Suggesting they wanted to “pack it with explosives.” An update on this story. “Feds probe alleged terrorists who tried to rent giant truck in suspected Al Qaeda bomb plot,” by James Gordon Meek, Judith Crosson, Kate Nocera, Rocco Parascandola and Larry Mcshane for the New York Daily News, September 19 :
Investigators probed a failed Queens truck rental for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot yesterday as a chief terror suspect tried making a deal to save his skin.
The New York end of the expanding federal probe centered on seven Afghan men who tried to rent the biggest truck at a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9, sources told the Daily News.
The size of the vehicle involved – a 26-foot-long truck – suggested the conspirators wanted to pack it with explosives, sources said.
A police source acknowledged there was “quite a bit that we weren’t completely sure of” about the plot or the role of Najibullah Zazi, the bearded public face of the terrorism investigation.
“We knew this guy [Zazi] wasn’t innocent,” the source said.
Zazi, after three days of FBI questioning, was considering a plea deal to turn informant, sources told The News.
He also admitted to feds that he may have come across Al Qaeda militants while in Pakistan, sources said.
Attorney General Eric Holder said the probe had spread beyond Denver, home to the alleged terror cell, and New York City.
“The FBI is working this case around the clock in both cities and in other parts of the country,” he said.
The truck rental bid failed when none of the men could produce a valid credit card. All refused to surrender the identification needed to pay cash, the manager of the Flushing U-Haul said.
A team of FBI agents spent 10 hours Thursday combing through the Queens truck rental business.
“We all feel very lucky right now,” U-Haul manager Robert Larson told The News.
When the FBI arrived, Larson said, “I was wondering, ‘Where is Ashton Kutcher to tell me I’ve been punked?'”
By the time the agents left, “I realized this is crazy, this is real, it’s not a joke,” Larson said….