From the Associated Press:

President Barack Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser said Sunday that authorities believe the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted bombing at Times Square.

White House adviser John Brennan said that while the investigation is ongoing, it appears that accused bomber Faisal Shahzad was working for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The militant group is believed to be hiding senior al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden.

Brennan said the finding “underscores the serious threat that we face from a very determined enemy.”

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Earlier this week it was reported that the Obama White House removed confessed terrorist Faisal Shahzad from the Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list sometime after Barack Obama came into office.

Terrorist Faisal Shahzad had substantial connections to the Taliban, reached out to the Taliban, was influenced by Yemeni terror leader Anwar al Awlaki, made at least a dozen return trips to Pakistan since arriving in the United States in 1999, and he bought a one way ticket with cash to Pakistan.

Now we find out that he was “blogging” and asking for jihad as far back as 2006 but that the Obama Administration took him off the terror watch list anyway.

Terror expert Walid Phares weighed in on the confessed Times Square bomber today in an interview on FOX News:

To be clear, Shahzad was actually commenting on terrorist websites and not actually blogging.

Earlier this week it was discovered that Shahzad was posting on terror websites since 2006.

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More hope and change…

Faisal Shahzad was removed from the national terrorist surveillance list before the Times Square attack.

(CBS News)

Confessed terrorist Faisal Shahzad was removed from the Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list sometime after Barack Obama came into office.

CBS reported:

Sources tell CBS News that would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad appeared on a Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list – Traveler Enforcement Compliance System (TECS) – between 1999 and 2008 because he brought approximately $80,000 cash or cash instruments into the United States.

The New York Times reported that the person who bought Faisal’s apartment back in 2004 was interviewed by federal investigators.

George LaMonica, a 35-year-old computer consultant, said he bought his two-bedroom condominium in Norwalk, Conn., from Mr. Shahzad for $261,000 in May 2004. A few weeks after he moved in, Mr. LaMonica said, investigators from the national Joint Terrorism Task Force [JTTF] interviewed him, asking for details of the transaction and for information about Mr. Shahzad. It struck Mr. LaMonica as unusual, but he said detectives told him they were simply “checking everything out.”

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Islam? Islam? Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?

We awake to news that after extraordinary police work, investigators have made an arrest in the attempted car bombing of Times Square in New York.  Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani native-turned-naturalized-U.S.-citizen, was taken into custody late last night. He was naturalized last year, and shortly thereafter, made a trip to Peshawar, Pakistan–a hotbed of Islamic terrorist activity and recruitment.

I have read countless reports about the arrest, in newspapers and websites big and small.  So far, I have not seen a single mention of his faith.  Not a single reference to his being Muslim.  We’re left to deduce that by his Pakistani ethnicity and name.

Political correctness has stripped us of our ability to be brutally honest about the nature of the threat we face.  It’s not from a bunch of maniacal Catholics or Jews or Hindus or Buddhists.  The lethal threat is coming from radical Muslims.  Even after September 11, even after repeated terror attacks and attempts here and abroad, we still cannot be truthful and outspoken about it?  Pathetic.

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I finally got out and about – a beautiful Saturday night in New York City — and I had to bolt home. Times Square was evacuated, emptied of tourists, as police officers and firefighters closed the area because of a car bomb – bomb materials found in an SUV.

The SUV was filled with propane tanks, fireworks, filled gas cans, clocks with batteries, and two clocks with batteries, electric wire and more. A police official said: “It looks as if the perp was trying to light it up, and was interrupted by the cops, panicked and took off. It looked like someone tried to detonate it and we got to it in time. This is a big deal. It has the makings of a real car bomb.” A police officer who was on the scene said: “I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking. I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second.”

Despite all that, the feds said at first that it wasn’t a terrorist attack. Then what was it?

That line was so absurd in this case that they had to change their tune, and fast. Now New York Governor Paterson and even DHS Secretary Janet “Nudnik” Napolitano are saying it was a terrorist attack attempt. Said Napolitano: “We’re taking this very seriously. We’re treating it as if it could be a potential terrorist attack.” But everyone was saying that they had no idea who was behind it. Police are now searching for a “white man” – a search the mainstream media is playing up big, hoping that the terrorist will turn out to be a non-Muslim. As if there are no white Muslims! Tell that to the North Carolina jihadis arrested last year.

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From the Associated Press:

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility in a video posted on the Internet Sunday for the attempted car bomb attack in New York City’s Times Square.

In the 1 minute, 11 second video allegedly released by the Pakistani Taliban, the group says the attack is revenge for the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and the recent slaying of al-Qaida in Iraq leaders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops last month north of Baghdad.

The U.S.-based SITE Intelligence Group, which uncovered the video on YouTube, said the militants claim responsibility in the tape for Saturday’s failed car bombing in New York. The video later appeared to have been removed from the website.

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