Terrorists, as we all know, can strike — or live — anywhere, even in Aurora.
And as prosecutors begin to build their case against suspected terrorist Najibullah Zazi, it’s important to not only take note of that, but also remember the role that we all should play in the fight against terrorism.
The men and women at the Federal Bureau of Investigation who apprehended Zazi obviously had gathered enough hard evidence against him to win a federal indictment charging him with plotting a terrorist attack. The indictment came after federal agents scoured some Denver area beauty supply stores, seeking information about Zazi buying large quantities of volatile chemicals.
We should take to heart the reminder this case presents: While we shouldn’t profile or discriminate, we have a duty to our fellow citizens to alert police when something genuinely suspicious catches our attention.
The 24-year-old Afghan-born Zazi moved about with ease, buying huge amounts of beauty products with strong concentrations of volatile chemicals as he apparently worked to produce explosives. If investigators are correct, Zazi is unlike other terror suspects arrested on U.S. soil. As some in the FBI have said, other plotters only aspire to commit terror; Zazi and those he worked with appeared to be operational.
Federal documents allege that Zazi trained with al-Qaeda in Pakistan in bomb-making and had instructions for making explosives like those used in the 2005 London bombings.
Zazi came to Colorado in January and this summer, the indictment alleges, he and others bought large quantities of products that had high concentrations of hydrogen peroxide and acetone.
The Associated Press reports that several people came to Colorado and used stolen credit cards to buy the products at local beauty-supply stores.
The Post’s Tom McGhee reports that federal agents showed photos of five people, including two women, to employees of Hunter’s Beauty Supply.
McGhee also reports that when another beauty-supply clerk questioned why Zazi would need so many products for women, Zazi joked that he “had a lot of girlfriends.”
So far, there have been some regrettable missteps in the probe. If the New York Police Department hadn’t alerted an assistant imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, that they were interested in Zazi after he took off for New York in a rented car just before Sept. 11, perhaps more of the suspects could have been apprehended. Instead, they remain free and have had plenty of time to hide or destroy evidence.
But the arrest of Zazi appears to have disrupted whatever had been planned, said Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General.
Let’s hope that’s true.
And let’s remember to be vigilant. As Karen Hoss, chief executive of Beauty Supply Warehouse, said: “It is a little nerve-racking to know that people can go to a beauty-supply shop or a home-improvement store and pick up random components and put us all at risk.”
There’s no shame in questioning what seems suspicious and passing our concerns along to investigators.
