FBI Again Questions Colorado Man in Terror Probe

An airport shuttle driver at the center of a federal terrorism investigation returned Thursday for further questioning by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents in Denver, a day after federal agents searched his apartment and interviewed him for eight hours.

Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old immigrant from Afghanistan, provided a DNA swab, a handwriting sample and fingerprints during his eight-hour interrogation on Wednesday afternoon and evening, according to one of his attorneys, Armstrong Graham. “It sounds worse than it was,” Mr. Graham said. “It was very cordial, very productive.”

The agents pressed for information about Mr. Zazi’s family and friends and his travel history, Mr. Graham said. Mr. Zazi’s wife lives in Pakistan, and his lawyers say he visits her there regularly. Last week, Mr. Zazi rented a car and drove to New York. He said he had to deal with some problems involving a coffee-vending cart that he operated for years on Wall Street. Mr. Zazi stayed with an old friend in the borough of Queens; earlier this week, the friend’s apartment and two others were searched.

Mr. Zazi hasn’t been arrested or charged. Authorities haven’t released any information about the results of their searches in Queens or in the Denver area.

Both Mr. Zazi and his lawyers have repeatedly said he has no ties to terrorism.

via Read Full Article – WSJ.com.

On another note…CBS News Reports

A Chapter 7 bankruptcy filing obtained by CBS News raises more questions about the 24-year-old Afghan national now at the center of a multi-state terror investigation.
[..]
Perhaps most interesting: In the five months between April and August of 2008, Zazi opened up 15 separate revolving credit card accounts eventually racking up more than $38,000 worth of debt ($38,786) on those cards.

In the filing, Zazi also claimed he was “unmarried,” in contrast to statements that he had traveled frequently to Pakistan to visit his wife, who his attorney said he married in 2006.

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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.

[...]

“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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