NATIONAL BRIEFING / NEW YORK

The man accused of plotting a bombing in New York had contact with an Osama bin Laden confidant believed to be Al Qaeda’s leader in Afghanistan, U.S. intelligence officials told the Associated Press.

Mustafa Abu Yazid, an Egyptian reputed to be one of the founders of the terrorist network, used a middleman to contact Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi, 24, as Zazi hatched a plot to use homemade backpack bombs, two intelligence officials said.

Zazi has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction.