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A Queens man caught preparing for a 9/11 anniversary suicide bomb attack on the subways under Grand Central will soon walk out of prison thanks to a sentence that amounts to his time already served, a judge ruled Thursday. Najibullah Zazi, 33, had faced up to life in prison after his 2009 arrest, but spent nearly the next 10 years cooperating against al Qaeda. Thursday’s 10-year sentence - which, given his good behavior behind bars, means he will be sprung any day now - came at the urging of prosecutors, who cited his extensive cooperation in arguing that he deserved...

It is imperative that anyone wanting to be up on the War On Terror should go out of his way to learn as much about the players involved as possible. The AP/Yahoo! reports on an Egyptian character called Mustafa Abu al-Yazid who has been named as a contact of suspected Denver-based Muslim Najibullah Zazi.

SNIPPET: "U.S. counterterrorism officials have linked one of the nation's most wanted terrorists to last year's thwarted plot to bomb the New York City subway system, authorities said Wednesday. Current and former counterterrorism officials said top al-Qaida operative Adnan Shukrijumah met with one of the would-be suicide bombers in a plot that Attorney General Eric Holder called one of the most dangerous since the 9/11 terror attacks."

Ahmad Afzali, the Queens imam who pleaded guilty in March to lying to law enforcement officials about his relationship with Najibullah Zazi, the airport worker who planned to bomb New York's subways, was sentenced by a federal judge yesterday to time served. Mr. Afzali, who left his native Afghanistan following the Soviet invasion, also agreed to "self-execute" removal from the United States in the next 90 days in order to avoid a deportation hearing. Prosecutors alleged that Mr. Afzali warned Mr. Zazi and his father that they were under law-enforcement surveillance, then, as Assistant U.S. Attorney James P. Loonam told...

A fourth suspect in a disrupted plot to bomb New York City subways has been arrested in Pakistan, law enforcement officials said Monday. The principal suspect in the case, Najibullah Zazi, has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with investigators, key developments that prosecutors hope will help them trace the plot back to its roots in Pakistan, where Zazi and former friends from high school allegedly traveled in 2008 to seek terror training.

Attorney General Eric Holder says the corralling of Afghan native Najibullah Zazi before he could bomb New York subways proves the Justice Department is well equipped to combat terrorism. Not so fast. Yes, Zazi pleaded guilty Monday in a Brooklyn federal court to assorted terrorism charges -- including conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction. The "martyrdom operation" -- a suicide bombing set for last Sept. 14-16 -- was interrupted when Zazi realized the feds were on to him. Now Holder says Zazi coughed up valuable intelligence -- demonstrating that the Justice Department belongs on the front lines in the...

Accused terror plotter Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty Monday, admitting he and others were on the verge of carrying out "martyrdom operations" in Manhattan subways. Appearing in Brooklyn Federal Court, Zazi said the transit attacks were planned for Sept. 14, 15 or 16 - days after the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. He and his co-conspirators aborted the ghastly plot after Zazi's car - packed with chemicals and detonators - was stopped on the George Washington Bridge by investigators who had tailed him from Denver. "I realized law enforcement was watching," Zazi, 25, said matter-of-factly in court. Sources said...

Mrs Janes asked why it was possible to save the banks but it was not possible to provide the materiel that could save soldiers' lives. Mr Brown sent her a hand-written note to apologise for her loss but the letter began ''Dear Mrs James'' and appeared to contain other spelling mistakes and a visible correction to her son Jamie's name. After the letter appeared in the press, he made a 13-minute phone call to apologise about the letter of condolence and, on Tuesday, apologised again during a Prime Ministerial press conference. Mrs Janes said he had appeared "humbled" but...

Pittsburgh was treated to an impressive show the week of the recent G20 conference. A nice assortment of military choppers of various types and missions, along with odder aircraft difficult both to identify and explain. Both police and the National Guard were out in force, with downtown nearly sealed off. None of this hardware was used against the "3,000 - 4,000" (more like a few hundred) anarchist demonstrators when they turned their righteous wrath on a dozen Starbucks and a Whole Foods store. No serious confrontation was expected and none occurred. Because all of it - the Guard troops, the...

