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Najibullah Zazi (born August 10, 1985, in a village in the Paktia region of eastern Afghanistan) is a citizen of Afghanistan and legal resident of the United States who was arrested in September 2009 as part of the 2009 U.S. Al Qaeda group accused of planning acts of terrorism against the U.S. The FBI claims Zazi attended courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008.

On September 9, 2009, he rented a car to drive from his home in Denver, Colorado, to New York City. According to The New York Times, the trip triggered a series of arrests on September 15, 2009.

On February 22, 2010, Zazi pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, conspiracy to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing material support to a terrorist organization. He said he was recruited by Al-Qaida in Pakistan for a "martyrdom plan" against the U.S., and that his target was the New York City subway system. Zazi faces a possible life sentence without possibility of parole for the first two counts, and an additional sentence of 15 years for the third count. Sentencing will take place in June 2010.

Early life

Zazi's family moved to Pakistan in 1992—four years before the Taliban took over Afghanistan. While Zazi was a teenager, he and his family lived in the same apartment building and attended the same mosque as Saifur Rahman Halimi, an imam and chief representative to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, an Afghan warlord who had been declared a "Specially Designated Global Terrorist" by the U.S. in 2003.

Zazi and his family were accepted as legal residents of the U.S. in 1999. Mohammed Wali Zazi, Najibullah's father and now a naturalized U.S. citizen, found work as a taxi driver in New York City.

Zazi was described as an indifferent student at Flushing High School in Queens, and a quiet listener at the Hazrat-i-Abubakr Sadiq mosque he attended while in New York. According to one of his friends, Zazi liked listening to Zakir Naik, a controversial Indian Muslim televangelist preaching unorthodox Muslim theology.

In 2006, he traveled to Pakistan and married his 19-year-old cousin. He claimed several trips he made to Pakistan between 2006 and 2008 were to visit his wife. In the course of his visits to Pakistan, Zazi and his wife had two children, whom he planned to move to the U.S.

Zazi filed for bankruptcy in New York State on March 26, 2009, with $51,000 in debts, and was discharged on August 17, 2009. Officials say it was his third trip to Pakistan, on August 28, 2009, with unspecified companions, that drew the FBI's attention to Zazi.

Events leading to arrest

Al-Qaeda training and direction

During the spring and summer of 2008, Zazi conspired with others in Queens, New York, to travel to Afghanistan to join the Taliban and fight against the U.S. military and its allies. At the end of August 2008, they flew from New York to Peshawar, Pakistan, a city just east of Pakistan's volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas. While there, they were recruited by al-Qaeda, instead, and taken to a training camp in Waziristan, where they received weapons training. Al-Qaeda leaders asked them to return to the U.S. and conduct a suicide bombing martyrdom operation, and they agreed to do so. Later, he received explosives construction training at the camp from al-Qaeda for an attack in the U.S., or to carry out a martyrdom operation, and took his notes on bomb-building back to the U.S. Al-Qaeda leaders also discussed target locations, such as New York City subways.

Return to the U.S.

On January 15, 2009, Zazi returned from his trip to Peshawar. He originally maintained that this five-month trip was to visit his wife. After several days of interrogation he acknowledged receiving military training in a semi-autonomous tribal area.

In early November 2009, British newspapers reported that British security officials intercepted an email instructing Zazi as to how to implement his attack, from planners in Pakistan. The email interception was performed as part of "Operation Pathway". U.S. authorities were tipped off about Zazi at the right time when they started threatening to sever intelligence ties with the British due to UK's possible extradition of the Lockerbie bomber back to Libya.

After his return, Zazi moved to Aurora, Colorado, to live with relatives and work as an airport shuttle bus driver. He took trips to New York, and met with others to discuss the plan, the attack's timing, and where to make the explosives.

Beginning around June 2009, he accessed his bomb-making notes, and began researching where to find ingredients for the explosives. He then used his bomb-making notes to construct an explosive for the detonators in Denver. The explosive was hydrogen peroxide. Over the course of several months, the FBI listened to Zazi's phone conversations. In August 2009, he was heard speaking about mixing chemical substances. The FBI learned that Zazi and his three associates were buying chemicals at beauty shops around Denver, Colorado. Security videos from a beauty shop showed Zazi pushing a cart full of hydrogen peroxide. He checked into an Aurora, Colorado, motel in the Denver suburbs in August and September to experiment with heating chemicals that could create a bomb in his room's kitchenette. Authorities also examined the room with a kitchenette that Zazi rented, and found traces of acetone, found in nail polish remover.

Hydrogen peroxide, acetone, and acid, readily available in beauty supply stores, are components used in Triacetone triperoxide (TATP; also known as acetone peroxide)-based deadly bombs. TATP was also used in the 2005 London subway bombings.

