” when asked whether he understood the charge against him, the penalties he faced and his constitutional rights.
At the request of prosecutors, Shaffer dismissed the earlier charge of making false statements, a move that made it easier to transfer him to New York.
The suspect’s father, Mohammed Zazi, and a New York imam, Ahmad Afzali, accused of having tipped off the younger Zazi that he was under scrutiny, also were charged with lying to investigators.
They were released on Thursday but ordered placed under electronic monitoring.
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
Australians were downloading virtual private networks (VPNs) in droves, while one of the world’s largest porn distributors said it was blocking users from its platforms as the country yesterday rolled out sweeping online age restriction. Australia in December became the first country to impose a nationwide ban on teenagers using social media. A separate law now requires artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot services to keep certain content — including pornography, extreme violence and self-harm and eating disorder material — from minors or face fines of up to A$49.5 million (US$34.6 million). The country also joined Britain, France and dozens of US states requiring
Hungarian authorities temporarily detained seven Ukrainian citizens and seized two armored cars carrying tens of millions of euros in cash across Hungary on suspicion of money laundering, officials said on Friday. The Ukrainians were released on Friday, following their detention on Thursday, but Hungarian officials held onto the cash, prompting Ukraine to accuse Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of illegally seizing the money. “We will not tolerate this state banditism,” Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said. The seven detained Ukrainians were employees of the Ukrainian state-owned Oschadbank, who were traveling in the two armored cars that were carrying the money between Austria and
Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani on Friday after dissolving the Kosovar parliament said a snap election should be held as soon as possible to avoid another prolonged political crisis in the Balkan country at a time of global turmoil. Osmani said it is important for Kosovo to wrap up the upcoming election process and form functional institutions for political stability as the war rages in the Middle East. “Precisely because the geopolitical situation is that complex, it is important to finish this electoral process which is coming up,” she said. “It is very hard now to imagine what will happen next.” Kosovo, which declared
RSS