COLLEEN VS. TERRORIST
I remember an event that occurred in the Spring of 2006. My wife was finishing up her coursework at John Jay College- located at 59 th Street and 10 th Avenue. She was taking classes in criminal forensics, Greek philosophy, French and sociology. We were living in a house on Beach 90 th Street in the Rockaways. It had two floors, a terrace and a gated front yard where our two dogs hung out. Amazingly, it was maybe one hundred feet away from the beach (which is right on the Atlantic Ocean). It was a beach that was well loved by surfers. It was a great location but unfortunately a very long commute into Manhattan. Sometimes I rode the A train with her.
Bear and Max I was with Colleen on the train when the following incident occurred.
At the Chambers Street stop, about 8 or 9 youths get in and quickly disperse throughout the car. They all are a little older than high school age. One of them appeared to be the leader of the group. He was the only one who sat down. He was clean- shaven and baby faced, wearing a tan leather jacket and carrying a small digital camera.
The babyfaced young man takes out his camera and starts snapping pictures profusely.
My wife, very unexpectedly, “scrunches” herself right next to the babyfaced leader and puts her arms around his shoulder. That made this guy very uncomfortable. She begins to “chat him up” in an aƯectionate manner. She asks him,“What are you doing there, big guy? Could I look at some of your snapshots? He seemed afraid now- almost panicked. He gave one of these tiny nonverbal cues to his group. They made a synchronous exit and practically flew up the staircase when the train pulled into Port Authority. In a flash they were all gone. I asked Colleen why she did that. She said, “the one sitting down was looking at you in a hateful way. I didn’t like that at all.” When I asked if she realized who they probably were she just nodded. This was less than five years after 9/11 and that infamous attack was on every New Yorkers mind. When we arrived at the transit police station at Columbus Circle she gave a detailed account to the captain on duty. She had the number of the subway car and exact timings of arrivals at subway stations. The captain was very impressed with all the detail. She explained that she was a student at John Jay (considered by many to be the epicenter for criminology). The police told her that her info was especially relevant as there had already
been suspicious activity in the subways of late. The man we saw on the A train was Najibullah Zazi.
He left the US and trained with Al Queda in Afghanistan. When he returned to New York City, he attempted to carry out a massive attack on the NYC subway system. Zazi and his former schoolmates from Flushing High School had planned to carry bombs in backpacks on to NYC subways in order to stage a “suicide attack” during the rush hour. When Zazi learned that the local police were already “tracking him” he got “spooked” and abruptly left the city for Colorado. He was arrested there in 2009.
Zazi being arrested in Colorado
He did nine years in prison but didn’t have to serve out his whole sentence because he “ratted out” his co-conspirators to the FBI. The Associated Press wrote in 2009 that (Zazi) “had contacts with al-Qaeda that went nearly to the top, to an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be the terrorist group’s leader in Afghanistan” .In addition, US Attorney General Eric Holder has referred to Zazi’s planned attack as " one of the most serious terrorist threats to our nation since September 11, 2001." [9] I am very proud of Colleen for what she did on the spur of a moment. As always, she was resourceful, imaginative and fearless. I am sure that the report she made to NYC police helped to prevent another horrific terrorist event in NYC. As an onlooker, it was also entertaining to see her make a fool of that “clown” with her “feminine wiles”!
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