NY Times Square bomb attempt

[ajtr]

Pakistan taliban group or not but you can for sure find a pakistani involved in most of the terror attacks round the world. as in this case.

Pakistan native arrested in Times Square bomb case​

A man was arrested late Monday night in connection with the failed Times Square bombing, administration officials said. The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from Pakistan, allegedly purchased the sport utility vehicle that authorities found packed with explosives in New York on Saturday night. He was arrested by Customs and Border Patrol agents at JFK International Airport as he tried to board a flight to Dubai. Authorities became aware of his identity Monday afternoon.

An FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force had taken over the investigation Monday amid growing indications of a possible international connection, U.S. officials and law enforcement sources said.

Shahzad, who lived in Connecticut, is believed to have used cash to purchase the Nissan Pathfinder that was set ablaze but failed to detonate Saturday night on a tourist-crowded block in Midtown Manhattan.

Investigators and agents also were scouring international phone records showing calls "between some of the people who might be associated with this and folks overseas," according to a U.S. official who has discussed the case with intelligence officers. Investigators uncovered evidence -- a piece of paper, fingerprints or possibly both -- that also indicates international ties, according to a federal official briefed on the investigation. The material points to "an individual who causes concern to [investigators], who has overseas connections, and they are looking for him," the official said.

An overseas angle does not necessarily mean that the incident was planned or financed by al-Qaeda or another organized group, investigators said. "Think smaller," said one senior law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Even as investigators emphasized that the probe is in its early stages and little is definitively known, they pursued what Obama administration officials characterized as a flood of new leads, both foreign and domestic. The Pathfinder's registered owner, for example, told investigators that he sold it several weeks ago to a stranger, in a cash transaction through Craigslist.

On a day of fast-moving developments from Manhattan to Washington, President Obama was repeatedly briefed on what a senior administration official called "a very active investigation.'' Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in the morning that it was too early to designate the failed bombing as an attempted terrorist incident. By afternoon, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was calling it just that. "I would say that was intended to terrorize, and I would say that whomever did that would be categorized as a terrorist," Gibbs said, sharpening the administration's tone.

Differences also emerged over the significance of a surveillance video that caught a man in his 40s changing his shirt in an alley and looking over his shoulder near where the Pathfinder was parked. New York City police officials had characterized the man as acting suspiciously, but multiple federal law enforcement officials said he may not be the focus of the investigation.

"It looks like he was just taking off his shirt because he was hot," said one law enforcement official. Investigators were seeking to find another person captured on video running north on Broadway away from the area where the smoking sport-utility vehicle caused an evacuation of Times Square on a crowded weekend night.

Police said the bomb would have created a fireball that likely would have killed or wounded many people, making it the most serious bombing attempt in the United States since the Christmas Day attack aboard a commercial flight bound for Detroit. The growing evidence of terrorist connections in the Times Square case prompted the New York-based terrorism task force to take the lead in the investigation, which had been overseen by the New York Police Department, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said. That indicates that the failed bombing is being investigated as a terrorist incident with international connections, the official said. FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko of the New York field office said in a statement Monday night that the "FBI JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] and NYPD are working this case jointly and have been since the beginning." The New York police force, known for its expertise in terrorism matters, is represented on the task force and will remain heavily involved in the probe, officials said.

In the rear of the SUV, police found a makeshift bomb made up of three tanks of propane similar to those used in backyard barbecues; two jugs of gasoline; dozens of M-88 firecrackers, which are legal for purchase in some states; and a metal gun case holding 100 pounds of fertilizer that police said was incapable of exploding.

Some officials cautioned that the international focus did not mean that other possibilities, such as domestic terrorism or an individual acting alone, were being ruled out. Nor did it mean, they said, that international ties automatically constituted a well-formed plot.

One federal law enforcement official, for example, said international communications don't necessarily "get you to an international plot, a multi-organizational plot."

"We're just not there," the official said.

The nature of the possible international connection also remained murky.

The Pakistani Taliban had asserted responsibility for the attempted bombing in a video posted on YouTube, but New York police and federal investigators have said no evidence had surfaced linking the group to the bomb.

On Sunday night, a second video was posted by apparent representatives of the Taliban, showing the group's commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, promising to launch attacks in the United States.

Mehsud, who U.S. and Pakistani authorities initially believed was killed in a January drone strike, was recorded saying, "The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in their major cities . . . in some days or a month's time."



The video is marked with the logo of the Pakistani Taliban's official media wing, Umar Studios, and appears to be credible, according to Evan F. Kohlmann, a terrorism consultant at Flashpoint Partners.

