Sunday, May 30, 2010
The U.S. military is reviewing options for a unilateral strike in Pakistan in the event that a successful attack on American soil is traced to the country's tribal areas, according to senior military officials.
Ties between the alleged Times Square bomber, Faisal Shahzad, and elements of the Pakistani Taliban have sharpened the Obama administration's need for retaliatory options, the officials said. They stressed that a U.S. reprisal would be contemplated only under extreme circumstances, such as a catastrophic attack that leaves President Obama convinced that the ongoing campaign of CIA drone strikes is insufficient.
"Planning has been reinvigorated in the wake of Times Square," one of the officials said...
Labels: Pakistan, Shahzad, Times Square
Saturday, May 29, 2010
ISLAMABAD (AP) — A retired army major said Saturday he had been cleared of any wrongdoing after Pakistani intelligence released him from custody in connection with the attempted car bombing in New York's Times Square.
Adnan Ahmad and his brother were among at least 11 people that Pakistan has rounded up since the failed attack May 1. Two other suspects face allegations of involvement in the plot, but no one in Pakistan has been charged.
Ahmad's detention was especially sensitive because of ongoing U.S. suspicion that elements in Pakistan's military and intelligence world who are sympathetic to Islamist causes have assisted would-be jihadists.
Pakistan's army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas confirmed for the first time Saturday that Ahmad was dismissed from the military because he had ties to banned organizations, but he would not elaborate.
The main suspect in the car bomb case, Pakistani-American Faisal Shahzad, is being held by U.S. authorities. Shahzad is the son of a former Pakistani air force officer...
Labels: Pakistan, Times Square
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Investigation says Shahzad taught by rogue ISI agents
LONDON – MI6 agents based in Pakistan have established that rogue intelligence officers in the country's Inter-Services Intelligence service, ISI, arranged for Faisal Shahzad to return to the United States after giving him instructions on how to build the Times Square bomb, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The MI6 officers believe that an ISI officer could have traveled on the same flight that Shahzad took when he flew home.
"This could be a potentially devastating blow for the ISI which already has a shaky anti-terrorism reputation in British and US intelligence agencies," said an intelligence source in London...
Labels: Inter-Services Intelligence, ISI, MI6, Pakistan, Shahzad, Times Square
Sunday, May 9, 2010
AP - Faisal Shahzad at Phantom Fireworks in Matamoras, Pa., where he reportedly bought some explosive materials.
WASHINGTON -- The failed bombing in New York's Times Square is a possible signal that militant leaders in Pakistan have shifted their focus to targets in the U.S. and other Western countries instead of sticking to their home base, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials.
The attack, they also warned, could be only the first by terrorist groups that seek to avoid detection by using simpler methods that are more independently planned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.
U.S. investigators and intelligence agencies are trying to establish whether accused bomber Faisal Shahzad was trained or recruited for the Times Square operation by any Pakistan-based terrorist organization, including the Pakistani Taliban. Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, spent five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack...
[Webmaster - This is the corportate-controlled media drumbeat being leaked to us by "The Officials." They are paving the way...laying the groundwork. In other words...reading between the lines..."The Officials" WILL BE (plan on) hitting us with staged false flag attacks (like 9/11) but we are supposed to be brainwashed/programmed to make believe it is entirely the work of foreign entities. They will then use these false flag events to further restrict our liberty and freedom in the name of "national security" (ie - more "Patriot Act"-type of legislation). Also, they will leverage these false flag attacks to expand our presence in Pakistan, increasing the military / industrial complex's foothold in the Middle East. You will soon be hearing a lot more about "Continuity of Government" as the phony terrorist attacks begin.]
Labels: Pakistan, Shahzad, Taliban, Times Square
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Jaish-e-Muhammad founded by CIA-MI6 asset who bankrolled 9/11 hijackers
Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Thursday, May 6, 2010
A man arrested in Pakistan in connection with the Times Square car bombing attempt who had traveled with accused bomber Faisal Shahzad is a member of a terrorist organization that is controlled by British MI6 and the CIA.
Sheik Mohammed Rehan, who was arrested on Tuesday in Karachi, “Allegedly drove with Shahzad from Karachi to Peshawar on July 7, 2009, in a pickup truck, authorities said. They returned to Karachi July 22. It is not known why they went to Peshawar and whether they met with anyone there,” reports the L.A. Times.
