Political India: Engaging America

From The Hindu

Faisal Shahzad (31), the Pakistan-born United States citizen charged with the Times Square bomb plot, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum handed down the sentence on Tuesday after Shahzad admitted that he had intended to kill at least 40 people through the crudely constructed, fertiliser-based bomb planted in a Nissan Pathfinder in the bustling centre of New York City.

He also confessed to planning a second bombing two weeks after the Times Square attack. Media reports noted that Shahzad said he had acted alone out of anger about U.S. military action in Muslim countries and mistreatment of Muslims around the world.

On May 3, Shahzad was stopped from boarding the flight after he was identified by agents of the Department of Homeland Security. On May 18, he was produced before a judge and formally charged with the bomb plot of May 1, including several felony charges.

At the time New York federal attorney Preet Bharara had said that while Mr. Shahzad had voluntarily waived his right to arraignment, he had provided law enforcement authorities with “valuable intelligence from which further investigative action has been taken.”

During his trial Shahzad was said to have appeared “proud but defiant” in court and unapologetic for trying to kill as many Americans as he could. “The sentence does not mean anything to me,” he reportedly warned at the time, adding, “Brace yourself, because the war has just begun.”

However, Shahzad continued to cooperate with the U.S. Department of Justice and pleaded guilty to ten charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and an attempt to kill or maim.

The weeks following his arrest also saw a spike in tensions between the U.S. and Pakistan, with top U.S. intelligence officials Leon Panetta and James Jones travelling to Islamabad to keep up the pressure on Pakistani authorities investigating Shahzad’s links to terror networks there.

Labels: Department of Homeland Security, Times Square bomb plot

From The Hindu

The State Department on Friday confirmed that arrests had been made in Pakistan relating to the case of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square bomber currently in custody in the United States.

“There have been some arrests in Pakistan,” Philip Crowley, State Department spokesman, said, in response to a question on the arrest of an army general in Pakistan. The general was allegedly arrested on the charge of withholding information regarding Mr. Shahzad from the authorities.

At a briefing Mr. Crowley also noted, “We just had a high-level visit to Pakistan by General Jones, the National Security Advisor, and Leon Panetta, the CIA Director. We are satisfied with the cooperation that we are receiving with Pakistan in this investigation.”

However he added that regarding the specifics of any arrests that took place, he would have to defer to the Government of Pakistan. In particular Mr. Crowley remained non-committal about recent news that the U.S. embassy in Pakistan sent out about avoiding a local catering company that might have ties to the Taliban.

Labels: catering company, Faisal Shahzad, Hanif Rajput catering, Leon Panetta, Philip Crowley, Taliban, Times Square bomb plot

From The Hindu

“Indiscriminate” drone attacks by the United States in Pakistan might have motivated would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad, Pervez Musharraf, former President of Pakistan, suggested during an interview with a television news channel here.

Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Mr. Musharraf said such indiscriminate use of the drones was having a negative impact on the Pakistani public because of the collateral damage it produced. He then added, “I wonder [about] the Faisal Shahzad incident – has he been affected by the indiscriminate bombing by the drones?”

Mr. Musharraf also repudiated the suggestion that it was time for the United States to go into Pakistan with ground troops, arguing that the Pakistani military had already succeeded in Swat, Bajaur and South Waziristan.

“Now I believe they are acting in Orakzai Agency, where these Taliban and al-Qaeda have escaped,” he added, however admitting that it was necessary for the Army to “add more force in the form of frontier core, the second line core”.

On Benazir Bhutto

In a strong rebuttal Mr. Musharaff also criticised the findings of the recent United Nations report that had squarely blamed his government for failing to prevent the assassination of former Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto.

Reacting to the allegation, the former President said, “I do not fully agree with this statement. In fact it was me who warned her about the threat to her. It was I who stopped her from going to that venue once before, to which lots of political aspersions were cast on me, that her movements are being restricted. But she decided to go again.”

He went on to add that all the necessary security had been provided “within the Pakistani environment” and in fact Ms. Bhutto went to the venue safely, addressed the people for one hour safely and got into the car safely. “I think this comment is rather unfair,” he said.

Mr. Musharaff also expressed support for the actions of the Pakistani government in closing down the social networking sites Facebook and YouTube within Pakistan. In that regard he said, “One has to obviously take some measures because people were agitating… You cannot have photographs of the Prophet, leave aside going for cartoons of the Prophet.”

He also noted, “We must understand these are sensitive issues and for the sake of independence of media, liberty of speech, we cannot hurt sensitivities of millions of people. We must not do that. I am against that.”

Labels: Faisal Shahzad, Musharraf, Times Square bomb plot