Conspiracy

A federal grand jury in New York indicted a Denver man on a terrorism charge Thursday after federal authorities alleged that he and possibly three others had gone on a buying spree of bomb-making chemicals and were preparing an attack on U.S. soil. The one-count indictment alleges that Najibullah Zazi, 24, worked for more than a year on a plot to detonate a weapon of mass destruction. Justice Department documents did not name the alleged co-conspirators, but said that three other Denver-area residents had bought unusual amounts of chemicals from beauty-supply stores, including hydrogen peroxide and acetone, which can be used to make explosives.

Shackled and sitting at the front of a courtroom, Alex Sanchez looked on with somber eyes as the judge called him a danger to society and a potential flight risk. The anti-gang worker who could face life in prison if convicted in a federal case was ordered held without bail. Outside the courthouse, dozens of Sanchez supporters -- clergy, professors, lawyers, community organizers and youths from Latino, black and Asian communities -- pleaded for his freedom.

Employees at two Inland Empire bail bond companies face counts of conspiracy to illegally solicit bail by allegedly paying jailed inmates in Rancho Cucamonga and San Bernardino to solicit fellow inmates. Charged were Thomas Arzate, his brother Albert Arzate and bail agents Jaime Ramirez and Nick Marks of Colton-based Arzate Bail Bond Co., along with Angelo Michael Verlino of Rancho Cucamonga-based Allways Bail Bonds.

It is a tale so rich in sensational twists and unlikely characters--a wife murdered in her bed, a stepdaughter found drugged in a doghouse with a note of confession, a sister tied romantically to the alleged killer, and a husband accused of masterminding the whole scheme--that the Hollywood scriptwriters have barely been able to wait for its finale. Now comes the finale.

Four teenagers accused of plotting to kill teachers and students in a lunch period massacre at Winslow Township High School were charged in Camden under a terrorism law created after the Sept. 11 attacks. The boys, ages 14 to 16, were arrested after police heard about the alleged plot from administrators at the school, where three of the teens are students. Their names were not released because of their ages. A family court judge ordered the four youths held for psychiatric evaluations.

Authorities arrested suspects accused of burglarizing the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and other young celebrities after a member of the alleged "bling ring" confessed, according a search warrant affidavit obtained by The Times. The search warrant said the crew would surf the Internet to find where the celebrities lived, then watched the locations and worked out ways to break into the homes. In many of the cases, the doors were simply left open. In the case of Hilton and actress Rachel Bilson, the crew broke in numerous times, according to the search warrant affidavit filed at a Las Vegas court.

Inside the tidy suburban St. Louis home of John and Linda Johnson, no photos of their eldest daughter grace the walls. Army Pfc. LaVena Johnson was just 19 when she died in Iraq in 2005; to this day her parents cannot bear to display reminders of her life. John Johnson does possess other photos of his daughter -- explicit color shots of her autopsy and death scene. He shows them to a visitor. They are horrifying: LaVena in a pool of blood. LaVena's corpse on a coroner's table.

It took nearly 5 1/2 years to convict David A. Brown in the death of his wife, Linda Marie Brown. February, 1985: Patti Bailey, at the request of her lover and brother-in-law, David A. Brown, takes a gun into the room of her sister, Linda Marie Brown (David's wife) at the Garden Grove home where they all live, intent on killing her. She gets scared and backs out.

Federal authorities charged eight men Tuesday with taking part in a sophisticated ATM fraud that allegedly stole more than $2 million from bank and gas station customers throughout Los Angeles County. Authorities say the men, who worked as service station operators and bank tellers, conspired with the ring's leaders to illegally tap into the bank accounts of thousands of unsuspecting customers. One of the men named in the 41-page federal criminal complaint is a fugitive.

A millionaire computer entrepreneur, accused of persuading his 14-year-old daughter to kill his wife and then take sole responsibility for it, was found guilty Friday of first-degree murder for financial gain. David A.

Two Chicago men accused of planning an attack on a Danish newspaper knew beforehand about the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, last year that killed nearly 170 people, federal investigators said Monday. In a conversation that investigators said they secretly recorded on a long car ride, U.S. authorities said the two men chatted about how they had known the terrorism rampage was about to begin in which 10 gunmen ran between hotels and other public places shooting people. During the ride, U.S. officials said, Tahawwur Rana asked David Coleman Headley to pass along congratulations to the planner of the attack, a leader of the militant Pakistani organization Lashkar-e-Taiba.

