NY Times Square bomb attempt

ajtr

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nitesh

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guys this guy's father is a big fish:

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/050510b.html

(More objective observers might say, "Pakistan, Pakistan, Pakistan," an unstable Islamic nation that actually acquired nuclear weapons with the acquiescence of the Reagan administration in the 1980s and is today the home for al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups, including the trainers of alleged Time Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. Shahzad's father, Bahar Ul Haq, was a former Pakistani air vice marshal reportedly with some responsibility over the security of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.)
and he is disappeared right?
 

nitesh

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His father was knowing that he is going the jehad direction and have done nothing:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/06/nyregion/06profile.html

Last year, one Pakistani friend said, he even asked his father, Bahar ul-Haq, a retired high-ranking air force pilot in Pakistan, for permission to fight in Afghanistan.

Mr. Haq, now in his 70s, adamantly refused, according to a person familiar with the conversation, saying that he disapproved of the mission and reminding his son that Islam does not permit a man to abandon his wife or children.
 

ajtr

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Nitesh ,
The above 2 reports indicate that how entwined pakistani armed forces its intelligence and terror groups are and its deep rooted.And its not some harebrained idea if when usa says pakistani nukes can fall into terror groups hand.when the fence which protects the nukes itself is entwined with terrorists than there is no doubt about nukes falling into terror groups hands.but the pakistan is always pooh-poohed this.
 

nitesh

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ajtr I am really not able to understand when Pakistani agencies can catch that idiot's father in law what is so problematic in arresting his father or this guys is kept in there custody and pressured not to reveal some thing.
 

ajtr

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^^ he might be in ISI safe house like many other terorists who were always arrested from safe houses all over pakistan.
 

ganesh177

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If names like JEM and LET are coming forward, then isn't it a good news for india. As then US will directly take care of them.
 

Armand2REP

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He was in economic hardship. The house was foreclosed, working an entry level job with a Masters Degree. His GPA was 2.7 and his income was $22,000 a year living in Connecticut, the most expensive US state. The guy came to America thinking life would be easy and his mediocrity turned to failure. Spoiled little brat didn't like it so he turned extremist and like the coward he is planted a bomb, couldn't even risk his life for jihad. Loser is what he is called.
 

DaRk WaVe

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NEW YORK – In the days before his failed attempt to detonate a car bomb in the heart of Times Square, the man who had recently returned from his native Pakistan did a dry run and dropped off a getaway car blocks from the site, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.

Faisal Shahzad, now in custody on terrorism and weapons charges, drove a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder to Times Square from Connecticut on April 28, apparently to figure out where would be the best place to leave it later, the official said. He then returned April 30 to drop off a black Isuzu, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation.

The official said Shahzad went back Saturday and left the SUV loaded with firecrackers, gasoline and propane, enough to likely create a fireball and kill nearby tourists and Broadway theatergoers had it gone off successfully.

Shahzad, 30, a Pakistani-American from Connecticut, admitted to rigging the Pathfinder with a crude bomb based on explosives training he received in Pakistan, authorities say. He was pulled off a plane Monday headed for Dubai and has been cooperating with investigators. For a second day Wednesday, he had yet to appear in Manhattan federal court.

Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Shahzad's father, has called the arrest "a conspiracy."

Shahzad is believed to have been working alone when he began preparing the attack, almost immediately after returning in February from his native land, authorities said. They said they have yet to find a wider link to extremist groups or to pin down a motive.

"It appears from some of his other activities that March is when he decided to put this plan in motion," New York police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday. "He came back from Pakistan Feb. 3, 2010. It may well have been an indicator of putting something catastrophic in motion."

In leaving Times Square on Saturday, he discovered he left a chain of 20 keys including those to the getaway car and his home in Connecticut in the SUV, and had to take public transit, the official told the AP.

Investigators had already started searching for suspects, when he returned to the scene on Sunday with a second set of keys to pick up the Isuzu, parked about eight blocks from the car bomb site, the official said.

Kelly told a Senate panel that Shahzad bought a gun in March that was found in his Isuzu at Kennedy Airport, suggesting that he was moving ahead on the bombing plot shortly after returning from Pakistan.

