May 9, 2010 2:23 pm
Fox News, “Pakistani Taliban Behind Times Square Bomb Plot, Officials Say”
The investigation into the Times Square bomb plot has revealed that the Pakistani Taliban were behind the failed attack, top Obama administration officials said Sunday.
Despite conflicting claims over the past week from military and law enforcement officials, as well as Taliban leaders, Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said that authorities now believe suspect Faisal Shahzad acted at the direction of the Taliban in Pakistan and was probably funded by them.
Brennan told “Fox News Sunday” that Shahzad had “extensive interaction” with the group, which he described as virtually “indistinguishable” from Al Qaeda. He said investigators believe the suspect was trained by the militant network.
Fox News article continues here.
May 8, 2010 10:09 pm
My Way News (AP), “Pakistan tests 2 missiles, wants nuke recognition”
by Munir Ahmed
Pakistan successfully test-fired two ballistic missiles Saturday capable of carrying nuclear warheads, the military said, as the Islamic nation’s leader urged the world to recognize it as a legitimate nuclear power.
The Shaheen-1 missile has a range of about 400 miles (650 kilometers), while the second Ghaznavi missile could hit targets at a distance of 180 miles (290 kilometers), an army statement said. Both can carry conventional and nuclear warheads.
Pakistan’s missiles are mostly intended for any confrontation with archrival India, and the range of the Shaheen-1 would include the Indian capital of New Delhi. Saturday’s tests – which featured the rare launch of two missiles – are unlikely to aggravate tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors, since they both routinely conduct missile tests.
My Way News (AP) article continues here.
May 6, 2010 11:33 pm
ABC News, “Sources: Shahzad Had Contact With Awlaki, Taliban Chief, and Mumbai Massacre Mastermind”
by Richard Esposito, Chris Vlasto, and Chris Cuomo
Accused Times Square Bomber Faisal Shahzad linked up with the Pakistani Taliban through the internet, ABC News has been told by law enforcement and intelligence sources close to the investigation. Once the Taliban identified him as more valuable in the U.S. than in Pakistan, they trained him to return to execute his bomb attack.
But according to these sources, Shahzad also had a web of jihadist contacts that included big names tied to terror attacks in the U.S. and abroad, including the figure who has emerged as a central figure in many recent domestic terror attempts – radical American-born Muslim cleric Anwar Awlaki.
Besides Awlaki, sources say Shahzad was also linked to a key figure in the Pakistani Taliban, its Emir Beitullah Mehsud, who was killed in a drone missile strike in 2009. The Mehsuds had been family friends of Shahzad, who is the son of a former high-ranking Pakistani military officer.
ABC News article continues here.
May 6, 2010 11:27 pm
Fox News (AP), “Indian court gives death sentence to Pakistani gunman convicted in 2008 Mumbai attacks”
An Indian court sentenced the only surviving gunman from the 2008 Mumbai attacks to death Thursday, a punishment officials hoped would send a message to archrival Pakistan to stop future violence as fears about the global reach of militancy based on its soil grow.
Judge M.L. Tahaliyani gave Mohammed Ajmal Kasab multiple death sentences for murder, waging war against India, conspiracy and terrorism. He also handed down penalties for over two dozen other offenses ranging to life in prison.
“He shall be hanged by his neck until he is dead,” Tahaliyani said.
Fox News (AP) article continues here.
May 4, 2010 8:07 pm
Fox News, “Times Square Suspect Was Trained, but Picked the Wrong Explosive, Officials Say”
by Jana Winter
Inside the SUV, investigators say they found a complicated but “amateurish-looking” homemade device — a mishmash of household and garden store products including eight bags of sugar nitrate fertilizer — but not ammonium nitrate, which can produce a dynamite-like explosion.
If the device had functioned properly, it probably would have created a deadly fireball — though not nearly as disastrous as an ammonium nitrate device.
