That certainly didn’t take long:
The FBI has arrested a 30-year-old Bridgeport, Conn., man in connection with the failed attempt to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square, federal authorities told ABCNews.com late Monday night.
The man was identified as Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen, who had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan and the city of Peshawar, a known jumping off point for al Qaeda and Taliban recruits.
Shahzad was arrested at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City where FBI agents said he was attempting to leave the country to go to Dubai.
Now that we’ve captured him, since we have decided we are no longer a democracy that believes in the rule of law, we should ship Shahzad to India, where they aren’t afraid to try terrorists in court.
cleek
Ewwwick’s takeaway is that the media is mean to teabaggers.
TR
But this seems like definitive proof that a law enforcement approach to terrorism is very effective.
Conservatives are confused.
SGEW
Kind of an “extraordinary extradition.”
Comrade Darkness
Connecticut? Well that explains it.
cat48
Will be interesting to see how liberals spin this to make it all Obama’s fault that this poor criminal was forced to make a bomb and put it in Times Sq. I can just see the daring exposes they will write on their blogs.
They have already exposed how the spill is all Obama’s fault because he opened some areas of the ocean to exploration in the future a couple months ago. There are about 90 working rigs in the Gulf already, none that he authorized, but let us blame him totally anyway.
Keith G
So maybe that Pakistani Taliban group *may* have been telling the truth.
OTOH, sure seems the current crop of Islamic terrorists are the “gang that can’t shoot straight”. (Knock on wood)
Is this degraded terror threat at least partially due to military action? Is so, does this inform future policy?
stuckinred
@cat48: What the fuck are you talking about?
mistersnrub
OT:
Richard Cohen (!) absolutely eviscerates Newt Gingrich in the Post today. Whodathunk he had it in him?
cleek
we have always been at war with Pakistan.
dmsilev
@cleek: Poor aggrieved Erick. Does he happen to have any evidence that the suspect actually *is* Muslim before declaring a media coverup on the issue?
Actually, the suspect has a much more damning affiliation than his hypothetical religion:
(from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8659766.stm . Tried to embed the link, but WordPress ate it)
I call for an immediate air strike on the Goldman Sachs headquarters building.
dms
SpotWeld
The entire state of Connecicut is very much, and very quietly freaking out over here.
Seems like we’re going to have a fun election season.
MattF
Sez in the NYT story that three other men were taken off the plane. I’m guessing that they all demanded Dijon mustard with their in-flight pretzel-paks.
beltane
@cat48: That pisses me off to no end. It is kind of sad that some of the first on the “Obama’s Katrina” bandwagon were so-called progressives, who conveniently overlooked the Bush administration’s role in causing this. Quite a few of these people would prefer a president Palin just for the drama factor alone.
litbrit
I love it.
This is what happens when you combine citizen awareness and good police work with a healthy dose of good luck.
Seriously, though: Let’s give it up for good police work!
No-one had to be waterboarded; no-one had to invade a sovereign nation with a fabricated casus belli.
And–let’s hope–this criminal will be tried for his crime in a court, of which we have plenty in New York.
Bravo to the New Yorkers and their policemen; bravo to the oft-derided Fibbies; bravo to the SUV’s former owner for providing the e-mail details that led to the identification and arrest of the suspect.
Bravo, and Thank God.
cat48
@stuckinred: I just read something on HuffPost that explained that NOAA warned the admin that it was not safe to drill in the ocean last Fall, but Obama did not stop all drilling then, so I assume the spill is all his fault because he didn’t shut down the 90 rigs……………….just really burnt out with disappointed people trying to implicate O for everything from the financial crisis to oil spills………….
cleek
@mistersnrub:
that was awesome.
except… lefties like Chavez ? this i did not know.
Athenae
@mistersnrub: Every once in a while Cohen pulls one out, but he is still basically a garden implement. His occasional forays into decency just make his normal mealy-mouthed bullshit all the more infuriating.
A.
beltane
@SpotWeld: Why is the whole state freaking out about this? With all the violent crime down there, it seems an odd thing to cause a collective freakout.
