How FBI Botched Zazi Arrest, but Blamed NYPD
Zazi consented to the search and a bomb-sniffing dog was brought in to check the car, but nothing was found. During his trial testimony against his accomplice, Zazi indicated that the trunk, where his suitcase containing the TATP was located, was not searched. That might be because a thorough search could not be conducted because authorities didn’t have a search warrant yet.
Zazi also testified that at this point it “looked like they were waiting for me.”
So: after repeated stops by local law enforcement and a search of his car as he entered New York, the FBI allowed Najibullah Zazi to enter New York City with explosives sufficient to kill dozens, if not hundreds.
These traffic stops at the request of the FBI also tipped Zazi off. After the “random” drug search, Zazi called his accomplice Zarein Ahmedzay and drove to his house in Queens. Immediately, Zazi told Ahmedzay about the traffic stops and the drug search.
They immediately set off for a nearby mosque, but Zazi spotted the FBI tail team. They made two stops to confirm they were being followed, and once they did, they concluded that the plot was over. Once they arrived at the mosque, Zazi typed a text message on his phone: “Police is after me; we are done.” He showed it to their conspirator Medunjanin, who met the pair at the mosque. Zazi and Ahmedzay disposed of the bomb materials in the mosque’s garbage and flushed the explosives down the toilet. That evening, Zazi booked a flight back to Colorado for the following day.
So according to Zazi’s trial testimony, by the end of the day on September 10 they had already abandoned their terror plot plans and disposed of the explosives.
The FBI had provided pictures to the NYPD of the three men. Dutifully, the NYPD went to one of their Muslim community outreach partners, Abu Bakr mosque imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, to ask about the men. Afzali called Zazi’s father, and then Zazi himself, on September 11 — the day after Zazi and Ahmedzay confirmed the FBI’s surveillance — to let the terror suspect know he was being investigated and that his phone was tapped. In fact, the FBI was listening into the conversation.
According to the evidence submitted by federal prosecutors during Medunjanin’s trial, Zazi received a phone call from Afzali’s funeral home cell phone at 11:34 a.m. on September 11. There were 13 other contacts between Zazi and Afzali that day, and another three between Ahmedzay and Afzali.
But at the time of the first phone call by Afzali, Zazi was sitting in an internet café in Queens, killing time as he waited for his flight back to Colorado later that day. If the repeated traffic stops, “random” drug search, and obvious FBI tail team had not tipped off Zazi by the time of Afzali’s phone call, then he undoubtedly would have grown suspicious when he walked out of the internet café and found that his rental car had been towed away.
The FBI had pulled the car looking for evidence. Zazi’s laptop was in the car and the FBI made a mirror image of the hard drive, which contained scanned copies of Zazi’s handwritten bomb-making notes. Zazi’s father called the following day (September 12) to let his son know that the car had been found at a local police station. Zazi was then allowed to fly back to Colorado, and it was more than a week until he was arrested.
Some criticism of this whole episode could be directed at the NYPD for trusting imam Afzali in the first place, but the FBI is in absolutely no position to throw stones considering the extensive history of failure by the bureau in their Muslim outreach.
The evidence and testimony in the recently concluded trial exonerate the NYPD from the slanders of the anonymous FBI sources who tried to pin the botched investigation on the NYPD’s contact with Afzali. By Zazi’s own testimony, he was spooked by the traffic stops and drug search conducted on the FBI’s behalf.
If anyone needs to explain how the investigation into Najibullah Zazi and his accomplices was nearly botched and how Zazi was allowed to drive into New York City with a suitcase full explosives just minutes after his car had been searched, it is clearly the FBI.
Just goes to show what smooth operators Holder and his minions are. BTW, if you are accosted by the FBI or any other investigative service, the first words out of you mouth should be, “I want a lawyer.”
FBI = Fumbling, Bumbling, Incompetents. The FBI has proven time and again that it is not up to the task; it just can’t play in the big leagues. (The FBI is great against small time crooks, just not big time crooks.) The next president should abolish it and replace it with a modern up-to-date domestic counter intelligence agency. The criminal investigation part should be pealed off and given to a new agency that deals only with crime. Of course, we would hope the two parts would talk to each other and to the CIA (another agency in dire need of revamping).
The real problem at the FBI is it is over managed and underlead.
Cops I know, all hate the FIB. They are arrogant, unhelpful, and then try to steal thge credit for local PD’s work. In this case, they have also proven themselves incompetent. Keystone Feds.
I did not see the part where the imam was arrested for being a co-conspirator or obstructing justice.
“Some criticism of this whole episode could be directed at the NYPD for trusting imam Afzali”
Ya think?
And this guy aint in jail too?
WTF?
the only “outreach” we have with Muslims is their “reach” into how our systems work….so they can then “reach out” and warn the co-conspirators
The FBI has been on the wrong side before. e.g. Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc. 9/11 might never have happened if the FBI had been on the ball and investigated the hints they got from the flight schools.
This is sad on two counts. First, it’s sad to see how poorly the FBI can tail a guy without him noticing it. Not very professional. Second, the FBI need to play nice with local authorities. The animosity between local authorities (in this case the New York Police Department) and the FBI goes back decades. I’ve known a lot of NYPD officers and they don’t have very many nice things to say about the FBI. This really has to stop, because one day the lack of trust and communication between these two law enforcement agencies is going to cause somebody to screw up, and that could result in the deaths of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of innocent people. We lost 3,000 Americans on 9/11 because the FBI and the CIA could not share information and work together. Let’s NOT lose another 3,000 people just because the FBI and a local police authority, like the NYPD, can’t act like adults and work together.
We’ve spent several trillion dollars, and sacrificed nearly 6,000 precious American patriots since 9/11, yet it’s pretty clear that if it weren’t for blind dumb luck, the feckless meaures by our DHS would prevent about zero terrorist attacks. At least it’s been a good laugh for the world’s Muslims – they must marvel at the power of Allah who makes us frisk little boys and old ladies so as not to activate their bottomless hatred fury.
This is more proof that the letters “FBI” stand for “Fumbling Bunch of Idiots.” Whose brilliant idea was it to give them arrest authroity?
Look the FBI should probably be scrapped and the people put up for bid. I suspect that most would not find employment with any successor organization.
The FBI never shares, then blames others for failure. I say again, tear down the building and sow the land with salt, lest the FBI spirit rise again calling for our death.
When is the last time the FBI actually solved a big case with any sort of honest skill and good investigative work? When is the last time they were involved in a shooting that wasn’t a complete soup sandwich?
Why is the Hoover building still named after that black mailing, domestic spying, mafia run perverted dictator?
What an embarrassment that agency is.
I know from very good hearsay that the FBI is competent and relentless. I would not underestimate it. The problem is Art is Long and Life is Short. Police work is tedious and difficult. Locals can be incompetent and corrupt. So far the FBI has not been corrupt (though it could be if Holder gets his hands on it)..