Trying to keep track of this running story. Please visit.
Posted on 05/06/2010 2:08:57 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
WASHINGTON: American officials said that it was very likely that a radical group once thought unable to attack the United States had played a role in the bombing attempt in Times Square, elevating concerns about whether other militant groups could deliver at least a glancing blow on American soil.
Officials said that after two days of intense questioning of the bombing suspect, Faisal Shahzad, evidence was mounting that the Pakistani Taliban, had helped inspire and train Shahzad in the months before he is alleged to have parked an explosives-filled sport utility vehicle in a busy Manhattan intersection on Saturday night. Officials said Shahzad had discussed his contacts with the group, and investigators had accumulated other evidence that they would not disclose.
On Wednesday, Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired senior Pakistani Air Force officer, waived his right to a speedy arraignment, a possible sign of his continuing cooperation with investigators.
As his interrogation continued, Homeland Security officials directed airlines to speed up their checks of new names added to the no-fly list, a requirement that might have prevented Shahzad from boarding a flight to Dubai on Monday night before his arrest.
The failed attack has produced a flurry of other proposals to tighten security procedures, including calls by members of Congress to more closely scrutinize passengers who buy tickets for cash, as Shahzad did. Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., proposed stripping accused terrorists of American citizenship, and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked Congress to block the sale of firearms and explosives to those on terrorist watch lists.
American officials, speaking only on condition of anonymity about the ongoing inquiry, gave few specifics about what Shahzad has told investigators and said that their understanding of the bomb plot could evolve as a dragnet spanning two continents gathers more evidence.
One senior administration official cautioned that “there are no smoking guns yet,” suggesting that the Pakistani Taliban directed the Times Square bombing. But others said that there were strong indications that Shahzad knew some members of the Taliban and that they likely played a role in training him.
One issue that investigators are vigorously pursuing is who provided Shahzad with cash to purchase the SUV and his plane ticket. “Somebody’s financially sponsoring him, and that’s the link we’re pursuing,” one official said. “And that would take you on the logic train back to Pak-Taliban authorizations,” referring to the group.
There is no doubt among intelligence officials that the barrage of attacks by CIA drones over the past year has made Pakistan’s Taliban, or officially Tehrik-i-Taliban, increasingly determined to seek revenge by finding any way possible to strike at the United States.
The CIA’s drone program in Pakistan, which was accelerated in 2008 and expanded by President Barack Obama last year, has enjoyed strong bipartisan support in Washington in part because it was perceived as eliminating dangerous militants while keeping Americans safe.
But the December attack on a CIA base in Afghanistan, and now possibly the SUV attack in Manhattan, are reminders that the drones’ very success may be provoking a costly response.
In March 2009, when Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud boasted that his group was planning an attack on Washington that would “amaze everyone in the world,” many American officials dismissed his claims as empty bravado. His network, they said, had neither the resources nor the reach to pull off an attack far beyond its base in the mountains of western Pakistan.
But the attempted attack Saturday has forced something of a reassessment, especially as American officials see militant groups determined to score a propaganda victory by pulling off even the crudest of attacks. If the Pakistani Taliban’s ties to the Times Square bombing plot are confirmed, the organization would be only the latest militant group to expand beyond a local political agenda and target the United States.
The Christmas Day attempt to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner, for instance, was traced to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, whose primary targets had previously been the Saudi and Yemeni regimes.
But for such a group, trying for the biggest prize in the jihadist universe - a successful attack on American soil - could have significant payoffs, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.
The message, he said, may be, “‘the US is pounding us with drone attacks, but we’re powerful enough to strike back.' It’s certainly enough to attract ever more recruits to replace those they’re losing,” Hoffman said.
The Pakistani Taliban have used a relentless campaign of violence to undermine Pakistan’s secular government.
The group has been blamed for the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, as well as bombings in Islamabad, Lahore and elsewhere.
As casualties mounted in Pakistan in 2008, officials there pleaded with Washington to begin striking the group with CIA drones. American counterterrorism officials had never considered the group to be a top priority, but last year the Obama administration approved targeting Pakistani Taliban leaders, in part to win Islamabad’s tacit approval for drone strikes elsewhere in the tribal areas. Mehsud himself was killed in a CIA drone attack in August.
