Man at center of investigation says he's no terrorist

By Nicole Vap, Jace Larson , Anna Hewson
9NEWS
Sep. 19, 2009

ARAPAHOE COUNTY - A man in Colorado suspected by federal authorities of having terrorist links to al Qaeda and who triggered FBI raids in New York on Monday told 9Wants to Know Tuesday afternoon that the FBI has the wrong man and he's not a terrorist.

This comes after the FBI and Homeland Security officials have asked local police departments across the country, including Denver, to lookout for materials that could be used to make explosives and for people who may have burn marks on their hands, faces or arms, according to WNBC-TV in New York.

A joint intelligence warning was issued to local police listing indicators that could tip off law enforcement to homemade hydrogen peroxide-based explosives. This happened hours after law enforcement agents raided several residences in Queens, New York, as part of a terrorism investigation.

Federal sources told WNBC-TV New York that agents had been monitoring Najibbullah Zazi, from Arapahoe County, after he drove a rental car to New York. The sources said that Zazi met with several people in New York and the activities aroused enough suspicion to obtain warrants for the searches.

9Wants to Know spoke with Zazi Tuesday afternoon.

Zazi, a young man wearing a full beard, told 9Wants to Know Reporter Jace Larson that he went to New York recently to visit friends. Zazi said anyone who thinks he's done something illegal is wrong.

"He loves this country," Zazi's attorney Arthur Folsom said. "He loves living here. That's why he brought his family over here."

Zazi is eager to answer any questions from the federal government to clear the air of any suspicion surrounding his name at this point, Folsom said.

Zazi told 9Wants to Know that federal agents searched his car and his computer.

He has not been arrested. Three others interviewed during the raids Monday in several residences in Queens as part of the terrorist investigation were not arrested either.

Zazi flew back to Denver on Sunday. He works at ABC Shuttle in Aurora.

"He's a very intelligent, articulate, well-spoken man. He's a young man and I think he's a little bit concerned and that's understandable given that he's a person of Middle Eastern descent and given that occurred around the Sept. 11th attacks and in the month of Ramadan," Folsom said. "I think he's concerned more than anything that people are going to get the wrong idea that simply because he is a Muslim follower that he is involved or somehow associated with people who do these kinds of horrible activities."

9Wants to Know has learned local law enforcement officials are downplaying media reports from the New York Daily News on Tuesday about a Denver-based terror cell that was allegedly plotting a terrorist act as large as the one on Sept. 11, 2001.

U.S. Senator Mark Udall (D) was debriefed about the situation late Tuesday afternoon. While Udall says he can't talk about it because it's classified information, he wants Coloradoans to know that "there is no threat to our state or our nation."

"Law enforcement sources say there is no imminent threat to the safety of Coloradans or to any Americans," Udall said. "I think the important message here is that there is no threat to Coloradans and to Americans. I think the other message here is that the world is still a dangerous place. There are still those who would wish to harm us and we have to vigilant."

Governor Bill Ritter also issued a statement Tuesday afternoon.

"Over the past several days, Gov. Ritter has been briefed regularly and as necessary. Based on what we know, there's no reason to believe there is any imminent threat to Colorado."

Major General Mason Whitney, chief of Colorado's Homeland Security, says there has been no credible information that links any kind of a plot in New York to any attack here in Colorado.

"I can say with certainty that there has been no planned attacked identified in Colorado. There has been no credible threat identified to the state by the FBI," Whitney said. "If there was a specific plot against Colorado, then we would have been informed through the intelligence information center."

Whitney says the FBI has a serious ongoing investigation, but it is primarily focused in New York. The Homeland Security chief has been in constant contact with the governor's office and intelligence information center about this issue all Tuesday morning.

Terrorism officials in New York searched homes Monday, concerned about the activities of the man visiting the city from Denver.

The FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force hit the apartments in the early morning hours on Monday. One of the men questioned was Nazi Khan, a local pushcart vendor.

Khan says he let an Afghan man who lives in Colorado stay at his apartment for a couple of days. The Colorado man's name has not been released.

Khan says he told the FBI he knows nothing about any possible terror links.

"They asked me about him. The guy stayed in my apartment for one Thursday night. I met him, he came to the mosque and he said, 'I would like to stay in your apartment,'" Khan said.

Khan says the FBI searched his entire apartment before questioning him for hours about three men in all.

"They did not point to any al Qaeda or any stuff like that. But they just tell me, 'Do you know these guys?' Two of them I knew. I told them, 'Yes, these guys I know,'" Khan said.

After several searches along Parsons Boulevard and 41st Avenue, sources tell WNBC-TV no weapons were found and no charges were filed.

Investigators say in one search they did find a document about bomb-making belonging to the man from Colorado, according to WNBC-TV.

Officials stress the timing of the raids had nothing to do with President Obama's visit or that it was on the day Osama Bin Laden put out another taped warning.
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