Did Botched Terrorism Probe Lead To Early Arrests
Gerald Posner’s (The Daily Beast) investigative report focuses on the culmination of the year long terror probe and says FBI agents are fuming at New York Police Department detectives for inadvertently causing them to miss an opportunity to take down even more members of the alleged terror cell.
From The Article at The Daily Beast
Following a year-long probe, federal agents on Saturday arrested 24-year-old Najibullah Zazi, in Aurora, Colorado, along with his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and 37-year-old Ahmad Wais Afzali, in Flushing, N.Y. But behind the scenes, the agents were furious at two detectives of the New York Police Department intelligence unit, whose actions, according to a source familiar with the case, scuttled the long-running probe and forced a raid earlier than planned, killing off any potentially bigger payoff had surveillance run longer.
The feds weren’t the only ones left steaming, says this source; also upset at the two NYPD detectives were their colleagues in the counterterrorism division, composed of more than 100 detectives who frequently work with the FBI on a Joint Terrorism Task Force. Federal investigators say any possibility of discovering whether the main suspect they were monitoring might have led to a larger sleeper cell inside the U.S. is lost. Also gone, say investigators, is the chance to see how al Qaeda planned its first post-9/11 U.S. attack, from support personnel to financing.
While over at Time – NYPD Denies It Botched the Zazi Terrorism Probe
The New York Police Department has denied suggestions that it mishandled the investigation of the Zazi terrorism plot, forcing the FBI to make arrests before fully developing the case – and potentially squandering an opportunity to nab many more conspirators.
“It’s inevitable some people who are unhappy with the outcome will look to criticize,” Deputy NYPD Commissioner Paul Browne told TIME. “But there’s been good outcomes here. There’s been excellent work by the NYPD and the FBI.”
Media reports quoting anonymous FBI officials have suggested the NYPD botched the case when it showed a picture of Najibullah Zazi, the Denver shuttle-bus driver at the heart of the investigation, to Ahmed Afzali, a Queens Imam and sometime police informant. Afzali, the reports say, first called Zazi’s father Mohammed, then Najibullah himself, alerting them to the probe. The FBI, which had been monitoring the calls, was then forced to move immediately to arrest the Zazis – much sooner than it had planned.
The FBI did not respond to TIME’s requests for comment on the Zazi case.
The New York Times Also reports on this aspect of the case .
How Using Imam in Terror Inquiry Backfired on Police
A decision to enlist a Queens imam in an effort to develop information about the man at the center of a long-running cross-country terrorism investigation backfired earlier this month.
In fact, federal prosecutors have now charged the imam, a onetime source of information for the New York Police Department, contending that he betrayed the police by warning the suspect and then lied about it, and maybe even coached him on what to say if he was questioned.
[...]
Current and former police and federal officials said the approach to the imam, and the resulting disruption, added to a long history of tensions and rivalry between the New York New YorkPolice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which in recent years have developed a new dimension: a clash of sorts within the Police Department, between its two primary antiterrorism units.
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On a side note, for those of you who missed Posner’s recent investigative report on Adnan Shukrijumah, one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, you can read it here. Shukrijumah, also known as “Jaffar The Pilot”, has avoided the spotlight of the media and Posner exposes the danger he presents if not apprehended.