Staff writers Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

 

[AkhandBharat]

Alert across Delhi, bomb in New York

The terror alert, literally Code Red, was meant for New Delhi. But the bomb surfaced in New York.

Hours after the United States, followed by UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, issued warnings of "imminent terror attacks" in crowded market places in New Delhi, the New York Police discovered a car bomb in Times Square, Big Apple's iconic city center, that, with its glitzy neon lights and bustling nightlife, is the universal tourist hotspot.

The crude bomb, made of propane, gasoline and fireworks, was discovered in a Nissan Pathfinder by a beat cop who was alerted by a T-shirt vendor who saw smoke coming out of a car in the heart of Times Square on a busy Saturday evening. It prompted a major crisis response, including the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from what's considered the world's finest theater district and home to Broadway musicals.

The cop confirmed smoke coming out of the car, presumably because the device had just begun to combust. But there was no explosion, and the authorities managed to defuse it without an explosion after breaking the car windows and sending in a robotic device.

"We are very lucky," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at pre-dawn press conference after the situation had been brought under control. "We avoided what could have been a very deadly event." One of shows running on Broadway right now is titled "God of Carnage," and its star Lucy Liu was among those who came on to the streets to inquire about the hullabaloo after police cordoned off the area around Times Square.

For hours, the police action became a spectacle as tourists milled around curiously. The T-shirt vendor who alerted cops to the smoking car became an instant, but reluctant, celebrity.

Although the bomb was crude and didn't appear capable of causing large scale damage, the very fact that suspected terrorists have the New York landmark in their sights sent a jolt of shock through law-enforcement and homeland security officials.

The bomb was made from two clocks, three propane gas tanks, two additional one-gallon gas canisters and crude fireworks. Authorities suggested it may have malfunctioned while detonating, pointing to a rather amateurish attempt, similar to the one by the Nigerian crotch bomber who failed to ignite his explosive filled underwear.

It is the first attempted strike on New York City after the 9/11 attack that felled the twin World Trade Center, the tenth anniversary of which falls this coming September.

In the decade since that catastrophic event that changed many a security paradigm, US officials have braced themselves for a follow-up attack on a urban American landmark, often suggesting that it is not a question of if, but when.

In fact, there has been a degree of surprise, and a happy one, that terrorists have not successfully followed-up the 9/11 attack with anything of the same scale.

Ironically, the New York scare came hours after the US Embassy in New Delhi issued a security alert warning of a possible terror attack in India and asked its national to exercise caution.

"There are increased indications that terrorists are planning imminent attacks in New Delhi," the statement posted on the US Embassy website said. "Terrorists have targeted places in the past where US citizens or Westerners are known to congregate or visit," it added, warning that markets can be "especially attractive targets for terrorist groups." US citizens were urged to "practice good security, maintain a heightened situational awareness and a low profile."

The New Delhi situation is fraught not only because of the upcoming Commonwealth Games, but also because of the verdict expected tomorrow in the Ajmal Kasab case.

Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand followed up the US warning with advisories to its nationals in India, resulting in the virtual emptying out of New Delhi's markets. There was no such advisory from New Delhi to Indian nationals in New York.

As in New Delhi, life returned to normal pretty quickly.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/US/Alert-across-Delhi-bomb-in-New-York/articleshow/5884358.cms

 

[A.V.]

outcome of weak policy i thought having learnt its lessons well in the 9-11 saga america did many things correct but a weak big mouth president is endangering the life of millions iwth his screwed up policy and outlook , better leave af-paf as it is there will be chaos in south asia but bigger effects will show inside american territory that a gurrantee

 

[ajtr]

The terror alert, literally Code Red, was meant for New Delhi. But the bomb surfaced in New York.

Hours after the United States, followed by UK, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, issued warnings of "imminent terror attacks" in crowded market places in New Delhi, the New York Police discovered a car bomb in Times Square, Big Apple's iconic city center, that, with its glitzy neon lights and bustling nightlife, is the universal tourist hotspot.

The crude bomb, made of propane, gasoline and fireworks, was discovered in a Nissan Pathfinder by a beat cop who was alerted by a T-shirt vendor who saw smoke coming out of a car in the heart of Times Square on a busy Saturday evening. It prompted a major crisis response, including the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from what's considered the world's finest theater district and home to Broadway musicals.

The cop confirmed smoke coming out of the car, presumably because the device had just begun to combust. But there was no explosion, and the authorities managed to defuse it without an explosion after breaking the car windows and sending in a robotic device.

