A Colorado airport shuttle bus driver has been charged under federal anti-terrorism laws with plotting to set off explosives in the United States and accused of acquiring the same bomb-making chemicals used in the 2005 London transit attacks.
Najibullah Zazi (24), an Afghan immigrant under arrest in Colorado on another charge, was indicted by a grand jury on suspicion of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, authorities announced yesterday.
No potential targets were revealed, but US Attorney General Eric Holder said the investigation had thwarted any imminent threat. Court documents also referred to unidentified co-conspirators who helped Mr Zazi buy chemicals and with whom he was said to be urgently consulting on how to make explosives.
Prosecutors allege Mr Zazi received al-Qaeda training in Pakistan on how to make bombs, possessed detailed notes on his laptop computer on how to assemble them, and accumulated large quantities of bomb-making chemicals. He may have experimented with these chemicals in a Denver hotel room as recently as September 7th, they said.
Law enforcement experts have called the case, if proven, one of the most significant security threats on US soil since the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
Two other men arrested at the same time - Mr Zazi's father and an imam who police say tipped off Mr Zazi that he was under investigation - were released from jail yesterday, one on bail and the other under house arrest. They are charged with the lesser offence of lying to the FBI.
The conspiracy charge against Mr Zazi, who immigrated from Afghanistan and is now a permanent US resident, carries a maximum penalty of life in prison if he is convicted.
Reuters