terror

Faisal Shahzad, terror, terrorists, Times Square

U.S. citizen from Pakistan arrested in Times Square car bombing attempt (suspect had help from abroad)

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Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from Pakistan, was arrested last night at JFK airport after authorities discovered he was aboard a plane that had left the gate and was preparing to take off for Dubai. He had recently returned from an extended trip to Pakistan. Authorities also have evidence of an “international connection.” Obviously, that translates to Shahzad had help of some kind from Islamic terrorists abroad and the Obama administration is playing it down at this point in the investigation. Daniel Foster at the National Review Online reports:

Police have arrested Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old U.S. citizen from Pakistan, in connection with the attempted Times Square bombing. Shahzad is believed to be the purchaser of the SUV used in the plot, and was apprehended at about 11:00 P.M. Monday while already on-board a flight to Dubai from JFK International Airport … International phone records reportedly show calls between Shazhad and/or other suspects and overseas elements; and evidence at the crime scene, including potential fingerprints, also reportedly suggest an international connection.

We will soon learn that Shahzad had some contact with Islamic terrorists in Pakistan. How much training and assistance they provided him is not clear at this time.

9/11, al Qaeda, Barack Obama, Eric Holder, Janet Napolitano, terror, Times Square

New York Terror Trial Follies

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Bill Burck and Dana Perino write on the Corner at the National Review Online:

No one yet knows for sure who is responsible for the attempted terrorist attack in Times Square last night. It could be al-Qaeda or some other Islamist terrorist group, or some other group, or an individual acting on his or her own. Initial reports are that it may have been a crude bomb and a relatively amateur attack. Of course, homicide bombers are not known for their smarts, nor is the technology they use particularly sophisticated in most cases. But don’t be fooled by claims in the press that this was an amateur attack. Whoever tried to kill innocents in midtown Manhattan last night knew exactly what they were doing. They targeted Times Square in Manhattan not as a random act, but as a message that Americans remain vulnerable to indiscriminate murder for fanatical religious or political reasons, and that our most significant landmarks are not safe from attack. Whoever did this, we can be sure, is in league with the underwear bomber, Major Hasan, and other terrorists either in fact or in spirit.

I fully agree with their bottom line; you can read it here. A civilian trial in New York of the 9/11 conspirators needs removed from “the table” and, instead, conducted by military commission at the most secure detention facility in the world, the U.S. Navy facility at Guantanamo Bay.

While DHS Secretary was flying back from flying over an oil spill she could have seen via a live feed to her office, a terrorist was preparing to drive to Times Square with a bomb. AG Eric Holder sent attorneys, including American Taliban John Walker Lindh lawyer turned Assistant Attorney General Tony West, to Louisiana to ramp up civil suit action instead of working on a foreign policy that interrogates terrorists first and foremost for intelligence and figures out in what venue to prosecute them later. While SEAL teams would have been the wiser choice to defend offshore oils rigs, President Obama sent Interior Department SWAT teams that would better serve to defend the porous Mexico-U.S. border in Arizona. Is there anyone in this administration who puts common sense and the nation’s common defense ahead of politics?