Terrorism alert

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They captured a few but they know that there are at least 24 others roaming about with plans to blow up mass transit, sports stadiums, hotels, or wherever large groups of Americans congregate. I post this to bring awareness.

Thank you, Terry Rose, for this extremely important and disturbing thread!

By TOM HAYS and DEVLIN BARRETT
Associated Press Writers
NEW YORK —
Casting a wide net in a neighborhood where high-profile raids prompted nationwide terror warnings, investigators searched for anyone who might have been behind the alleged terror plot beyond an airport shuttle driver and two others, authorities said.

The driver, Najibullah Zazi, his father and New York City imam Ahmad Wais Afzali all were scheduled to be in court for detention hearings later Thursday in Denver and New York. Authorities say they found bomb-making instructions on a hard drive on Zazi's laptop computer but still were unsure of the specific target or scope of a possible terrorist attack.

The 24-year-old Zazi - whom authorities have linked to al-Qaida - his father and Afzali have been charged with lying to FBI investigators trying to uncover the terror plot. Zazi met with his attorneys in Colorado on Wednesday. His father was expected to be freed on $50,000 bail after Thursday's hearing.

The arrests came after the raids of several apartments in the Queens neighborhood, where Zazi had driven from Denver to visit earlier this month, and were followed by a flurry of nationwide warnings of possible strikes on transit, sports and entertainment complexes.

On Wednesday, hundreds of federal agents and NYPD investigators again fanned out in the neighborhood where apartments were searched - and backpacks and cell phones removed - over a week ago, to re-interview "people previously encountered" during previous raids there, and to locate others who know them, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the probe.

The effort also includes a review of phone and other records that could link potential suspects to one another or identify new ones.

"Many of the people we've spoken to have been cooperative," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated Press because the investigation is ongoing.

The official said business owners also are on the list of possible witnesses in a potential homemade-bomb plot. The official declined to identify those businesses, but authorities regularly monitor sales by suppliers of chemicals that could be used in improvised explosives.

But questions lingered about whether early missteps hindered the investigation. A criminal complaint suggests police acting without the FBI's knowledge might have inadvertently blown the surveillance and forced investigators' hand by questioning Afzali - considered a trusted police source in the community - about Zazi and other possible plotters.

The imam, it says, turned around and tipped off Zazi by calling him the next day and saying in a recorded conversation, "They asked me about you guys."

The detectives referred to in the recently unsealed criminal complaint work for a division that operates independently from an FBI-run terrorism task force.

Police officials say that their investigators reached out to Afzali - showing him pictures of four possible suspects to identify, including Zazi - only after receiving fresh information from the terrorism task force that a terrorism plot was possibly in progress.

In a joint statement, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Joe Demarest, head of the FBI office in New York, denied reports that the questioning of Afzali and his alleged betrayal had caused a rift between the agencies.

The New York Times, quoting unnamed current and former police officials, reported in Thursday editions that the New York Police Department transferred two commanders this week, including one from its counterterrorism bureau. NYPD top spokesman Paul Browne would not confirm the transfers or comment late Wednesday.

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Just wondering... how do they cast a wide net when they are stretched thin?

