FBI to senators: Terror case wasn’t damaged

WASHINGTON — FBI Director Robert Mueller rejected suggestions Wednesday that poor coordination between the FBI and New York Police Department damaged the investigation of an Afghan immigrant charged with plotting a bomb attack in New York City.

Mueller also repeated previous assurances from federal and local officials that there is currently no known imminent threat to the U.S. from this case or any other.

Mueller testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee in the Obama administration’s first public appearance before lawmakers since news broke that Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Denver airport driver, is suspected of plotting a terrorist attack in New York. Authorities have said Zazi admitted receiving explosives training from al-Qaida in Pakistan.

A criminal complaint from the case suggests that police detectives, acting without the FBI’s knowledge, might have inadvertently helped reveal the surveillance of terrorism suspect Najibullah Zazi and compromised the investigation at a sensitive stage by questioning an imam about him. The imam subsequently called Zazi to tell him authorities were asking about him. At least one of those New York Police Department detectives, referred to in the complaint unsealed last week, works for a division that operates independently from the FBI-run joint terrorism task force that is handling Zazi’s case.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., pressed Mueller on whether the way two law enforcement agencies handled the case complicated the investigation.

“Was there any kind of disconnect between I guess the local police in that case and the FBI?” Levin asked. “Was there a problem?”

Mueller replied that this investigation was no different from others: “In every investigation, particularly advanced moving investigations, there are steps that are taken that may or may not work out.” Mueller added that in retrospect there are always things you would do differently.

When Levin pressed on whether there were any lessons learned from this, Mueller said, “On this one, I don’t think so.”

In fact, government court documents also suggest that the NYPD and FBI might have tipped off Zazi even before the imam’s call by towing and searching a rental car Zazi was using on his September trip to New York City. The maneuver, authorities say, produced evidence of the bomb-making instructions on his laptop.

NYPD and FBI officials have denied that the potential missteps forced their hand in last week’s raids, prompted Zazi to abort his New York visit and caused friction between the two agencies, which work together on the joint terrorism task force.

Mueller, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter did not delve into specific details about the Zazi case when they appeared before the senators on Wednesday, because the investigation is ongoing.

Napolitano said her department thought about changing the government’s color-coded terror alert level because of the investigation, but ultimately decided not to raise the alert level because there were few details available about a specific location, time or threat of attack.