The investigation of five American Muslims held on suspicion of having links with terrorist groups has focused on a Pakistani militant whom the young men communicated with over the Internet and who became their primary contact as they tried to make their way to Afghanistan, Pakistani authorities said Saturday. As Pakistani law enforcement officials began questioning for the fourth day the close-knit group from a multiethnic, working-class enclave in Virginia, investigators sought more information about a suspected Pakistani militant they knew only as Saifullah.

A close-knit group of five American Muslims from suburban Virginia had been trying to join a militant group in the Al Qaeda stronghold of northwestern Pakistan when they were arrested this week, Pakistani authorities said Thursday. Laptop computers, maps and extremist literature recovered in a raid on a house owned by the family of one of the five in Sargodha, in eastern Pakistan, suggest that the Americans wanted to train for jihad, or holy war, authorities said. The young men had communicated with a militant group and may have intended to travel to Miran Shah, in the North Waziristan region dominated by Al Qaeda and the Taliban, authorities said.

Jesse Ventura, who used to be the governor of Minnesota and before that was a professional wrestler known as "The Body," is now the star of a television docu-thriller series called "Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura." It begins tonight on the truTV network (formerly Court TV), whose motto is "Not reality. Actuality" and whose other shows include "The Smoking Gun Presents," "Operation Repo," "Inside American Jail" and "Rehab: Party at the Hard Rock Hotel." The idea here is that Ventura investigates -- is seen to appear to investigate is probably a better way of putting it -- some of the best-loved semi-secret narratives of our troubled times, including the 2012 apocalypse and the secret bunkers to which you will not be invited; the Bilderberg Group ("their latest alleged plan is to thin out the world's population through disease and vaccines")

'Conspiracy Theory With Jesse Ventura' Where: TruTV When: 10 tonight Rating: TV-14 (may be unsuitable for children younger than 14)

Authorities arrested suspects accused of burglarizing the homes of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and other young celebrities after a member of the alleged "bling ring" confessed, according a search warrant affidavit obtained by The Times. The search warrant said the crew would surf the Internet to find where the celebrities lived, then watched the locations and worked out ways to break into the homes. In many of the cases, the doors were simply left open. In the case of Hilton and actress Rachel Bilson, the crew broke in numerous times, according to the search warrant affidavit filed at a Las Vegas court.

The methods allegedly used by a group of teenagers suspected by authorities of burglarizing the homes of such stars as Lindsay Lohan, Orlando Bloom and Paris Hilton have again raised concerns about the intrusive glare of the paparazzi. According to detectives, the group used celebrity websites and paparazzi photos to track schedules and movements of the people they are suspected of burglarizing. They looked for times when the stars were scheduled to either be out of town or attending movie premieres and other events, police said.

Federal authorities on Tuesday charged two Chicago men with plotting terrorist attacks against targets in Western Europe, including the "facilities and employees" of a Danish newspaper that printed cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that sparked riots in the Muslim world. David Coleman Headley, 49, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, was charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 48-year-old Canadian citizen also from Pakistan, was accused of supporting him. Both men remain in federal custody, officials said.

Five men were convicted today of plotting a terrorist attack by collecting bomb-making instructions and purchasing explosive chemicals in Australia's largest terrorist conspiracy. A jury deliberated for a month before finding the men guilty of conspiring to commit acts in preparation for a terrorist attack. Each faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. During the trial, which began in November, prosecutor Richard Maidment told the jury in New South Wales state Supreme Court that the men planned to use explosive devices or firearms to commit "extreme violence" in a bid to force Australia's government to change its policy on Middle East conflicts.

An Afghan immigrant charged with conspiring to bomb U.S. targets in an attack possibly intended to coincide with the Sept. 11 anniversary pleaded not guilty in federal court Tuesday. Najibullah Zazi of Aurora, Colo., was ordered held without bail in what authorities have called the first Al Qaeda-linked plot on U.S. soil since the 2001 attacks. He appeared beside his attorney, wearing orange sneakers, black trousers and a tunic. Zazi, 24, his heavy beard neatly trimmed, did not speak, and there were no family members in the packed courthouse.