If Najibullah Zazi had any doubts he was a prime suspect in a terror investigation, authorities say, they were quickly erased by a local imam. "They came to ask me about your characters," the Queens imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, told Zazi in a Sept. 11 phone conversation, according to a secret recording. "They asked me about you guys." The "they" referred to in a recently unsealed criminal complaint were New York Police Department detectives who had considered Afzali a reliable ally. At least one works for a division that operates independently from an FBI-run terrorism task force. Afzali's alleged tipoff...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Counterterrorism officials have issued security bulletins to police around the nation about terrorists' desire to attack stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels—the latest in a flurry of such internal warnings as investigators chase a possible bomb plot in Denver and New York. In the two bulletins—sent to police departments Monday and obtained by The Associated Press—officials said they know of no specific plots against such sites, but urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant. These two bulletins followed on the heels of a similar warning about the vulnerabilities of mass transit systems.

Cheney warns of new attacks Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed. In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects. And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than...

The jihadi threat to rail security By Michelle Malkin  •  September 22, 2009 10:15 AM The arrest of terror suspect Najibullah Zazi has re-focused Obama’s homeland security officials on the ongoing jihadi threat to rail security. Mass transit systems across the country are on renewed alert: A 24-year-old Afghan man at the center of an unfolding FBI investigation into a possible U.S. terrorism cell was ordered held without bond in Colorado Monday as authorities raced to learn more about an alleged plot using hydrogen peroxide explosives and who else might have been helping to carry it out.Meanwhile, authorities in Washington and elsewhere...

A New York City Muslim imam, who acted as a police informant, betrayed his handlers by tipping off a terrorism suspect... Ahmad Wais Afzali, of the New York borough of Queens, was among three men arrested during the weekend in connection with an alleged bombing plot... The documents show that Zazi, 24, of Denver, abruptly left New York and returned to Colorado after having wiretapped phone conversations with the imam, which the FBI alleges contained talk of how police were interested in Zazi... Zazi attended an al-Qaida terrorism training camp in Pakistan and was arrested in possession of notes detailing...

Federal agents from Denver and New York to Pakistan are still racing to solve an Al Qaeda bomb plot, unsure whether the arrest of three suspects has put the terror gang out of business. "They're still looking," a senior counterterror official told the Daily News. As to whether they have identified all the conspirators, "nobody knows the answer for sure," ... Also nabbed for lying to feds was Flushing mosque Imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, an NYPD snitch who the FBI says alerted Zazi and his father, Mohammed, 53, after cops quizzed him about the son. The senior official said...

Terror Suspect's Computer Said to Show Sports Stadiums, Fashion Sites Officials Report Denver Man Sent Texts Suggesting Attack Coming; 'Wedding Cake' Is Ready By RICHARD ESPOSITO, BRIAN ROSS and CLAYTON SANDELL Sept. 19, 2009— --snip-- A computer belonging to alleged al Qaeda suspect Najibullah Zazi showed he had researched baseball and football stadiums and sites used in the recent Fashion Week event in New York City, law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com. Zazi, 24, had been scheduled to spend a fourth day today being questioned by the FBI but his lawyer, Arthur Folsom, canceled the session. "He has taken the day...

DEVELOPING: The man under FBI investigation for alleged ties to a New York subway terror plot has admitted he has ties to Al Qaeda and is in negotiations to plead guilty to a terror charge, a source familiar with the investigation told FOX News.

“FBI raids Denver home in suspect Al-Qaeda plot: ABC” (AFP) – 1 hour ago WASHINGTON — SNIPPET: “About a dozen agents arrived at the home of Najibullah Zazi, 24, and one confirmed to ABC a search warrant was being executed. “Zazi’s travels to New York last weekend triggered a round of highly publicized raids in the New York area,” the ABC report said adding that “authorities told members of Congress the raids had helped to disrupt a plot to carry out a major attack on New York.” Authorities said they found 14 new black backpacks in the New York raids,...

BULLETIN -- NEW YORK POLICE AND FBI RAID HOMES IN QUEENS IN TERRORISM INVESTIGATION.6 minutes ago from BNO Headquarters