The system worked

Opinion: February 25, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Washington Post: Najibullah Zazi wanted to be a foot soldier for the Taliban, so in 2008 the 25-year-old legal permanent resident of the United States flew from Newark International Airport to Pakistan to receive weapons training at an al-Qaida outpost. His instructors had other ideas. “Al-Qaida leaders asked us to return to the United States and conduct martyrdom operation,” Mr. Zazi calmly told a New York federal judge. “We agreed.” The ultimate plan: set off explosives in New York’s subway system.

Guilty plea

Mr. Zazi was arrested last September in Denver, just days away from carrying out what Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called “one of the most serious terrorist threats to our nation since September 11th, 2001.” On Monday, Mr. Zazi pleaded guilty to three terrorism-related counts that could keep him behind bars for the rest of his life.

Details about why U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials first came to suspect Mr. Zazi or how they built a case against him are sparse; such information is being closely guarded, according to the Justice Department, to prevent disclosure of sensitive sources and methods. It seems the Obama administration effectively used an array of available tools. During a news conference Monday, FBI Deputy Director John S. Pistole credited the National Security Agency and the CIA — which gather only overseas intelligence — “for outstanding contributions to this interagency effort.”