I'm surprised no one else has commented: But today: Denver at center of national anti-terrorism probe
By John Ingold
The Denver Post
Posted: 09/15/2009 12:33:30 PM MDT
Updated: 09/15/2009 03:12:21 PM MDT
denverpost.com
The focus of an anti-terrorism investigation turned to Denver today, one day after federal authorities raided several New York City homes in an investigation sparked by a suspected al-Qaeda associate living in Colorado.
Multiple news organizations reported that the suspect, a man known to friends as Najibullah, traveled to New York from Colorado, prompting the raids. The reports said agents in New York were looking for bombmaking components.
There has been no official announcement about the investigation's details. Kathleen Wright, spokeswoman for the Denver office of the FBI, said she could not confirm or deny that the agency is watching or investigating a terror suspect in Colorado.
Denver police referred calls
A new door, left, adorns the Queens apartment raided Monday by the Joint Terrorism Task Force. (AP | Craig Ruttle)
to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as did Lance Clem, a spokesman for the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
"They're in the midst of the investigation," Clem said. "They're regarding it as a top-secret investigation."
Multiple news organizations out of New York have reported anonymously sourced — and sometimes contradictory — tidbits.
The New York Daily News, citing unidentified sources, reported that the investigation centers on a "Denver-based terror cell plotting another attack on the scale of 9/11."
The Daily News reported the attack was focused on New York.
"The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys planning another 9/11," the News quoted a "former senior counterterrorism official" as saying. "This is not some FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing."
The Daily News reported that five people were under surveillance in Colorado. Wright, the local FBI spokeswoman, declined to comment on that report.
U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., though, told the New York Post that "there was nothing imminent."
ABC News, citing "law-enforcement sources," reported that a suspect was allowed to fly back to Denver, under close surveillance. ABC News also is reporting that Najibullah had recently traveled to Pakistan.
The Post described Najibullah as a "Queens-born man in his late 20s who has an Afghani father."
Other reports have described Najibullah as an Afghan national.
According to the Post, Najibullah drove a rental car from Denver to New York, and an acquaintance of the man told the Daily News that Najibullah approached him Thursday near the mosque where they met.
"He needed a place to stay," Naiz Khan told the Daily News. "He stayed one night."
Khan told The New York Times that Najibullah once lived in Flushing, N.Y., but moved to Colorado about eight months ago. He said the man returned last week to deal with a permit problem for a coffee cart he once operated in Manhattan.
"He (Najibullah) was a very nice person," Khan told ABC News. "He's not dangerous, he's a kid. So he can't be dangerous."
After Monday's raids, the FBI and Homeland Security issued an intelligence alert telling local police to be on the lookout for signs of "homemade hydrogen peroxide-based explosives," according to MSNBC.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068 or jingold@denverpost.com
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And from NYC: Queens terror raids part of FBI probe into Denver-based cell plotting attack on 9/11 scale
BY James Gordon Meek In Washington AND Rocco Parascandola AND Larry Mcshane In New York
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Updated Tuesday, September 15th 2009, 12:47 PM
Read more: nydailynews.com |