Rehan is a member of the militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad, a terrorist organization that came to prominence in the mid-1990’s and has been involved in attacks in the disputed Kashmir border region between India and Pakistan. The group also helped carry out the December 2001 attack on the Indian Parliament which brought India and Pakistan to the brink of nuclear war, tensions that proved very lucrative for British and American arms manufacturers who sold weapons to both sides.
“The December 2001 terrorist attacks on the Indian parliament — which contributed to pushing India and Pakistan to the brink of war — were conducted by two Pakistan-based rebel groups, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, both of which are covertly supported by Pakistan’s ISI,” writes Michel Chossudovsky. “Needless to say, these ISI-supported terrorist attacks serve the geopolitical interests of the US. They not only contribute to weakening and fracturing the Indian Union, they also create conditions which favor the outbreak of a regional war between Pakistan and India.”
Jaish-e-Muhammad, the group now emerging in connection with the Times Square incident, was founded by Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, the 9/11 bagman who delivered $100,000 from the United Arab Emirates to Mohammed Atta at the behest of General Mahmud Ahmed, then head of the ISI. Mahmud Ahmed, the man who ordered Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh to bankroll the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, was meeting with Republican Congressman Porter Goss and Democratic Senator Bob Graham in Washington DC on the morning of 9/11. In the days before and after the attack, Ahmed also met with CIA Head George Tenet as well as current Vice-President Joe Biden, then Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee...
Labels: CIA, MI6, Pakistan, Shahzad, Times Square
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
New York (CNN) -- A suspect in the failed Times Square car bombing told law enforcement officials that he recently received bomb-making training in Pakistan, court documents filed Tuesday show.
Additionally, charges against Faisal Shahzad allege that he received a series of phone calls from Pakistan in the days leading up to the incident, including five calls on the same day he bought the Nissan Pathfinder used in the attempted attack Saturday night in the bustling area of New York.
The documents, filed in U.S. District Court, detail five counts against Shahzad: attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, use of a destructive device in connection with criminal violence, transporting and receiving explosives, and damaging and destroying property by means of fire.
If convicted, Shahzad could get life in prison...
Read complaint filed in federal court Tuesday (PDF)
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Shahzad, Times Square
The accused Times Square bomber appears to have links to the same town in Colorado where convicted terrorist Najibullah Zazi lived prior to coming to New York City and attempting a foiled subway attack, Fox News has learned.
Records obtained by Fox News show Huma Asif Mian, Faisal Shahzad's wife, has relatives listed at various addresses in Colorado. The addresses include apartment leases and a property deed in Aurora, Colo., and an apartment lease in Golden, Colo., that were held on-and-off from 2003 to March of this year.
A person who answered the phone at the Golden address listed in the records refused to answer questions on Tuesday and instead asked a series of questions about how Fox News obtained the address, phone number and other information related to the case...
[Webmaster - It will be interesting to see how long it is before the Feds link Shazad with Anwar al-Awlaki... According to WikiPedia:
"Al-Awlaki has reportedly met privately with at least two of the 9/11 hijackers.[17][18] Due to these contacts, investigators suspect al-Awlaki may have known about the 9/11 attacks in advance.[17] U.S. intelligence has intercepted emails between al-Awlaki and accused Fort Hood shooter, Nidal Malik Hasan[19][20] and after the Fort Hood shooting, al-Awlaki praised Hasan's actions.[21][22] According to unnamed U.S. officials, "Christmas-Day" bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab implicated al-Awlaki in some elements of planning or preparing for his failed attack.[23] The Wall Street Journal reported that "There is no indication Mr. Awlaki played a direct role in any of the attacks, and he has never been indicted in the U.S."[24]"
- 9/11 shows considerible evidence of being a "false flag" operation...
- The Fort Hood shooting is very suspicious...
- The Underwear bomber was helped onto the place by a U.S. intelligence asset...
Once they show a connection between Shahzad and al-Awlaki, then you'll know it's a "false flag".]
Labels: al-Awlaki, car bombing, Fort Hood, Major Nidal Hasan, New York City, Shahzad, Times Square, underwear bomber
Times Square terror suspect Faisal Shahzad got bomb-making training on his recent trip to Pakistan -- but made an error that probably saved the lives of hundreds: he packed an SUV with the wrong explosive material, law enforcement sources told FoxNews.com.
