The case of Faisal Shahzad

By Steve Coll, May 4, 2010 Tuesday, May 4, 2010 - 1:55 PM Share

My thoughts on the arrest of Faisal Shahzad are up over at Think Tank.

Providing an accurate e-mail address to the seller of a vehicle you intend to use as a murder weapon is the sort of mistake that might get a person’s membership card pulled down at the terrorist union hall. No doubt Faisal Shahzad, the man arrested in the Times Square car bomb case, is having a bad day. It will probably get worse if he spends time in his holding cell reflecting on the trail of breadcrumbs he apparently left behind while planning what the evidence available so far suggests was the only act of violence committed during his young life as a U.S. citizen. If not for that e-mail address, Shahzad might already have stepped off an airplane in Karachi, ready to melt away into Pakistan.

Terrorists are adaptive, self-correcting, and cunning -- except when they aren’t. For all of his error-making as an individual, however, Shahzad’s case may actually reflect on how Pakistani-based jihadi groups have learned to protect themselves. According to news reports, Shahzad spent several months in Pakistan before returning to the United States and deciding on his plot. This would make him one of at least half a dozen U.S. citizens or residents to travel to Pakistan as alleged volunteers during the last several years.

For the rest, visit my New Yorker blog.

Steve Coll is the president of the New America Foundation.

DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Image

EXPLORE:AFPAK, AFPAK CHANNEL, PAKISTAN, TERRORISM

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SURESH SHETH

8:06 PM ET

May 4, 2010

Pakistan has always been the 'terror center' of the world

Again and again, all terrorists lead to Pakistan. US decided to absolve Pakistan (Army, Intelligence and government) for its culpability in 9/11 attacks once Musharraf was forced to join US fight against terrorism under the threat of dire consequences by Richard Armitage in 2001. Afterall Pakistani government planned, facilitated and carried out 9/11 attacks to avenge US refusal to deliver F-16 jet fighters after Pakistan had already paid for them in 1990s.

But it did not mean that Pakistan severed all ties with the terrorists that Pakistan itself had created, nurtured, supported and sheltered.

On the contrary, Pakistani government and army continued its duplicitous game of ‘running with the hares while hunting with the hounds’. And Uncle Sam willingly tolerated such duplicitous Pakistani game while throwing away billions of hard-earned US taxpayers’ dollars in that terror center of the world.

So US has nobody to blame but itself for this recurring nightmare since Pakistan has unlimited supply of terrorists available in spite of arresting quite a few terrorists to please and milk US.

LAL QILA

8:15 PM ET

May 6, 2010

India is the prime mover of all terrorism in the Subcontinent

India is the prime mover of all terrorism in the Subcontinent as it was not only the prime schemer behind the "moth eaten Pakistan"; but also the invader and illegal occupier of Junagarh, Manvader, Hyderabad Deccan, Kashmir and East Pakistan.

Hindoo India is indeed the prime mover of all terrorism in the Subcontinent along with Afghanistan because of its various machinations over the past 60 plus years.

GHALIB SULTAN

4:14 AM ET

May 11, 2010

Belligerent Imperialism Creates Oppression, Begets Terrorism

India's ambition and designs in South Asia are the very reason why states like Pakistan had to create proxy fighters that are now not only a threat to India, but also a threat to Pakistan. Consider the fact that this region would have been at peace and would have been developing at an unimaginable pace had there been no outstanding disputes between India and Pakistan. India's stance on Kashmir - the epitome of belligerence - and its antics in Afghanistan - the height of neo-imperialism, which India itself proudly claims to thwart - are the very reason why Pakistan supported these 'terrorist elements' in the first place, and at a time when they were not considered terrorists, but 'freedom fighters'. India is a state sponsor of terrorism and terrorizes not only innocent Muslims in Occupied Kashmir and Hyderabad Deccan, but also innocent Christians, Dalit Hindus, and even progressive Hindus, in its proto-secular "Hindu rashtra". Pakistan's so-called 'support' to those elements who are the terrorists of today was merely a bulwark against Indian expansionist designs that have existed long before the world faced the specter of terrorism. If all outstanding disputes between Muslims and other faiths are resolved - if there is an agreeable settlement on Palestine and on Kashmir - then there will be no reason for Muslims to feel oppressed in any part of the world, or to join the ranks of 'terrorists'. The enlightened minds of India and the West must realize that violence begets violence, and no amount of armed force in the streets of Palestine or in the rugged expanse of Afghanistan is going to bring these 'jihadists' to their knees; because of their own individual experiences, these 'jihadists' care neither about life, nor about death. What would you do if you were oppressed, beaten, raped, abused and violated for sixty years?