"We are very lucky," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at pre-dawn press conference after the situation had been brought under control. "We avoided what could have been a very deadly event." One of shows running on Broadway right now is titled "God of Carnage," and its star Lucy Liu was among those who came on to the streets to inquire about the hullabaloo after police cordoned off the area around Times Square.

For hours, the police action became a spectacle as tourists milled around curiously. The T-shirt vendor who alerted cops to the smoking car became an instant, but reluctant, celebrity.

Although the bomb was crude and didn't appear capable of causing large scale damage, the very fact that suspected terrorists have the New York landmark in their sights sent a jolt of shock through law-enforcement and homeland security officials.

The bomb was made from two clocks, three propane gas tanks, two additional one-gallon gas canisters and crude fireworks. Authorities suggested it may have malfunctioned while detonating, pointing to a rather amateurish attempt, similar to the one by the Nigerian crotch bomber who failed to ignite his explosive filled underwear.

It is the first attempted strike on New York City after the 9/11 attack that felled the twin World Trade Center, the tenth anniversary of which falls this coming September.

In the decade since that catastrophic event that changed many a security paradigm, US officials have braced themselves for a follow-up attack on a urban American landmark, often suggesting that it is not a question of if, but when.

In fact, there has been a degree of surprise, and a happy one, that terrorists have not successfully followed-up the 9/11 attack with anything of the same scale.

Ironically, the New York scare came hours after the US Embassy in New Delhi issued a security alert warning of a possible terror attack in India and asked its national to exercise caution.

"There are increased indications that terrorists are planning imminent attacks in New Delhi," the statement posted on the US Embassy website said. "Terrorists have targeted places in the past where US citizens or Westerners are known to congregate or visit," it added, warning that markets can be "especially attractive targets for terrorist groups." US citizens were urged to "practice good security, maintain a heightened situational awareness and a low profile."

The New Delhi situation is fraught not only because of the upcoming Commonwealth Games, but also because of the verdict expected tomorrow in the Ajmal Kasab case.

Britain, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand followed up the US warning with advisories to its nationals in India, resulting in the virtual emptying out of New Delhi's markets. There was no such advisory from New Delhi to Indian nationals in New York.

As in New Delhi, life returned to normal pretty quickly.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/US/Alert-across-Delhi-bomb-in-New-York/articleshow/5884358.cms

This news item has smirk written all over it as if mocking Usa and other western countries who issued travel advisory to its citizen visiting new Delhi while the were all anticipating a terror attack in delhi markets with bated breathes meanwhile the bomb surface in the heart of NYC.In the mlee of all this NYC police arrests some non state actor that to american citizen and blame it on their poor buddy pakistan who is spilling blood in FATA to save american forces behond Across the durand line in Afghanistan.I say Americans are truly ungrateful to pakistan by blaming it for failed NYC terror attacks.

 

[Calanen]

It seemed related to South Park showing Mohammed, rather than anything the Big Mouth president did. Although, as you know, Russia has its own problems with terror. The problem is not foreign policy decisions, but the fact that Islam is a philosophy wholly diametrically opposed to secular democracy, and will always have hostility towards it, whatever foreign policy decisions are made. The problem of Islamic expansion and aggression throughout the world is a story that is 1400 years old, it was not created by anything George Bush or Barack Obama have done.

 

[Solid Beast]

Obama should strengthen the role of the US in ISAF's ongoing operations when such shit happens and put the heat on Pakistan government. Let's get practical shit done and not go on tired diatribes against Islam.

 

[dineshchaturvedi]

What else is expected, it is sad that Pakistan is everywhere where terrorism is currently. I think sooner they will realize it, maybe already doing.

 

[LETHALFORCE]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_times_square_car_bomb

NYC bomb suspect nabbed aboard Dubai-bound plane

NEW YORK – A U.S. citizen who had recently returned from a five-month trip to his native Pakistan, where he had a wife, was arrested at a New York airport on charges that he drove a bomb-laden SUV meant to cause a fireball in Times Square, federal authorities said.

Faisal Shahzad was on board a Dubai-bound flight at Kennedy Airport when FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives took him into custody late Monday, law enforcement officials said. One official said he claimed to have acted alone.

U.S. authorities "will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice," Attorney Eric Holder said early Tuesday, suggesting additional suspects are being sought.

Shahzad, 30, is a naturalized U.S. citizen and had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation into the failed car bombing.

Investigators hadn't established an immediate connection to the Pakistani Taliban — which had claimed responsibility for the botched bombing in three videos — or any foreign terrorist groups, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

"He's claimed to have acted alone, but these are things that have to be investigated," the official said.

