Father of New York bomb plot suspect is indicted

By Robert Boczkiewicz DENVER (Reuters) – The father of an Afghan immigrant accused of plotting one of the most serious security threats to the United States since the September 11 attacks was indicted on Thursday on charges of lying to the FBI, federal prosecutors said. Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, had previously been charged by prosecutors with lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation when it was investigating his son, Najibullah Zazi, 24. The grand jury indictment formally indicts him on essentially the same charge. The younger Zazi, a Denver airport shuttle driver, was indicted last month by a federal grand jury in New York on charges of plotting to explode bombs in the United States. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. Prosecutors said Zazi took a bomb-making course at an al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan, had notes on how to make explosives on his laptop computer and acquired materials similar to those used in bomb attacks in London in 2005, buying acetone and hydrogen peroxide at beauty supply stores near his home in Colorado. His father and a New York City imam, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, were both charged with lying to investigators. The FBI has had under surveillance other suspects it believes may have helped Zazi acquire the chemicals and consulted with him on how to make explosives. Attorney General Eric Holder has called the plot one of the most serious security threats to the United States since the September 11 attacks of 2001, saying it could have killed “scores” of Americans had it been successful. Zazi initially was charged in Colorado with lying to the FBI. He was later indicted on the terrorism charge in Brooklyn federal court and transferred to New York on September 25. The investigation became public several weeks ago when police raided apartments in the New York City borough of Queens that Zazi had visited around the time of the anniversary of the 2001 attacks. (Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles and Daniel Trotta in New York, editing by Anthony Boadle)