By all accounts, Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shazad, 30, lived a quiet, simple life with his wife and two children in a Shelton, Connecticut suburb. Neighbors say they often saw the children playing outside, but Shahzad and his young wife kept to themselves.
“To me, they were regular people,” said a former neighbor, Mary Ann Galich.
Shahzad’s wife, Huma Mian, often wore a veil covering her tight curls and a robe, while Shahzad wore suits or casual clothing such as khakis.
On the exterior, the family’s home life appeared happy and serene. But trouble was brewing just under the surface. An intense, seething hatred for America and everything Americans value seemed to set the quiet Shahzad on a course of self-destruction and attempted mass murder.
In June, the former financial analyst abruptly quit his $50,000 a year job and hastily moved his family out of their $273,000 brick home. Authorities say Shahzad and his family moved back to Pakistan, leaving clothes, personal belongings and even baby food behind.
When Shahzad resurfaced in the United States in February, it appears to have been with a new purpose. He ignored the foreclosure filings of his mortgage lender, and, according to authorities, spent his money on a prepaid cellphone, tanks of propane and a used car. Read More…
Soon after returning to the U.S. from Pakistan where authorities say he attended a terrorist training camp, Shahzad handed over 13 $100 bills to a Connecticut man for a used Nissan Pathfinder. The man recalls Shahzad telephoning him to inquire about the last time the truck had its oil changed.
The bomb packed Nissan Pathfinder was next seen parked in Times Square near the headquarters of Viacom, the media conglomerate that produces the wildly popular “South Park” TV show. “South Park” producers had offended Muslims by dressing the Prophet Muhammad in a bear costume.
The producers received subtle death threats from radical Muslim groups, but the episode was aired as scheduled.
Islamic law prohibits parodies of the Prophet, and violations are punishable by death.
As you know Obama ordered his administration to remove the words “Islamic terrorism” and “war on terror” from national security documents in an attempt to alter the way Americans think about radical Islamic extremists.
The sad reality is that the Obama administration’s indifference toward terrorism puts our nation at risk. It’s kind of hard to keep watch over Muslim terrorists if Obama insists they don’t exist.
As the Washington Post reports, Shahzad should have already been on Homeland Security’s radar:
…the fact remained that Faisal Shahzad was allegedly able to train with terrorists in Pakistan, return to the United States to assemble a car bomb in Connecticut and park it in Times Square without anyone in the nation’s vast counterterrorism apparatus knowing anything about it. …
Interestingly, Obama has connections to Pakistan, where the bomb suspect is from. Obama’s mother lived and worked in Pakistan for years, and in the early 80s Obama visited his college roommate in Pakistan where he stayed with his roommate’s Pakistani family.
Upon returning to the U.S., Obama abruptly changed his name from Barry Soetoro to Barack Obama, presumably as a result of his conversion to Islam. Yet Obama and his administration continues to deny he is Muslim.
Attorney General Eric Holder told assembled journalists on Monday that he wasn’t sure if the Times Square bomb plot was “of foreign or domestic origin,” and he stopped far short of designating the mass murder attempt as a “terrorist” act — even though the Taliban has already claimed responsibility!
Even in the face of all the evidence, the Obama administration steadfastly refuses to classify the bombing attempt as a terrorist act.
But at least Holder did agree that the bomb suspect “intended to spread terror across New York.”