Bumbling NYPD messes up terror investigation

From the NY Post:

A suspected "al Qaeda" associate who prompted anti-terror raids on three city homes trained with the terror organization in Pakistan with several other Queens residents, The Post has learned.

The suspect, an Afghani identified only as "Najibullah," since returned to the United States and was living in Denver.

It was unclear how long he and his cohorts trained with the group or when they were there.

The Monday raids on homes Najibullah visited were aimed at finding bomb making materials — and came after he drove cross-country to Queens.

Najibullah, an Afghani, has since flown home to Colorado.

The FBI, meanwhile, is furious with the NYPD for bungled intelligence gathering that tipped off Najibullah that he was under surveillance, sources said.

Federal agents working with the Joint Terrorism Task Force asked their NYPD counterparts to discreetly gather intel on Najibullah.

Rather than slyly contact their list of sources and informants the NYPD canvassed the suspect’s old Flushing neighborhood and flashed around his picture.

Eventually the imam of the Masjid Hazrat Abu Bakr Islamic Center learned of the investigation and contacted the man’s family to let them know that he was subject of a law enforcement inquiry.

And from the Daily News:

The massive FBI probe that triggered raids in Queens is focused on a Denver-based terror cell plotting another attack on the scale of 9/11, the Daily News learned Tuesday.

Hundreds of FBI agents are on the ground in Colorado, conducting round-the-clock surveillance on five suspects - including a man who recently visited Queens, sources told The News.

New York authorities searched three Flushing apartments and detained several men - later released - after getting a warrant to look for bomb-making components, explosive powders and fuses.