Thread: Feds: Suspect hit beauty stores for bomb supplies UPDATED

Good thing the FEDS are doing their jobs and getting these nut jobs BEFORE the bombs go off.

Originally Posted by ELE

What is a fertilizer bomb?

It is what made the federal building in Oklahoma City go boom



Well ladies, stock up fast on your favorite shade, it looks like our hair is about to go natural, and our manicure days are numbered as well. I give it until thanksgiving before hair dye and nail polish remover is banned.

Originally Posted by cayla99

Originally Posted by ELE

What is a fertilizer bomb?

It is what made the federal building in Oklahoma City go boom?

That's the one.

RELATED

Man arrested in alleged attempt to bomb Dallas skyscraper

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-172233.html

Alleged terror threat seen as 'most serious' since 9/11 attacks

Updated 6m ago

HOW THE ZAZI CASE UNFOLDED

The government's case against Najibullah Zazi, as detailed in court papers:

Aug. 28, 2008: Zazi flies from the USA to Pakistan.

December 2008: While in Pakistan, Zazi allegedly e-mails images of bombmaking notes from one of his e-mail accounts to another.

Jan. 15, 2009: Zazi returns to New York from Pakistan, and within a few days moves from Flushing, N.Y., to Aurora, Colo.

July 25: Security tapes show Zazi buying six bottles of a hydrogen peroxide product at a beauty store in Aurora.

Aug. 28: Zazi purchases more hydrogen peroxide and checks into a hotel room with a kitchen in Aurora.

Sept. 6-7: Zazi again rents a room in the hotel, where FBI testing later finds acetone residue in a vent above the stove.

Sept. 8: Zazi searches the Internet for a home improvement store that carries muriatic acid in Flushing.

Sept. 9: Zazi rents a car and drives from Colorado to New York City, arriving Sept. 10. He returns to Colorado on Sept. 12.

Saturday: Zazi is arrested on charges of lying to federal agents about terrorism.

Thursday: The Justice Department announces Zazi's indictment on one charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction. If he is convicted, the maximum punishment is life in prison.

By Kevin Johnson, USA TODAY
The case that some analysts are calling the most serious terror plot in the United States since the 9/11 attacks began more than a year ago, when a young Afghan man living in the United States boarded a flight in Newark, N.J., bound for Pakistan.

READ MOTION: Detention sought for Zazi
CHARGES: Read Zazi indictment (pdf)

Najibullah Zazi drew the FBI's attention with his Aug. 28, 2008, visit to Peshawar, a global crossroads for terrorist groups, said a federal law enforcement official who has been briefed by officials involved in the case but asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to comment publicly.

The official says authorities' initial interest in Zazi focused primarily on his itinerary. More than five months later, after Zazi had returned to the USA in January, his activities made him a fixture on the radar of anti-terrorism investigators, the official says.

During the period leading to his indictment on a charge of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, Zazi morphed from a largely anonymous Denver airport shuttle driver to the central figure in a national terrorism probe who remained "committed" to attacking the United States until his arrest last Saturday, court documents allege.

After he was arrested last weekend on charges of making false statements to authorities, investigators alleged in a court filing that Zazi had trained with al-Qaeda while he was in Pakistan.

On Thursday, authorities in New York announced that Zazi had been indicted on a charge of conspiring to detonate bombs against targets in the United States. Hours after the indictment was announced in New York, Zazi appeared in a Denver federal court, where proceedings were postponed.

On Friday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered Zazi held without bail pending his transfer to New York.

The charges carry a possible life sentence upon conviction. The indictment said Zazi received explosives training from al-Qaeda and bought large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and nail-polish remover at beauty supply stores to make bombs.

The alleged targets have not been disclosed, but Zazi's indictment comes after a series of bulletins from federal officials warning that sports stadiums, entertainment venues and other public gathering places could be targets of terrorist strikes.

Security analysts say allegations of a plot to use peroxide-based explosives — similar to those used in the July 2005 bombings of three London subway trains and a bus by operatives linked to al-Qaeda — represents one of the most advanced bombing plots against the United States since the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that killed nearly 3,000 people.

"This is the most serious threat ... I've seen since 9/11," says Tom Fuentes, a former FBI official who once directed the bureau's operations in Baghdad.

"You had a person here who received explosives and weapons training, and he was apparently trying to assemble a team to carry out the operation."

Georgetown University professor Bruce Hoffman, who has examined terrorism issues for three decades, characterized the allegations as representing a "new magnitude" of threat to the United States that, if carried out, could have "eclipsed" the 2004 Madrid train bombings, which killed nearly 200 people.

The federal government's allegations that Zazi purchased bombmaking materials and attempted to assemble them, Hoffman says, demonstrated a level of commitment by the suspect that has not been seen in U.S. terrorism prosecutions in recent years.

"For anyone who doubted whether al-Qaeda was still in the picture, this should answer that question," Hoffman says.

The documents filed by federal prosecutors Thursday include detailed allegations about Zazi's purchases of bombmaking components, "urgent" attempts he made to contact associates for instructions as he tried to assemble the devices and suspicious travel two weeks ago from Denver to New York, two days before the eighth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The documents also raise a range of questions:

Were there precise targets? Where are the bombmaking components that the documents allege Zazi and his unidentified associates purchased? How many people were involved in the alleged plot? And why did Zazi go to New York?

Attorney General Eric Holder did not address those questions Thursday, explaining that investigators were still pursuing several angles in the probe.

"We are investigating a wide range of leads related to this alleged conspiracy, and we will continue to work around the clock to ensure that anyone involved is brought to justice," Holder said.

"We believe any imminent threat arising from this case has been disrupted."

