The Afghan immigrant accused of buying large quantities of hair dye and nail-polish remover to make explosives had the goods to kill scores of people in New York — a devastating attack on a scale with the transit bombings in London and Madrid, according to documents and interviews with former FBI experts.
Prosecutors have not said what kind or number of bombs Najibullah Zazi, 24, planned to build, but court documents hint at the possibilities. It is likely the Colorado airport-shuttle driver wanted to borrow a tactic used overseas by making bombs out of flour and hydrogen peroxide and putting them in backpacks, perhaps in the city's transit system, experts say.
The case has been described as perhaps the most serious terrorist plot uncovered in the U.S. since Sept. 11, 2001. However, experts said Zazi, who is being held without bail in New York, had the means to kill scores of people — not hundreds or thousands.
"These explosives are meant to be concealed easily and deployed easily and kill and maim and cause havoc in small areas," said Denny Kline, a retired FBI explosives expert. For a really big bomb, "you're going to need a truck."
How far along Zazi managed to get is unclear. Investigators have not said whether he successfully built or tested any bombs.
Court documents indicate that Zazi and others were hitting beauty supply stores, buying certain materials clearly used to make bombs. They bought concentrated bottles of hydrogen-peroxide hair dye.
He and others also bought acetone — nail-polish remover — and other ingredients that can be used to make a powerful and highly unstable explosive called triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. The same explosive was used by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid in 2001 and the terrorists who carried out the London bombings in 2005 that killed 52 people.
But in each of those earlier instances, TATP was not the main charge — it was the detonator. It was supposed to help detonate the plastic explosives in Reid's shoe aboard a jetliner, and it was used to set off a mixture of black pepper and hydrogen peroxide in London.
Likewise, experts in the Zazi case said the TATP was most likely going to be the detonator.
"It is used more as a detonator because it's easy to initiate," said Leo W. West, a retired FBI explosives expert. "TATP is not the type of thing you want to bounce around with."
Dave Williams, another retired FBI explosives expert, said a half cup of TATP would blow the doors off a car and probably kill anybody inside.
"It's very dangerous," he said.
