NY Bomber has been cuffed.

[Danno 1,228]

Couple questions.

-How did he get so far as to be "on the plane"?

-Why would he be so Stupid as to try to fly to Dubai .. of all places 2 days after the fact.

-If this is our Enemy.... what is taking so long to kill them all?

- THinking of Oklahoma, the Unibomber, Bill Ayers, the Abortion clinic bomber..... DO Americans make better self-taught bombers?

--------------------

U.S. citizen from Pakistan arrested in Times Square bomb case

By Anne E. Kornblut, Jerry Markon and Spencer S. Hsu

Tuesday, May 4, 2010; 3:21 AM

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. announced early Tuesday that an arrest had been made in the failed Times Square car bombing, saying that Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old American, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he tried to fly to Dubai on Monday night.

Authorities said Shahzad, who is of Pakistani origin and lived in Connecticut, had paid cash for a Nissan Pathfinder found with explosives after it was set ablaze but failed to detonate Saturday night on a tourist-crowded block in midtown Manhattan. Officials located him after a sweeping two-day investigation that yielded what senior Obama administration officials described as a flood of international and domestic clues suggesting a plot involving more than one person.

"It was clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans," Holder said at a rare middle-of-the-night news conference at the Justice Department, nearly three hours after the suspect was pulled from an international flight that had already left the departure gate.

Administration officials said President Obama had been repeatedly briefed on the incident -- which authorities said could have led to significant casualties if the explosives had detonated properly -- since it began unfolding Saturday night. It bore some resemblance to the attempted bombing of an airliner in Detroit last Christmas Day, with citizen watchdogs earning much of the credit for averting the crisis and the White House scrambling to discover clues about a young male suspect with apparent ties that stretched beyond the United States.

Still, within 48 hours, agents from Customs and Border Protection arrested Shahzad and took him into custody. It was not immediately clear what the charges were or where he was being held -- or whether other arrests were imminent. The U.S. attorney's office in New York said Shahzad will appear in Manhattan federal court Tuesday to be formally charged.

Authorities became aware of Shahzad's identity Monday afternoon, and he was arrested at about 11:45 p.m. Monday. Shahzad's flight to Dubai had left the gate and was headed toward the runway when authorities discovered that he was on board and wanted. He was removed from the plane and taken into custody, an official said.

Officials were reluctant to discuss Shahzad's potential ties to foreign extremists -- or his travel abroad -- except to say that they believed he was fleeing the country at the time of his arrest.

An FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force had taken over the investigation Monday amid growing indications of a possible international connection, U.S. officials and law enforcement sources said.

Investigators and agents also were scouring international phone records showing calls "between some of the people who might be associated with this and folks overseas," according to a U.S. official who has discussed the case with intelligence officers. Investigators uncovered evidence -- a piece of paper, fingerprints or possibly both -- that also indicates international ties, according to a federal official briefed on the investigation. Before Shahzad's arrest, the official said the material points to "an individual who causes concern to [investigators], who has overseas connections, and they are looking for him."

An overseas angle does not necessarily mean that the incident was planned or financed by al-Qaeda or another organized group, investigators said. "Think smaller," said one senior law enforcement official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Even as investigators emphasized that the probe is in its early stages and little is definitively known, they pursued what Obama administration officials characterized as a flood of new leads, both foreign and domestic. The Pathfinder's registered owner, for example, told investigators that he sold it several weeks ago to a stranger, in a cash transaction through Craigslist.

On a day of fast-moving developments from Manhattan to Washington, Obama was repeatedly briefed on what a senior administration official called "a very active investigation.'' Holder said in the morning that it was too early to designate the failed bombing as an attempted terrorist incident. By afternoon, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs was calling it just that.

"I would say that was intended to terrorize, and I would say that whomever did that would be categorized as a terrorist," Gibbs said, sharpening the administration's tone. Holder's statement early Tuesday called the incident a "terrorist act."

Differences also emerged over the significance of a surveillance video that caught a man in his 40s changing his shirt in an alley and looking over his shoulder near where the Pathfinder was parked. New York City police officials had characterized the man as acting suspiciously, but multiple federal law enforcement officials said he may not be the focus of the investigation.

"It looks like he was just taking off his shirt because he was hot," said one law enforcement official. Investigators were seeking to find another person captured on video running north on Broadway away from the area where the smoking sport-utility vehicle caused an evacuation of Times Square on a crowded weekend night.

Police said the bomb would have created a fireball that likely would have killed or wounded many people, making it the most serious bombing attempt in the United States since the Christmas Day attack aboard a commercial flight bound for Detroit.

The growing evidence of terrorist connections in the Times Square case prompted the New York-based terrorism task force to take the lead in the investigation, which had been overseen by the New York Police Department, a senior U.S. law enforcement official said. That indicates that the failed bombing is being investigated as a terrorist incident with international connections, the official said.

FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko of the New York field office said in a statement Monday night that the "FBI JTTF [Joint Terrorism Task Force] and NYPD are working this case jointly and have been since the beginning." The New York police force, known for its expertise in terrorism matters, is represented on the task force and will remain heavily involved in the probe, officials said.

