Pic via NYP: Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad.
It turns out the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, wasn’t an anti-Obamacare tea partier, after all. Fox News reports:
Federal authorities arrested a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent Monday night at New York’s JFK International Airport in connection with Saturday’s attempted Times Square car bombing.
The man was identified as Faisal Shahzad, of Connecticut, Attorney General Eric Holder said. Shahzad was attempting to board a flight to Dubai at the time of his arrest, Holder said.
An international phone call made by the suspect earlier this week apparently “piqued the interest” of authorities investigating the failed attack on New York, and led to his arrest.
***
On Monday, the White House for the first time clearly defined the attempted attack as an act of terrorism, without saying whether it was the work of a foreign or domestic plot.
“I think anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that that was intended to terrorize. Absolutely,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said when asked by Fox News how the White House would categorize the incident. “And I would say that whoever did that would be categorized as a terrorist. Yes.”
Obama administration officials previously stopped short of declaring the incident terrorism.
They must be 3000% sure, now, to be using the T-word.
News outlets had originally reported the suspect’s name as Shahzad Faisal, but have subsequently reversed that. Faisal Shahzad is much more common and there are literally hundreds of them on Facebook.
UPDATE:
Via Hot Air Headlines:
Newsweek is reporting: Possible Tie Between Hakimullah Video and Pakistani Taliban Claim of Responsibility for Attack
A prominent expert on Jihadist media says there is an apparent link between the new video message in which Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, once thought to have been killed, proclaims he is still alive, and a message posted overnight Saturday in which the Pakistani Taliban appears to claim credit for the failed Times Square car bomb attack.
Rita Katz, founder of the Site Intelligence Group, a private organization that monitors and translates extremist Web postings, late on Monday outlined a timeline her organization put together that suggests that the Hakimullah video and the U.S. attack claim were both posted, at least on some sites, by the same person or persons.
Katz says that by examining data available online, she and her associates discovered that on Friday, April 30, persons unknown created a new YouTube Channel called “Taliban News.” Then, overnight on Saturday, only a few minutes after New York City authorities held their first broadcast news conference about the discovery and dismantling of the Times Square SUV bomb, Katz says, someone uploaded a video in which Qari Hussein Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban’s reputed chief bomb expert, claimed credit for “the recent attack in the USA.”
And according to the WSJ three other passengers were pulled off that Dubai-bound flight:
Dubai-based Emirates Airline said Tuesday that flight EK202 bound for Dubai was called back before taking off from New York and that three passengers were removed from the aircraft as part of an investigation into a failed bomb attempt in Times Square.
“Full security procedures were activated including the deplaning of all passengers and a thorough screening of the aircraft, passengers, and baggage,” an Emirates spokesperson told Zawya Dow Jones. “Emirates is cooperating with the local authorities.”
MORE:
ABC’s Brian Ross reported:
On Sunday night, the Taliban released a video featuring Hakimullah Mehsud, who U.S. and Pakistani authorities had thought was killed in a drone strike in January.
On the recording Mehsud can be heard saying, “The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in their major cities.” He also claims that Taliban fedayeen “have penetrated the terrorist America, we will give extremely painful blows to the fanatic America.”
Mehsud’s video was recorded April 4, and Mehsud threatens attacks in the days and weeks to come.
Earlier, in the hours after the failed Times Square bombing, a Taliban group in Pakistan claimed responsibility for what it called a “jaw-breaking blow to Satan’s USA.
Also, the reason the bomb didn’t go off is because:
The would-be bomber packed the car with more than 100 pounds of fertilizer, but not the kind that would explode, police said.
Had the bomber chosen the right kind of fertilizer, the bomb would have had the force of more than 100 pounds of TNT. But instead of ammonium nitrate, the kind of fertilizer used by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the bomber used a harmless fertilizer, New York City Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
It was only Shahzad’s incompetence, and the grace of God that spared all those people on Times Square.. Shrink Wrapped notes, it appears they were targeting children:
I have read several reports on the Car Bomb in Times Square and a few have noted that the car was left outside The Lion King, on Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets. I have seen little discussion of the significance of that location. Of all the shows on Broadway, the great majority are directed at adults and have predominantly adult audiences. The Lion King, on the other hand, specifically attracts children, who are brought there in large numbers by their parents and grandparents. This attack targeted our children.
UPDATE II:
Ace of Spades HQ: Times Square Bomber Nearly Got Away:
(Faisal) Shahzad, who had been the subject of a huge manhunt, almost made it out of the country on a Emirates flight to Dubai, with a planned connection onward to Pakistan, according to the officials.
“He appeared real close to getting away,” one federal official said. “The plane was buttoned up. Backed away from the jetway.”
Authorities said that despite the manhunt, his passport had not been flagged and he was able to buy a ticket with cash and clear airport security.
Drew adds:
Mayor Bloomberg emails to say, “We are investigating reports this individual was heading to Pakistan, not to escape law enforcement but because he can’t stand living in the US now that health care reform has been signed into law”.
See also:
Uncoverage.net: Times Square Bombing: Taliban, Not Tea Party, Attempt to Kill Children
Michelle Malkin: The arrest of Faisal Shahzad
Atlas Shrugs: Times Square Jihadi Nabbed at JFK Airport: “uh, it’s the jihad, stupid”.
She says Mayor Bloomberg’s office has been deeply infiltrated…
Daily Caller: Liberals accuse Tea Partiers of role in failed Times Square car bomb attack
Bloomberg wasn’t the only one.
MORE:
Sources tell CBS 2 that the suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt, who was arrested overnight while aboard a plane at John F. Kennedy Airport, should have been on the United States terror watch list, and that because he wasn’t, he was able to board the plane.
The Washington Times: EDITORIAL: Terrorism rises on American soil
The Obama administration has done its best to de-emphasize various aspects of the war on terrorism, but the enemy keeps finding ways to make the point that they really do want to kill Americans. One of these days, their bombs will start working.
The Long War Journal: FBI arrests Pakistani-American sought in failed Times Square car bombing
Shahzad may have trained in Waziristan with al Qaeda, or the Taliban.
Faisal has since claimed he acted alone, but Pakistani intelligence sources told Fox News that a suspect who was involved with the failed bombing was detained in Karachi.
Faisal is a naturalized American citizen who is originally from Pakistan. He recently returned from Pakistan after spending five months there. While the exact movements of Faisal are not yet known, US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal believe he spent time in al Qaeda or Taliban training camps in North Waziristan.
“North Waziristan is the heart of al Qaeda’s external operations network,” an intelligence official said. Previous al Qaeda plots, such as the attempted suicide attacks in New York’s subway system in September 2009 by Najibullah Zazi and his accomplices, were hatched in North Waziristan. Zazi, an Afghan citizen, traveled to North Waziristan for more than three-and-a-half months of training.
Weasel Zippers: Report: Faisal Shahzad Attended Militant Training Camp While in Pakistan…Update: Confirmed, Trained in Waziristan…
Weasel Zippers: CNN Anchor: Islam Not Motive Behind Times Square Plot, It Was “Heartache and Pressure” From His House Being Foreclosed on…
Nice Deb 