Denver Man Denies Ties To Terrorism – New York Terror Probe

Najibullah Zazi, a Colorado man whose visit to New York apparently set off government raids on several Queens apartments on Monday has denied having ties to al Qaeda or any other terrorist group.

“I have nothing to do with this,” said Zazi, 25, who was reached by telephone in Colorado on Monday and Tuesday. “This looks like it’s going toward me, which is more shocking every hour.”

Mr. Zazi said on Tuesday that he was contacting a lawyer, but he invited the F.B.I. to question him.

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“I was hoping they’d come question me, give me a chance to question them, ask, ‘Why are you following me?’ ” said Mr. Zazi. “If they want to investigate, they can.”

He said he left Aurora, Colo., in a rented car and headed to New York to try to resolve an issue with a coffee cart that he said his family is licensed to operate in Lower Manhattan. A spokeswoman for the New York City health department could not confirm if the man or his father operated a mobile food cart.

Mr. Zazi said he was stopped at the George Washington Bridge by the authorities, who briefly detained him and searched his car. A city official confirmed that officers stopped a man at the bridge and searched his car, and that “everything was clean.” The official could not say what prompted the stop.

Mr. Zazi said he thought the police might be profiling him or suspected him because he has a beard and had rented the car. The next day, he said he thought his car had been stolen, but the police told him it had been towed. The following day, he said, he noticed he was being followed and called the police twice to complain.

Finally, he said, he cut short his stay in New York, deciding to fly back to Colorado on Saturday.

“It was too much for me,” Mr. Zazi said. “I said, ‘I can’t stay here, even for a minute.’ ”

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Denver Terror Cell Plotting Attack At Center of New York Probe

The New York Daily News is reporting the Queens New York terror raids yesterday, are a part of FBI probe into Denver-based cell plotting attack on 9/11 scale.

According to the report here, the FBI probe that triggered raids in Queens is now focused on a Denver-based terror cell plotting another attack said to be on the scale of 9/11.

From the NY Daily news Article

Hundreds of FBI agents are on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects including a man who recently visited Queens, sources told The News.

New York authorities searched three Flushing apartments and detained several men – later released – after getting a warrant to look for bomb-making components, explosive powders and fuses.

“The FBI is seriously spooked about these guys planning another 9/11,” a former senior counter-terrorism official told the News. “This is not some … FBI informant-driven case. This is the real thing.”

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters it’s an ongoing investigation with plenty of “substance.”

The 24-7 counter-terror operation included Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants used to intercept calls and e-mails, as well as overseas-linked wiretaps to eavesdrop on Arabic and Pashto-speaking targets.

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From The Denver Post

The focus of an anti-terrorism investigation turned to Denver today, one day after federal authorities raided several New York City homes in an investigation sparked by a suspected al-Qaeda associate from Colorado.

Multiple news organizations are reporting that the suspect, a man known to friends as Najibullah, traveled to New York from Colorado, prompting the raids. The reports say agents in New York were looking for bomb-making components.

There has been no official announcement about the investigation’s details. Kathleen Wright, spokeswoman for the Denver FBI, said she could not confirm or deny that the agency is surveilling or investigating a terror suspect in Colorado.

Denver police referred calls to the FBI.

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Denver Man Detained And Released

A Denver man, detained and then released Monday in connection with the New York City terrorism raids, had recently traveled to Pakistan before he showed up in New York last Thursday with bomb-making documents, other law enforcement officials told ABC News.

Hundreds of FBI agents are “on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects,” the Daily News reported.

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Pueblo Colorado Explosion Levels Building – People May Be Trapped Inside

Follow comments from those who are in near the site:

UPDATE: Fire inspector, said that “at this point we have no idea what caused the explosion but it is consistent with a natural gas explosion.”

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Preliminary reports from Pueblo are that an explosion at the Branch Inn on Union Avenue and “C” Street in Pueblo has leveled the building. There are reports that windows were broken up to one block away due to the strength of the explosion.

We have reports that people may be trapped in the burning building. One woman was seen being loaded into an ambulance at the scene. No reports on the extent of her injuries.

One witnesse at the scene says they saw flames up to 40 feet in the air.

Developing…

Source

The location is in the Union Avenue Historic District, where president-elect Barack Obama spoke to a crowd of thousands less than two weeks ago.

An employee of Larry’s Electric, Sarah King, who’s near the explosion, said, “The building is flat leveled.”

Leroy Lucero, whose office is in the Union Depot, said, “The Branch Inn is completely gone….Anyone that would have been walking there would have been dead.” Lucero said the explosion rattled everything in the depot, and bricks and glass blocks from the building were scattered across the sidewalk and the street.

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