Two men from Colorado and one from New York have been detained on terror charges
Federal agents swooped on two men in Colorado and one in New York making three arrests in an ongoing terror investigation.
The agents in Colorado arrested Najibullah Zazi and his father Mohammed Wali Zazi. In New York Ahmad Wais Afzali was also arrested. All the men were originally from Afghanistan.
In a statement the FBI said: ‘Each of the defendants has been charged by criminal complaint with knowingly and willfully making false statements to the FBI in a matter involving international and domestic terrorism.’
The FBI said they had no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack.
However, during a search of Zazi’s rental car the agents said they found a laptop computer containing notes about handling explosives as well as detonators and other bomb making components.
Zazi also allegedly admitted in previous interviews that he had received training on weapons and explosives at an al-Qaeda training facility in the tribal areas of Pakistan.
The other defendants allegedly lied about being in touch with Zazi. The prosecutors suspect that Zazi has accomplices who still remain at large.
The authorities said they were in the process of investigating several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere, relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices in the United States.
Analysis
Exclusive Analysis made the following comments:
The Zazi case is very likely to have been backed by al-Qaeda's leadership, based in Pakistan's tribal areas. We assess that any al-Qaeda-led attack within the US is very likely to involve multiple operatives. Transport in major cities is likely to be one of the highest priority targets due to the ease with which explosive devices can be smuggled onto trains, the high casualties that would result from any attack, and the disruption to economic and everyday activity that would result.
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