The Pakistani-American arrested over last month’s botched car bombing in New York’s Times Square was formally charged on Thursday with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and terrorism.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, has been in custody since his arrest at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport on May 3 as he was pulled off a flight to Dubai two days after allegedly leaving a Nissan Pathfinder packed with a homemade explosive device parked in the busy theater district.
The 10-count indictment handed down on Thursday by a federal grand jury linked Shahzad to the Pakistani Taliban, saying he had received explosives training in Waziristan, a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold on the Afghan border.
The indictment also alleged that Shahzad had received cash from co-conspirators who he believed worked for the group.
“The facts alleged in this indictment show that the Pakistani Taliban facilitated Faisal Shahzad’s attempted attack on American soil,” Attorney General Eric Holder said. “Our nation averted serious loss of life in this attempted bombing, but it is a reminder that we face an evolving threat that we must continue to fight with every tool available to the government.”
The charges included attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempted act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, attempted use of a destructive device in a terrorist conspiracy and other conspiracy, explosives and weapons related charges.
The most serious charges carry mandatory sentences of life in prison if Shahzad is found guilty.
“After his arrest, Shahzad admitted that he had recently received bomb-making training in Pakistan. He also admitted that he had brought the Pathfinder to Times Square and attempted to detonate it,” a criminal complaint said.
It alleged that he received the explosives training in Waziristan from trainers associated with Tehrik-e-Taliban, a Pakistani militant group, in December last year.
He allegedly received two payments sent from Pakistan by an unidentified co-conspirator — one for US$5,000 and another for US$7,000, according to the complaint.
He bought a semi-automatic nine millimeter Kel-Tec rifle in March and the Nissan Pathfinder, for which he paid US$1,300 cash in a supermarket parking lot on April 24, it alleges.
Shahzad then bought components for “improvised explosive and incendiary devices,” loaded them in the Pathfinder, and on May 1 drove the sport utility vehicle to Times Square, where he “attempted to begin the detonation process,” the complaint said.
A Times Square street vendor noticed the bomb fizzling in the back of an SUV allegedly parked there by Shahzad and alerted police, who evacuated the area.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
A 64-year-old US woman took her own life inside a controversial suicide capsule at a Swiss woodland retreat, with Swiss police on Tuesday saying several people had been arrested. The space-age looking Sarco capsule, which fills with nitrogen and causes death by hypoxia, was used on Monday outside a village near the German border. The portable human-sized pod, self-operated by a button inside, has raised a host of legal and ethical questions in Switzerland. Active euthanasia is banned in the country, but assisted dying has been legal for decades. On the same day it was used, Swiss Department of Home