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Would-Be Bomber Details Chilling New York Plot
New York. Admitted terrorist Faisal Shahzad was so eager to tell how he plotted to kill Americans in this city’s Times Square, he went to court with a prepared statement.
In an unapologetic, matter-of-fact courtroom colloquy in a US District Court on Monday, Shah_zad offered chilling details about how he trained with the Pakistani Taliban to build bombs, then returned to launch an attack that would avenge attacks on Muslims by US forces overseas.
“One has to understand where I’m coming from,” he said. “I consider myself a Muslim soldier.”
Shahzad, 30, admitted leaving a sport-utility vehicle rigged with a homemade bomb in bustling Times Squares on a warm night on May 1. It failed to go off, and the resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was arrested trying to leave the country on a Dubai-bound flight two days later.
Authorities say that after his capture, Shahzad voluntarily started talking about the botched bombing right away — a pattern that continued in court, where he agreed to plead guilty to 10 terrorism and weapons counts without the benefit of a plea deal and with certainty he would face life in prison.
“I want to plead guilty, and I’m going to plead guilty 100 times over,” he said.
Until US forces leave Muslim territory, he added, “we will be attacking” the United States.
Shahzad traced his plot to a trip to Pakistan last year that began only three months after he received his US citizenship.
During the trip, he sought and received five days’ training in explosives from the Pakistani Taliban in the lawless Waziristan region before returning to the United States in February to pursue a one-man scheme to bring death and destruction to New York, he said.
It is understood he received $5,000 in cash on Feb. 25 from an unnamed co-conspirator in Pakistan and $7,000 more on April 10, sent at the co-conspirator’s direction.
The Pakistani Taliban also gave him more than $4,000 when he left training camp.
Shahzad said he expected the bomb to begin going off after he lit a fuse and waited between two and a half and five minutes for it to erupt. “I was waiting to hear a sound, but I couldn’t hear any sound. So I just walked to Grand Central Terminal, and I went home,” he said.
Authorities say the bomb malfunctioned, emitting smoke that attracted the attention of an alert street vendor, who notified police, setting in motion a rapid evacuation of blocks of a city still healing from the shock of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
At a minimum, police said, the explosive had potential to harm pedestrians and damage buildings with flames and shrapnel.
Shahzad said: “I am part of the answer to the United States terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people. And, on behalf of that, I’m avenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their own people, but they don’t care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.”
Pakistan has arrested at least 11 people since the attempted attack. An official alleges two of them played a role in the plot. No one has been charged.
Associated Press
New York. Admitted terrorist Faisal Shahzad was so eager to tell how he plotted to kill Americans in this city’s Times Square, he went to court with a prepared statement.
In an unapologetic, matter-of-fact courtroom colloquy in a US District Court on Monday, Shah_zad offered chilling details about how he trained with the Pakistani Taliban to build bombs, then returned to launch an attack that would avenge attacks on Muslims by US forces overseas.
“One has to understand where I’m coming from,” he said. “I consider myself a Muslim soldier.”
Shahzad, 30, admitted leaving a sport-utility vehicle rigged with a homemade bomb in bustling Times Squares on a warm night on May 1. It failed to go off, and the resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut, was arrested trying to leave the country on a Dubai-bound flight two days later.
Authorities say that after his capture, Shahzad voluntarily started talking about the botched bombing right away — a pattern that continued in court, where he agreed to plead guilty to 10 terrorism and weapons counts without the benefit of a plea deal and with certainty he would face life in prison.
“I want to plead guilty, and I’m going to plead guilty 100 times over,” he said.
Until US forces leave Muslim territory, he added, “we will be attacking” the United States.
Shahzad traced his plot to a trip to Pakistan last year that began only three months after he received his US citizenship.
During the trip, he sought and received five days’ training in explosives from the Pakistani Taliban in the lawless Waziristan region before returning to the United States in February to pursue a one-man scheme to bring death and destruction to New York, he said.
It is understood he received $5,000 in cash on Feb. 25 from an unnamed co-conspirator in Pakistan and $7,000 more on April 10, sent at the co-conspirator’s direction.
The Pakistani Taliban also gave him more than $4,000 when he left training camp.
Shahzad said he expected the bomb to begin going off after he lit a fuse and waited between two and a half and five minutes for it to erupt. “I was waiting to hear a sound, but I couldn’t hear any sound. So I just walked to Grand Central Terminal, and I went home,” he said.
Authorities say the bomb malfunctioned, emitting smoke that attracted the attention of an alert street vendor, who notified police, setting in motion a rapid evacuation of blocks of a city still healing from the shock of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.
At a minimum, police said, the explosive had potential to harm pedestrians and damage buildings with flames and shrapnel.
Shahzad said: “I am part of the answer to the United States terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people. And, on behalf of that, I’m avenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their own people, but they don’t care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.”
Pakistan has arrested at least 11 people since the attempted attack. An official alleges two of them played a role in the plot. No one has been charged.
Associated Press