Rosalita
@SpotWeld:
But Bridgeport has it’s iffy spots… local paper said the guy lived in Shelton… but the local paper is iffy too
cleek
one thing this whole affair has taught me is that my fear of the propane cylinder on my gas grill is probably unfounded. now i can stop worrying about it blowing up and taking off the back of my house whenever i grill something.
MikeJ
If he’s from Connecticut can we start bombing Mississippi?
cat48
@beltane: To say I’m extremely disappointed would not cover it. I used to love to read and learn……..now I read and weep daily. I’m starting to narrow my daily reading again to survive.
beltane
@litbrit: The NYPD is probably the best in the world. Other cities in the US could learn a lot from them.
J.W. Hamner
So has anybody been on TV hoping that FBI/police didn’t Mirandize this American citizen? Praying that we didn’t let this opportunity to torture someone slip through our fingers?
stuckinred
@cat48: Froomkin
lacp
Can Confederate Yankee account for all the propane tanks on his grill?
artem1s
@litbrit:
NPR reported this morning that the FBI had this guy in their sights from the beginning but had to move more quickly than they wanted because he was leaving the country. yes, yea for them. over all it seems that the Fibbies have actually developed good investigative skills whereas the CIA and NSC can’t get past brute force. perhaps this is due to routinely practicing the law within some sort of framework? hmmm?
beltane
@cat48: My local progressive blog was the worst. They took the Obama’s Katrina thing and ran with it. They are against wind farms too, of course, and just about every other form of energy creation you can think of.
dan robinson
Our country will only be as strong as our courage to defend our rights and the rule of law. These are a bunch of half-assed criminals, not holy war fighters, and they should be tried fairly, and if convicted, shipped off to Attica.
Gregory
At least it’s a Scary Brown Person and not a Real (middle aged, white, male, conservative) American™, so there won’t be any confusion in the so-called “liberal media” about whether to use the word “terrorism.”
Walker
@cat48:
Do not read HuffPo if it upsets you so much. Remind yourself that this is the site that supports vaccine denialists.
Crashman
It’s good to feel like law enforcement knows what they are doing. I’m glad this was resolved so quickly.
artem1s
@mistersnrub:
luftmensch… what a great word!
Mike in NC
From the Fallows thread:
That’s how they win elections now. Bed-wetting authoritarians, every one of them.
cat48
@beltane: I guess I’m wondering if these people use cars and have electricity in their homes because otherwise it is really hypocritical. They are dependent too & part of the problem. Whining and blaming doesn’t make one’s own energy use go away. Just nonsensical.
Gregory
@mistersnrub: And bafflingly, the local fishwrap — usually known for balancing its conservative editorials with ultraconservative op-eds, and only publishing liberal columnists when they reinforce Republican framing — ran it today.
Comrade Darkness
@cleek: Eh, coals are still tastier.
For me, it’s that pressurized leak sound when you turn it on, a sound accentuated by the rumbling in the tank itself like a soundbox. Maybe it’s movie association or something but something bad always follows that noise.
geg6
@cat48:
Well, I don’t know how you’re defining the word “liberal,” but it isn’t a very good definition since I (and a lot of other people here at BJ) would posit that I am a proud liberal and have been since the day I was born, or at least from when I first became politically active in 1976.
Now if you mean the Firebaggers and their like who populate a large number of GOS diaries, then you aren’t talking about liberals. You are talking crazy people who no one listens to or cares about.
I don’t know any liberals who have any interest in spinning anything to make it Obama’s fault since they are the ones who got him nominated, elected, and who still are his strongest supporters according to all the polls.
GregB
Seeing that the suspect lived in Connecticut, I think we should begin bombing immediately.
Pigs & Spiders
This is all Joe Lieberman’s fault.
cat48
Oh also, too I forgot about Moveon’s ad demanding O “lead” and change “his” energy policy which is as bad as the Gen Betrayus ad if not worse.