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DENVER – An Afghan immigrant wanted to carry out a New York City terror attack involving hydrogen peroxide bombs to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary before federal authorities foiled the plan, a U.S. prosecutor said Friday.
Tim Neff told a federal judge that Najibullah Zazi "was in the throes of making a bomb and attempting to perfect his formulation."
"The evidence suggests a chilling, disturbing sequence of events showing the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11, for purposes of perhaps using such items," Neff declared in arguing for Zazi's transfer to New York.
Ken Deal, the chief deputy U.S. marshal in Denver, said Zazi was put on a U.S. government plane and flown out of southern Denver's Centennial Airport at 12:15 p.m. MDT — little more than an hour after U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer ordered Zazi transferred to New York City to face charges of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.
Deal said it was possible Zazi could appear in federal court in Brooklyn late Friday. The charge against Zazi carries a possible life sentence upon conviction.
Zazi, a 24-year-old Afghan-born coffee cart owner in New York and Denver airport shuttle driver, sat expressionless during the Denver court hearing, staring at a decanter on the defense table.
Zazi's attorney, Arthur Folsom, argued at the hearing that Zazi should be released on bond with electronic monitoring. He said Zazi has family ties in Colorado: His parents and five siblings.
"If that's not an indication of strong family ties to the state of Colorado, I don't know what is," Folsom said.
Shaffer disagreed, saying Zazi had been in Colorado less than a year. "He has very little reason to stay," the judge said.
Zazi has publicly denied being a terrorist since he was arrested on Saturday and charged with lying to FBI agents during three days of voluntary interviews. That count was considered a holding charge pending Thursday's indictment.
The U.S. indictment says Zazi received explosives training from al-Qaida and bought large quantities of hydrogen peroxide and nail-polish remover at beauty supply stores to make bombs, possibly to detonate on New York City commuter trains.
Investigators have fanned out across the Denver area and New York City, going to beauty shops, home improvement stores and neighborhoods Zazi frequented looking for possible accomplices, while the government issued national terrorism warnings for sports complexes, hotels and transit systems.
A law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Thursday that Zazi had associates in New York who were in on the plot. Court papers say that during the summer, Zazi and three unidentified associates bought "unusually large quantities" of hydrogen peroxide and acetone — a flammable solvent found in nail-polish remover — from beauty supply stores in the Denver area, products with names like Ion Sensitive Scalp Developer and Clairoxide.
Zazi searched a Queens home improvement store Web site for another ingredient needed to make a compound called TATP (Triacetone Triperoxide), the explosives used in the London bombings that killed over 50 people, prosecutors said.
A government motion seeking to deny bail laid out a chronology of the alleged scheme, which prosecutors said had been in the works for more than a year.
Zazi — a legal U.S. resident who immigrated in 1999 — began plotting as early as August 2008 to "use one or more weapons of mass destruction," when he "and others" traveled from Newark, N.J., to receive explosives training in Pakistan, prosecutors said.
Within days of returning from Pakistan in early 2009, he moved to the Denver suburb of Aurora, where he used a computer to research homemade bomb ingredients and to look up beauty supply stores where he could buy them, according to prosecutors.
A second law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation said associates of Zazi visited Colorado from New York to help him buy the chemicals, using stolen credit cards to make the purchases before returning to New York.
Security video and receipts show that some of the purchases were made near a Colorado hotel, according to court papers. On Sept. 6 and 7, Zazi checked into a suite at the hotel with a kitchen and a stove, the papers say, and tried to contact an unidentified associate "seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives."
"Zazi repeatedly emphasized in the communications that he needed the answers right away," the papers said. "Each communication" was "more urgent than the last."
FBI explosives testing later found residue in the vent above the stove, authorities said.
On Sept. 8, court papers say, Zazi searched the Internet for home improvement stores in Queens before driving a rental car for a two-day trip to the city. The visit triggered a series of searches in Denver and New York City over the past two weeks, and netted backpacks, cell phones and a scale at a Queens home where Zazi spent the night.
A law enforcement official said Thursday that authorities had been especially worried about Zazi's Sept. 10 visit to the city because it coincided with a visit by President Barack Obama, and considered arresting him right away. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.
Beauty supply store employees in New York and the Denver suburbs said authorities had been asking whether anyone had come in buying a lot of hydrogen peroxide or acetone.
At Beauty Supply Warehouse in suburban Denver, Paul Phillips said a co-worker told investigators he had sold chemicals to Zazi. Company president Karan Hoss said the firm turned over security video of a man matching Zazi's description to the FBI. A check of sales found that someone bought a dozen 32-ounce bottles of a hydrogen peroxide product in July. More was purchased in late August, Hoss said.
Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and a New York City imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, appeared in court Thursday on charges they lied to investigators. Mohammed Zazi, 53, was ordered freed under court supervision in Denver until an Oct. 9 hearing. Afzali, who was accused of tipping off the Zazis to the federal probe against them in a tapped telephone call, was released in New York on $1.5 million bail.

And my QUESTION is: WHY does our immigration department continue to allow these people into our country at a time when there have been so many attacks, and the threats continue?

Good question, Marica. How can they know? They cannot ban all Middle Eastern people and many are good citizens here---they have quite a dilemma to deal with and I don't think it is that easy. Some terrorists are actually longtime citizens who adopt some insane belief and act on it.

Then there are the Timothy McVeighs, homegrown terrorists. This is so scary.

Off on another rant.

Immigration Services do little more than process paper work and collect fees each document required. Persons who want to come to the U.S. apply at an American Embasy in their own country. Do ya know who works in these places? People from that country. No kidding. Many of the staff are local people.
THIS, is how I saw it happen. A 22 year old man, who had never held a job in his life, met a 42 year old divorced American woman online. One year later, she flew to his country and married him. She remained in that country for one month and then returned to the U.S. and began the process of filing documents to bring him here. So who checked this guy out? Actually, no one much cared. Immigrations just collected the money and shuffled the paper work around. What is required? Well, the American wife had to prove that she could suport him @ 20% above pverty level. She had to agree to provide support for him for two years, even if once he got here, and decided he no longer wanted to be married to her. She is not eligable for any type of government assitance, but if he decides he doesn't want to live with her, he is then eligable for assistance, plus support from her.
I was less than impressed with this guy from day one. He made comments which caused me to be uncomfortable. Threats on people's lives that he did not know, because they didn't act the way he believes. He would KILL a man who was not wearing a shirt in the presence of his wife. Because of this and other threatening remarks, I made attempts to contact immigrations, and all I could get were people who were there to assist with the process of entering the U.S. I even tried Homeland Security. That was even less impressive. Anyway, the man eventually arrived.
And although I did my best to be nice to him, I lost it when he decided to tell me how I should act in my own home, then grabbed my wrists and all but spat in my face, saying "YOU ARE NOTHING ... YOU ARE NOTHING"
In his opinion, a woman has no authority, but it took him less than 10 minutes after this encounter to realize, OH YES but women DO have authority, especially in their own homes.
I am totally disgusted with our government allowing people to come here at a time when there is so much terroism going on.

Wow, Marica, was that your personal experience?---or was it quoted from another source? What has become of this man since? Your post makes me disgusted too!

Terrorist threat of planting bombs in Christmas toys, timed to explode when in the UK stores at holiday shopping time:
(should we be also worried about ours?---almost all our US toys are imported also)

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Thank you for that warning!!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG, This is not good! It doesn't say anything about what they are going to do to stop this?? What if some of these toys also make it to the US? WTH are they going to do about this??

I am so beyond terrorism right now.
There is so much shit being done in America to other Americans I just can't focus.