AURORA, Colo. — The FBI arrested a 24-year-old Colorado airport shuttle driver on charges of making false statements to federal agents in an ongoing terror investigation, and supporting documents contend the man admitted receiving weapons and explosives training from al-Qaida in Pakistan.
Najibullah Zazi's defense team denied reports that he considered a plea deal related to terror charges, and his attorney, Arthur Folsom, has dismissed as rumor remarks by a senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington that Zazi played a crucial role in an intended terrorist attack.
"All of that hype and it comes down to charging him with lying to the government. It sounds disproportionate to the hype," Taj Ashaheed, Colorado Muslim Society spokesman, said at a festival for the end of Ramadan in the Denver suburb of Aurora.
Wendy Aiello, a spokesman for Zazi's defense team, didn't immediately return a call Sunday seeking comment on the charges.
Zazi, who lives in an apartment in the Denver suburb of Aurora, was arrested late Saturday after three days of questioning by the FBI. He was due to appear in federal court today.
Also arrested were Zazi'sfather, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, in Denver; and an associate, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of New York City, the Justice Department said. Both also were charged with making false statements to federal agents, which carries a penalty of eight years in prison. Court appearances for both also were set for today.
"The arrests are part of an ongoing and fast-paced investigation," David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, said in an e-mailed statement. "It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack."
The younger Zazi was found to have a cell-phone video of Grand Central Terminal in New York City, according to the New York Daily News, citing unidentified sources. The city subway system and regional commuter trains go through the terminal, which is in midtown Manhattan at Park Avenue and East 42nd Street.
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond who has been tracking terrorist investigations around the country, said authorities could have made the arrests now because they feared too much information was getting out to the suspects. Additional charges could be filed later, he said.
In supporting documents filed with the court, investigators said Zazi admitted toFBI agents last week that in 2008 he received weapons and explosives training from al-Qaida in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan.
The investigation escalated after Zazi rented a car and drove from Denver to New York, crossing into Manhattan on Sept. 10. Zazi said he went to New York to resolve some issues with a coffee cart he owns in Manhattan, then flew home to Denver. The FBI searched Zazi's rental car and laptop during the New York trip and listened in on telephone conversations, according to the affidavits.
On his laptop, investigators found images of nine pages of handwritten notes containing formulas and instructions for making bombs, detonators and a fuse, the FBI said.
Zazi told the FBI he must have unintentionally downloaded the notes as part of a religious book he downloaded in August. Zazi said he immediately deleted the religious book within days of downloading it after realizing that its contents discussed jihad.
However, federal agents suspect Zazi e-mailed them between accounts that he owned in December 2008.
An arrest warrant affidavit said FBI agents intercepted a phone conversation around Sept. 11 in which Afzali, a legal permanent resident from Afghanistan, told Zazi that he had spoken with authorities.
"I was exposed to something yesterday from the authorities. And they came to ask me about your characters. They asked me about you guys," Afzali told Zazi, according to the affidavit.
But Afzali is accused of lying to authorities about that conversation when federal agents asked him about it Thursday, according to the affidavit.
Ron Kuby, Afzali's attorney, said Afzali cooperated with authorities, giving them a DNA sample and letting them search his home after the FBI said it was "frantic for any information about Zazi."
Kuby said the government may have been forced to act after Zazi went to New York.
"Now they find themselves without a case and they're lashing out at people they shouldn't be lashing out at," Kuby said.
The department says Mohammed Zazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was interviewed last week by the FBI, lied when asked if he knew anyone by the name of Afzali and said he didn't. The FBI said it had wiretapped a conversation between Mohammed Zazi and Afzali during Najibullah Zazi's visit to New York.
The FBI searched Zazi's apartment and his uncle and aunt's home last week in suburban Denver. Authorities have not said what they found.
FBI agents and police officers with search warrants seeking bomb materials searched three apartments on Sept. 14 and questioned residents in the Queens neighborhood where Zazi stayed.
Information for this article was contributed by Ivan Moreno, Samantha Gross, Jennifer Peltz and Larry Neumeister of The Associated Press, and by Timothy R. Homan of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1, 4 on 09/21/2009