And the bomb was planted just two days after the military's Central Command issued a classified intelligence report warning of the dangers of fertilizer bombs being manufactured by the Taliban and insurgents in Pakistan, FoxNews.com has learned.
Officials say Shahzad, a 30-year-old naturalized American citizen, admitted he received training in making fertilizer-based IEDs in his native Pakistan in the five months he was there before he returned to America in February.
Law enforcement officials said he was apprehended late Monday night after investigators tracked him through the IP address of the computer he used to contact the seller of the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder he allegedly purchased for the attack...
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Times Square
NEW YORK — New York officials say they could stop attacks like the attempted Times Square car bomb by expanding a controversial surveillance system so sensitive that it will pick up even suspicious behavior.
New York is already a heavily policed city, with 35,000 officers and a counterterrorism bureau -- the first of its kind in the country -- partnering the FBI.
But Saturday's failed terrorist bomb in the Times Square tourist hot spot has provided the authorities with a new argument for expanding a sometimes controversial security blanket of cameras, sensors and analytical software.
The system "will greatly enhance our ability and the ability of the police to detect suspicious activity in real time, and disrupt possible attacks," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Monday.
The high-tech system, modeled on the "ring of steel" in London's financial district, is already in service in lower Manhattan, where Wall Street and the World Trade Center reconstruction site are located.
Headquartered at 55 Broadway, the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative goes far beyond the traditional hodgepodge of police cameras, such as the 82 devices installed around Times Square.
Instead, an integrated system maintains an unblinking eye, not just watching, but constantly collecting license plate numbers and video of pedestrians and drivers, as well as detecting explosives and other weapons.
An important component of the program is coordination between the police network and private businesses' cameras, something that has not been established in Times Square, causing detectives significant extra work.
Also, a separate, but similar program called Operation Sentinel plans to log every vehicle entering Manhattan island by scanning their license plates and checking for radiation.
Last October, Bloomberg announced plans to expand the lower Manhattan system into Midtown, including the Times Square area.
On Sunday, New York police chief Raymond Kelly reiterated the plan and used the occasion to press for more federal funding from Washington.
Kelly also gave details about the system, explaining how the aim is for "analytic software" allowing experts to make sense of raw information in real time.
For example, alarms would trigger when cameras noticed an unattended bag or a car circling a block too many times to be considered normal, Kelly said.
"This is a whole new area for us," he told Fox News. "We're very enthusiastic about it."
Bloomberg said the city has budgeted "more than 110 million dollars to expanding the Lower Manhattan Security Initiative and incorporating it with the Midtown Manhattan Security Initiative."
That large-scale, yet simultaneously detailed intelligence gathering clearly pays in some terrorism investigations.
Officials point out that acquiring the ingredients for a bomb or weapons exposes plotters to precisely the kind of surveillance New York is promoting.
Kelly noted on Fox News that Afghan immigrant Najibullah Zazi found it "very difficult to get explosives" for his plan to bomb the New York subway system. A major piece of evidence against him was security camera footage of a shopping trip for chemicals in Colorado.
Similarly, although the Times Square bomber tried to disguise the car, it was still quickly traced, providing detectives with an important lead.
But while law enforcement officials tout a brave new world of security, rights groups fear a "big brother" presence violating fundamental privacy.
The New York Civil Liberties Union has sued the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to extract more information about the Manhattan security system and to know how the information will be used, shared and stored.
The irony is that the lowest tech responses can sometimes best the most sophisticated gizmo.
The misfiring of a device hidden in the underpants of a Nigerian passenger and the quick reaction by others on the US-bound flight prevented potential tragedy in a December 25 attempted airliner attack.
And in Times Square, a vigilant street vendor and nearby beat cop -- not a computer -- raised the alert on the suspicious vehicle.
"Think about the street vendor. Think about the passengers on the flight on Christmas Day," said Republican congressman Pete Hoekstra.
"All of these people perhaps were the difference between a major disaster and actually what happened: a failed terrorist attack."
