THE TERROR PROBE - AT 11:37 A.M. ET:  There is an ongoing terror probe that is turning out to be more serious than originally believed:

AURORA, Colorado (CNN) -- Federal agents have charged a 24-year-old Colorado resident, his father and another man with making false statements during an extensive terror investigation that stretches to Pakistan.

Najibullah Zazi is accused of making false statements to officials about an alleged bomb plot in the United States.

The Justice Department said Sunday it is investigating several other people in connection with the plot to detonate bombs in the United States.

Najibullah Zazi and his father, Mohammed Wali Zazi -- both originally from Afghanistan -- were arrested Saturday night. They were handcuffed without incident after authorities raided Zazi's home in the Denver suburb of Aurora.

An acquaintance of the two men, Ahmad Wais Afzali, of Queens, New York, was also arrested. Afzali is a legal permanent resident from Afghanistan, as is Najibullah Zazi. Mohammed Wali Zazi is a naturalized U.S. citizen.

COMMENT:  The Bush administration would have made much more of this, stressing the urgency of terror investigations.  Law enforcement may well have prevented a major attack here, one that apparently was aimed at targets in New York, including the fashion industry.

It appears from news reports that the terror group involved had only conventional weapons.  The nightmare, of course, involves the possibility that groups in the future will have weapons of mass destruction, or at least "dirty" nuclear devices capable of irradiating blocks of a large city.

September 20, 2009