Free Republic

Defenders of the American government’s online spying program known as “PRISM” claimed Friday that the suddenly controversial secret effort had saved New York City’s subways from a 2009 terrorist plot led by a young Afghan-American, Najibullah Zazi.

Its hero and editor are dead, but the al-Qaida magazine, Inspire, continues to do just that. According to the complaint filed in federal district court in New York, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, a student from Bangladesh arrested Wednesday and charged with trying to blow up the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in ManhattanÂ’s Financial District, was the latest Islamist militant to try to follow the example of the radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and the English-language magazine, Inspire, created in his honor. Quazi Nafis, who came to the United States last January on a student visa, had big...

An almost too detailed depiction of the Najibullah Zazi’s 2009 jihad plot to bomb NYC subways. If you have time read it, otherwise, some troubling excerpts via Homegrown Terror | 5280 – The Denver Magazine. As Zazi began driving the last 500 miles to New York, his case finally had the full attention of the U.S. government. The eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was a day away, and Davis was now doing regular secure video teleconferences with the heads of the New York field office and the FBI’s National Security Branch, among others. During one video call, an official...

Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism joined me on the radio today and shared some shocking information about several people involved in the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights hearing set for Tuesday in the US Senate. The first, a witness for the hearing, Farhana Khera of Muslim Advocates who alleged that the FBI was trying to entrap the Imam who helped Nazibullah Zazi evade FBI surveillance– and concluded that Muslims should not help the FBI. Emerson documents other shocking instances of U.S. government political cover for America’s enemies–

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.

Meeting with violent Salvadoran gangs in Honduras. Seeking radioactive material at a university in Hamilton, Ontario. Running an import-export business and teaching English — wife and child in tow — in Morocco. Hiding out in Suriname. *snip* — or, to be more precise, the rumored trail — of an American citizen who spent part of his youth in Brooklyn, went to college in Florida and has long been on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most-wanted list, a senior Qaeda operative who over the last seven years has been portrayed as part wraith, part James Bond, and large-scale bogeyman. On Wednesday,...

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."

www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarks-assistant-president-homeland-security-and-counterterrorism-john-brennan-csi # Note: The following text is a quote: Home • Briefing Room • Statements & Releases The White House Office of the Press Secretary For Immediate Release May 26, 2010 Remarks by Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism John Brennan at CSIS “Securing the Homeland by Renewing American Strength, Resilience and Values” Thank you very much John, and I would like to take a moment to express my appreciation to CSIS for inviting me back. You invited me here a little after six months after I came into this administration and I greatly appreciate the invitation...

Two New York men have been arrested and charged with trying to help Al Qaeda terrorists, NBCNewYork.com has learned. An official announcement on these latest terror arrests in New York is expected later Friday. Law enforcement officials said there is no specific threat to the city and that the case centers more on the men's efforts to assist the terror network overseas. These terror related-arrests come just months after the FBI and NYPD arrested three men in the so-called Zazi subway terror plot. A spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara declined to comment saying any announcement would come later Friday....

Port Authority police were told to stop and search would-be subway bomber Najibullah Zazi's car last September as he drove up to the George Washington Bridge—but waved him across without finding two pounds of explosives hidden inside. The failure to uncover the explosives after an alert about Mr. Zazi from the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been widely discussed among police but never publicly disclosed. It stoked longstanding tensions between the Port Authority Police and the New York Police Department, which are more pronounced since the 9/11 attacks. The Port Authority is tasked with protecting the bridges, tunnels and major...

They were former classmates at a New York high school, both on a mission to join the Taliban and fight U.S. forces in Afghanistan. But when Zarein Ahmedzay and Najibullah Zazi arrived in Pakistan in the summer of 2008, two high-ranking al-Qaida operatives gave them another set of marching orders. "They told us we would be more useful if we returned to New York City ... to conduct operations," Ahmedzay said Friday in a guilty plea that offered more chilling details of a foiled plot attack on the New York City subways last fall. Asked by a judge in federal...

A city cab driver who the feds claim plotted with a self-confessed al-Qaeda terrorist to unleash an attack on the subway system pleaded guilty today to terrorism charges -- then went on a rant against "Zionist Jews" for trying to destroy this country. Zarein Ahmedzay appeared in Brooklyn federal court and told a judge that he received orders from al-Qaeda leaders to carry out the botched plot last September to bomb several Manhattan subway lines. "Your honor, I strongly urge the American people to stop supporting the war against Islam. It would be in their interest," warned Ahmedzay. "I am...

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...

The continued cooperation of Najibullah Zazi with the investigation into his attempt to carry out terrorist attacks in New York City has led to the arrest of a fourth suspect, a Pakistani citizen, two days ago, and has shed some new light on the details of the case and the specific targets Zazi and his co-conspirators intended to hit. Few developments in the case have come out of Pakistan, where the fourth suspect, who has not been named, was arrested. Authorities say he will be extradited to the United States soon, but that "he may not ultimately be charged in...

New details have emerged in a foiled plot to bomb New York City's subways, as authorities reportedly arrested another suspect in Pakistan. The unidentified man is the fourth man arrested in connection with the plan to stage a series of suicide attacks on subway trains last September. Law enforcement officials had said more arrests overseas were likely. This suspect will be extradited from Pakistan to the U.S. where he will be charged in Brooklyn's Eastern District Court, The Daily News reported today. The suspect will join Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin, accused of being the planned second and third suicide...

Obama amputates our nuclear arms By: Charles Krauthammer ...snippet...Under President Obama’s new policy, however, if the state that has just attacked us with biological or chemical weapons is “in compliance with the Non-Proliferation Treaty,” explained Gates, then “the U.S. pledges not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against it.” Imagine the scenario: Hundreds of thousands are lying dead in the streets of Boston after a massive anthrax or nerve gas attack. The president immediately calls in the lawyers to determine whether the attacking state is in compliance with the NPT. If it turns out that the attacker...

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.

Chilling new details about the foiled Al Qaeda plot to blow up the city's busiest subways have emerged as a fourth suspect was quietly arrested in Pakistan, the Daily News has learned. The unidentified man, who helped plan the plot, is expected to be extradited to the U.S. to betried in Brooklyn Federal Court with Adis Medunjanin and Zarein Ahmedzay of Flushing, Queens, sources said. The cooperation of would-be lead bomber Najibullah Zazi has helped law enforcement officials piece together a fuller picture of the evil plan to kill innocent straphangers around the 9/11 anniversary last year.Zazi and his two...

A Queens imam pleaded guilty Thursday to lying to feds who were investigating whether he tipped off wannabe terrorist Najibullah Zazi that he was being watched. Ahmad Afzali faces six months in prison and deportation 90 days later under the plea deal - which he said amounts to an execution. "I just signed my death sentence," the Afghan national said outside court, explaining that he has no idea where he would go after leaving the United States. "I'm between a rock and a wall." Afzali lost his composure several times during the proceeding before Brooklyn Federal Judge Frederic Block, wiping...

NEW YORK — A man who admitted plotting to bomb the city's subway system wanted to do so with the help of at least two other bombers during rush hour, when the most people could be killed, police said Tuesday. "This was particularly disturbing," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. "It was his intention to be on trains during rush hour period and to kill New Yorkers. No question about it." The man, 25-year-old Najibullah Zazi, pleaded guilty Monday to charges including conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction and supporting al-Qaida, which he said trained him in Pakistan.