The only problem was, this wasn’t a movie folks; it wasn’t even a Lifetime special. Supposedly, that is just how it went down tit-for-tat.  Please tell me I’m not the only person who smells something rotten here. The whole thing stinks, all the way from Mr. Faisal Shahzad and his ‘training’ in Pakistan to how said incendiary-device was constructed, to the man-hunt, and how the media covered it.

Faisal Shahzad was arrested in connection over a botched Times Square car bomb.

Shahzad was a recently naturalized citizen. This means that extensive background checks were performed for just this kind of thing. It is of course, entirely feasible that he developed ties to terrorists afterwards or that the background check simply missed him. But it should still raise a red-flag. As much as the media tries to make out of his ‘trips to Pakistan’ there are a still a few problems with that. First of all, he still has family in Pakistan. Why would he risk his family being interrogated and captured by the Pakistani police? Or killed by the TTP? In fact, neighbors claim that his wife and family moved out a year ago. Roughly the same time he was naturalized, and way before the bombing took place.

Secondly, I love how Mr. Faisal Shahzad is apparently attached to some regional group of the Taliban who have had no previous interest in attacking America. The TTP or Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan are supposed to have helped him build his little fireworks display. But they have next to no global capabilities, and are hardly a network the size of Al-Qaeda. Even if he graduated bomb-making 101 Magna cum Laude from Terror arts and Crafts camp, the incendiary device was incredibly lame. It only smoked and sputtered. The primary ignition device was fire-works with non-explosive fertilizer in the back and some gas cans.

This set up makes no sense. You could build a better incendiary device by putting a can of gas on top of a ketchup packet and stomping on it repeatedly to make it blow up. And yet, we are supposed to be afraid of this? It is remarkably easy to walk into a Radio Shack or other electronic/hardware store and buy an electronic timer. Purchasing the right kind of fertilizer would not have posed a problem either, as most establishment do not require any kind of background check to buy the stuff. Making a real explosive or fire-bomb would not have been out of his grasp. Even more telling is the fact that fertilizer-based explosives are common-place in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Afghani government has even banned some of the more explosive types of fertilizer and the US Army regularly seizes the stuff when they find it. Shahzad would have heard an earful about fertilizer based explosives. So, why would he fuck up and buy non-explosive fertilizer? Why the Silver Salutes?

I’m surprised that no one mentioned the fact that this guy just got up and walked away from the incident. Terrorist cabals rely on suicide attacks for keeping their network quiet. That is why groups like Al-Qaeda have been able to survive as long as they have. Ask yourselves, what is more dramatic? Having a terrorist park a car and get out while it’s running? Or having him drive, tires squealing, engine roaring straight into his target and then detonating? Drama and terror go hand in hand for these organizations. It would be less effective and a greater risk to secrecy to have him just get up and walk out of the car, and highly unusual for a terrorist group based in that region. Furthermore, his family would have been forfeited as a price for his failure.

Some articles like this one suggest that the TTP are trying to take credit for the attack via a tape that is currently circulating the internet. However, there is one very good reason to believe that this is bullshit: the TTP themselves are *not* taking credit for the attack. Hell, even Pakistani intelligence have said that their ability to attack the US is impossible. Terrorist groups attack for attention. Why would a terrorist group come forward without any pressure and say that they do not take credit for this attack? Even though the attack was a failure, terrorist groups still take credit for those, too. Anyone remember the Al-Qaeda attack on Flight 253 back in December? As you can see, failed attacks provide massive amounts of media coverage and they imply future attacks. Terrorist groups like the TTP would not want to give that notoriety up unless it wasn’t theirs to claim.

Then, there is the man-hunt. What kind of terrorist that messes up waits two-and-half days to flee? He certainly must have realized that they were looking for him. ‘They’ being every Tom, Dick, and Harry with a badge in the United States hungry for a promotion, not to mention his Pakistani associates who probably wanted to catch up with him or his family after running away. What the hell was he doing? This utter lack of motivation to get up and run immediately suggests to me that he never felt threatened by US capture or retaliation from the TTP. What is even more incredible is that he didn’t bother throwing away his cell phone after leaving his Isuzu parked. Instead, he uses the phone. Now, it should be no a big secret to any self-respecting terrorist that the FBI can remotely turn on your phone and use its microphone as an eavesdropping device. So, why would he keep it unless he wanted to be followed? The only solution I can think of starts with ‘Is not’ and ends with ‘a real terrorist.’

