DENVER -
Intelligence officials familiar with the investigation of Aurora, Colorado terror suspect Najibullah Zazi now say that the investigation, which reportedly dates back more than a year, began in earnest only weeks before the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
It was an alleged conversation between Zazi, 24, and a senior al-Qaida operative, intercepted by a U.S. intelligence operative that led the CIA to alert federal agencies like the FBI, which began surveillance on Zazi in early September.
Prosecutors believe that Zazi, the Afghan immigrant who received training in Pakistan, was planning to strike another New York City target on 9/11, this time with homemade bombs.
Zazi is charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, but his attorney, J. Michael Dowling, is arguing that the government's vast evidence against Zazi can't prove him guilty of conspiracy until co-conspirators are identified.
Last week at Zazi's arraignment in Brooklyn, New York Asst. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Knox said the Zazi case is a "conspiracy that is international in scope."
The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on that claim and begins to explain why the investigation triggered such a large offensive from the nation's intelligence community.
It also shows the case stems from the CIA's counterterrorism efforts to track al-Qaida rather than an investigation initiated in this country by someone's suspicious actions, like most other domestic terrorism cases handled by the FBI.
President Barack Obama began receiving briefings on the investigation in late August, updated at least daily and sometimes several times a day as intelligence officials were crafting their case against Zazi, senior administration officials said.
Zazi initially was characterized to Obama as a person of interest because of suspected involvement in terrorist activities, the officials said. Obama's primary interest in those briefings was to ensure an attack was prevented and all involved in the plot were identified, the officials said.
Federal agents began watching Zazi in Denver in early September. He drove a rental car to New York on Sept. 9, but left the city to return to Denver on Sept. 12 after learning that investigators were looking for him, prosecutors said. FBI agents raided three apartments in Queens two days after Zazi left the New York area.
It was an alleged conversation between Zazi, 24, and a senior al-Qaida operative, intercepted by a U.S. intelligence operative that led the CIA to alert federal agencies like the FBI, which began surveillance on Zazi in early September.
Prosecutors believe that Zazi, the Afghan immigrant who received training in Pakistan, was planning to strike another New York City target on 9/11, this time with homemade bombs.
Zazi is charged with conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism, but his attorney, J. Michael Dowling, is arguing that the government's vast evidence against Zazi can't prove him guilty of conspiracy until co-conspirators are identified.
Last week at Zazi's arraignment in Brooklyn, New York Asst. U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Knox said the Zazi case is a "conspiracy that is international in scope."
The fact that intelligence officials learned of Zazi through a CIA source sheds more light on that claim and begins to explain why the investigation triggered such a large offensive from the nation's intelligence community.
It also shows the case stems from the CIA's counterterrorism efforts to track al-Qaida rather than an investigation initiated in this country by someone's suspicious actions, like most other domestic terrorism cases handled by the FBI.
President Barack Obama began receiving briefings on the investigation in late August, updated at least daily and sometimes several times a day as intelligence officials were crafting their case against Zazi, senior administration officials said.
Zazi initially was characterized to Obama as a person of interest because of suspected involvement in terrorist activities, the officials said. Obama's primary interest in those briefings was to ensure an attack was prevented and all involved in the plot were identified, the officials said.
Federal agents began watching Zazi in Denver in early September. He drove a rental car to New York on Sept. 9, but left the city to return to Denver on Sept. 12 after learning that investigators were looking for him, prosecutors said. FBI agents raided three apartments in Queens two days after Zazi left the New York area.
