And the notes were in his handwriting! So he just accidentally downloaded bomb-making instructions while downloading a “religious text.” Then he accidentally copied out these bomb-making instructions in his own handwriting — in a peaceful way, of course, and without any idea of what he was doing!
And NPR doesn’t tell us what “religious text” comes with downloadable bomb-making instructions. I am sure that John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion or St. Basil the Great’s On the Holy Spirit often come complete with a full bomb-making manual. But of course to report on what religious text it really was, and from what religion, and what adherents of that religion might be doing to encourage bomb-making, and how they might find justification for such actions in the texts and teachings of that religion — all that would be beyond NPR’s scope!
An update on this story. “Terror Plot Suspects To Appear In Federal Court,” by Dina Temple-Raston and Linda Wertheimer for NPR.com, September 21 (thanks to Choi):
The three men the FBI arrested over the weekend in connection with an alleged plot to attack sites in New York and other U.S. cities will appear in federal court later Monday.
The man law enforcement officials say is at the center of it all is an Afghan national named Najibullah Zazi, 24, who drives an airport shuttle bus in the Denver area. Zazi says that this is all some mistake. Also arrested were his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, and the imam of a Queens mosque.
Zazi and his father are expected to appear in a federal court in Denver. The imam Ahamd [sic] Wais Afzali, 37, is scheduled to appear in a New York court. All three men have been charged with lying to federal authorities. That offense carries an eight-year sentence.
It is clear that the younger Zazi is the one the FBI is really interested in. Officials close to the case told NPR that there are more charges coming. His arresting papers suggest as much. They were released on Sunday by the Justice Department and, among other things, they say that Najibullah Zazi admitted he trained in explosives at an al-Qaida camp….
What Najibullah Zazi was actually admitting to is unclear. Law enforcement officials told NPR on Friday that Zazi was willing to admit that he’d trained in explosives in an al-Qaida camp, but the stumbling block was Zazi admitting to his role in any attack or plot. The government also wanted his full cooperation. By Saturday whatever they might have been discussing was off the table. Zazi decided not to show up as scheduled for a fourth day of interviews. He was arrested a short time later.
While it might seem far-fetched for authorities to allow Zazi to come and go from FBI headquarters after admitting to a link to al-Qaida, law enforcement officials said they were hoping to draw more suspects out. Having Zazi roaming free provided more opportunity for others involved to make a mistake and, for example, call Zazi.
There have been some other arrests below the radar. Officials tell NPR that six or seven Afghan friends of Zazi’s from Queens, N.Y. were arrested last week. It is unclear what they were charged with, but apparently it is in connection with their attempts to rent of a U-Haul truck a couple of weeks ago.
Some of the men went to a U-Haul rental place in Jamaica Queens and asked to rent their biggest truck. But they didn’t have a valid credit card. They said they wanted to pay cash. U-Haul said it would need their IDs and the men apparently balked.
It isn’t illegal to rent a U-Haul for cash, but when the FBI asked the men about it, allegedly they denied ever having been there. So these men might be in jail for lying to authorities as well. The manager of the U-Haul company allegedly identified the men involved from photographs the FBI showed him.
Some of the evidence collected against Zazi was laid out in arresting documents. Officials say that they had Zazi on a wire tap and other electronic surveillance for some time. They said they have a taped conversation of Zazi speaking with a known al-Qaida operative in Afghanistan.
They found images of handwritten notes on his computer that laid out how to make a bomb and in particular how to put together fuses. Zazi said he downloaded that information by accident when he pulled a religious text off the internet. But law enforcement officials say the notes are in his handwriting….