On September 9, 2009, he began a drive to New York with the detonator explosive and other materials necessary to build bombs. Agents followed him as he drove from Denver to New York. The day after Zazi left Denver for New York, New York city police asked Ahmad Wais Afzali, a Muslim cleric whom they have developed as an informant, to identify individuals in a series of photographs that included Zazi. Afzali identified Zazi.

Zazi arrived in New York City on September 10. He intended to obtain and assemble the remaining components to build a bomb over the weekend.

The Plan -- NYC subway

The plan was for him and two friends to conduct suicide bombings on New York City subway lines near Grand Central Station in Manhattan during rush hour as soon as the material was ready.

According to Time Magazine, authorities believe Zazi was planning an attack using either a truck filled with explosives, or back-pack bombs as previously used in the Madrid and London subway bombings.

Spooked

At the George Washington Bridge, he was pulled over for what he was told it was a routine traffic stop and his car was searched. He was allowed to go. The Associated Press reported that it was known that Zazi, Afzali, and Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, back in Colorado, all spoke about what Afzali told the police that day. On the same day, Zazi's rental car was towed due to a parking violation, and his vehicle was searched. During the search, agents found a laptop with an image of nine handwritten pages on how to make explosives, detonators, and fuses. The FBI asserted the photographs of nine pages of handwritten notes found on Zazi's computer were in his own handwriting.

Zazi realized that law enforcement was investigating him. At that point, he and his colleagues threw away the detonator explosives and other materials.

Arrest and incarceration

On September 12, Zazi flew back to Denver. American security officials searched several homes in New York on September 14, and found Zazi's fingerprints on a scale and AA batteries. An alert was issued to American law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for hydrogen peroxide-based bombs.

On September 16, 2009, Zazi voluntarily was interviewed by the Denver FBI in the presence of his lawyer. During his interview, which lasted for eight hours, Zazi denied knowing anything about the suspicious nine-page document found on his hard drive, and speculated it might have accidentally been downloaded in August along with a religious book which he later deleted. In subsequent interviews on September 17 and 18, 2009, however, Zazi acknowledged receiving explosives and weapons training in the tribal areas.

On September 19, 2009, authorities arrested Zazi. As of 2010, Zazi has been a federal inmate (registration # 36553-013) at the Metropolitan Detention Center, Brooklyn.

Charges

Charges and allegations were filed on September 23, 2009. A grand jury charged Zazi on counts of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Father

On September 19, 2009, authorities also arrested his father, on conspiring, inter alia by pouring chemicals down a drain and shredding containers, to destroy evidence consisting of glasses, masks, liquid chemicals and containers. He was released on $50,000 bond to his home in Aurora, in suburban Denver, under house arrest and must wear an electronic bracelet. He is permitted to leave home only to work, meet his lawyer, go to court, receive medical treatment, and attend religious services. If convicted of the charges against him, he could face 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Imam Afzali

They also arrested imam Afzali, on charges of having tipped off the younger Zazi that he was under scrutiny, and lying to the FBI in a matter involving terrorism. His bail was set at $1.5 million.

Uncle

Zazi's uncle, Naqib Jaji, was also arrested and brought before a judge in a secret federal proceeding on January 14, 2010. He is believed to have pleaded not guilty to one felony count for participating with Zazi's father in the attempt to dispose of evidence. A court docket for the sealed indictment identified the defendant as 'John Doe,' a designation that often indicates an defendant is cooperating with prosecutors. The uncle told CNN that he blamed his nephew, who had lived with him for several months, for dragging his family into the national spotlight.

Friends

In January 2010 the FBI also arrested two of his high school classmates from Queens, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin, who traveled with him to Pakistan in 2008. Medunjanin, of Bosnian heritage, was arrested after he led the FBI on a high-speed chase in Queens during which he invoked the name of Allah in a 911 emergency call, according to a law enforcement official. He pleaded not guilty to charges of conspiracy to kill U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan, and receiving military-style training from al-Qaeda. Ahmedzay, a New York cab driver born in Afghanistan, pleaded not guilty to a charge of making false statements to the FBI (specifically, that he lied about the places he had visited in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and about whether an unnamed third party attended al-Qaeda camps).

Guilty plea

Zazi cooperated after being told that his mother could face criminal immigration charges.

Zazi said he was recruited by Al-Qaida in Pakistan for a "martyrdom plan" against the U.S., and that his target was the New York City subway system. Zazi refused to name which subway line was the target of the plot. He said the intent of his suicide mission was to draw the attention to activities of the U.S. military in Afghanistan.

Zazi faces a possible life sentence without possibility of parole for the first two counts, and an additional sentence of 15 years for the third count. Sentencing will take place in June 2010.