A federal prosecutor described Najibullah Zazi’s movements in the weeks leading up to his arrest as a “chilling, disturbing sequence of events” and said the terrorism suspect may have been plotting a New York attack on the anniversary of Sept. 11.
“(The evidence) suggested the defendant was intent on making a bomb and being in New York on 9/11 for the purposes of using such an item,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Neff said Friday during a U.S. District Court hearing in Denver.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig B. Shaffer denied Zazi bail and ordered his case transferred to New York, where Zazi faces an indictment of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction on an American target.
After Friday’s hearing, Zazi, 24, was flown to New York from Colorado aboard an airplane operated by the U.S. Marshals Service. He was taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and is due to appear at an arraignment at 11 a.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse there.
At the request of prosecutors, Shaffer dismissed a lesser charge filed in the District of Colorado against Zazi alleging he made false statements to the FBI during voluntary questioning in Denver last week.
FBI has receipts
The FBI believes that Zazi learned to make bombs at an al-Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008 and that he traveled from his apartment in Aurora to New York on Sept. 9 and 10 to further a criminal plan.
Surveillance video and receipts obtained by the FBI show Zazi purchased products at beauty-supply stores in the Denver area that contain components used to make hydrogen-peroxide explosives.
Investigators also believe Zazi had rented an Aurora motel suite twice in an effort to cook some of the chemicals on a stove. ABC News identified that hotel as the Homestead Studio Suites near East Iliff Avenue and Interstate 225. Management there declined to comment.
“The need to boil things may be necessary if one wants to make this explosive device,” Neff said during Friday’s hearing. “On his last stay at the hotel, he was making efforts through e-mail asking for assistance for his mixture to properly put together these components. The defendant was in the throes of making a bomb and attempting to perfect his formulations.”
Colorado U.S. Attorney Dave Gaouette declined to say whether the chemicals that were purchased have been recovered by the FBI.
Zazi’s attorney, Art Folsom, said he does not believe the FBI has found any chemicals in the searches conducted so far.
“At this point, I cannot comment about whether he was purchasing those products,” Folsom said. “I am unaware that the FBI has recovered anything like that, and if they had, we would have heard some mention of that today.”
In interviews with The Denver Post, Zazi denied that he received training at an al-Qaeda training camp when he visited Pakistan last year or that he was planning a terrorist attack.
During the hearing, Folsom asked Shaffer to place Zazi on electronic monitoring rather than in jail, citing his client’s family ties and his lack of criminal record.
“His wife lives in Pakistan, but the entire rest of his family lives in Colorado,” Folsom said in arguing for bail. “His mother and father and his five brothers and sisters . . . he actually lives in the very same physical residence with his family. If that is not a strong family tie to Colorado, I do not know what that is.”
Folsom also argued that an attack did not occur Sept. 11 while his client was visiting New York.
“He was there on Sept. 11, the entire time on Sept. 11, and nothing occurred,” Folsom said.
Lawyer argues for bail
He said that Zazi became aware that he was being watched by the FBI and could have flown from New York to Pakistan and fled the country at that time if he wanted to, but decided to go home to Colorado.
“My client had the opportunity to fly a plane anywhere else in the world,” Folsom said. “He’s known since Tuesday of last week that he was the focus of an FBI investigation and could have fled at any time.”
Shaffer was not moved by Folsom’s argument and said just because an attack did not occur Sept. 11 does not mean that Zazi should be free on bail.
“I don’t necessarily follow the logic of that argument,” Shaffer told Folsom. “There is a substantial danger posed by your client’s release. . . . He had access to the recipe and devices to develop a weapon of mass destruction.”
Neff told the judge that he believes Zazi was trying to make triacetone triperoxide, an explosive called TATP, that has been used in terrorist bombings since the 1990s.
When TATP is packaged in metal tubes or canisters or detonated in a confined space such as a bus or a train, it can do extensive damage, Neff said.
“It’s easy to transport and carry and difficult to detect,” Neff said. “They are small white crystals similar to sugar or salt, and it does not activate metal detectors and can be transported in various packages in other items with little suspicion. It is easy to make using routine household or beauty products readily available to consumers.”
Felisa Cardona: 303-954-1219 or fcardona@denverpost.com
