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Feds: Zazi Used Beauty Products to Make Bombs

092409-Zazi-indicted.jpg
AP Photo/Jeff Kandby
Najibullah Zazi was indicted earlier today in Brooklyn on charges of "conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction," the first terror charges brought in the Colorado-Queens terror case. He is still in Denver, where he is being held without bail. No further charges are expected against his father, Mohammed Zazi, who has already been charged with lying to investigators. The third suspect, Flushing imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, has been released in New York on a $1.5 million bond.

The AP reports that the indictment contained an impressive array of evidence against the young alleged terrorist. During the summer, Zazi purchased "unusually large amounts of hydrogen peroxide and acetone" from beauty supply stores in Denver. On September 6th and 7th, Zazi apparently was involved in a flurry of communications "seeking to correct mixtures of ingredients to make explosives." At the time he was renting a hotel suite with a kitchen in his own hometown of Aurora, CO: explosives testing indicated "the presence of residue in the vent above the stove." Before departing he did an internet search for "home improvement stores in Queens."

He then rented a car and drove to New York with a laptop with bomb diagrams and arrived at an apartment where police later found cell phones, backpacks, and scales, all of which are used in home bomb-making. The Queens end of the bomb-making operation is still being investigated.

There had been speculation that something was awry in the investigation and that perhaps the FBI would not have enough evidence, but right now it doesn't look good for Mr. Zazi.

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Comments [rss]

  • chrisk

    err, cranky, many people have made bombs involving hydrogen peroxide - remember london?

    (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200...

  • Cranky Old Man

    The stuff you get at the drug store is only 3 percent hydrogen peroxide. That means that you would have to go through some elaborate process of separating the hydrogen peroxide from the rest of it's mixture and then find some way of collecting and accumulating the concentrate. Something tells me that this process is not easy. As a potential terrorist, I give him a 'D' minus. What kind of idiot comes up with the bright idea of making a bomb, that involves numerous trips to CVS and beauty supply places all over a city like Denver? Did he actually walk into these places with that long Taliban styled beard? I can't imagine what kind of accent he spoke with, after all he is recently from Afghanistan. Please put him in a cell next to the "Shoe Bomber", the other imbecile who stuffed his shoes with matches and then tried to light them up on a trans-Atlantic flight - AFTER 9-11!

  • Fozzilla

    The shoe bomber was wearing a sneaker made out of plastic explosives with a detonator made of Acetone peroxide.

  • Mr Mel

    "unusually large amounts of hydrogen peroxide and acetone" from beauty supply stores"

    It it possible that he was going to open the first Halal beauty parlor?

  • MrManhattan

    I can't help but note the irony that Cheney's big brag was that he kept America safe AFTER a devastating attack in the first September of his term, but it now appears that the Obama administration has PREVENTED a devastating attack in their first September in office.

  • OttoBloggo

    Oh great. Now the TSA will ask for ID before you go to the hair salon.

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