Posted on 05/05/2010 12:37:28 AM PDT by AmericanInTokyo
WASHINGTON: The arrest of a Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad by US law enforcement authorities in connection with the Times Square terror plot will once again put the focus on Preet Bharara, the India-born US Federal Attorney, who is already under attack in some Pakistani quarters for allegedly carrying out a "witch-hunt" against Pakistanis in the US.
Bharara, 41, who is one of the 93 US Attorneys appointed the US President, heads the US Attorney's office for the Southern District in New York, which covers Manhattan, where the attempted bombing took place, and JFK Airport, where terror suspect Faisal Shahzad was arrested.
Bharara, who was born in Ferozepur, Punjab, and moved to the US with his parents when he was only two, grew up in New Jersey and graduated from Harvard in 1990 and Columbia Law School in 1993 (which are also President Obama's alma mater), before embarking on a legal and political path where he was marked as a rising star very early in his career.
Obama appointed him US Attorney in the summer of 2009, and in the months since, he has handled several high-profile prosecution cases including that of Ponzi scammer Bernie Madoff and 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
But in a vicious attack some weeks back, a Pakistani newspaper accused Bharara of carrying out a witch-hunt against Pakistanis in the US because of his "ideological beliefs" going back to the sub-continent's partition days.
The Nation newspaper also alleged that Bharara appointed a "like-minded controversial Indian who is also known for his hatred and venomous propaganda against Pakistan, Anjan Sahni, as Chief of the Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit soon after he assumed the charge of US Federal Attorney of New York."
But there is very little in Bharara's life or career that points to any prejudice or bias. In fact, among the prosecutions he is handling is one against the Galleon Group, where defendants include Sri Lankan Raj Rajaratnam and Indian-Americans Anil Kumar and Rajiv Goel. Although a Democrat (he worked on New York Senator Charles Schumer's staff before being appointed US Attorney), he has earned praise across party lines.
Bharara's father is a Sikh and his mother is Hindu and they both moved from what became Pakistan to the Indian side during partition. But his father-in-law is a Muslim who moved in the other direction and his mother-in-law is from Palestine and is of Jewish origin.
In a statement following Shahzad's arrest, Bharara said "the dedicated agents, detectives, and prosecutors on this case will continue to follow every lead and use every tool to keep the people of New York City safe," and pledged that "we will not rest until every terrorist, whether homegrown or foreign-based, is neutralized and held to account."
Shahzad is not the first Pakistani-American to be arrested in the US in connection with terrorism. Besides the infamous Daood Gilani alias David Coleman Headley, there have been several recent cases where Pakistani-Americans have been apprehended, including one involving Chicago cab driver Raja Lahrasib Khan in March this year.
In fact, almost every terror plot unearthed in the United States, going back to World Trade Center I attack in 1993 and the 9/11 catastrophe, has its footprints and fingerprints of its so-called ally Pakistan, and not the usual American suspects such as Iran or Syria, much less outliers such as Cuba and Venezuela..... (Exerpt)
Overseas (in India, Pakistan and elsewhere) is where it is really happening.
Just go around the lamestream media in the USA, right there in your pajamas on the internet, a media with agenda which either covers up facts altogether, downplays, spikes or otherwise does not have intellectual curiosity to fully cover stories of great importance to us as Americans, such as whether any more of us are blown up on our own soil or not under an incompetent Washington Administration.
This good dispatch just in from India. (Times of India)
Ping!
Obama was in Pakistan in 1981. John Brennan, CIA veteran, employed the subcontractor who illegally accessed Obama's passport file. Obama tapped Brennan for DCI and uses him as his top counterterrorism advisor.
If he is indeed leading a witch-hunt against pakis here... Good for him and us! No one else in this admin is doing a damn thing.
Preetinder S. Bharara was born in Ferozepur, India, and he was an infant when his parents immigrated to the United States in 1970. He grew up in Monmouth County, N.J., and graduated from Harvard in 1990 and Columbia Law School in 1993. That summer, he worked for several weeks as a volunteer in Mark Green’s campaign for public advocate, occasionally driving the candidate to campaign events.
He has reflected on his roots and the improbable journey his family took to get to this country.
His father, a Sikh, and his mother, who was Hindu, were born in what is now Pakistan, before India and Pakistan were separate countries. In the violent migration that occurred after the 1947 partition, his father and mother both moved to the Indian side, with their families losing property and most of their possessions, Mr. Bharara has said.
His wife’s father, a Muslim, also moved, from the Indian side into Pakistan, also losing his home “and much, much more,” as Mr. Bharara put it. And his wife’s mother was born in Palestine, after her father, who was Jewish, escaped with his family from Nazi Germany.
“Four different families, practicing four different faiths — all compelled to flee a half century ago because of their religion,” Mr. Bharara said in a speech to the South Asian Bar Association of New York in 2007.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/10/nyregion/10bharara.html
He is said to have travelled to Pakistan in 1981. AKA Pock-hi-Stan
Er, maybe. There is no proof of this.
0bama had tons of unpaid parking tickets in the Cambridge area so we at least know he lived near Harvard...as for Columbia there is nothing at all that ties him to the place.
Didn't this person die under suspecious circumstances? I wonder what Brennan has on Obama.
the Times Square terror plot will once again put the focus on Preet Bharara, the India-born US Federal Attorney, who is already under attack in some Pakistani quarters for allegedly carrying out a "witch-hunt" against Pakistanis in the US.
Oh boy, this will be a circle jerk of hate..
When I was a wee lad of a Draftsman I worked next to a Pakistani Engineer, 'Nasir'(1), (Muslim, very nice guy - helped me with higher Math equations), then the Co hired a couple Indians, one was a Sikh, Turban and all. The looks back and forth was basically 'kill'.'Luckily' this arrangement did not work. The Indians didn't know our Industry as much as they said and lasted about a week or so. But tensions ran high in that smallish Engineering Dept while they were there. (very close quarters with the Drafting Tables)
So the Judge better be careful and take control quick. Or appeals will fly like light speed.
(1) This was back in the 70's before any Islamic Terrorism and Nasir asked me one day why the kids at school were mean to his children. Back then I had no answer
September 11th is a holiday in Pakistan. It is the anniversary of the death of the father of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
>Bharara’s father is a Sikh and his mother is Hindu and they both moved from what became Pakistan to the Indian side during partition. But his father-in-law is a Muslim who moved in the other direction and his mother-in-law is from Palestine and is of Jewish origin.
Sounds like the typical religious and family interconnected pretzel like ties indicative of many, many South Asians in America.
This individual has been mentioned before, IIRC, on some left/islami sites that I’ve looked at with dire innuendos about his origins, motiviations and current role.
But, I hear Bharara takes marching orders from the tribe of Lawng Islund.
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