Najibullah Zazi

Federal authorities Friday arrested two more men in connection with an alleged plot to use hair dye and other beauty products to make bombs for use against targets in New York. Both of the men, Adis Medunjanin, 25, and Zarein Ahmedzay, 24, live in the New York City borough of Queens and were high school classmates of Najibullah Zazi, 24, an Afghan native charged with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction after the case unfolded in September. Late Friday afternoon, Ahmedzay appeared in federal court in Brooklyn and pleaded not guilty to a charge of lying to investigators about where he had traveled during visits to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

As Americans commemorated the anniversary of the raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden - and endured the heavily partisan fight over whether President Obama's supporters were too effusive in their praise of his actions - another victory against terrorism was being celebrated by officials in a Brooklyn courtroom. After less than two days of deliberation, a jury on Tuesday convicted Adis Medunjanin, 28, of Queens N.Y. , of conspiracy and terrorism charges in connection with a planned suicide bombing attack on the New York City subway system in 2009.

Today's topic: Where can you point to the Patriot Act's success in stopping terrorists? Wednesday through Friday, Jena Baker McNeill and Julian Sanchez discuss the Patriot Act, portions of which Congress is considering reauthorizing. Point: Jena Baker McNeill Three alleged terrorist plots have been foiled in recent weeks in three U.S. cities: Dallas, New York and Springfield, Ill. Officials say the cases involved men who, in separate plots, wanted to bomb a federal building, a subway and a skyscraper.

An Afghan immigrant who admitted planning to bomb New York City targets to protest the war in his homeland takes the stand again Wednesday in the trial of an alleged co-conspirator in the plot, which officials called "one of the most serious threats" to the country since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Najibullah Zazi began his testimony Tuesday in federal court in Manhattan, looking far different from the defiant, bearded man who stood in a courtroom in February 2010 and pleaded guilty to terror-related charges.

Reader Patrick Meighan of Culver City wondered about the use of an anonymous source in reporter Ken Dilanian's Aug. 30 article about an increase in domestic surveillance since the Sept. 11 attacks. Meighan wrote: "I enjoyed reading the piece about the massive surge in our federal executive's oversight-free surveillance of American citizens since 9/11. However, I'm wondering why you chose to grant anonymity to the 'senior law enforcement official' who cited the [Najibullah] Zazi case in defense of federal eavesdropping on attorney-client communications.

An unsuccessful plan to detonate homemade bombs in the New York subway system last year was orchestrated by senior Al Qaeda leaders who were also plotting a comparable attack in Britain, according to a terrorism indictment unsealed Wednesday. "The charges announced today illustrated the coordinated and persistent attempts by our adversaries to harm American citizens," said George Venizelos, acting assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York office. Adnan Shukrijumah, a U.S. citizen who was regarded as one of Al Qaeda's best hopes to execute a plot in post- 9/11 America, is among several new alleged Al Qaeda figures charged in the botched Manhattan attempt.

Where is Osama bin Laden when we need him? Don't get me wrong; in no way do I wish death and destruction on our country. But as I listen to the increasingly vitriolic and even seditious rhetoric coming from the political right, I can't help thinking that we need a threatening external enemy to help us cohere as a nation -- a more looming threat than the almost vanished Al Qaeda leader or even his recently arrested alleged minion from Denver....

Consider, if you will, the humble diving beetle. It's not a particularly glamorous creature, with its six legs and hard exoskeleton. A living being further removed from the distractions of show business could not be found, or so you might think until you run across the name of one recently discovered species: Agaporomorphus colberti . Yes, Stephen Colbert, the endlessly mocking and jibing host of Comedy Central's "The Colbert Report," has...

We haven't heard much lately from the folks who say the Obama administration is making America vulnerable by trying terrorists in federal criminal courts instead of in military commissions. It's probably because their rhetoric has been dealt a serious blow by the flurry of guilty pleas this year by high-profile terror suspects. They include: • Faisal Shahzad, who pleaded guilty in June to attempting to blow up a bomb-laden SUV in Times Square in a plot supported by the Pakistani Taliban.

Fourteen people have been accused of providing support to the Somali terrorist group Shabab in indictments unsealed Thursday that shed light on "a deadly pipeline" of funding and fighters to the group from cities across the United States, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. said. Most of those charged were U.S. citizens of Somali descent. It has long been known that disaffected Somali Americans were leaving their homes in Minnesota and other states to join Shabab, an Islamist army whose several thousand fighters are battling Somalia's weak government.