Two suspected associates of an Afghan immigrant accused of al-Qaeda links and plotting a bombing spree in New York were arrested on Friday.
One of the men, taxi driver Zarein Ahmedzay, pleaded not guilty in a Brooklyn, New York, federal court to a single charge of making false statements to the FBI.
FBI agents arrested Ahmedzay and also Bosnian immigrant Adis Medunjanin earlier on Friday. Charges against the latter were not immediately made public.
Both men remained in custody.
A law enforcement source described the two as “associates” of Najibullah Zazi, who is accused of training with al-Qaeda in Pakistan and planning to detonate bombs in New York around last year’s anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
The arrests came as the US government and security services are reeling from their failure to prevent an attempt to blow up a Northwest plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day.
US President Barack Obama has repeatedly singled out the Zazi investigation as proof that US intelligence is in fact doing a good job against an increasingly multi-headed foe.
However it was not immediately clear how much of a breakthrough in the Zazi probe the arrests would prove.
Zazi, who is also being held in detention pending trial in Brooklyn, is accused of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. Little detail has been revealed by the authorities about what he allegedly plotted.
A conspiracy requires more than one perpetrator and, so far, no one has been charged as Zazi’s co-conspirator.
Ahmedzay is not accused of terrorism or taking part in the alleged plot against New York, but lying to investigators.
Ahmedzay’s attorney, Michael Marinaccio, said his client, who says he is a naturalized US citizen, is accused of having “lied about whether he knew whether John Doe went to Pakistan for military training.”
Ahmedzay made trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2008 and was questioned by the FBI last year, Marinaccio said. He has family in both countries.
But to infer that Ahmedzay was part of a terrorist plot would “be stretching” the charge against him, Marinaccio said.
The New York Times reported that both Ahmedzay and Medunjanin had participated in Zazi’s Pakistan trip, making them prime suspects in the unfolding bomb plot probe.
It said the trio attended the same New York high school.
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
A judge in Bangladesh issued an arrest warrant for the British member of parliament and former British economic secretary to the treasury Tulip Siddiq, who is a niece of former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted in August last year in a mass uprising that ended her 15-year rule. The Bangladeshi Anti-Corruption Commission has been investigating allegations against Siddiq that she and her family members, including Hasina, illegally received land in a state-owned township project near Dhaka, the capital. Senior Special Judge of Dhaka Metropolitan Zakir Hossain passed the order on Sunday, after considering charges in three separate cases filed
RSS