The timing is really bad.
cleek
@Comrade Darkness:
agreed, but i ain’t got time for the coals. there’s only so much time in the day and i need it for important things like blogging, drinking and husbanding.
sparky
no, no! can’t send a terraist somewhere else! what if someone finds him not guilty? that’s a risk we can’t afford to take.
no, since all the choices are hard ones, the only responsible thing to do is hold him indefinitely. after all, here’s what mister wonderful’s position is:
isn’t life much easier and safer when our leaders simply make their own reality?
Rosalita
@Pigs & Spiders:
how long until the newsies rush to get his comments?
Elisabeth
@J.W. Hamner:
McCain’s already made the rounds. TPM has the link because I don’t remember to whom he made his foolish remarks.
Jay C
It actually is impressive: just over 52 hours from the time of the initial attack to the arrest of a suspect. Of course, assuming Faisal Shahzad IS the Times Square Terrorist, he certainly made it easy for LE to track him down and nab him: sloppy execution, lots of forensic evidence (presumably meant to be destroyed in the blast) , the modern equivalent of a paper trail; his hasty flight, etc. Which will no doubt earn him a one-way ticket to scenic Florence, CO for his trouble.
We were lucky (again!) this time: I just dread that one day we are going to be the target of a would-be terrorist who knows what he’s doing.
sparky
incidentally, if you think the Huffington Post is somehow representative of people like me who are deeply annoyed with Ds & Obama, you are seriously mistaken. that website is nothing but a toxic mix of People and the Fox News philosophy applied from a different perspective. i haven’t been to that website since Arianna decided a couple of years ago that the way to get eyeballs was to be sensational first and worry about facts second.
unfortunately, TPM seems to be going down a similar rathole, though via the establishment route rather than the other. no doubt some day there will be an NYT-TPM relationship of some sort, which will pay the bills but end the site’s usefulness. and i say this as a person who still reads the NYT. well, some of it, anyway.
if you are looking for mainstream news McClatchy is probably the best large organization around these days.
Gregory
@cleek: I agree. Coals *are* better, but not having to wait for the coals between getting home from work and starting to cook often makes the difference between grilling and not grilling at all.
Jay C
@mistersnrub:
Cohen’s column, for a well-deserved change is definitely FTW today: if only for this:
LuciaMia
How did they nab this guy so quickly? I thought Obama had made us all less safe.
Truer words never spoken. When news broke that those christian militia folks(Hutaree?) would be out of jail pending their trial, FreeRepublic was practically celebrating.
Picked A Bad Day to Quit Sniffing Glue
If these guys figure out how to make a bomb, we’re fucked because we apparently cannot stop any of them from purchasing bomb materials, boarding planes, and taking the initial step to detonate the bomb. If it wasn’t for their incompetence, this would have been the year of multiple terrorist attacks on the home turf.
Very scary.
AhabTRuler
CIA & NSA are not LEOs; don’t ever mistake their thinking for anything having to do with the “rule of law.”
cat48
@sparky: Love McClatchy. I stopped HuffPo during hc, but recently tried adding again. Big mistake.
litbrit
@artem1s:
the Fibbies have actually developed good investigative skills whereas the CIA and NSC can’t get past brute force. perhaps this is due to routinely practicing the law within some sort of framework? hmmm?
Totally.
It worked the way it is supposed to work. Imagine that!
Picked A Bad Day to Quit Sniffing Glue
@beltane:
All kinds of props to the NYPD, but this is probably more FBI than NYPD.
AhabTRuler
Shit. Now I’m gonna have to submit a DNA sample next time want toget my propane tank refilled.
Svensker
@Keith G:
I’m sure this had NOTHING to do with our constant bombing of Pakistan. Nothing. They, too, hate us for our freedom.
Svensker
@Picked A Bad Day to Quit Sniffing Glue:
If these guys were teabaggers who, apparently, all own multiple assault rifles we’re fucked, because all they need to do is walk into any mall or busy street corner in America and start shooting. Say if 3 did that in different parts of the country in a span of a day or 2, would that not bring us to our hysterical knees?
