Connecticut man from Pakistan jailed for life for Times Square bomb plot

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]

Connecticut man from Pakistan held in connection with Times Square bomb case

NEW YORK, May 4, 2010 (AP) -- 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. 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, Connecticut, 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, Connectictut, 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 Major 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.

[Al-khiyal]

'Arrests in Karachi' over Times Square bomb

May 4, 2010 -- Several people have been arrested in Pakistan, in connection with the attempted Times Square bombing attempt, security sources have said. "We have picked up a few family members" related to Faisal Shahzad, the chief suspect in the failed attack, a security official in Karachi said. Shahzad, an American man of Pakistani descent, is being held after he was stopped while trying to flee the country, according to officials. The 30-year-old was attempting to board a plane bound for Dubai at John F Kennedy International Airport in New York, authorities said. But the law enforcement source said Shahzad denied any ties to radical groups in Pakistan and said he received no help to plan the attack. "He's admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene," the source said. "He's claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak."

Shahzad recently visited Pakistan for about five months, returning to the U.S. in February, according to the source. "Based on our collective experience it's hard to really believe that this is something someone would do on their own," the source said. "It seems hard to pull off alone. There's a lot we don't know yet." Emirates Airline revealed U.S. officials took two other people off the Dubai-bound flight. New York authorities said Shahzad would appear in Manhattan Federal Court later.

Barack Obama has described the failed bombing as a "sobering reminder of the times we live in". The U.S. president vowed: "America will not be terrorised or cower in fear." He said the FBI is investigating whether the suspect has ties to terrorist groups. U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the bomb was designed to kill. "This investigation is ongoing, as are our attempts to gather useful intelligence, and we continue to pursue a number of leads," he said. "But it's clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans."

CNN said after the failed plot the suspect was on the plane with a likely final destination of Pakistan when authorities stopped the aircraft and arrested him. Pakistan vowed to help the U.S. to punish whoever is responsible. "We will co-operate with the United States in identifying this individual and bringing him to justice," interior minister Rehman Malik said.

Shahzad faces charges of "allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1," a statement said. He is thought to be the man who recently bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder which was found rigged to explode in Manhattan's entertainment district. The vehicle was purchased for $1,300 (£850) in a shopping centre in Connecticut three weeks ago. The last registered owner of the vehicle, who sold it, described the internet buyer as a "Latino or Arabic-looking man in his 20s or 30s", ABC News reported.

The arrest comes after the FBI's terrorism task force and NYPD launched a huge manhunt to try to catch the would-be bomber. Mr Holder made it clear that the early belief that the attempted explosion has connections to overseas terrorism was being investigated. He said: "As we move forward, we will focus on not just holding those responsible for it accountable, but also on obtaining any intelligence about terrorist organisations overseas." A Pakistani-based Taliban group claimed credit for the attack in an internet video on Sunday, but Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has since said police had no evidence to support the claim. Meanwhile, investigators are continuing to try to identify a white man in his 40s who was seen on video near the car at the time of Saturday's incident.

[Al-khiyal]

اعتقال أمريكي من أصل باكستاني جراء محاولة التفجير بنيويورك

اعتقلت السلطات الأمريكية أمس، شخصا أمريكيا من أصل باكستاني كمشتبه به في قضية التفجير الفاشلة في نيويورك. وجرى توقيفه بمطار جون كينيدي عندما كان يستعد لركوب طائرة متوجهة إلى دبي.

وأشارت مصادر إعلامية أمريكية إلى وجود رابط بين المشتبه به والسيارة الرباعية الدفع المفخخة المضبوطة في نيويورك.
من جهتها، ذكرت وكالة ''رويترز'' أن الموقوف قد يكون الشخص الذي اشترى السيارة التي وجد بداخلها مواد متفجرة في ساحة تايمز سكوير.

وكانت جماعة طالبان-باكستان قد تبنت محاولة تفجير سيارة ملغمة في ساحة تايمز سكوير في نيويورك، يوم السبت الماضي، إلا أن السلطات الأمريكية شكّكت بهذه المزاعم.

وفي السياق ذاته قال متحدث باسم السفارة الأمريكية في باكستان ريتشارد سنيلساير أمس أن الولايات المتحدة أعطت لإسلام أباد 656 مليون دولار لتغطية بعض نفقات العمليات العسكرية التي قام بها الجيش الباكستاني ضد متشددي طالبان.

وتأتي هذه الأموال في إطار برنامج اسمه صندوق دعم التحالف وهو برنامج أمريكي لدفع أموال لدول تحملت نفقات في دعم عمليات مكافحة ''الإرهاب'' والمتشددين.

وتعد باكستان حليفا قويا للولايات المتحدة في محاربة القاعدة وحلفائها. وتحملت إسلام أباد نفقات محاربة متمردي طالبان على طول حدودها مع أفغانستان.

وقالت السفارة الأمريكية في إسلام آباد أن الولايات المتحدة زودت باكستان بنحو 2,7 مليار دولار من صندوق دعم التحالف منذ عام .2001 وأضافت أن المساعدات الأمريكية المدنية والأمنية الأخرى لباكستان زادت على أربعة مليارات دولار خلال الثلاث سنوات الماضية.

إلا أن باكستان تقول إن الحرب على المتشددين كلفتها 35 مليار دولار خلال الثماني سنوات الماضية.

[Al-khiyal]

[Al-khiyal]