[Webmaster - This is a great example of "The Solution" phase of the Problem-Reaction-Solution formula. See the videos I posted a few days ago describing this process... http://www.projectwakeupcall.com/2010/05/videos-explaining-problem-reaction.html ]
Labels: big brother, car bombing, New York City, surveillance, Times Square
Faisal Shahzad, the Connecticut man busted in the Times Square terror plot built his makeshift bomb inside a suburban garage after five months of explosives training in Pakistan, a federal complaint charged.
The 10-page document unsealed Tuesday detailed the scheme cooked up by Shahzad, who was arrested hours earlier while trying to flee the country aboard a flight to Dubai.
Shahzad, 30, confessed to the Saturday night plot to ignite a fireball in crowded Times Square after he was arrested late Monday at JFK Airport, said Attorney General Eric Holder.
Shahzad also admitted spending five months in Pakistan receiving bomb-making training before the botched attempt to terrorize the Crossroads of the World, according to the 10-page complaint...
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Times Square
Monday, May 3, 2010
The would-be car-bomber who left an SUV loaded with propane and gas cans, fireworks and timing devices on a Times Square street also had more than 100 pounds of fertilizer, but not the kind that would explode, police said today.
Instead of ammonium nitrate, the kind of fertilizer used by Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, the person who abandoned the van on the crowded New York City street had a metal gun locker full of a harmless fertilizer, New York City Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said.
While it is unknown who the potential bomber is, or the bomber's motive, officials told ABC, that if that person were not aware of the characteristics of the fertilizer it could point to the fact that the bomber did not know what he was doing.
Sources also told ABC News that the valves on the propane tanks were not open, which would have made it less likely that the gas inside would have ignited.
Police are looking for white male in his 40s who was seen leaving the area near the SUV and shedding a dark shirt, revealing a red shirt underneath, about a half block from where survellance cameras saw the vehicle entering Times Square at about 6:28 p.m. Saturday, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said...
Labels: car bombing, Times Square
No need to wait for the “authorities” to shift the blame for the lame fireworks bomb planted in Times Square on the Tea Party. The chant has already commenced.
The suspect is a balding white guy, so it stands to reason the Tea Party is responsible.
Robert Dreyfuss, writing for The Nation, discounts the Taliban link to the Mickey Mouse bomb and blames the Tea Party. “It may be that the Pakistan-based Taliban, the Tehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), has quietly established a Connecticut franchise while we weren’t looking. That’s possible. But it seems far more likely to me that the perpetrator of the bungled Times Square bomb plot was either a lone nut job or a member of some squirrely branch of the Tea Party, anti-government far right. Which actually exists in Connecticut, where, it seems, the car’s license plates were stolen.”
How does Dreyfuss know it was the Tea Party? Because the Oklahoma City bombing was supposedly pulled off by a white guy. In the “aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, when self-appointed experts blamed Muslims only to find out that it was a Gulf War veteran named Tim who did it, there has once again been an unseemly rush to judgment.”
The white guy caught in a video and suspected of placing the “bomb” with its toy clock “looks like your typical Tea Party radical,” writes Gather.
“General consensus is that the perpetrator was a white 40 year old male Christian card carrying member of the Tea Party crowd,” declares The Political Jungle blog. In order to make this point, the blogger cites a string of goofy commented posted at Fox News...
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Times Square
Sunday, May 2, 2010
NEW YORK — Police investigating the failed car bomb left in Times Square have videotape of a possible suspect shedding clothing in an alley and putting it in a bag and found a substance that resembled fertilizer in the parked SUV, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday.
Kelly said officers were on the way to a Pennsylvania town to talk to a tourist who might have recorded the suspect on his video camera. The video shows a white man in his 40s taking off one shirt, revealing another underneath.
The commissioner said there's no evidence that a Pakistani Taliban videotaped claim to the failed car bombing is valid.
Police found the SUV parked on one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows such as "The Lion King" on Saturday night. Thousands of tourists were cleared from the area for 10 hours. The bomb was dismantled, and no one was hurt.
The SUV contained three barbecue-grill-sized propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, police said. Timers were connected to a 16-ounce can filled with the fireworks, which were apparently intended to set the gas cans and propane afire, Kelly said...
