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Faisal Shahzad
Times Square Bomb Suspect Jogged, Slammed Bush, Defaulted On Mortgage
Zachary Roth | May 5, 2010, 2:03PM
Faisal Shahzad
A day and a half after his arrest, a portrait is starting to emerge of Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born American citizen who was pulled off a flight to Dubai at JFK Airport Monday night and arrested in connection with Saturday's attempted Times Square bombing.
That portrait, compiled based on accounts in several news outlets, is notable for the way in which Shahzad -- like so many of the young men behind Islamic terror attacks on the U.S. and Europe -- seems to have been simultaneously alien from, and embedded within, western culture. Born in Pakistan's remote and tribal Northwest Frontier Province, Shahzad, 30, grew up in a country that banned alcohol and taught Islam in school, and he maintained close ties to family members in the region. But he also went jogging in his suburban Connecticut neighborhood, and perused used car websites to find the Nissan Pathfinder that he's charged with using in the bomb plot. And he seems to have gone over the edge not long after participating in that archetypal American ritual of recent years -- defaulting on his mortgage.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (32) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (1)Topics: Emirates Airline, Faisal Shahzad, George Bush, Iraq War, Terror Plot, Terrorism
Times Square Bomb
The One That Almost Got Away: How The FBI Nearly Lost Faisal Shahzad
Ben Frumin | May 5, 2010, 10:17AM
An Emirates airplane with Faisal Shahzad (inset)
Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad was put on the U.S government's no-fly list at approximately 12:30 p.m. Monday, and airlines were notified of the change three minutes later. At about 3 p.m. the FBI began surveilling Shahzad at his Connecticut apartment. And yet, several hours later -- after somehow eluding the FBI surveillance team -- he received a boarding pass for a flight from JFK to Dubai and made it on board before he was stopped. How'd that happen?
While details are still coming to light, it seems to be a failure at two levels: the FBI surveillance team tracking Shahzad somehow lost track of him, and the United Arab Emirates' national airline apparently didn't catch his name on an updated no-fly list until it was nearly too late.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS (65) | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Emirates Airline, FBI, Faisal Shahzad, Times Square Bomb
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