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| More on our not-quite-arrested Afghani plotter |
| 2009-09-19 |
| DrudgeReport and Instapundit link to several more stories: From the New York Daily News: Zazi, whose trip from Denver to New York last weekend set off a series of police raids in Queens, filed for bankruptcy in March, court records show. Between 2005 and 2008, he opened credit card accounts with Bank of America, Chase, Capital One, Discover and Citibank and ran up a debt of more than $50,000. When he filed for bankruptcy, Zazi said he hadn't worked in two months. While the interrogators focused on Zazi, authorities expanded their attention to include more potential suspects in a plot that raised concerns about the city's subway system. When the probe began this week, five Colorado men cited as members of the cell were under a round-the-clock watch. By Thursday, police sources said, that number had risen to as many as twelve. A half-dozen were reportedly in New York, where Zazi arrived for a visit last week. From ABC: Zazi has been under investigation for almost a year, according to law enforcement and intelligence officials. The CIA reportedly first learned of his alleged al Qaeda ties when Zazi visited Pakistan and officials said they later learned of "deeply troubling" conversations that were picked up on government intercepts. From CBS: Zazi was born in Afghanistan in 1985, moved to Pakistan at age 7 and emigrated to the United States in 1999. He returned to Pakistan in 2007 and 2008 to visit his wife, Folsom said. The New York Daily News reported Saturday that investigators spent several hours this week at a U-Haul in Queens, examining an apparent attempt by some men under scrutiny to rent a large truck. A manager at the rental lot, Robert Larson, told the newspaper the men went away empty-handed because they didn't have a valid credit card. The paper reported that U-Haul workers identified one of the people involved as Naiz Khan, an Afghan immigrant in Queens who knew Zazi and has been questioned by the FBI in connection with the case. Khan told the AP and other reporters in a brief interview at his Queens apartment building Saturday that agents had asked him about renting a U-Haul truck but he knew nothing about it. He called reports that he was involved "totally wrong." "I've never been to that U-Haul," he said. The New York Daily News says the truck was 26 feet long (7.92m if I did the conversion right. It's 2.54 cm/inch, right?): Attorney General Eric Holder said the probe had spread beyond Denver, home to the alleged terror cell, and New York City. "The FBI is working this case around the clock in both cities and in other parts of the country," he said. The truck rental bid failed when none of the men could produce a valid credit card. All refused to surrender the identification needed to pay cash, the manager of the Flushing U-Haul said. A team of FBI agents spent 10 hours Thursday combing through the Queens truck rental business. "We all feel very lucky right now," U-Haul manager Robert Larson told The News. The feds turned up at the U-Haul in Jamaica around 11 a.m. Thursday as authorities continued tailing and interviewing suspects linked to the reputed Denver cell. At least three Afghan men - including Ahmad Afzali, a Queens imam identified by a U-Haul employee as one of the would-be renters - were questioned in New York by FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, sources said. And at least a dozen people remained under round-the-clock surveillance in the case. U-Haul workers also identified Naiz Kahn, who has said he gave Zazi a place to stay during his visit to New York last week. "None of them looked suspicious," Larson said. "They looked like laborers. Not clean-cut guys, but your average Joes." An employee at Afzali's funeral home in Queens said the FBI swooped down on the business Thursday. "I don't know what's happening," the man said. "The office was turned upside down." Afzali, in a phone call with The News, insisted he was never at the U-Haul and had nothing to do with any terror plot. He described his sitdown with the FBI as a cordial conversation. "I will help the authorities," he said. "We have nothing to hide." |
| Posted by:trailing wife |