Zazi's attorney, Arthur Folsom, could not be reached Thursday. He has denied that his client has any links to terrorism.

The defendant's father, Mohammed Zazi, 53, who was arrested with his son last Saturday and accused of making false statements, was freed on a $50,000 bond but was to remain under house arrest.

In New York, meanwhile, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, a prayer leader at a Queens mosque who was charged with lying about tipping Zazi to the investigation, was released on a $1.5 million bond.

Afzali's attorney, Ronald Kuby, says Afzali knew nothing about any plots to bomb U.S. targets.

Court documents made public Thursday identify Zazi as the central figure in a 13-month effort to detonate bombs against targets in America.

Shortly after his return from Pakistan in January 2009, court documents say, Zazi moved from New York to the sprawling Denver suburbs of Aurora, where prosecutors allege his pursuit of bombmaking materials began.

The documents say Zazi and unidentified associates shopped at local beauty supply stores for components of triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which was used to make the explosives in the London bombings.

The documents say the same materials also were found in the shoe bombs worn by convicted terrorist Richard Reid in his failed attempt to down a commercial airliner in 2001.

The three components of TATP are hydrogen peroxide, acetone and a powerful acid such as hydrochloric acid.

The court documents allege that Zazi and others bought "unusually large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide and acetone products from several beauty supply stores in July and August.

Surveillance photos and receipts show Zazi purchasing six bottles of liquid developer clairoxide, which contains high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, from an Aurora store on July 25, the documents say.

The transaction was one of several major purchases made between July and as recently as the first week of September.

Zazi checked into the same Denver-area hotel suite on at least three dates after making such purchases, the documents say.

The suite is equipped with a stove, which the documents Zazi needed to try to mix the chemical components to the appropriate concentration for an explosive.

FBI testing in the room later found "the presence of acetone residue" in the vent above the stove, the court documents state.

The documents allege that Zazi tried to contact an unidentified person several times, starting three days before his Sept. 9-10 drive from Denver to New York.

Each communication was "more urgent in tone than the last," the court documents say.

They also say that Zazi brought his laptop computer, containing bombmaking instructions, on the New York trip.

A subsequent search of Zazi's rental car found no evidence of explosives or bombmaking materials.

Zazi has said publicly that he traveled to New York to tend to his financial interest in a coffee cart business.

The rental car contract called for the car to be returned in New York on Sept. 14, but court documents say that Zazi cut his trip short and flew back to Denver on Sept. 12 after he was informed that investigators were tracking him.

The documents do not say who tipped him off.

'There is substance here'

Zazi's return to Denver set off a flurry of law enforcement raids in New York and at Zazi's apartment in Aurora.

Last week, Zazi agreed to three days of interrogation by the FBI.

Folsom, Zazi's attorney, abruptly canceled a fourth session Sept. 19.

Within hours, federal investigators arrested Zazi on the charges of making false statements.

Based on the contents of the court documents, some analysts say the warnings are warranted.

The case against Zazi appears to be the "real deal," says Pace Law School professor Bennett Gershman, a former New York prosecutor.

In other terrorism investigations since Sept. 11, including a 2002 inquiry leading to charges against six Buffalo-area men, Gershman says that the plots, potential methods of attack and leadership structure of the alleged terrorist cell often were not fully formed.

"This case, if the allegations are true, seems to be qualitatively different," he says.

"The acts of purchasing materials seem to be there. There is substance here."

Contributing: Donna Leinwand in Washington.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/200 ... robe_N.htm

Afghan immigrant pleads not guilty to bombing conspiracy

Denver airport shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi appears in federal court in New York and is being held without bail in what authorities call the first Al Qaeda-linked plot on U.S. soil since 9/11.

By Tina Susman
September 29, 2009 | 9:28 a.m.

Reporting from New York - An Afghan immigrant charged with conspiring to bomb U.S. targets in an attack possibly coinciding with the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks pleaded not guilty today in federal court.

Najibullah Zazi of Aurora, Colo., was ordered held without bail in what authorities have called the first Al Qaeda-linked plot on U.S. soil since the 2001 attacks. He appeared beside his attorney, J. Michael Dowling, wearing orange sneakers, black trousers and a tunic. Zazi, 24, his heavy beard neatly trimmed, did not speak, and there were no family members in the packed courthouse.

Prosecutors said the case against Zazi would be "voluminous" and that the conspiracy charge against Zazi is "international in scope." Zazi is charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, which could bring a life sentence if he is convicted.

The airport shuttle driver was arrested in Denver this month and initially charged with lying to federal agents investigating the alleged plot. His father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, also of Colorado, and a New York imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, were arrested at the same time and also charged with lying to agents. Both have since been freed on bail.

Only the younger Zazi, who has traveled twice to Peshawar, Pakistan, since August 2008, has also been charged with conspiring to detonate explosives, using chemicals purchased in large supplies from beauty supply stores. The items include hydrogen peroxide and acetone, which can be used to manufacture explosives.

After today's brief hearing in federal court in Brooklyn, Zazi's attorney challenged prosecutors to produce his client's alleged co-conspirators, saying that without them, the conspiracy charge would collapse.

"I've not seen any evidence whatsoever of an agreement between Mr. Zazi and anyone else," said Dowling.

"What I have seen is that Mr. Zazi traveled to Pakistan, which is not illegal," he said. Asked about the beauty shop purchases, he also said those were not illegal.

"Unless Mr. Zazi has an agreement with one or more people to commit an unlawful act, this conspiracy charge cannot be sustained," said Dowling.

Zazi's next court appearance was scheduled for December.

tina.susman@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 8696.story