Another law enforcement official said Shahzad was not known to the U.S. intelligence community before the failed bombing attempt.

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was handling the case and said Shahzad would appear in court Tuesday, but the charges were not made public. FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., early Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz, who wouldn't answer questions about the search.

Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house overnight in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multi-family homes in Connecticut's largest city. A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.

Shahzad was being held in New York overnight and couldn't be contacted. A phone number at a listed address for Shahzad in Shelton, Conn., wasn't in service.

He used to live in a two-story grayish-brown Colonial with a sloping yard in a working-class neighborhood in Shelton. On Tuesday morning, the home looked as if it had been unoccupied for a while, with grass growing in the driveway and bags of garbage lying about.

Neighbors offered diverging descriptions of Shahzad but agreed that he kept to himself. One, Brenda Thurman, said Shahzad had told her husband he worked on Wall Street, while another neighbor, Audrey Sokol, said she thought he worked in nearby Norwalk.

Thurman, 37, said he lived in Shelton with his wife and two small children until last year.

"He was a little bit strange," she said. "He didn't like to come out during the day."

Sokol, a teacher who lives next door to Shahzad's old house, said that he would wave and say hello and that he seemed normal to her.

Law enforcement officials say Shahzad bought the SUV, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, from a Connecticut man about three weeks ago and paid cash. The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner of record, who told them he had sold the vehicle to a stranger. As the SUV buyer came into focus, investigators backed off other leads.

The SUV was parked on Saturday night on a busy midtown Manhattan street near a theater showing "The Lion King." The explosive device inside it had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate gas cans and set propane tanks afire in a chain reaction "to cause mayhem, to create casualties," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

A metal rifle cabinet placed in the SUV's cargo area was packed with fertilizer, but NYPD bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terrorist bombings.

Police said the SUV bomb could have produced "a significant fireball" and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows.

A vendor alerted a police officer to the parked SUV, which was smoking. Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the explosive device, and no one was hurt.

But Holder said Americans should remain vigilant.

"It's clear," he said, "that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans."

Authorities did not address Shahzad's plans in Dubai. The airport there is the Middle East's busiest and is a major transit point for passengers traveling between the West and much of Asia, particularly India and Pakistan.

Dubai-based Emirates airline said three passengers were pulled from Flight EK202, which was delayed for about seven hours. The airline did not identify Shahzad by name or identify the other two passengers.

The aircraft and passengers were then re-screened before taking off Tuesday morning, and the airline is "cooperating with the local authorities," Emirates said in a statement e-mailed to the AP.

In Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik told the AP that authorities had not been formally asked for help in the probe but would cooperate if asked.

More than a dozen people with American citizenship or residency, like Shahzad, have been accused in the past two years of supporting or carrying out terrorism attempts on U.S. soil, cases that illustrate the threat of violent extremism from within the U.S.

Among them are Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S.-born Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, charged with fatally shooting 13 people last year at Fort Hood, Texas; Najibullah Zazi, a Denver-area airport shuttle driver who pleaded guilty in February in a plot to bomb New York subways; and a Pennsylvania woman who authorities say became radicalized online as "Jihad Jane" and plotted to kill a Swedish artist whose work offended Muslims.

 

[maomao]

Pakistani-American arrested in Times Square bomb plot



NEW YORK: US police arrested a Pakistani-American in the Times Square bomb plot as he tried to board a New York-Dubai flight, and investigators said Tuesday the wide-ranging probe was extending overseas.

US authorities identified the suspect as Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen born in Pakistan.

Attorney General Eric Holder, announcing the arrest, said the probe was ongoing and was seeking information on "overseas" terrorist groups.

"Mr. Shahzad, an American citizen, was taken into custody at JFK Airport in New York as he attempted to board a flight to Dubai," Holder told a hastily called news conference in Washington after midnight.

News reports said the suspect, aged 30, lived in Connecticut and had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan and the city of Peshawar, a known jumping off point for Al-Qaeda and Taliban recruits.

CNN reported the suspect was on the plane with a likely final destination of Pakistan when authorities halted the aircraft and arrested him.

Emirates Airlines said meanwhile that three passengers were removed from the New York-Dubai flight.

It said the flight "was called back by the local authorities prior to departure. Three passengers were removed from the flight."

In Islamabad, Pakistan pledged cooperation with US officials.

"Pakistan and the US have ongoing, robust cooperation on counter-terrorism. If required, we will extend fullest cooperation to US," a senior government official said.

