The Al Qaeda Factor: Plots Against the West

Chapter 10: Operation Highrise (New York, 2009)

C h a p t e r 1 0 Operation Highrise (New York, 2009) on september 9, 2009, Najibullah Zazi drove from his home in the Denver , Colorado, area to New York City. He drove to the city with the intention of detonating explosives, with two associates, on the New York City subway during rush hour as one of three coordinated suicide “martyrdom ” bombings on September 14, 15, and 16, named Operation Highrise.1 Spooked by a car stop at the George Washington Bridge and subsequent surveillance, he abruptly flew back to Denver and was arrested days later. Both Zazi and his high school friend, Zarein Ahmedzay, have pled guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, to conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and to providing material support to a terrorist organization. A third co-conspirator and high school friend, Adis Medunjanin, has pleaded not guilty to similar charges. Zazi said he was recruited by al Qaeda in Pakistan for a suicide “martyrdom” attack against the United States and that his bombing target was the New York City subway system.2 The New York City Scene The nature of the environment in which Najibullah Zazi and his associates, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin, radicalized is still unclear. New York City’s diverse Muslim communities encompass diaspora populations 154 Al Qaeda“Suggested/Endorsed”Plots from South Asia (Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh), the Middle East (Egypt, Palestinian, Lebanon), West Africa, Yemen, and the Balkans. The nature of the city as a melting pot coupled with its easy mass transit system forces these varied ethnic groups to interact and is a counterweight to the development of homogenous ethnic enclaves in the city. In fact, in Flushing , Queens, where Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay, and Adis Medunjanin all attended high school, there are a few blocks (Parson’s Boulevard) where Afghans generally settle, but this area is in fact surrounded by a much larger ethnic Chinese population. There are three mosques in the general neighborhood where Afghans and Pakistanis worship, but none is noted for political or extremist rhetoric. A few provocative anti-democratic, anti-Western, pro–al Qaeda groups—the Islamic Thinkers Society and Revolution Muslim—have a significant presence in New York City, providing street dawah and sponsoring rallies in midtown Manhattan, which serve to attract politicized Muslims to their cause. However, neither Najibullah Zazi nor his associates seem to have had any linkages or interactions with these American Al Muhajiroun spin-off organizations. The men were part of two overlapping scenes. One “scene” that Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay, and Adis Medunjanin were a part of was a basketball scene that included friends from the neighborhood, primarily of Afghan descent, who played pickup basketball in parks in Flushing, Queens.3 Probably more important, the other “scene” involved a group of men who, from the beginning of 2008 until July of that year, attended the al Badr Mosque on Bath Avenue in Brooklyn to hear the lectures of Sheikh Mostafa Elazabawy on Saturday nights where, according to Medunjanin, the discussions covered religion and politics.4 Gravitating to Reactionary Islam Little is known about the three men’s radicalization processes. In fact, Abdulrahman Jalili, president of the Zazi family’s Queens mosque, noted, “I never saw any wrong acts. . . . He wasn’t acting strangely or anything. I never suspected him of doing anything like that.” But there are unknowns , Jalili admitted, things he wouldn’t see in those like Zazi who worshiped alongside him or others he wouldn’t know who may have influenced Zazi.5 Operation Highrise (NewYork, 2009) 155 What is known is that Zazi had volunteered his time as a janitor at a local mosque, the Masjid Abu Bakr Siddique. The mosque’s imam, Sherzad , remembers Zazi joining a protest against the imam’s anti-Taliban rhetoric. This is the first indicator of any support for a radical organization ; it was early 2005. After the protest, friends grew concerned about Zazi’s appreciation for a radical Indian physician and speaker on Islam, Dr. Zakir Khan. In YouTube clips, Dr. Khan states, “If [bin Laden] is fighting enemies of Islam, I am for him . . . if he is terrorizing America— the terrorist, biggest terrorist—I am with him. Every Muslim should be a terrorist.” It is certainly possible that Zazi appreciated these sentiments expressed on the Internet and that they helped shape his worldview. Zazi’s friends also...