Posted on 05/08/2010 6:13:49 AM PDT by James C. Bennett
NEW YORK: The United States has warned of "severe consequences" if a successful extremist attack in America were traced back to Pakistan, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes."
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for a failed bid to bomb New York's Times Square last Saturday. If proven, it would be the group's first act in the United States.
Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad has been charged with driving the crude homemade bomb into Midtown Manhattan and said he acted alone, according to authorities.
But investigators have uncovered possible links to the Pakistani Taliban and a Kashmiri Islamist group.
"We've gotten more cooperation. It's been a real sea change in the commitment we have seen from the Pakistani government. We want more, we expect more," Clinton said in the interview to be aired on Sunday.
Excerpts were released on Friday. "We've made it very clear that if -- heaven-forbid -- an attack like this that we can trace back to Pakistan were to have been successful, there would be very severe consequences," she said, without elaborating.
Shahzad, 30, who was born in Pakistan and became a US citizen last year, has admitted to the failed plot and to receiving bomb-making training in a Taliban and al-Qaida stronghold in Pakistan, prosecutors said.
He has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people, as well as other counts.
Shahzad is yet to appear in court as he has waived his US legal rights and is talking to investigators.
Better relationship
Tension remained high in New York after Shahzad was plucked from an Emirates airline flight he boarded on Monday night even though he had been placed on a "no fly" list.
Several blocks of Times Square were shut down again on Friday for 90 minutes to investigate a suspicious package that turned out to be a lunch cooler.
Some analysts have speculated that if the Pakistani Taliban were involved in the Times Square plot, it could be responding to US drone attacks that have killed militants hiding in Pakistan as well as civilians.
The United States, which sees Pakistan's effort against militants as crucial to its fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, has about 200 military personnel in Pakistan, including Special Operations forces on a training mission.
"We also have a much better relationship, military to military, intelligence to intelligence, government to government than we had before," Clinton said.
"I think that there was a double game going on in the previous years, where we got a lot of lip service but very little produced."
"We've got a lot produced. We have seen the killing or capturing of a great number of the leadership of significant terrorist groups and we're going (to) continue that," she said in the interview.
US defense secretary Robert Gates said on Friday the United States was prepared to provide more assistance to Pakistan if it wanted it in the wake of the attempted Times Square bombing.
Gates said that Pakistan recently stepped up efforts to root out extremist militants.
"The Pakistanis have been doing so much more than 18 months or two years ago any of us would have expected," Gates told reporters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He referred to Pakistani army offensives, dating to spring 2009, against Taliban extremists in areas near the Afghan border, including in south Waziristan.
Gates said the Obama administration is sticking to its policy of offering to do as much training and other military activity inside Pakistan as the Pakistan government is willing to accept.
"It's their country," Gates said. "They remain in the driver's seat, and they have their foot on the accelerator."
>>Then we’ll outlaw some random object used in said attack. i.e. propane tanks, trucks, car rentals, etc.
And even if no firearms were involved in the attack, they’ll try to further restrict Second Amendment rights.
Wait till Americans are dead and then respond. Back to pre 9/11. Pre-emption is no more.
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I agree with you and had this conversation with one who responded that there is “ not anything else we can do short of attacking them. We can’t do that!”
They have no ideas so they go back to the old “republicans just want to invade everyone!” theory.
I give up these conversations.
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