His lawyer says Zazi called him upon learning from his friends that their homes had been searched. It's a case of Zazi being in the wrong place at the wrong time and guilty by association. Will the F.B.I. agree?

Two law enforcement officials told The Associated Press that a joint FBI-New York Police Department task force had put Zazi under surveillance because of the suspected links to al-Qaida. They had tailed him from Colorado to New York and had been tracking him for months, apparently including a recent trip to the Pakistan.

The task force also feared Zazi may be involved in a potential plot involving homemade hydrogen peroxide-based explosives like those cited in an intelligence warning issued Monday, said the officials, who spoke on anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the investigation.

ABC News reported that in series of raids on Monday, agents seized 14 new black backpacks they suspect were to be used to carry suicide bombs and instructions on Zazi's computers on how to build a bomb with household chemicals.

My favorite quote from Zazi's lawyer:

"Given some of the course that has happened in this country in recent years, [Zazi] was more worried that he would be swooped into the back of a van and that he wouldn't be able to speak to a lawyer or family," Folsom said. "I told him our government doesn't have that policy any more."