Some American officials bristled at the idea that the United States has not taken the threat from the Pakistani Taliban seriously.
“We’ve been pounding their leadership – including figures like Baitullah Mehsud – and their training camps and other facilities,” one American counterterrorism official said. “Those actions have probably taken other people like Shahzad off the board.”
Denis McDonough, the chief of staff for the National Security Council, said the Times Square plot showed that Pakistan and the United States face a common enemy, calling it “a pretty stark reminder that the same collection of terrorists that are threatening them are threatening us.”
The administration has been in intensive contact with the Pakistani government, delivering the message that “there are clear links to Pakistan and that we would fully expect them to do what they should do,” the State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said. Pakistani officials have arrested about a dozen people they believe may be linked to the plot, the authorities have said.
On Wednesday, the American ambassador, Anne Patterson, met with Pakistan’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, and foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, and spoke by phone with the interior minister, A Rehman Malik. The administration’s special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard C. Holbrooke, also spoke by phone with Qureshi.
“The key here is that we’re touching the right bases politically, and we’re getting the right signals back,” a senior official said.
The tracking of Shahzad and his links to Pakistan began, a law enforcement official speaking on condition of anonymity explained on Wednesday, with a fortunate match of telephone numbers.
One number that he had provided when he last entered the United States in February was stored in a Customs and Border Protection database. It turned out to match a number on the list of calls to and from a prepaid cell phone investigators knew belonged to the purchaser of the Nissan Pathfinder found on Times Square.
Only when they matched the phone numbers did investigators learn “that that was the guy we were looking for,” said the official, who requested anonymity to discuss the sensitive investigation.
The name match allowed security officials to discover Shahzad aboard the flight to Dubai minutes before takeoff on Monday night. He had been added to the no-fly list at 12:30 that day, when airlines were directed to check the list for updates. But Emirates airline officials did not look at the updated list, and sold Shahzad a ticket for cash at 7:35pm Monday.
Airlines had been required to check the no-fly list for updates only every 24 hours. The new rule requires that they check within two hours of receiving notification that a high-priority name has been added to the list, Homeland Security officials said.
Ping!
Thank you for the ping.
wow, the dude has somebody financing him and the FBI,NSA,HOLE-Land security won’t admit it’cause it’s not a white male in his 40’s
Now they putting the blame on the airline this idiot used to fly to Dubai, why?
HOLE-LAND security only requires that airlines themselves provide security infor for no flys -
HOLE-LAND security is not plugging their HOLES on the security issue and the policy of an airline to submit their no fly list reports smacks of willy nilly.
jeeeeeeeeshhhhhh this country is being taken down piece by piece as the bamster sits in office.
I’m afraid , really afraid that the a$$clown in the WH won’t be prepared when a suitcase bomb is dropped
i’m really afraid especially for my extended family.
This is only the beginning-and unfortunately it’s looking like there is more to come the muzzies are F’in COWARDS
make that double on the last 2 words
Trying to keep track of this running story. Please visit.
I realize the clueless and naive George Bush (who was misled and bamboozled by Islamic-supporting, bottom-feeding, scumbags like Norquist (WHY IS HE STILL A LEADER IN THE REPUBLICAN/CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT) and others and bought into the charade that Islam has been hijacked by a few nut jobs, but the FASCIST Community Agitator has taken this approach to extreme levels.
Until we are willing to admit who are enemies are; why they continue to try and conquer the free world and be willing to engage in open dialogue, we will never make any progress towards defeating this ideological enemy.
WHAT I FEAR is that we will soon begin experiencing what Israel has for years; bombing of buses, restaurants, etc., (SUCCESSFULLY, WITH CASUALTIES) and it will probably take something like that for the sheeple to wake up and demand that something be done and moreover the moozies who are always crying backlash when there has been none, will probably see that come to pass as people begin to realize that while there may be moderate Muslims (only for those who are not true believers) there is NO moderate Islam.
This isn’t America anymore...this is turning into some Euro weenie chicken shite clueless commune.
>>Norquist (WHY IS HE STILL A LEADER IN THE REPUBLICAN/CONSERVATIVE MOVEMENT
Saudi Money.
Isn’t it time that our politicians start having the conversation, about ending Muslim immigration?
You mean, you want them to slaughter their kickbacks cow? LOL!
jihad bump
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.