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.