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Times Square
Editor: The last time a building in Times Square was bombed, the small explosion which hit a military recruitment center in March 2008, the corporate media floated the myth that 9/11 truthers were responsible. How long will it be before the feds blame this thwarted car bombing on Tea Partiers, Constitutionalists, gun owners, or whoever they wish to demonize next?
We have been warning for weeks about an imminent false flag domestic terror attack that would be used to demonize the government’s political opposition and this appears to have been such an attempt. It just remains to be seen who will be fingered as the culprit by an establishment media straining at the leash to justify characterizations of angry but non-violent Americans as dangerous extremists...
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Times Square
Attempted Car Bombing in Times Square
NEW YORK – Police found an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said Sunday.
Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours after two vendors alerted police to the suspicious vehicle, which contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said...
'Car Bomb' Found In Times Square
An apparent car bomb has been discovered in New York's Times Square after failing to explode on Saturday night during Broadway's peak period.
The square was evacuated after a flash was seen inside a 4X4 which then began emitting quantities of smoke just after 6:30pm local time.
The FBI and local law enforcement teams are now trying to gather evidence from the vehicle.
"This appears to be a car bomb that the bomb squad is in the process of dismantling," New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne said. "We do not know the motive."
Mr Browne said an mounted policeman spotted a box smoking in the back of the Nissan Pathfinder sport utility vehicle shortly before 7 p.m. (2300 GMT) and that Times Square, the popular tourist destination in Manhattan's Midtown, was evacuated soon after...
Police Find Clues In Potential Car Bomb Vehicle
(CNN) -- A T-shirt vendor who noticed smoke coming out of a dark green sport utility vehicle alerted police to what turned out to be a potential bomb placed in the city's iconic Times Square -- teeming with tourists and theater-goers on a balmy spring evening.
"We avoided what could have been a very deadly event," said Mayor Michael Bloomberg early Sunday morning. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."
The atmosphere at Times Square returned to normal Sunday, but questions remained about the contents of the vehicle.
Two federal officials said Sunday it was too early to tell whether the incident involved al Qaeda or another international terror group. The national threat level remained at yellow, or elevated.
"We're taking this very seriously," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in an interview on CNN's "State of the Union," noting that the New York police, FBI and federal Joint Terrorism Task Force were involved in the investigation. "We're treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack."...
New York City Police Investigate Failed New York City Bombing
Reuters
Armed NYPD officers talk to each other as police and fire personnel close off the area in New York's Times Square May 1, 2010. An apparent failed car bomb in a vehicle that was smoking and emitted a small "flash" caused police to evacuate New York's Times Square as bomb specialists worked to dismantle the device on Saturday night, Broadway's busiest night. REUTERS/Cary Horowitz (UNITED STATES - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST)
Local and federal authorities worked Sunday to identify the person or group behind an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb planted inside a car parked in New York City's Times Square.
Police found the bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle on Saturday, prompting thousands of tourists to be cleared from the streets for 10 hours while the explosive was dismantled.
A monitoring group said Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the bomb but the report could not be immediately confirmed by Fox News.
The New York City Police Department told FoxNews.com on Sunday that neither a suspect nor motive has been identified. NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said in an e-mail that the vehicle was taken to a forensics lab in Queens, N.Y., where it is being examined for fingerprints, hairs and fibers. All bomb components were taken to a separate facility in Bronx, N.Y., Browne said.
Investigators removed three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components from the back of the Nissan Pathfinder, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. A black metal box resembling a gun locker was also recovered and will be detonated off site, he said...
Cops: Possible Suspects In Times Square Car Bomb Include Group Behind 'South Park' Threat
Police hunting the man who parked a crude but powerful car bomb in Times Square are looking into a possible link to a "South Park" cartoon lampooning threats against depicting Mohammed.
No link has been established, but threats against the Comedy Central animators appeared on a New York Islamist Web site last week and police are aggressively looking for connections, sources told The Daily News.
The Nissan Pathfider, its engine running and hazards flashing, was parked Saturday night on W 45th St. right next to the Viacom Building at 1515 Broadway. Viacom owns Comedy Central.
The SUV was packed with propane, gasoline and fireworks and a rudimentary fuse had already been ignited.
Sharp-eyed vendors are being credited with alerting cops when they spotted the saving they alerted day when he saw smoke curling from the car at about 6:30 p.m....
Labels: car bombing, New York City, Times Square
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]