David in NY
@J.W. Hamner:
McCain. Steve Benen has the details.
Morbo
@Keith G: They’re a regular Qeystone Qaeda.
J.W. Hamner
@David in NY:
What a shocking coincidence that he kept his trap shut until after we found out the guy has Pakistani roots, and wasn’t a right wing militia guy. Funny how that works.
ellaesther
Speaking of Muslims of Pakistani origin, I want to take the opportunity to give a little more play to another story about a Muslim from Pakistan, this one a leading Sunni theologian who recently published a sweeping — and scathing — indictment of terrorism: http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/03/23/anti-terrorism-fatwa/
Among other things, he wrote: “Terrorism is terrorism, violence is violence and it has no place in Islamic teaching and no justification can be provided for it, or any kind of excuses of ifs and buts.”*
And while I’m at it: An Islam reading list: http://emilylhauserinmyhead.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/islam-a-reading-list/ (note also the additions in the comments)
*Please note: The only reason I even heard of this thing was Leelee, right here at the BalloonJuice. Thanks Leelee! I love the internets!
Keith G
@Svensker: That’s why I am asking these somewhat rhetorical questions.
In general concept, I am not a big fan of our death from the sky activities – even if the Jonas Brothers are targeted. Where is the cut off between effective/efficient and just plain fucked up? Are we killing enough bad guys and/or keeping them on the run to a point the justifies the bad? Is there any justification for the bad?
Is a weakened Islamic terror threat (if it is caused by our actions in Af-Pak) worth the civilian toll?
I do not know enough to know.
slippy
@Svensker: We already ARE fucked. They’ve been committing acts of violence on a fairly regular basis and getting away with being “disgruntled” instead of “terrorists.”
If a TeaTard openly assaults a shopping mall with a machine gun, for example, I would think it would be too hard for the movement to cover up its violent, brutish tendencies to the press anymore. That’s not me wishing for it to happen, just speculating that they will keep their obscene violence on the DL as much as is possible.
LD50
Al Qaeda must be a shadow of its former self if it can’t teach people to make bombs better than they taught him.
Bubblegum Tate
@MikeJ:
WIN!
Calouste
@Gregory:
Get a chimney. Costs $10-15 and your coals are ready in 15 minutes.
asiangrrlMN
Props to all involved including the vendor who spotted the idling SUV. This is the way shit should work (yeah, yeah, yeah, give me a moment of hope, OK?).
Calouste
@LD50:
Even worse, three years ago they tried car bombs in London with roughly the same design and they didn’t work either. Either they’re so crap that they haven’t improved their design and procedures in three years even when they knew it didn’t work (which, considering how many car bombs go off in Iraq is somewhat unlikely), or they have worked out that now matter if the bomb goes off or not, the Republicans will shit in their pants anyway and demand more shooting of brown people.
mclaren
Anybody notice anything?
It was the FBI.
FBI. FBI. FBI.
Not the Department of Heimat Securitat. Excuse me, the Sicherheit Dienst. No, excuse me, the NKVD, oh fuck it, let’s call it what it is, the American Geheim Staats Polizei.
It wasn’t the JSOC, it wasn’t assassins parachuting from a HALO jump with gilley suits and sniper rifles, it wasn’t SEALS armed with silenced subsonic 9 mm assassination pistols, it wasn’t DHS, it wasn’t the TSA…
…It was the FBI.
We don’t need a goddamn Department of Homeland Security. The FBI is an efficient and effective law enforcement agency. It’s on top of this stuff. The FBI is perfectly capable of handling these kinds of problems, and they’re done a superb job since 9/11.
We should disband the Department of Homeland Security and shut down all these crazy extralegal assassination squads like JSOC and the SEALS and the rest of that horseshit private black ops murder squad assassination stuff.
Rule of law. FBI. That’s all we need. The Constitution works. Let’s stick with it.
Terrorism is a law enforcement problem.
And our law enforcement agencies work when it comes to chasing down and apprehending these guys. We don’t need to shred the constitution and send illegal extrajudicial assassination teams all over the fvcking planet.