Najibullah Zazi

Al Qaeda group accused of planning to carry out acts of terrorism against the United States. Zazi is said by the FBI to have attended courses and received instruction on weapons and explosives at an Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan in 2008.
On September 9 2009, he rented a car, to drive from his home in Denver, Colorado, to New York City. According to The New York Times, this trip triggered a series of arrests on September 15 2009.


Early life
Zazi was born in Afghanistan in 1985. Zazi moved with his family to Pakistan in 1992 -- four years before the Taliban took over Afghanistan. Zazi and his family were accepted as legal residents of the USA in 1999.
He married his wife in Pakistan. He has claimed several visits he has made to Pakistan in 2007 and 2008 were to visit his wife.
According to the Associated Press Zazi filed for bankruptcy in New York State on March 26 2009, with $52,000 USD debts, and was discharged on August 17 2009.
Publicly acknowledged triggers for his arrest
Zazi returned in January 15, 2009 from a trip to Peshawar, a city just east of Pakistan's volatile Federally Administered Tribal Areas. He has maintained that this five month trip was to visit his wife.The FBI however asserts that after several days of interrogation he has acknowledged receiving military training in the semi-autonomous Tribal area.
On September 10, 2009, the day after Zazi left Denver for New York, New York city police asked informant Ahmad Wais Afzali to identify individuals in a series photograph that include Zazi. Afzali identifies Zazi. At the George Washington Bridge, Zazi was pulled over for what he is told is a routine traffic stop, and his car is searched. The Associated Press reported that it was known that Zazi, Afzali and Zazi's father back in Colorado all spoke about what Afzali told the Police on September 11 2009.
On September 12, Zazi's rental car was towed, over a parking violation. According to the Associated Press: "FBI agents search the car and find a laptop with an image of nine pages of handwritten notes on how to make explosives, detonators and fuses." Zazi flew back to Denver.American security officials searched several homes in New York on September 14 and found Zazi's fingerprints on a scale and AA batteries. An alert was issued to American law enforcement officials to be on the lookout for hydrogen peroxide based bombs.
Charges laid on September 19
On September 16 2009 Zazi comes in for a voluntary interview with his lawyer, at the FBI office in Denver. It lasts eight hours. Zazi denies knowing the suspicious nine page document was on his hard drive.