Frank Doyle, a former bomb expert and 33-year FBI veteran, said he doubted Shahzad received proper training in Pakistan or elsewhere to build a bomb, particularly when it came to what type of fertilizer he used.
“I would question his degree of training or whatever he knew about it,” Doyle told FoxNews.com. “That’s only one of a series of really serious mistakes he made.”
Fox News article continues here.
May 4, 2010 1:06 pm
Fox News, “Up to 8 Reportedly in Custody in Pakistan in Connection With Times Square Bombing Attempt”
Between four and eight people have been taken into custody for questioning in Pakistan in connection with the investigation of the Times Square bombing attempt, sources told CBS News.
Authorities are not saying who the potential suspects are or where they are being held, but they say there were raids Monday night and Tuesday morning in different locations. Some of them reportedly may be related to suspect Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-born U.S. citizen who was arrested overnight in New York.
Also, a man was arrested in Karachi for his connection to the bombing attempt, Pakistani intelligence sources told Fox News.
The capture comes after Shahzad was arrested as he came minutes away from fleeing the U.S. when his Dubai-bound flight was returned to its gate at New York’s Kennedy Airport and U.S. officials escorted him from the plane, along with two other men.
Fox News article continues here.
May 4, 2010 1:05 pm
ABC News, “Times Square Bomb Suspect Faisal Shahzad Nabbed Trying to Flee U.S.”
by Richard Esposito, Brian Ross, and Pierre Thomas
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.
At a press conference early Monday morning, Attorney General Eric Holder said, “It’s clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans.” He urged America to “remain vigilant.”
ABC News article continues here.
May 2, 2010 9:45 pm
My Fox New York, “Pakistani Taliban Claims Responsibility, Reports Claim”
by Adrian Carrasquillo
New York City’s police commissioner says there’s no evidence of a Taliban link to a failed bomb found in an SUV parked in Times Square but said he couldn’t rule them out.
On Sunday, Fox 5 reported on a Reuters story that the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the bomb plot.
According to Fox News, in a 1 minute video allegedly released by the Pakistani Taliban, the group says the attack is revenge for the death of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and the recent killings of the top leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq.
Images of the slain militants are shown as an unidentified voice recites the message. English subtitles are at the bottom of the screen.
According to the AP, an unidentified speaker on the tape also says the attack comes in response to American “interference and terrorism in Muslim Countries, especially in Pakistan.”
My Fox New York article continues here.
March 12, 2010 11:18 am
Fox News, “Al Qaeda Suspect Worked at U.S. Nuclear Plants”
An American charged in Yemen with being a member of Al Qaeda had worked at nuclear power plants in the U.S., a spokesman for a group of plants in New Jersey said Thursday. But a state official said the man did not breach security there.
Sharif Mobley, a 26-year-old natural-born U.S. citizen, was arrested in Yemen earlier this month and is accused of killing a guard in an attempt to break out of a hospital.
The FBI, the State Department and other authorities said they were trying to gather information about Mobley. But the allegations appeared to illustrate a phenomenon U.S. intelligence officials have warned about: American Muslims becoming radicalized and joining terrorist movements overseas.
Fox News article continues here.
March 3, 2010 3:47 pm
Times Online, “Pakistan’s Army takes control of al-Qaeda cave network on Afghan border”
by Zahid Hussain
Pakistani forces have taken control of a warren of caves that served until recently as the nerve centre of the Taleban and al-Qaeda and sheltered Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-in-command to Osama bin Laden.
“It was the main hub of militancy where al-Qaeda operatives had moved freely,” Major-General Tariq Khan, the Pakistan regional commander, said as he gave journalists a tour of Damadola yesterday.
The village, nestling among snow-capped peaks in the Bajaur region along the Afghan border, has been fought over for 16 months. It is the first time that the Pakistani Army has set foot in the village, which had long been dominated by the insurgents operating on the both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
Times Online article continues here.
