Feds unsure if arrest of Najibullah Zazi and two others has foiled al-Qaeda terror plot

BY James Gordon Meek In Washington and Rocco Parascandola and Alison Gendar

Federal agents from Denver and New York to Pakistan are still racing to solve an Al Qaeda bomb plot, unsure whether the arrest of three suspects has put the terror gang out of business.

"They're still looking," a senior counterterror official told the Daily News. As to whether they have identified all the conspirators, "nobody knows the answer for sure," the official said.

FBI arrest documents showed prime suspect Najibullah Zazi, 25, an Afghan, visited the city from Colorado on the 9/11 anniversary carrying a laptop with bomb-making notes he wrote. Specific attack plans or targets remain unknown, a Justice Department statement said.

Zazi was collared in Aurora, Colo., near Denver, by the FBI on Saturday night and was charged with lying about the bomb notes. He'll likely soon be slapped with tougher terrorism charges, sources said.

Also nabbed for lying to feds was Flushing mosque Imam Ahmad Wais Afzali, 37, an NYPD snitch who the FBI says alerted Zazi and his father, Mohammed, 53, after cops quizzed him about the son.  The senior official said the feds believe the plot is now "compromised" and would be "hard to bring forward."

"We think we have a pretty good handle on the threat, but we'd know a lot more if Afzali hadn't tipped them in the beginning," another insider said.

The source added that court papers released yesterday reveal only a "sliver" of the conspiracy.

"The FBI is investigating several individuals in the U.S., Pakistan and elsewhere, relating to a plot to detonate improvised explosive devices in the U.S.," the Justice Department said. ....