Pakistan Ambassador Husain Haqqani said Wednesday that an investigation into Shahzad's links to Pakistan was ongoing. He said an unspecified number of people had been questioned but no one has been arrested or detained in Pakistan. Haqqani spoke to the AP prior to an appearance at Harvard University in Massachusetts.

Asked if any connection had emerged between Shahzad and Qari Hussain Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban's chief bomb maker who is also in charge of recruiting suicide bombers, Haqqani said "no such fact had emerged," at this point in the investigation.

"I think it's premature to start identifying groups and individuals with whom he might have trained," he said.

Haqqani added that it was unlikely that Shahzad or anyone could find a bombmaking facility in the south Waziristan region because that region is now controlled by the Pakistani Army. Shahzad said he was trained in the region, authorities say.

U.S. officials have also been unable to verify whether Shahzad trained to make bombs at a terrorist camp in Pakistan.

Shahzad had previously lived in Shelton, Conn., but got a low-rent apartment in nearby Bridgeport when he returned from Pakistan. His wife and children apparently did not return with him.

Police recovered surveillance video of Shahzad at Times Square moments after the attack, and he's seen in other video in Pennsylvania buying fireworks. Neither videotape has been released.

Interviews Wednesday with business owners and police shed light on purchases Shahzad made of fireworks and a rifle.

On March 8, Shahzad bought six to eight boxes each containing 36 Silver Salute M88 fireworks from Phantom Fireworks in Matamoras, Pa., said store vice president William Wiemer. Even if used together, the fireworks couldn't have caused a large explosion, Wiemer said.

"The M88 he used wouldn't damage a watermelon. Thank goodness he used that," said Bruce Zoldan, the company's president.

Each M88 has an amount of pyrotechnic powder that is less than 1/6 the size of an aspirin, the company said. Fireworks purchased illegally can be up to 1,000 times more powerful, they said.

"There's no doubt, had he bought this on the black market, that the outcome in New York would have been totally different," Zoldan said.

Shelton police said Shahzad legally bought a Kel-Tech rifle from a dealer after passing a criminal background check and a 14-day waiting period. The owner of the gun shop declined comment.
 

ajtr

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He was in economic hardship. The house was foreclosed, working an entry level job with a Masters Degree. His GPA was 2.7 and his income was $22,000 a year living in Connecticut, the most expensive US state. The guy came to America thinking life would be easy and his mediocrity turned to failure. Spoiled little brat didn't like it so he turned extremist and like the coward he is planted a bomb, couldn't even risk his life for jihad. Loser is what he is called.
Apt analysis of the psychology of the bomber.
 

Armand2REP

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We didn't need GoI to tell us Pakistan is the "epicentre of terror activities." It is a well known fact, accept in Pakistan.
 

nandu

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Shahzad is son of retired Air Force officer:pak Army

Pakistan Army tonight said Faisal Shahzad, arrested by the FBI for the failed bombing in New York's Times Square, is the son of a retired Air Vice Marshal.

"He comes from a well to do family and his father is a former Air Force officer," chief military spokesman Maj Gen Athar Abbas told NDTV.

He also doubted Pakistani Taliban's claim that it was behind the Times Square bombing plot, saying one has to look at its reach and capability for launching such an attack.

"Anybody can get up and claim anything. But one has to see the reach and the capability of the organisation whether it is capable of conducting such kinds of acts so far away in another country," Abbas said.

He said it is "very dicey and doubtful" whether Pakistani Taliban is capable of launching such attacks.

"In the past also, the Tehrik-e-Taliban has been claiming such kinds of attacks in the US and Europe, but later they proved out to be wrong, incorrect and false claims," he said.

Abbas said "one has to really see and establish" whether the claim has some kind of credibility in it or not, which could take a little time.

Asked whether the US has requested Pakistan's help in the case, he said he was not aware of any kind of requesting being made.

"We are probing it," he said.

Asked whether Pakistan suspected a larger plot, Abbas said he would not like to comment on speculation.

Shahzad who grew up in Pakistan but left for America at the age of 18.