In New York, a statement from law enforcement officials said the suspect was taken into custody around 11:45 pm Monday "for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1, 2010" but gave no specifics on charges.

In the early morning hours Tuesday, the FBI searched a home in Bridgeport, Connecticut as part of the probe.

"The search is related to the Times Square investigation," FBI special agent Kim Mertz said.

"The search is complete and the public is safe."

New York officials said carnage was narrowly avoided Saturday when the car bomb parked near the theatre staging "The Lion King" musical failed to go off.

Police shut down entire blocks, evacuating thousands and preventing many tourists from getting back to their hotels or to Broadway shows.

Authorities offered few other details but said the investigation into the attempted attack late Saturday was being pursued on several fronts.

"This investigation is ongoing, it is multi-faceted, and it is aggressive," Holder said.

Holder said of the attempted attack that it was "clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans."

The man was to appear later Tuesday to face "formal charges," which were not specified, the statement from law enforcement said.

Earlier in the day, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said more than one person may have been involved but could offer no specifics.

Representative Peter King, the ranking Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee, said the investigation "is taking a definite turn toward international terrorism."

One possible indication of jihadist links is the similarity of the botched bombing to a failed double car bomb attempt in London's entertainment districts in 2007.

ABC News reported that Shahzad, a naturalised American citizen, had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan.

ABC said officials tracked Shahzad over two days using evidence found in the Nissan Pathfinder left at the scene and the unexploded bomb components.

According to authorities, Shahzad bought the vehicle one week before the bombing attempt, paying 1,300 dollars in cash for the vehicle in 100 bills, the network said.

Police recovered evidence from the Nissan sport utility vehicle and its rudimentary bomb consisting of timers, wires, fireworks, gasoline, propane tanks and fertiliser.

New York has been on constant watch for potential attacks since the September 11, 2001, airliner attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, killing almost 3,000 people.

So far, the only group to claim responsibility for the would-be bombing is the Pakistani militant group Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

This was quickly dismissed by Bloomberg and Kelly. However, a video emerged showing Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud — reported to have been killed months ago — vowing to attack major US cities.



http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect.../world/04-pakamerican-arrested-ny-plot-qs-01+

 

[Oracle]

Terror in Big Apple: A Pakistani hand?

The claim made by Qari Hussain Mehsud of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan taking responsibility for the attempted incendiary attack in the Times Square is now being taken a little more seriously by the FBI because the message making the claim had been recorded before the incident, writes security expert B Raman

A US citizen of Pakistani origin, who still retains his Pakistani citizenship after having acquired US citizenship, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the JFK Airport in New York on May 3, in connection with their investigation into the attempted incendiary attack in the Times Square of New York on May 1 evening.

He had boarded a Dubai-bound flight of the Emirate Airlines after having passed through security and immigration controls. The doors of the aircraft had been closed and it had started moving away from the departure gates when the FBI ordered it to come back to the departure gates and took him into custody. He was to be produced before a local court on May 4.

The FBI has taken over the responsibility for the investigation of the case from the New York Police, thereby indicating that the authorities suspected that the attempted incendiary attack could have links with international terrorism. The name of the arrested suspect has been given by sections of the US media as Shahzad Faisal.

But US Attorney-General Eric Holder gave his name as Faisal Shahzad.

He is stated to be 30 years old and has been described by some reports as an information technology expert. It is not known whether he is a Pashtun, but some reports say he is married to a lady from Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, who had studied in the UK before migrating to the US.

It is not known when Faisal Shahzad migrated to the US, but he was naturalised as a US citizen on April 17, 2009. He travelled to Dubai [ Images ] in June 2009, and returned to Connecticut, his city of residence, in April 2010. During this period, he is believed to have spent about five months in Pakistan. It is not known where he spent the remaining period.

The breakthrough in the investigation came after the police established that the Nissan Pathfinder vehicle, which was used for the failed incendiary attack had been bought by a Hispanic or Middle-Eastern-looking man from a woman in Connecticut three weeks ago for US $1800 (Rs 80,626) paid in cash.

The police had established her as the original owner of the car with the help of the identification number. The suspect had erased the number from the dashboard, but not from the engine. She had advertised for the sale of the car in one of the Internet sites for the sale/purchase of used cars.

She did not recall the name of the purchaser, but identified Faisal as the buyer from his picture shown by the FBI. It is not clear how the FBI zeroed in on him.

There are two possibilities: Either he was already under watch by the FBI or he was one of the Pakistani-origin residents of Connecticut who had recently returned after a longish visit to Pakistan and hence appeared in the database of the FBI, which keeps track of residents of Pakistani origin spending a long period in that country.

