N.Y. terror inquiry focusing on possible accomplices

Authorities released a flurry of terrorism warnings for sports complexes, hotels, and transit systems, even while saying the plot was disrupted before it become an immediate threat. But many questions remain unanswered, including the whereabouts of coconspirators and whether any may be cooperating with the inquiry.

There also have been no reports that any bomb-making materials have been recovered.

The accomplices are suspected of traveling from New York City to suburban Denver this summer and using stolen credit cards to help Najibullah Zazi stockpile beauty products containing hydrogen peroxide and acetone, which can be key ingredients for homemade bombs, authorities have said.

Before the raids, police detectives showed a source, a Queens imam at a mosque where Zazi had once worshiped, photographs of him and three people considered possible suspects, court papers say. It was unclear whether those three were the same ones suspected of traveling to Denver.

The official who spoke to the Associated Press declined to comment further yesterday. Spokesmen for the FBI, the New York Police Department, and the US attorney’s office in Brooklyn declined to discuss the case.

After initially being charged along with his father and the imam with lying to investigators, Zazi was due in federal court in Brooklyn today for an arraignment on charges he conspired to use weapons of mass destruction. The 24-year-old airport van driver has denied any wrongdoing.

A letter filed by Brooklyn prosecutors last week argued that Zazi should be jailed indefinitely because, as an Afghan immigrant with ties to Pakistan, he might flee, and because he “poses a significant danger’’ to the community.

Evidence gathered so far, including bomb-making instructions found on his laptop computer, shows “that Zazi remained committed to detonating an explosive device’’ until he was arrested, the letter said.