Word: fbi
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...foiled terrorist plot is usually cause for celebration. But the Sept. 19 arrest of two Afghan-born men in connection with plans to bomb targets in the U.S. has left FBI agents frustrated. They had not intended to swoop on their prey quite so soon. Had an informant not tipped off alleged plotters Najibullah Zazi and his father Mohammed, they might still be free men--and useful assets in the hunt for terrorist networks...
Instead, in announcing the arrests, officials had to concede that they had "no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack." What the FBI had were bits and pieces of evidence--handwritten notes on bomb-making techniques, materials that could be used for explosives--that, taken together, hint at the "backpack bombs" used by terrorists in Madrid in 2004 and London...
...evidence enough for authorities to warn police to be extra-vigilant around stadiums and hotels, subways and other mass-transport systems. But it was not enough to charge the Zazis with anything related to terrorism; they are being held on the lesser charge of lying to the authorities. The FBI is now racing to build a stronger case, and officials say several other men connected to the Zazis are being scrutinized...
According to court documents, Najibullah Zazi, 24, who had been under FBI surveillance since a recent trip to Pakistan, rented a car and drove to New York the day before Sept. 11. The FBI alerted the NYPD to its investigation, and police officers showed his picture to Ahmad Wais Afzali, an Afghan-born imam of a Queens mosque and an occasional police informant. According to the FBI, Afzali then tipped off both the Zazis about the investigation. FBI agents, who had been monitoring the phones, knew their cover was blown and raided homes in Queens that Zazi had visited, seizing...
...only did it thwart a plot but it could also lead to a mother lode of information on al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the state of the global jihad. But there are other, less reassuring lessons from Zazi and from the alleged lone-wolf wannabe terrorists snared by the FBI in Texas and Illinois. For starters: hatred is patient. The American struggle against Islamic terrorism, already one of the longest wars in the nation's history, is not winding down. The longer it goes on, the more likely that the enemy will try to find new fronts closer to home...