Legal Commentary

Zazi to Be Questioned Further by FBI Today

By Jeralyn

Arthur Folsom, the Denver lawyer for Najibullah Zazi, says he will bring his client back to the F.B.I. office today for more questioning . (My earlier post on yesterday's search of Zazi's home and voluntary marathon interview is here.)

Former Sen. Gary Hart, who now serves as vice chairman of the Homeland Security Council, says he met yesterday with New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. Hart doubts that the police have "uncovered an al-Qaeda terrorist cell that was planning a major terrorist attack." [More...]

His lawyer says Zazi called him upon learning from his friends that their homes had been searched. It's a case of Zazi being in the wrong place at the wrong time and guilty by association. Will the F.B.I. agree?

Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that a joint FBI-New York Police Department task force had put Zazi under surveillance because of the suspected links to al-Qaida. They had tailed him from Colorado to New York and had been tracking him for months, apparently including a recent trip to the Pakistan.

The task force also feared Zazi may be involved in a potential plot involving homemade hydrogen peroxide-based explosives like those cited in an intelligence warning issued Monday, said the officials, who spoke on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation.

ABC News reported that in series of raids on Monday, agents seized 14 new black backpacks they suspect were to be used to carry suicide bombs and instructions on Zazi's computers on how to build a bomb with household chemicals.

My favorite quote from Zazi's lawyer:

"Given some of the course that has happened in this country in recent years, [Zazi] was more worried that he would be swooped into the back of a van and that he wouldn't be able to speak to a lawyer or family," Folsom said. "I told him our government doesn't have that policy any more."

Full post as published by TalkLeft on September 17, 2009 (boomark / email).