As Obama prepared to come to the city to address the one-year anniversary of the start of the financial crisis yesterday, a suspected “al Qaeda associate” under FBI surveillance in Denver mysteriously rented a car and drove all the way to Flushing, Queens. The man, whose name was withheld, reportedly had sought out bomb-making materials. Federal officials raided three homes in response to the cross-country trip, including one belonging to a Bosnian family and one group home of Afghan immigrants. A handful of people were detained, several boxes were seized, but no bomb-making materials were found. The suspect who launched the raids had been in New York for a week before yesterday, when he fled back to Denver.