It is not clear why the FBI immediately did not flash his name to the airport security in all airports. The fact that he was able to pass through the security and immigration controls at the JFK Airport and board the aircraft shows that at the time he passed through the controls they had no adverse information about him.

Luckily, after he had boarded the aircraft, the authorities realised he was on board the aircraft and brought it back to arrest him.

The investigating authorities do not know as yet whether he was a lone wolf terrorist or whether he had accomplices. They seem to be conducting their investigation on the presumption that there could be accomplices. The FBI has till now identified him only as the person who had purchased the Nissan Pathfinder vehicle and not as the person who drove the vehicle to Times Square and left it there with the timed incendiary device inside. They are inquiring whether it was he who left the vehicle or someone else.

The claim made by Qari Hussain Mehsud of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan taking responsibility for the attempt is now being taken a little more seriously by the FBI because the message making the claim had been recorded before the incident. The FBI is also taking seriously a separate message of Hakimullah Mehsud, the Amir of the TTP, warning of reprisal strikes in the US, which had also been recorded before May 1.

Both the TTP and the Islamic Jihad Union have been angry against the US over its drone strikes in North and South Waziristan. The TTP has been angry because of the death of Baitullah Mehsud, its then Amir, following a drone strike in August last, and the subsequent injury to Hakimullah in another strike in January 2010. The IJU is angry because of the alleged death of its leader, Najmiddin Jalolov in a drone strike.

According to some speculation, the Nissan vehicle was parked near the offices of Viacom Inc, which owns the theatre, Comedy Central. It reportedly recently staged an episode of the animated show South Park, which was strongly criticised by a group called the Muslim Revolution for allegedly insulting Prophet Mohammad. Was this also a possible motive? It is not yet clear.

The writer is additional secretary (retired), Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, New Delhi [ Images ], and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies

 

[Logan]

What else is expected, it is sad that Pakistan is everywhere where terrorism is currently. I think sooner they will realize it, maybe already doing.

Thankfully at least the US have finally realised it!!!!!
We Indians have been facing it for years.

 

[Oracle]

Thankfully at least the US have finally realised it!!!!!
We Indians have been facing it for years.

Negative, US has still not realised it, nor will they ever. US lives in a dream of mists when it comes to Pakistan.

 

[Logan]

Negative, US has still not realised it, nor will they ever. US lives in a dream of mists when it comes to Pakistan.

May be that they don't have any other choice ,,,,as it is not possible for them to tackle Taliban without Pakistan's help,,so they actually turn a blind eye to Pakistan's mischiefs.

 

[Known_Unknown]

^^Why don't they just bomb them back to the Stone Age as they promised they would? Would solve the whole world's problems. =heheh

 

[AkhandBharat]

The Times Square Suspect's Pakistan Connection


Investigators are poring over every facet of Faisal Shahzad's life to see if the Pakistani-American man, who was charged on Tuesday afternoon connection with the Times Square car-bomb plot, was a lone wolf or part of a terrorism cell. Shahzad reportedly told U.S. law-enforcement officers that he acted alone, in statements allegedly implicating himself in the failed attack following his arrest at JFK International Airport on a Dubai-bound flight. It's still not known if Shahzad is a member of the Pakistani Taliban or any other militant group. Attorney General Eric Holder said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon, May 4, that the suspect was cooperating and providing valuable intelligence, although he declined to specify what the authorities had learned about the plot thus far, so as not to compromise the ongoing investigation.

Shahzad had reportedly returned to the U.S. in February after spending a number of months in Pakistan, where he traveled after becoming a naturalized American in April 2009. Pakistani officials say Shahzad is of Kashmiri descent and the son of a former top Pakistani air-force officer. On his latest Pakistani passport application, he had given his nationality as Kashmiri — a fact that some analysts suspect might tie him to those militant groups based in Pakistan that were originally formed to fight Indian control of the divided territory. An official in Islamabad said Pakistani authorities are investigating whether he had ties to any Kashmiri jihadist groups. During his latest spell in Pakistan, Shahzad was also said to have spent significant time in Peshawar, the capital of North-West Frontier Province, where the government has waged a fierce war against Taliban militants. A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told TIME on Tuesday that the suspect had had ties with militants while in Pakistan. "He was here at a training camp," the source said. The legal complaint against Shahzad, which charged him with terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, said he admitted to receiving bombmaking training in Waziristan, the lawless tribal region where the Pakistani Taliban operates with near impunity.

