Shahzad Admits to Times Square Car Bombing Attempt
A suspect in custody for the bomb scare in New York, Faisal Shahzad, has admitted to filling a vehicle with explosive materials and parking it in Times Square on Sunday.
On Monday night, Shahzad was on a plane to Dubai, already taxing on the runway. Before the plane took off, authorities arrested the suspect on the plane and brought him in for questioning.
The next day, according to a New York Times article, Shahzad implicated himself and said he was working alone.
The initial arrest was made after authorities discovered Shahzad purchased a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder just three weeks ago from a Connecticut woman, the same vehicle that was found running and holding explosive materials.
Shahzad will appear in Manhattan Federal Court, but charges are still unknown.
The suspect became a naturalized U.S. citizen last year, living in Connecticut. Also last year, Shahzad took a 4-month voyage to Pakistan, his country of origin. Authorities are currently investigating the reason for this trip.
Sunday, a street vendor noticed the parked vehicle was running and notified police. Soon after, smoke began to release from the vehicle and police cleared the area. The Pathfinder was found to have fertilizer, fireworks, petrol, and a propane gas tank inside and rigged to explode, according to a BBC News article.
Eric Holder, U.S. Attorney General, said this attempt “could have been a deadly attack.” The intent of this attempt was to harm and kill innocent people.
The initial reports suggest Shahzad worked alone, but time will tell whether or not he has connections to militant organizations.
Preseident Obama best described the event as “another sobering reminder of the times in which we live.”
The unfortunate reality of the situation is that, no matter how much you do to ensure that someone is honest, upstanding, and loyal to the U.S., people can fake it.
People can go to amazing lengths to accomplish something if they want it bad enough, so no matter how strict it was to legally immigrate to the U.S., we would still be dealing with bombs in Times Square.
You said yourself that the problem in NY is not the same as in AZ, and you’re right. The idea of making immigration requirements less strict is mainly to deter foreigners from climbing over the fence. Logically, if the requirements are simple enough, they will choose to go about it in a legitimate way.
Now, if this is a good thing or a bad thing I don’t know….to an extent, I agree with you that the immigration laws should not become too laxed, simply because we will end up with the same problem we have now. But something needs to happen that will change the perspectives of those 200 illegal immagrants sneaking over the border and cutting off the 100 legal immigrants waiting for their rightly earned entrance into the country.
I don’t necessarily think things need to change as much as the laws that already exist need to be enforced.
As I was reading this I started thinking about the immigration in AZ. If anyone on the East Coast (who doesn’t have the immigration problems that AZ has) does not agree with the immigration law I think of this latest attack in the heart of New York. Here is an individual who DID become a US citizen and see what happens. Granted the problem that AZ is facing is not the same as what happened in NY; but I have heard people say that the laws need to change so that people can become Americans easier….I say no. Look at what happened this week. We can never know someone’s true intentions. This worries me. I would like to think that I am safe here, but I hear about this and it makes me wonder….is there anywhere in the world that is really safe?