Top Stories

NEW YORK (CBS) ― New York remains on heightened alert Wednesday morning as the probe continues into a possible plot to attack the Big Apple and other locations across the country.

Counterterrorism officials say the terror alerts issued for hotels, stadiums and mass transit remain in effect Wednesday.

While no specific plot has been identified, investigators hit more apartments and storage facilities in Queens following last week's raids in Flushing, part of the ever-expanding probe to identify those connected with the prime suspect in the case, Najibullah Zazi, the 24-year-old Afghan native arrested in Colorado over the weekend.

"I think we've disrupted that which they've planned and it's not totally clear to us at this point what they had in mind although it is clear something very serious and organized was underway," said U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday night.

 Did NYPD blow cover in terror probe?

As New York plays host to the world, hotels being used by U.N. diplomats have stepped up their security. Every piece of luggage going into the New York Sheraton was scanned by an x-ray machine.

"Our operating premise is that the city is the top terrorist target hit list," said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. "People want to come here and hurt us. We are on a heightened state of alert every day."

So with National Guardsmen armed with M-16s and bomb-sniffing dogs at Grand Central and Penn Station, commuters just accept this new way of life.

"I think there's a certain amount of risk living in New York City and any big city," said commuter Mitchell Meth.

"I'm worried but it has not changed my behavior," added commuter Deborah Knight.

Sports officials meanwhile are confident that adequate security measures are in place to thwart any potential terrorist attacks.

Responding in a low-key manner to security warnings that terrorists would like to attack stadiums, several sports officials said Tuesday that they have already boosted precautions so much the latest alerts won't make much difference.

"Major League Baseball utilizes heightened security procedures at all ballparks as a matter of practice and will continue to do so," the commissioner's office said in a statement. "Fan security always has been and always will be our most important priority."

Heightened security was on display Tuesday night at Citi Fields in Queens, as the New York Mets played host to the Atlanta Braves.

Officials reported extra security as fans were frisked and bags more extensively searched.

Law enforcement officials said Zazi may have been plotting with others to detonate backpack bombs on New York trains in a scheme similar to the attacks on the London subway and Madrid's rail system in the last few years. Backpacks and cell phones were seized in raids on apartments Zazi visited in New York.

In a statement, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said that while the agencies "have no information regarding the timing, location or target of any planned attack, we believe it is prudent to raise the security awareness of our local law enforcement partners regarding the targets and tactics of previous terrorist activity."

Ron Kuby, the lawyer for Queens imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, has said his client had a history of giving police information as a community liaison and religious leader in his Queens neighborhood. Kuby claimed Afzali was doing their bidding by talking to Zazi and finding out what he was up to.

"My client is being blamed for an investigation botched by the authorities," Kuby said Tuesday. "It's much easier to blame some obscure Afghan imam."

The complaint, filed in federal court in Brooklyn, says NYPD detectives first visited Afzali at his home on Sept. 10.

Around that time, the public was unaware that federal authorities were tracking a suburban Denver man with possible links to al-Qaida who had driven to New York City -- Zazi. The complaint says that unnamed detectives showed Afzali photos of Zazi and that Afzali admitted he recognized him.

Kuby said one of the detectives was his client's usual police contact, an investigator assigned to the police department's Intelligence Division, not the terrorism task force.

The day after police spoke to Afzali, the FBI intercepted his phone call with Zazi discussing the NYPD's inquiry. The next day, Afzali's lawyer said, his client had his first-ever contact with the FBI, when he agreed to answer questions at their Manhattan headquarters.

On Sept. 14, Afzali also agreed to a search of his home, then gave DNA samples and a written statement on Sept. 17, the attorney said.

Afzali was arrested on Sunday on charges he lied in the statement by denying that he had tipped off Zazi.

 FBI Statement On Arrest Of Terror Suspects
 Read Department Of Justice's Announcement Of Terror Arrests
 Raw: Criminal Complaint And Arrest Warrant, Najibullah Zazi (pdf) 
 Raw: Criminal Complaint And Arrest Warrant, Mohammed Wali Zazi (pdf)



 

 

(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

• Go! New York For A Healthy Lifestyle
• Got Wit? Play CBS 2's Caption Game!
• 20 Questions
• Celebrities On Twitter
• Celebrity Real Names Revealed
• When It Was Out To Be Out
• Hilarious Movie Blunders
• World's Coolest Fighter Jets