How does Zazi fit into the history of fanatical Islamic extremism?
The feds haven’t showed their entire hand yet–and they’re getting dealt some terrifying cards, judging by the sliver of information they’ve revealed from Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act wiretaps they obtained. We already have plenty of hair-raising details about Zazi. He admitted to the FBI he was trained in “weapons and explosives” by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in the past year. But one of the most intriguing facts to emerge is that he’s an Afghan. I polled several top experts on Al Qaeda–The Osama Bin Laden I Know author (and TNR contributor) Peter Bergen and ex-Bush counterterrorism adviser Frances Fragos Townsend–but none could think of any Afghans who held senior leadership roles within Al Qaeda or ever identified as operatives carrying out terror missions outside of South Asia. We may be fighting a war in their backyard but up until now they have not chosen, or been selected, to wage war in ours. However, Zazi is also a Pashtun tribesman from wartorn Paktia province, which sit