Pakistani officials claim that there have been a number of arrests in Karachi of people suspected by authorities of having a connection with the suspect. "There will be more arrests before the night is out," a senior government source told TIME. Other reports suggest that one man held in Pakistan allegedly spent time with Shahzad during his stay there and was said to have hired a pickup truck and driven with the suspect from Karachi to Peshawar, long a hotbed of militancy.

The attempted terrorism attack using a crude, homemade car bomb in Times Square on Saturday night was certainly clumsy. It lacked the ruthless organization and lethality of the London and Madrid bombings, which were carried out by professional al-Qaeda terrorists. Although Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Taliban movement in Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the botched bid in a poor-quality audio message released shortly after the attempt was uncovered, some security analysts doubt they're the real culprits. After all, if the TTP wanted to blow something up, the group has had plenty of practice and knows how to do it. "They would like to take credit for anything and just release a video," says Talat Masood, a former Pakistani army general. However, Masood adds, the TTP is "desperate" to inflict pain on the U.S. and is looking for ways to do so. "They'd like to harm America wherever and however they can."

Indeed, the Pakistani Taliban's messages gave indications of the group's broadening aims. Among them was a video that showed TTP leader Hakimullah Mehsud (who had been presumed killed in a U.S. drone strike in January) threatening imminent strikes on unspecified U.S. targets. It's unclear if the group is even capable of extending its reach overseas beyond the Afghanistan and Pakistan arena — or why it would want to, given that it is facing a punishing Pakistani military offensive in its tribal sanctuaries north of the capital, Islamabad. It has also been handicapped by U.S. drone strikes that have effectively crippled its communications capability and maneuverability.

The videos, which were recorded in April, provided the first proof that Mehsud survived the drone attack aimed at killing him and, as such, delivered the message to other militants that he's back and in control. There has been much talk of leadership struggles within the TTP, and it is not known what Mehsud's role is, if he has one, according to Ahmed Rashid, an expert on the Taliban. "A lot of this is for show. This is part of the internal squabbles and rivalries that are playing within the Taliban movement," Rashid says. Mehsud "wants to impress people that he's back and to make a big statement when he comes back and to also regain some kind of legitimacy."
Rashid doubts that the TTP has the capability to launch attacks overseas. However, other Pakistani groups do, he says, like Lashkar e-Taiba, which was responsible for the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The TTP's global goals are aimed at a domestic audience, he says, and are a bid to latch onto seething anti-American sentiment in Pakistan. The Pakistani Taliban "are desperately trying to regain some kind of legitimacy for the killing and mayhem they're doing," Rashid says. "They're not waging a jihad against foreign occupation. They're killing their own countrymen."

Still, in an age of globalized and decentralized terrorism, it doesn't take much to launch an attack, just one ideologically driven zealot with homemade bombs. Shahzad was apprehended on a Dubai-bound flight and is believed to have intended to travel back to Pakistan. The Pakistani government has said it will cooperate with the U.S. investigation.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Time.com

 

[ajtr]

Failed Times Square attack comes at delicate time for U.S.-Pakistan ties​

Posted By Josh Rogin Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - 2:48 PM Share
Amid reports that would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad may have traveled to Pakistan's North Waziristan, the U.S. and Pakistani governments are still working out details on a new agreement that would expand intelligence and military operations in that very region.

The basic tenets of the agreement, according to diplomatic sources, were hashed out during the inaugural session of the U.S.-Pakistani strategic dialogue in March. Neither side has completely signed off and our sources caution that implementation is another matter, but the provisional agreement shows the growing cooperation between the two countries in the military and intelligence spheres as well as growing coordination on the way forward in neighboring Afghanistan.

The Times Square bombing attempt comes at a very bad time for U.S.-Pakistan relations, said Shuja Nawaz, director of the South Asia Center at The Atlantic Council.

"The U.S. and Pakistan have been doing very well at increasing their cooperation and joint efforts in combating terrorism in that area recently," he said, referring to North Waziristan. "This is the kind of incident that can kind of derail some of those efforts and I hope it doesn't."

Nearly two years after the unhappy exit of Pervez Musharraf, the former Army chief and president, U.S.-Pakistani relationship is still very much a military- and intelligence-based interaction, with the key figures on the U.S. side being Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, National Security Advisor Jim Jones, and CIA Director Leon Panetta. On the Pakistani side, all roads go through Musharraf's successor as Army chief of staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, who was given red-carpet treatment when he came to Washington for the March talks.

