http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/17/nyregion/17terror.html


F.B.I. Searches Colorado Home of Man in Terror Inquiry That Reached Queens

The inquiry into a possible terrorist plot against New York City deepened on Wednesday when federal agents executed another search warrant in the case, at the Colorado home of the man at the center of the investigation.

A lawyer for the man, Najibullah Zazi, did not return calls for comment on Wednesday, though Mr. Zazi had asserted his innocence in interviews this week and said he was hoping to speak with F.B.I. agents.

In the interviews, Mr. Zazi, 25, said he could not fathom why he was the focus of an elaborate surveillance operation by law enforcement officials. He said he drove to New York in a rental car last week to try to resolve an issue with a coffee cart that he said his family is licensed to operate in Lower Manhattan — an account supported by the person now operating the cart.

“Why are they scaring the people of New York or the whole U.S.?” said Mr. Zazi, who added that he was upset over what he characterized as falsehoods being spread about him.

On Wednesday afternoon, federal agents in Aurora, Colo., were inside the Zazi home, in an apartment complex on East Smokey Hill Road, officials said. The Denver Post reported that agents arrived around 2 p.m. and that some entered in white suits and purple gloves.

At the same time, agents in New York and Washington were going through items seized in raids of homes in Queens that began late Sunday. The items included phone books, papers, computers, cellphones and backpacks, a government official said.

The evidence is being culled through to determine if clues can be found to advance an intense investigation that began before Mr. Zazi drove to New York last week, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is continuing.

Mr. Zazi’s arrival in New York on the eve of the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attack, and days ahead of President Obama’s speech on Wall Street, was the catalytic event in the case.

But the investigation’s bursting into public view deflated some of the local and federal authorities involved, officials said, and worsened the sometimes strained relations between the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Investigators have been left to pursue leads before fully understanding any potential intentions for wrongdoing or figuring out the range of possible targets or means of attack, officials said.

Federal officials said they were somewhat frustrated by the way the investigation was conducted on the ground. Mr. Zazi was stopped at the George Washington Bridge on Sept. 10 as he entered New York. In addition, photos of him were shown to his acquaintances in Queens, one of whom tipped him off, a government official said.

Once Mr. Zazi flew back to Colorado, the agents were forced to scurry to get search warrants, with prosecutors in New York and Washington caught off guard and hastily drafting the legal documents, officials said.

Still, top New York and federal officials were declaring their partnership.

When asked at a news conference in Midtown Manhattan about reports of friction between the police and the F.B.I., the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, shot back, “Not true.”

At a Senate hearing in Washington, the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, said under questioning by Senator Charles E. Schumer that “I can say without any reservation that our relationships with N.Y.P.D. in this and other investigations could not be better, and that New Yorkers are well benefited by the work of N.Y.P.D. and Ray Kelly in making the city safe.”

At least part of the narrative that Mr. Zazi provided about his cross-country trip was corroborated on Wednesday by a coffee cart operator in Lower Manhattan who spoke of his ties to the Zazi family.

The vendor, who refused to give his name, said he had operated the cart since August 2008, under a one-year rental contract with Mr. Zazi’s father, Wali Mohamed Zazi, 53, who is the owner of the cart.

The vendor said Najibullah Zazi visited the cart, on Whitehall Street, on Friday, joking and laughing with old customers. The vendor said he had contacted the Zazi family a month ago to renegotiate his contract, discuss the rent and describe how a sidewalk closing on Stone Street had put a crimp in his business.

At 3:30 a.m. Monday, as he was setting up, he said, two unmarked cars pulled up and a man in one flashed a badge and identified himself as an undercover officer. The vendor said he was not sure if the officer was a federal agent or a city officer.

“He was really nice,” the vendor said.