In the rear of the SUV, police found a makeshift bomb made up of three tanks of propane similar to those used in backyard barbecues; two jugs of gasoline; dozens of M-88 firecrackers, which are legal for purchase in some states; and a metal gun case holding 100 pounds of fertilizer that police said was incapable of exploding.

Some officials cautioned that the international focus did not mean that other possibilities, such as domestic terrorism or an individual acting alone, were being ruled out. Neither did it mean, they said, that international ties automatically constituted a well-formed plot.

One federal law enforcement official, for example, said international communications don't necessarily "get you to an international plot, a multi-organizational plot."

"We're just not there," the official said.

The nature of the possible international connection also remained murky.

The Pakistani Taliban had asserted responsibility for the attempted bombing in a video posted on YouTube, but New York police and federal investigators have said no evidence had surfaced linking the group to the bomb.

On Sunday night, a second video was posted by apparent representatives of the Taliban, showing the group's commander, Hakimullah Mehsud, promising to launch attacks in the United States.

Mehsud, who U.S. and Pakistani authorities initially believed was killed in a January drone strike, was recorded saying, "The time is very near when our fedayeen will attack the American states in their major cities . . . in some days or a month's time."

The video is marked with the logo of the Pakistani Taliban's official media wing, Umar Studios, and appears to be credible, according to Evan F. Kohlmann, a terrorism consultant at Flashpoint Partners.

Staff writers Ellen Nakashima and Greg Miller and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Edited May 4, 2010 by Danno

[SMR 368]

I think one of the telling things here is that "an FBI-led anti-terrorism task force took over the investigation on Monday." It took two days for Obama to figure out and admit this was terrorism. That's why he almost got away. An anti-terrorism task force should have been there Saturday night.

[tallcoolone 102]

I think one of the telling things here is that "an FBI-led anti-terrorism task force took over the investigation on Monday." It took two days for Obama to figure out and admit this was terrorism. That's why he almost got away. An anti-terrorism task force should have been there Saturday night.

Obama isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, He reminds me of a black jimmy carter.....

[john & jean 37]

Obama isn't the sharpest tool in the shed, He reminds me of a black jimmy carter.....

reminds me of JJ,DyNoMiTe

[justashooter 430]

yep, it was a middle aged white guy...

wait a minute, it wasn't. it was a middle easterner between 18 and 35, so he was just like every other terrorist (except mcveigh) over the last 25 years.

is there a lesson here?

[Nagishkaw 510]

reminds me of JJ,DyNoMiTe

You are giving him too much credit.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

it was a middle easterner between 18 and 35 ...

Pakistan is now in the Middle East?

[Obama 2012 1,714]

Pakistan is now in the Middle East?

Might as well be... I mean we kind of lump-sum Afghanistan in there eventhough it's not a part of the middle east....

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Might as well be... I mean we kind of lump-sum Afghanistan in there eventhough it's not a part of the middle east....

What I'm trying to drive at here is that the common denominator justashooter is trying to refer to isn't "middle eastern", it's something else. AfPak isn't in the ME.

[mawilson 2,133]

Pakistan is now in the Middle East?

Yep.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Yep.

I guess Greece is ME too.

[Amby 490]

they just said someone has been arrested in pakistan too

[Amby 490]

now they're saying they've made several arrests in pakistan

[Danno 1,228]

now they're saying they've made several arrests in pakistan

I'm sure they are -READING THEM THEIR RIGHTS.

[milimelo 4,166]

From WSJ:

• May 4, 2010, 11:44 AM ET

Faisal Shahzad’s Life in America and Path to Citizenship

By WSJ Staff

Details are emerging on how Faisal Shahzad, arrested as the owner of the bomb-laden SUV left Saturday in Times Square, integrated into American life and eventually gained citizenship.

In December 1998 he was granted an F-1 student visa. Immigration officials noted then that there was “no derogatory information” on Mr. Shahzad in any database, a law enforcement official said.

He first attended Southeastern University in Washington, DC, then transferred in 2000 to the University of Bridgeport, Conn., where he received a B.A. in computer science and engineering.

He next appears in April, 2002, when he was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers; he stayed in the U.S. for three years on that visa and gained an M.B.A. It is not clear what company sponsored the visa, which is used to attract workers with a “specialty occupation,” such as information technology.

Then on October 20, 2008, he reported his marriage to a woman he identified as Huma Asif Mian, an American citizen. He became a naturalized as a U.S. citizen on April 17, 2009.

While law enforcement officials don’t have exhaustive details of his travels after he was naturalized, one trip in particular stands out: he left New York on June 2, 2009, on an Emirates flight to Dubai. He stayed overseas for eight months, returning on February 3, 2010, on another Emirates flight from Dubai.

Mr. Shahzad was arrested late Monday on board an Emirates flight from New York City to Dubai and was heading to Islamabad.

Can someone explain how did he get his citizenship within a year of marrying a USC? The article doesn't mention his permanent residency which normally comes before citizenship...