New York City Terrorism Suspect to Plead Guilty

[Thomas]

---

---

AP

Sept. 17, 2009: Najibullah Zazi arrives at the offices of the FBI in Denver for questioning.

The key suspect in an alleged plot to attack New York City with homemade bombs has begun cooperating with investigators and is preparing to enter a guilty plea, Fox News has confirmed.

Najibullah Zazi, 24, has begun talking to authorities and plans a guilty plea that could come as early as Monday, according to law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity.

As important as a plea would be, Zazi may be far more valuable to investigators as a source for information about co-conspirators in the United States and Pakistan.

Three people with inside knowledge of the investigation confirmed that the jailed Zazi recently volunteered information about the alleged bomb plot during a meeting with his attorney and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn. The sit-down, known as a proffer session, typically signals that a defendant has begun cooperating in a bid for a plea deal.

Zazi — accused of receiving explosives training in an Al Qaeda terrorism camp in Pakistan — told prosecutors that he was armed with bomb-making components while en route to New York City last year, but flushed them down the toilet in a New York City apartment after getting spooked by a traffic stop on the George Washington Bridge while entering the city, the people said.

Zazi had driven a rented car from Denver to New York, arriving Sept. 10, 2009, the day before the eighth anniversary of the 2001 attacks.

He was allowed to go free after what was described as a routine traffic stop on the bridge, which connects New Jersey and New York. Authorities days later raided several Queens apartments, including a friend's home where Zazi had stayed.

The government alleges that the airport driver and others bought beauty supplies in Colorado to make peroxide-based bombs before he tried to mix the explosives in a hotel room there, then set out cross-country by car in September. Searches of his car after he arrived turned up bomb-making plans on a laptop computer, but no actual devices or materials.

The cooperation by Zazi suggests prosecutors hope to expand the case and bring charges against other suspects in his case and possibly other terrorism probes. At the time of Zazi's arrest, Attorney General Eric Holder called the case the most serious terrorism threat since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Amid the debate over whether alleged Al Qaeda and other terrorism suspects should be tried in civilian courts, federal prosecutors have sought to demonstrate that they can persuade suspects like Zazi to cooperate and provide more reliable information without coercion.

One of the people familiar with the Zazi case told the Associated Press that Zazi decided to offer the information after being warned that his mother could face criminal immigration charges.

Zazi's father was charged this month with trying to get rid of chemicals and other evidence. But it appears he was cut a break: After initially demanding that he be jailed in Brooklyn without bail, prosecutors agreed to a deal on Feb. 17 releasing him on $50,000 bond and allowing him to return to his home in suburban Denver.

By contrast, bond for a Queens imam charged with lying to the FBI about phone contact with Zazi when Zazi was in New York was set at $1.5 million. A friend of Zazi, New York cab driver Zarein Ahemdzay, was jailed without bail on a similar lying charge.

Another one of the people said that Zazi told prosecutors that he made roughly two pounds of a powerful and highly unstable explosive called triacetone triperoxide, or TATP.

Court documents indicate that Zazi and others bought acetone — nail polish remover — and other ingredients that can be used to make TATP. The same explosive was used by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001 and the terrorists who carried out the London bombings in 2005 that killed 52 people.

In those instances, TATP was not the main charge; it was the detonator. The 1.5 grams in Reid's shoe was supposed to help detonate the plastic explosives aboard a jetliner, and it was used to set off a mixture of black pepper and hydrogen peroxide in London.

Experts have said the TATP in the Zazi case was probably going to be just the detonator.

The FBI's New York office and the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn declined to comment Monday.

Authorities say Ahmedzay and another New Yorker charged in the case, Adis Medunjanin, traveled to Pakistan with Zazi in 2008. Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and remains jailed.

The three men, former high school classmates in Queens, are scheduled to appear in federal court in Brooklyn on Feb. 25.

Officials earlier confirmed reports week that Zazi's uncle had been arraigned on a felony count in secret — a sign that he also could be cooperating.

[Thomas]

---

---

Najibullah Zazi pleads guilty to conspiring in terror plot

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Terror suspect Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to detonate explosives in the United States.

In an appearance before a federal judge, Zazi, 24, admitted his role in the conspiracy, saying, "In spring 2008, I conspired with others to join the Taliban, to fight along with the Taliban against the United States."

He pleaded guilty to three counts: conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and providing material support to a terrorist organization.

Zazi was arrested in September in a plot to build and explode bombs in New York City around the anniversary of the September 11, 2001, attacks.

He intended to strike more than one subway target in New York, a law enforcement source said.

Federal officials have said the conspiracy involving Zazi represents the most serious terror plot since 9/11 and the investigation is intense and ongoing.

Since Zazi's arrest last year, two acquaintances of his have been indicted in connection with the case as well as Zazi's father and uncle.

Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, initially was charged with lying to investigators, but in January a federal grand jury in New York charged him with conspiracy to obstruct justice by helping to discard bomb-making chemicals when he learned of the government's investigation.

Najibullah Zazi's uncle, Naqib Jaji, was indicted on a single felony charge and was arraigned in a sealed proceeding in Brooklyn in January. The charge wasn't specified, but a source said the uncle participated in the attempt to dispose of evidence.

The indictment against Zazi said he twice checked into a motel in the Denver, Colorado, area -- in August and September -- and was experimenting with heating chemicals that could create a bomb. The indictment said chemical residues had been recovered from a vent in the motel room.

CNN obtained closed-circuit video from beauty parlors in the area that authorities said showed Zazi buying large quantities of chemicals that can be used to make bombs. The indictment against the younger Zazi said he was also in contact with other individuals as he experimented with the chemicals and tried to make the high explosive TATP.

Authorities said Zazi planned to be in New York with the intent of using an explosive device around September 11, 2009. The alleged plot, which came to light after raids in New York in mid-September, may have been targeting a major transportation center, sources said earlier.

Authorities have indicated that Zazi had been under surveillance for months before his arrest in September. Agents had followed him as he drove from Denver to New York.

The other men indicted in connection with the case are Zarein Ahmedzay, a New York taxi driver, accused of lying to the FBI, and Adis Medunjanin, 25, originally from Bosnia.

Medunjanin has pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country and receiving military-type training from al Qaeda.

Ahmedzay pleaded not guilty to lying to special agents about locations he visited during a trip to Pakistan and Afghanistan and about discussions he had with an unidentified man about military training in Pakistan in 2008.