Najibullah Zazi: Difference between revisions

Najibullah Zazi (born August 10, 1985, in a village in the Paktia region of eastern Afghanistan)^[1] is a citizen of Afghanistan and legal resident of the United States who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group accused of planning acts of terrorism against the U.S.^[2][3][4] The FBI claims Zazi attended courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008.

On September 9, 2009, he rented a car to drive from his home in Denver, Colorado, to New York City.^[2] According to The New York Times, the trip triggered a series of arrests on September 15, 2009.

On February 22, 2010, Zazi pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. He said he was recruited by Al-Qaida in Pakistan for a "martyrdom plan" against the U.S., and that his target was the New York City subway system. Zazi faces a possible life sentence without possibility of parole for the first two counts, and an additional sentence of 15 years for the third count. Sentencing will take place in June 2010.

Zazi's family moved to Pakistan in 1992—four years before the Taliban took over Afghanistan. While Zazi was a teenager, he and his family lived in the same apartment building and attended the same mosque as Saifur Rahman Halimi, an imam and chief representative to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord who had been declared a global terrorist by the U.S. in 2003.

Zazi and his family were accepted as legal residents of the U.S. in 1999. Mohammed Wali Zazi, Najibullah's father and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, found work as a taxi driver in New York City.

Zazi was described as an indifferent student at Flushing High School in Queens, and a quiet listener at the Hazrat-i-Abubakr Sadiq mosque he attended while in New York. According to one of his friends, Zazi liked listening to Zakir Naik, a controversial Indian Muslim televangelist preaching unorthodox Muslim theology.^[5]

In 2006, he traveled to Pakistan and married his 19-year-old cousin.^[6] He claimed several trips he made to Pakistan between 2006 and 2008 were to visit his wife. In the course of his visits to Pakistan, Zazi and his wife had two children, whom he planned to move to the U.S.^[5] Zazi filed for bankruptcy in New York State on March 26, 2009, with $51,000 in debts, and was discharged on August 17, 2009.^[6] Officials say it was his third trip to Pakistan, on August 28, 2009, with an unspecified companions, that drew the FBI's attention to Zazi.^[5]

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

Three arrested in ongoing terror investigation (2009-09-20)

On January 15, 2009, Zazi returned from his trip to Peshawar, a city just east of Pakistan's volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas.^[2][6] He maintained that this five-month trip was to visit his wife. The FBI, however, asserts that after several days of interrogation he acknowledged receiving military training in a semi-autonomous tribal area.

After his return, Zazi moved to Aurora, Colorado, to live with relatives and work as an airport shuttle bus driver. Over the course of several months, the FBI listened to Zazi's phone conversations, and in August 2009, he was heard speaking about mixing chemical substances. The FBI learned that Zazi and his three associates were buying chemicals at beauty shops around Denver, Colorado. Security videos from a beauty shop show Zazi pushing a cart full of hydrogen peroxide. Authorities also examined the room with a kitchen Zazi rented, and found traces of acetone, found in nail polish remover. Hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and acid, readily available in beauty supply stores, are components used in Triacetone triperoxide (TATP)-based deadly bombs.^[5]

On September 10, 2009, the day after Zazi left Denver for New York, New York city police asked Ahmad Wais Afzali, a Muslim cleric whom they have developed as an informant,^[5] to identify individuals in a series of photographs that included Zazi.^[6] Afzali identified Zazi. At the George Washington Bridge, Zazi was pulled over for what he was told it was a routine traffic stop and his car was searched. He was allowed to go.^[6] The Associated Press reported that it was known that Zazi, Afzali, and Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, back in Colorado, all spoke about what Afzali told the police on September 11, 2009.^[6][7] On the same day, Zazi's rental car was towed due to a parking violation, and his vehicle was searched. During the search, agents found a laptop with an image of nine handwritten pages on how to make explosives, detonators, and fuses.^[6] On September 12, Zazi flew back to Denver. American security officials searched several homes in New York on September 14, and found Zazi's fingerprints on a scale and AA batteries.^[6] An alert was issued to American law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for hydrogen peroxide-based bombs.

As of 2010, Zazi has been a federal inmate (registration # 36553-013) at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn, .^[8]

On September 16, 2009, Zazi voluntarily was interviewed by the Denver FBI in the presence of his lawyer.^[6] During his interview, which lasted for eight hours, Zazi denied knowing anything about the suspicious nine-page document found on his hard drive, and speculated it might have accidentally been downloaded in August along with a religious book which he later deleted. The FBI reported that in subsequent interviews on September 17 and 18, 2009, Zazi acknowledged receiving explosives and weapons training in the tribal areas.^[6]

On September 19, 2009, authorities arrested Zazi, his father, and Afzali on charges of lying in a matter involving terrorism.^[6] According to Time Magazine, authorities believe Zazi was planning an attack using either a truck filled with explosives, or back-pack bombs previously used in the Madrid and London subway bombings.^[9] The FBI asserted the photographs of nine pages of handwritten notes found on Zazi's computer were in his own handwriting.^[10] Additional charges and allegations were filed on September 23, 2009.^[11] A grand jury charged Zazi on counts of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.^[12][13]

In early November, British newspapers reported that British security officials intercepted an email instructing Zazi as to how to implement his attack, from planners in Pakistan.^[14] The email interception was performed as part of "Operation Pathway". U.S. authorities were tipped off about Zazi at the right time when they started threatening to sever intelligence ties with the British due to UK's possible extradition of the Lockerbie bomber back to Libya.

On February 22, 2010, Zazi pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. His guilty plea was the result of a plea bargain with the prosecution.

Zazi said he was recruited by Al-Qaida in Pakistan for a "martyrdom plan" against the U.S., and that his target was the New York City subway system. Zazi refused to name which subway line was the target of the plot.^[15] He said the intent of his suicide mission was to draw the attention to activities of the U.S. military in Afghanistan.^[16]

Zazi faces a possible life sentence without possibility of parole for the first two counts, and an additional sentence of 15 years for the third count. Sentencing will take place in June 2010. ^[17]

• September 11 attacks
• 7 July 2005 London bombings
• War in Afghanistan (2001–present)

• Mike Littwin (2009-09-23). "Littwin: Zazi, justice need strong defense". Denver Post. Archived from the original on 2009-09-23.