Since his capture by the authorities, Shahzad has made a few choice contradictory statements. He initially claimed to be a lone wolf domestic terrorist. Later, changing his story to one about having had bomb training in Waziristan, Pakistan. Since Waziristan is essentially fertilizer bomb central, the fertilizer mix-up is even more telling. There is, however, evidence to suggest that Shahzad is a small cog in a much bigger Machiavellian wheel.

On 4th May at 17:34 in the evening, an affiliate of CBS ran an interesting story concerning Shahzad and his capture. Since then, it has been ‘edited’ and the original cannot be found anywhere. Thankfully, someone was smart enough to do a screen-cap before it vanished for good. The original article can be seen here. At 18:21 that same evening, the article was scrubbed and a new one put up. A choice paragraph was deleted and the headline changed–you can see the ‘fixed’ article here. You’ll notice that the headline has been changed to ‘Total Time of Investigation: 53 Hours, 20 Minutes’ and the following paragraph was removed: “In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.” This of course is part of a veritable campaign of mass media bombardment and disinformation; blasting you with the ‘straight skinny’ of a case like this until you are damned sick of it and already know ‘the facts’ as presented to you and would rather watch a rabid buffalo give birth than read anything else about it.

This is the only mention of any sort of army involvement with Shahzad and his arrest and is in a grey area legally with Posse Comitatus. It is very possible that the planes used to track Shahzad down were RC-12s. These planes are commonly used in Afghanistan and are equipped with electronic sniffers that take in information, combing the ground for signals on certain frequencies. They are sensitive enough that they can even pick up wireless video game controllers. One Special Forces source is quoted as saying:

My conjecture at the moment is that immediately after this went down and they knew that he was on the loose, parts of the domestic counter-terrorism operations that they had set up during the Bush administration were reactivated…They’re compartmentalized. So they kicked into high gear and were supporting law enforcement. In some cases, law enforcement may not have even known that some of the signals intelligence was coming from covert military units.

This is after the F.B.I. lost track of Shahzad when he was heading towards the airport. It is unclear for how long the F.B.I. lost Shahzad, but this comes on the heels of an interesting statement made by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. “I was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him.” This is a very brash statement to make considering the F.B.I. was trouncing around like a first grader at a Sunday school picnic. Or is it a subtle hint that he knew more about what was going on than the Feds themselves did?

This statement and the doctored news article raise some interesting questions: Are there Special Forces/groups operating on American soil? If there are, what sort of restrictions are they operating under? Was Shahzad aware that he was being tracked and didn’t care? If the planes were supposed to be secret, why were they mentioned in the first place? Who ordered the scrub of the CBS article and why did they do it? Is this not one more example of Posse Comitatus being stepped upon and violated? Who are the real terrorists here? Just who is running this three ring circus?

The can of worms has been opened, ladies and gentlemen, and the results may certainly be terrifying. The only question you have to ask yourself is how far you will go to get at the truth. The answers are out there for those who demand them and those with enough tenacity to reach them. As for me, I hope that I have made a grievous error, for the implications are otherwise not good for anyone.

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This morning, Michelle and I awoke to some surprising and humbling news. At 6 a.m., we received word that I’d been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009.

Gasps as Obama Awarded Nobel Peace Prize

To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who’ve been honored by this prize — men and women who’ve inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace.

But I also know that throughout history the Nobel Peace Prize has not just been used to honor specific achievement; it’s also been used as a means to give momentum to a set of causes.

That is why I’ve said that I will accept this award as a call to action, a call for all nations and all peoples to confront the common challenges of the 21st century. These challenges won’t all be met during my presidency, or even my lifetime. But I know these challenges can be met so long as it’s recognized that they will not be met by one person or one nation alone.

This award — and the call to action that comes with it — does not belong simply to me or my administration; it belongs to all people around the world who have fought for justice and for peace. And most of all, it belongs to you, the men and women of America, who have dared to hope and have worked so hard to make our world a little better.

So today we humbly recommit to the important work that we’ve begun together. I’m grateful that you’ve stood with me thus far, and I’m honored to continue our vital work in the years to come.

Thank you, President Barack Obama

1. What Do You Call a Black Man with a PhD?