Son of an Air Force General.
Colleague Simon Constable reporting with Evan Perez, WSJ, re the detention and now arrest and charging of American citizen Faisal Shahzad, 30, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The facts so far support a general theory that the Sunday 2 May claim of sponsorship of the attack by Qari Hussain Mehsud of the Pakistan Taliban was credible -- and that linking the attack to the notorious Pakistan Taliban led by Haikeemullah Mehsud is correct. Spoke Bill Roggio and Arif Rafiq of Pakistan Policy Blog re the facts revealed that Shahzad (or Shazad) is the son of a retired Pakistan Air Force general and that he travelled to North Waziristan training camps in the period of late 2009 until his return to the US in February 2010. Shahzad looks to have been recruited and prepared for a lone wolf operation against American targets. The claims of the Mehsud clan are consistent with the nature of this attack. Bill Roggio explains the chronology and significance carefully in his LongWarJounal.com.
Mehsud Threat.
See the robust and not uncomical video below (emailed by the Taliban to Bill Roggio on Sunday May 2, before the revelation of the detention of Shahzad) in order to comprehend the boldness and ignorance of the Mehsud posse. The Mehsud are closely linked to Al Qaeda, and this is the network that provides the so-called hospitality for Bin Laden and his gang when they are in Waziristan. The grievance is based on the Predator strikes that have increased dramatically under the Obama administration. Mehsud includes his fantasies of explosions in American cities. I do not see an explosion at the spot that marks Manhattan. In fact the special effect gets clownish. But the threat in big banner headlines, similar to what might be used by horror films in the 1950s, does make it clear that the mainland is the target.
I was amused to note that Mayor Bloomberg initially hypothesized that the Times Square Bomber was likely a "homegrown" terrorist. How disappointed he must have been to learn that the likely culprit wasn't a tax protester or a foe of Third World immigration. Maybe next time.
Just another in a long series of well-connected rich boys sucked into the Islamic jihad excitement. Our liberal press clearly had trouble with this one. They never learned what we JB listeners already know, that the first three reports are always wrong. They ran like laughing hyenas with the first two (reports) that seemed to indicate that the perp was white, and possibly a tea party member (or Beck listener) upset at Obama’s health care legislation. Even Mayor Bloomberg fell for it. Once the identity of the would-be bomber had been established, the back-tracking began to resemble the sound of heavy furniture being dragged across the floor. In some instances, the foot-dragging left unattractive marks. Shahzad’s house was said to be in foreclosure by the evil banks (which must have made him mad) - never a thought was given to the likelihood that one determined to commit the jihad of his life would care less about paying his bills. If he had succeeded, his future at home would have been secure. He and his turncoat father would have been celebrated as undisputed heroes of the jihad. For us, it would have been an unmitigated disaster with only one tiny sliver of silver lining: the fact that this particular jihadi had wanted to live.
The authorities with boots on the ground performed admirably throughout. It’s their liberal bosses who got egg on their faces. Homeland Security was out to lunch once again, having allowed this guy to operate - incompetently as he did - after having taken the trouble of placing him on the watch list. In all fairness, our leadership from the Mayor on up had ample cause to be confused. They’d been issued lexicons with a serious printing error. Antonyms are listed under the heading marked ‘synonyms’ and vice-versa. Good is now bad; war is now peace; up is now down; black is now white; etc. We’ve returned to an antebellum mindset, except now it’s the white male that is suspected first after a crime has been committed.
This is why I have become pessimistic or, better yet, resigned. This is why I do not put much stock in the November midterm elections - because the system that produced Obama will continue to exist. Even if a handful of right-minded individuals were elected overwhelmingly, the wrecking balls are already in place to take them down. Look at New Jersey’s new governor for whom the knives are already sharpened. Look at the president of Greece, facing bloodshed and anarchy in the streets. In both cases, reform is but a speed bump in the road that can do little to halt the Left’s steady advance. America’s enemies are on the march. They have too many potent weapons to arrest the pigskin’s progress towards the goal line. The blue-haired ladies and their working stiff mates are no match for the wildly inspired brutes who control the ball - first and ten on the three yard line.
http://peterkoelliker.blogspot.com/
LF's "Harp on Tunku V." series - part 2 - Tunku backtracks quickly from mocking us as a "nation of immigrants" to seeing that "some sort of racial profiling is probably necessary." So, Tunku is OK with racially profiling Pakistanis, but not Mexicans. On back-to-back nights. Things that make you go Hmmmm......
Another thing. Tunku is wringing his hands and saying "They don't love wealth. They don't love comfort. They just hate the U.S. and there's just no stopping them.... How can this be?" (paraphrasing) .... Well, look at how the quality of life has gone downhill in the U.S. over the last year with Obama and Reid and Pelosi in power. With each personal liberty you take away, you move another batch of people over from the "everything to live for" mode to the "death is preferable to living under these conditions" mode. I spend a lot of time on the fence these days, myself, and I was born here. And am accounted successful. And even I have to get up every morning and convince myself that it's worth living in this giant prison camp we call the U.S.
When I look at the face of that terrorist on this thread, I am reminded of the words of Bogie in Casablanca, when Ingrid Bergman points the pistol at him: "Go ahead, shoot. You'd be doin' me a favor."