In a video message on Sunday, the Pakistani Taliban said it carried out the attack. But, US officials doubted the claim.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Shahz...r-Force-officer-Pak-Army/Article1-539884.aspx
 

ajtr

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Made in Pakistan​


B Raman

After the arrest of Faisal Shahzad and his reported confession that he planned the failed bombing at Times Square, New York, the FBI should take a close, hard look at the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan which is emerging as the new and sinister face of global Islamist jihad

A US citizen of Pakistani origin, who still retains his Pakistani citizenship after having acquired American citizenship, was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the John F Kennedy Airport in New York on Monday in connection with their investigation into the attempted incendiary attack at Times Square on the evening of May 1. 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 Mr Eric Holder, the US Attorney-General, 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 woman from Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province of Pakistan, who had studied in the United Kingdom 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 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 of Connecticut three weeks ago for $ 1800 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 to her 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 Pakistan.

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 the Times Square and left it there with the timed incendiary device inside. They are enquiring whether it was he who left the vehicle or someone else.

The claim made by Qari Hussain Mehsud of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan regarding 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 that owns the theatre Comedy Central. The theatre 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.
 

sunnyv

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Its a serious situation

When you see Elite members of high class society involved in this .
He was a Educated and qualified degree holder youth - If his existence is vulnerable just imagine the ones in Pakistan-Afgh-Bangla-India where uneducated force is huge .

Its good that India is showing statesmanship and not firing all guns at Pakistan bcoz Talks have just started , not to sure Pakistan would have done same .
The amount of hatred that they have towards us and religion , they wouldn't have wasted a single second criticizing India on highest platform .
 

nandu

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Terror export

Even as exports from Pakistan fall in so many other spheres, there is one item that goes out to the world in larger and larger quantities from our country. Sadly, this brings in no monetary benefits and no goodwill. Today, it often seems that what we export most often is terrorism. The arrest in New York of a Pakistan-American, even as he boarded a plane that would have taken him to Dubai, acts to confirm this in the eyes of the world. Even if we, as Pakistanis, know that most people in the country oppose terrorism and have no sympathies with those who make killing a mission, the fact is that many in other places see Pakistanis as terrorists. The impact of this has come in the form of the unleashing of racist violence and all kinds of more subtle discrimination. In one way or another, tens of thousands of Pakistanis have suffered. The question is whether enough is being done to stop the export of violence and ensure that a softer, more flattering spotlight is directed towards Pakistan. The arrest of Faisal Shahzad indicates that the mindset which spurs on terrorism has poisoned even those who enjoy wealth and privilege.

Perhaps our thesis that it is essentially the poor who are exploited by the militants is somewhat flawed. Perhaps we need to do more to stop the slow poisoning of minds. A process of brainwashing has continued for years. It needs to be reversed. The strategy for this must be worked out. Psychologists, educators, media people, clerics and others with social influence need to be involved. We must convince people, particularly the young, that militancy and extremism threaten to destroy all that is good about their country. They must play a part in building for it a different future. The story of an educated young man of Pakistani origin in New York, with a family and from a wealthy background, who was apparently willing to risk so much by planting a bomb which was intended to kill ordinary men, women and children should act as an eye-opener to the kind of problems we have allowed to fester in our midst. It is only by changing this that we can hope to move towards a brighter future and a different image for Pakistan.

http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=237754
 

DaRk WaVe

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we are seeing a new Breed of terrorists i.e. Highly Educated ones, gone are the days when we used to see semi literate & illiterate terrorists, this is indeed getting serious & seems the Terror Organizations have no shortage of man power
 

sunnyv

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Its Time that leadership in Pakistan shows some real diplomatic skill - They need to solve this equation without giving any more leverage to US on their soil ,otherwise this will only result in further outrage against US by these outfits.

Just saw some footages of family and relatives being taken out of their Bungalow for interrogation- Would be hard times for them, seeing they were trying to hide faces- must have had some reputation in society. Pitty...........
 

gb009

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What I don't get is how is that a person who has no prior contacts with terrorist organisations is able to get in touch with them and get training to make a bomb? I mean obviously there is no terrorist hot-line or something that one can search in the local yellow-book and dial.
 

sunnyv

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Exactly - Thats why its a serious situation

Are roots of these outfits so deep that they can target any member of society . Intellect or not ??????
I am getting worried for Indians living in abroad .
 

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