Najibullah Zazi

Terror?

Is terrorism still a threat in the U.S.?

How can that be?

Global citizen Obama apologized to the world. Everything was supposed to change.

I guess Najibullah Zazi, Mohammed Wali Zazi, and Ahmad Wais Afzali didn't get the memo.

From the Associated Press:

The FBI arrested a 24-year-old Colorado man on charges of making false statements to federal agents in an ongoing terror investigation, and supporting documents contend the man admitted receiving weapons and explosives training from al-Qaida in Pakistan.

Najibullah Zazi of the Denver suburb of Aurora was arrested late Saturday after undergoing three days of questioning by the FBI. Zazi, a legal permanent resident from Afghanistan, was due to appear in federal court on Monday.

Also arrested were Zazi's father, Mohammed Wali Zazi, 53, in Denver; and an associate, Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, of Queens, N.Y., the Justice Department said Sunday. Both also were charged with making false statements to federal agents, a charge that carries a penalty of eight years in prison. Court appearances for both also were set for Monday.

...A senior U.S. intelligence official in Washington told The Associated Press Friday that Zazi has indicated that he is directly linked with al-Qaida. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss intelligence matters, said Zazi played a crucial role in an intended terrorist attack but that it was not immediately clear what the targets were.

The FBI is investigating several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere in an alleged plot to detonate explosive devices in the United States, the Justice Department said in a statement.

"The arrests carried out tonight are part of an ongoing and fast-paced investigation," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security. "It is important to note that we have no specific information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack."

A joint FBI-New York Police Department task force feared Zazi may have been involved in a potential plot involving hydrogen peroxide-based explosives like those cited in an intelligence warning issued Monday, according to two other law enforcement officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation. Zazi denies any ties to al-Qaida or terrorism.

In supporting documents filed with the court, investigators say Zazi admitted to FBI agents last week that in 2008 he received weapons and explosives training from al-Qaida in the federally administered tribal areas of Pakistan.

The terror probe gathered momentum after Zazi rented a car and drove from Denver to New York, crossing into Manhattan on Sept. 10. Zazi said he went to New York to resolve some issues with a coffee cart he owns in Manhattan, then flew home to Denver. The FBI searched Zazi's rental car and laptop during the New York trip and listened in on telephone conversations, according to the affidavits.

On Monday, FBI agents and police officers with search warrants seeking bomb materials searched three apartments and questioned residents in the Queens neighborhood where Zazi stayed.

A Sept. 11 search of Zazi's rental car in New York turned up a laptop computer that contained an image of nine pages of handwritten notes, according to court documents filed with the arrest warrant. Those notes included instructions about how to build explosives and detonators, the affidavits state.

...An arrest warrant affidavit says FBI agents intercepted a phone conversation around Sept. 11 in which Afzali, a legal permanent resident from Afghanistan, told Zazi that he had spoken with authorities. "I was exposed to something yesterday from the authorities. And they came to ask me about your characters. They asked me about you guys," Afzali told Zazi, according to the affidavit.

...The department says Mohammed Zazi, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was interviewed last week by the FBI, lied when asked if he knew anyone by the name of Afzali and said he didn't. The FBI said it had wiretapped a conversation between Mohammed Zazi and Afzali during Najibullah Zazi's visit to New York.

Someone should tell Zazi that Obama is president.

He's supposed to put aside his terrorist plots.

It's a new world.

Interesting that in this new world Obama has decided to keep the very provisions of the PATRIOT Act that Leftists chastised President Bush for employing.

The Obama administration supports extending three key provisions of the Patriot Act that are due to expire at the end of the year, the Justice Department told Congress in a letter made public Tuesday.

Lawmakers and civil rights groups had been pressing the Democratic administration to say whether it wants to preserve the post-Sept. 11 law's authority to access business records, as well as monitor so-called "lone wolf" terrorists and conduct roving wiretaps.

The provision on business records was long criticized by rights groups as giving the government access to citizens' library records, and a coalition of liberal and conservative groups complained that the Patriot Act gives the government too much authority to snoop into Americans' private lives.

As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama said he would take a close look at the law, based on his past expertise in constitutional law. Back in May, President Obama said legal institutions must be updated to deal with the threat of terrorism, but in a way that preserves the rule of law and accountability.

Yeah, whatever.

Bottom line:

1. Even though Obama won the election, Muslim extremists still hate Americans and want to carry out terrorist attacks against us.

2. Measures used by the Bush administration to combat terrorism now look pretty good to Obama when he's sitting in the Oval Office.

It wasn't supposed to be this way.