Kayani is increasingly seen as both an interlocutor for U.S. officials as well as a constructive link between the Pakistani military structure and the civilian government led by President Asif Ali Zardari, who has been steadily losing power to Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani. Meanwhile, the day-to-day relationship is still managed in Washington by Amb. Husain Haqqani, who despite being a Zardari ally, doesn't seem to be going anywhere any time soon.

And the relationship is getting very close attention from senior Obama administration officials, with a flurry of high-level visits there in recent weeks. On the sidelines of the strategic dialogue, there was a private session that involved Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, and Mullen. From the Pakistani side, only Kayani, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and Defense Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar attended.

That's where the new agreement on military and intelligence cooperation was discussed. Here is a readout that Sourabh Gupta, a senior researcher with Samuels International Associates (SIA), published in the Nelson Report, a daily Washington insider's newsletter published by SIA's Chris Nelson. Our sources say this readout is "almost exactly right."

Key Pakistani political demands: Non-negotiable requirement for friendly successor regime in Kabul; significant downgrading of Indian presence and influence in Afghanistan, including New Delhi's training of Afghan military; preference for extended-term American presence in Afghanistan/strategic neighborhood, notwithstanding drawdown of forces next year.

Secondary set of political-military demands: faster delivery of upgraded weapons package; expedited payment for outstanding dues related to AfPak support operations and assistance with civil infrastructure rebuilding in frontier territories; U.S. to lay-off from Islamabad's nuclear program (given latter's need to ramp-up fissile material production in absence of bestowal of India-equivalent civil nuclear deal); U.S. to intensify diplomatic effort to facilitate productive Islamabad-New Delhi dialogue on 'core' issues - Kashmir and water (upper riparian/lower riparian) issues.

Key U.S. demands: Islamabad to re-direct primary counter-insurgency energies against key Islamist groups based/operating out of North Waziristan (Al Qaeda, Afghan Taliban Haqqani network, local talibanized tribal warlords); unfettered drone strikes in N. Waziristan/other tribal territories to continue; expanded CIA intel. operations/listening posts in Pakistani cities - Islamabad to subsequently allow access to Taliban leaders arrested by way of real-time communication intercepts; Islamabad to rein-in larger infrastructure of jihad that it has casually tolerated, even supported.

Gupta goes on to say that Islamabad is also arguing for a seat at the table for any discussions about a successor regime in Kabul and that if the current U.S. ground offensive in Afghanistan doesn't produce results, the momentum will shift back to the Pakistani Army and intelligence services, which could upset the balance of the current U.S.-Pakistan negotiations.

 

[ajtr]

Pakistani officials said Mr. Shahzad was either a son or a grandson of Baharul Haq, who retired as a vice air marshal in 1992 and then joined the Civil Aviation Authority.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/nyregion/05profile.html

The effect of 30 years of jihadi culture and brainwashing through education is truly telling on pakistani society and it armed forces family at large.

 

[nitesh]

guys the story is becoming bigger this guy is from family of PAf goes to show how deep the rot has set in:


http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...ed_times_square_car_bomber.html#ixzz0mzN9kvgd

Shahzad, whose father was a member of the Pakistani Air Force,

and the guys is none other then:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6989509.html

Shahzad is the son of retired Air Vice Marshall Baharul Haq, a former top Pakistani air force officer and deputy director general of the civil aviation authority, according to Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Shahzad's father.

[/QUOTE]

 

[ajtr]

guys the story is becoming bigger this guy is from family of PAf goes to show how deep the rot has set in:
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local...ed_times_square_car_bomber.html#ixzz0mzN9kvgd

and the guys is none other then:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6989509.html

[/QUOTE]

and Dad is on run along with the family=heheh

Pakistan questions at least 7 about New York bomb plot

Shahzad's father, Baharul Haq, a former senior Air Force officer, lives in an upscale suburb of Peshawar, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. Said to be a retired Air Vice Marshall, Haq hurriedly left the large family home in the Hayatabad suburb Tuesday, along with the rest of the family, when Pakistani media found the house.

one would be stupid enough to differentiate between pak defence forces and the jehadi terrorisits coz eac swap roles depending on the circumstances.Wasn't tahawur ranas facing trial in chicago for mumbai attacks in pak army.even david headly aka daud gilani was the son of pak diplomat having army connections.Iliyas kashmiri is another example from 313 bdg.

 

[tarunraju]

"Shahzad's father, Baharul Haq, a former senior Air Force officer, lives in an upscale suburb of Peshawar, according to security officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue."

Haha, so much for trying to be anonymous. =heheh