Pakistan Promises to Arrest Three “Very Bad Boys” Tied to Times Square Bombing
Last week, the US put the Tehrek-i-Taliban Pakistan on its official terrorist lists and charged its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud, with something that was almost certainly not a crime. Oddly, though, DOJ did not charge Mehsud which actions they verbally alleged he committed that actually are a crime: conspiring with Faisal Shahzad in his attempted bombing of Times Square. I took from that that either DOJ knows Mehsud was not directly involved in the bombing (contrary to what they said publicly and Shahzad testified in court), or that they simply have no evidence of his involvement in spite of the reported cooperation of Faisal Shahzad.
Which is why I find it interesting that Pakistan has said it will charge (but apparently has not yet done so) three men in connection with the Times Square bombing.
Officials say the three men helped Shahzad to travel to northwestern Pakistan and meet militant leaders there, and sent him $13,000 in the U.S. when he ran short of money. The Pakistani official also said the charges won’t merely cover the plot by Shahzad – who was trained by terror goons in the northwest tribal hotbed of Mir Ali, near Afghanistan.
“They gave refuge to two suicide bombers who blew themselves up in Kashmir,” said the security official, referring to the swath of mountains India and Pakistan have fought over for decades. The businessmen who helped Shahzad were identified as Shoaib Mughal, Shahid Hussain and Humbal Akhtar.
“Those are very bad boys,” the Pakistani official said.
So what has the hold up been given that the Pakistanis presumably have testimony from Shahzad, wire transfer evidence, and documents they mention elsewhere in the article?
Last week, I wondered whether the whole campaign roll-out against the TTP was designed to help Pakistan overcome its reluctance to target the TTP, which has been very useful for Pakistan. And particularly since Shahzad has ties to the military through his retired Air Force father, whether Pakistan was trying to shield powerful people tied to the plot.
Suffice it to say this is feeling a lot like Pakistan’s “crack down” on AQ Khan.
Ot – man oh man, it only takes a sec.
As I understand it (from a eye witness), the person who hit Tom Brady’s car
ran a red light…
Maybe Brady does have a shamrock…
The person in the minivan?
Yeah.
Y’all need to stay on topic!! No sports!
If someone would put up a damn trash talk thread for the fricking start of the season AND the “who cares” bowl, we might take it to the appropriate place.
Oh, all right; done and up.
So, what are they going to do? Write a sternly worded letter? Or will these guys get the Lynndie England treatment, and AQ gets a sternly worded letter?
Bob in AZ
This businessman Shahid Hussain is a bad boy, for his financial support of the retired Air Vice Marshall’s son, in whatever the Air Vice Marshal’s son was up to??
I’d highlight white-collard crime, too. Just for fun.
Very bad boys and sports go to together pretty well.
Speaking of bad boys – this is pretty gruesome, especially since the story seems to be that they were not even collecting from combat kills, just random kids out working on farmland that they killed
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/09/09/100321/stryker-brigade-soldiers-kept.html#none
Pakistan is much more interested in Mehsud than the US is because of the terrorist acts in Pakistan connected with his organization. This is Pakistan using the Times Square incident as cover to deal with an internal problem.
But there really wasn’t a bombing, was there? just a smoking car. Is that the equivalent of a smoking gun ?
It seemed to me that the US gov turned itself inside out to prove a connection
With all due respect, Marcy, What the fuck are you talking about?
Pakistan has already targeted the TTP with two military operations called Rah-i-Rast and Rah-i-Nijat, that were authorized by the full parliament, both houses, and declared by the Prime Minister on television authorizing full military campaigns — in essence, a declaration of war. Do you have your Taliban organizations mixed up, perhaps?
In case you need dates so you can read up, Rah-i-Rast was in Swat Valley, it began on May 5, 2009, Rah-i-Nijat was in Waziristan, it began October 17, 2009. Within 2 weeks of the beginning of Rah-i-Rast, the ICRC estimated that there were 1 million new IDPs because of Pakistani Army enforced evacuations from the battle areas. You can find information on their site, on Dawn, on Teeth Maestro, on almost all the humanitarian aid agency sites, and all the major news organization sites. The statement by Prime Minister Gilani was that the TTP had challenged the writ of the government of Pakistan, and Pakistan had the right to defend its writ within its border. The operations at their commencement had about 80% public support.
But don’t take my word for it, go do your homework.
In case you have forgotten, we are not you personal research service, and we do not operate at your command. Thought we had gotten beyond that kind of insolence from you; clearly such is not the case.
Insolence, bmaz? Nobody is requesting that you do any research for me. I merely was advocating that before Marcy lays an egg as big as the one above, she might want to do some homework, and I gave her some places to start, but refrained from providing the links, because when you miss something as big as a declaration of war, a few thousand casualties, a couple of million refugees, and so forth, you have catching up to do.
The insolence is not on my part. I did that homework a long time ago, bmaz. If you don’t know what you don’t know, you might want to refrain from talking down.
And you might want to take a hike with your crap.
Bmaz, I think your criticism is off-target.
A better point would be that EW’s post was not about *Pakistan* deciding to declare TTP a terrorist organization, but the *US* finally getting around to putting TTP on its official terrorist lists. And why there was a hold up– why Pakistan has held up charging those it already had the goods on– and, I would add, why did it take so long for the US to put TTP on its official terrorist lists? I suppose the answer might have something to do with some secret initiative the US had with TTP that it finally gave up on.
But Ondelette’s charge really relates to his sentence of EWs:
Ondelette’s research evidently shows that Pakistan has NOT been reluctant to target the TTP: It was the *US* that has been reluctant to target the TTP. Why?
Bob in AZ
Fine. You’re in the enforcement of purity business, not the truth business. At least we know where we stand. If and when you ever get interested in finding out what’s really going on in the world, you owe me an apology, counselor.