NEW YORK — The airport shuttle driver accused of plotting a bombing in New York had contacts with al-Qaeda that went nearly all the way to the top, to an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terrorist group’s leader in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials told The Associated Press.
Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, an Egyptian reputed to be one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to contact Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi as the 24-year-old man hatched a plot to use homemade backpack bombs, perhaps on the city’s mass transit system, the officials said.
Intelligence officials declined to discuss the nature of the contact or whether al-Yazid contacted Zazi to offer simple encouragement or help with the bombing plot prosecutors say Zazi was pursuing.
Al-Yazid’s contact with Zazi indicates that al-Qaeda leadership took an intense interest in what U.S. officials have called one of the most serious terrorism threats crafted on U.S. soil since the 9/11 attacks.
“Zazi working with the al-Qaeda core is exceptionally alarming,” said Daniel Bynam of the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center. “The al-Qaeda core is capable of far more effective terrorist attacks than jihadist terrorists acting on their own, and coordination with the core also enables bin Laden to choose the timing to maximize the benefit to his organization.”
U.S. intelligence officials said earlier that Zazi had contact with an unnamed senior al-Qaeda operative. That helped distinguish Zazi from other would-be terrorists who have acted on their own in planning or attempting U.S. attacks.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity because the case remains under investigation, declined to describe al-Yazid’s specific interaction with Zazi, who has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. But one senior U.S. intelligence official said the contact between Zazi and the senior al-Qaeda leader occurred through an intermediary.
Arthur Folsom, Zazi’s Denver lawyer, said he was not aware of a claim that his client had contact with al-Yazid or any other senior al-Qaeda leader.
CORRECTION 10/17/2009: In this story about terror suspect Najibullah Zazi of Aurora, The
Associated Press erroneously reported that U.S. intelligence
officials knew of indirect contact between Zazi and a man believed
to be the head of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan – Mustafa Abu al-Yazid.
This report from New York, was based on the AP’s misinterpretation of a series of telephone
and e-mail exchanges between an AP reporter and two U.S.
intelligence officials. The officials told the AP on Thursday that
they had not been aware of any contact between al-Yazid and Zazi.
They spoke throughout on condition of anonymity because of the
ongoing investigation.
Also, on Oct. 5, the AP quoted a senior U.S. intelligence official
saying there was contact through an intermediary between Zazi and a
senior al-Qaeda operative. That official did not identify the
al-Qaeda operative.
Zazi has pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to use weapons
of mass destruction. Prosecutors say he is behind a plot to use
homemade bombs in New York City.
