Posted by Jack Lee with commentary by Judith Crosson in Denver
(Najibullah Zazi )Another terrorist cell was taken down, but the question remains did they arrest all of them and how many more remain under surveillance or worse, not even known to our FBI?
HE WAS OUT TO KILL
Detectives were combing Queens storage facilities on Monday for stockpiled explosive chemicals that Al Qaeda terror thugs planned to use to bomb New York, sources said.
At the same time, the Daily News has learned that prime terror suspect Najibullah Zazi has confessed he was a jihadist hell-bent on murderous mayhem, the sources said.
NYPD investigators, in coordination with the FBI, hit chemical and fertilizer companies looking for customers who bought bulk and paid cash – and they were also showing up at storage centers in Long Island City.
Investigators believe they were going to use the units to mix chemicals for explosives.
“They’re full on, and still going full bore,” a counterterror official said of the bomb hunt.
The Department of Homeland Security at the same time has issued a nationwide bulletin asking cops to look at storage facilities.
“Operation Nexus” took on an extra urgency after raids on Queens apartments Zazi visited turned up knapsacks and cell phones. The exact targets are not known, but the find raised the specter of simultaneous blasts like the 2004 attack that killed 191 commuters in Spain.
ABC News reported that investigators believe that there were three teams of four terrorists involved in the planning.
A senior counterterror official said nobody knows for sure who else is out there – or whether the plot is disrupted.
Arrest documents revealed the Denver-based Zazi was carrying a laptop with bomb-making notes when he visited New York on the 9/11 anniversary.
The feds also discovered his fingerprints on batteries and other items that could be used to make explosives. The feds are also investigating reports that Afghan men tried to rent a 26-foot truck from a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9.
Fertilizer bombs packed into a truck were used by terrorists to attack the federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995.
Meanwhile, a bail hearing for Ahmad Afzali, a 37-year-old Queens imam charged with tipping off Zazi that the FBI was on to him was delayed until Thursday. He blew kisses to his wife and father before he was led back to his cell. His lawyer Ron Kuby insisted Afzali was helping investigators when he spoke on Sept. 11 with Zazi, 25.
In Denver, a bail hearing for Zazi was also put off until Thursday. His dad, Mohammed, was ordered released on $50,000 bail and confined to his home. Father and son are charged with lying to the feds. Their cases are expected to be transferred to New York.
The FBI said Zazi, arrested in Colorado on Saturday, has admitted being trained in “weapons and explosives” last year at an Al Qaeda camp in Pakistan.
And sources said for the first time that he admits he was out to kill.
The fears of a mass attack, possibly a hit on the transit system, were revealed last week when the feds raided several Flushing apartments that Zazi visited. He returned home Sept. 12. The feds contend Afzali is a double agent who tipped off Zazi – and then lied about it.
FBI wiretaps caught Zazi’s father telling his son that he’d gotten a call from Afzali warning him the G-men were showing his photo, authorities said.
While Zazi was on the phone with his dad, Afzali called the suspected terrorist and told him, “They asked me about you guys.” Kuby confirmed Afzali had passed on tips to the feds, but insisted he had not warned Zazi.
courtesy of agendar@nydailynews.com
With Judith Crosson in Denver
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/09/22/2009-09-22_search_for_qaeda_explosives.html#ixzz0RqYdP6Xo