Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani immigrant who tried to detonate a car bomb in tourist-filled Times Square on a Saturday last May, was sentenced to life in prison yesterday. Tom Diemer, at AOL's Politics Daily, points out that Shahzad was remorseless yesterday in court saying, "I'm happy with the deal that God has given me."
A Pakistani-American who tried and failed to set off a bomb in the heart of Times Square last May was sentenced to life in prison in New York Tuesday, but he remained defiant, threatening to "keep terrorizing you."
U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara called 31-year-old Faisal Shahzad a "remorseless terrorist who betrayed his adopted country." U.S. District Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum said to his face "I hope you spend some of the time in prison thinking about whether the Koran wants you to kill lots of people,"
"We are only Muslims trying to defend our religion, people, homes and land, but if you call us terrorists, then we are proud terrorists and we will keep on terrorizing you until you leave our lands and people at peace."
Shahzad was full of rancor at his hearing yesterday. Here is one chilling quote:
Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun. Consider me the first droplet of the blood that will follow.
The AP reports:
In his address to the court, he said Osama bin Laden "will be known as no less than Saladin of the 21st-century crusade" — a reference to the Muslim hero of the Crusades.
Shahzad concluded, "If I'm given 1,000 lives, I will sacrifice them all."
I'm breathing a sigh of relief that this man will remain behind bars for the rest of his life. The question that makes me uneasy is how many more like him are living in this country, doubling as citizens and terrorists or terrorist-wannabes. I hope we don't find out after it's too late.
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Jun '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
I hope they're planning on keeping him in solitary confinement, because I don't want this guy to be contributing to any jailhouse conversions.
Jul '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
"The question that makes me uneasy is how many more like him are living in this country, doubling as citizens and terrorists or terrorist-wannabes. I hope we don't find out after it's too late."
Meanwhile, we're handing out about 90,000 green cards a year to immigrants from Islamic countries, with Pakistan being #1 on the list.
What was it that VDH said about decline?
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
KB...I second that.
Jun '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
(May 3, 2010)
KATIE COURIC: Law enforcement officials don't know who left the Nissan Pathfinder behind, but, at this point, the mayor believes the suspect acted alone.
MAYOR MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: If I had to guess 25 cents, this would be exactly that, somebody-
COURIC TO BLOOMBERG: A home-grown?
BLOOMBERG: Home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.
May '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Stealthy they are not. We cannot excuse our inaction because we were not warned.
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Just because you come from an "Islamic" country does not mean you are a terrorist. I know plenty of Pakistani and Iranian immigrants who are here with greencards and who denounce Islamism. Are you suggesting that we deny these people green cards? We should certainly look into every candidates' backgrounds and deny them entry into this country if there are red flags, but I'm afraid our homeland security officials may not be capable of even that.
Kenneth: "The question that makes me uneasy is how many more like him are living in this country, doubling as citizens and terrorists or terrorist-wannabes. I hope we don't find out after it's too late."
Meanwhile, we're handing out about 90,000 green cards a year to immigrants from Islamic countries, with Pakistan being #1 on the list.
What was it that VDH said about decline? · Oct 6 at 7:58am
Jul '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. : Just because you come from an "Islamic" country does not mean you are a terrorist. I know plenty of Pakistani and Iranian immigrants who are here with greencards and who denounce Islamism. Are you suggesting that we deny these people green cards?
Oct 6 at 8:25am
Yes. Nobody has a right to enter.
When Swedish supermodels start putting car-bombs in Times Square, I'd call for a ban on visas to Swedes, too.
May '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
It's time to take the gloves off. Why was Shahzad not sentenced to death, as he pled guilty? A quick execution would prevent the relentless proselytizing to other inmates, and grandstanding by this dag of excrement, and save the tax payers' dollars.
Those who think such a man will be made a martyr by execution, misunderstand that he is already seen as one by those fanatics in and outside of the USA. They hate the country, the West and little will change their minds.
Duly tried, duly hanged, duly drawn, and duly quartered; with his body burnt and denied internment in hallowed ground is a reasonable response to such evil. Perhaps the cost can then be sent to his widow and son now in hiding somewhere in our 'ally' Pakistan.
Edited on Oct 6, 2010 at 8:45amAug '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Kenneth
Yes. Nobody has a right to enter.
When Swedish supermodels start putting car-bombs in Times Square, I'd call for a ban on visas to Swedes, too. · Oct 6 at 8:40am
I'm with Kenneth. We have totally blurred the line between "right" and "privilege."
Sep '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
I fear that even if immigration rules got tougher and even if immigrants got checked out more closely, Al Quaida would still be able to find plenty Americans willing to commit terrorist attacks against their fellow citizens. "Jihad Jane" and Nidal Hasan are good examples for that.
Edited on Oct 6, 2010 at 8:53amMay '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
One of the reasons that we justified putting Americans of Japanese decent into relocation camps during the last real war was the belief that they were incapable of assimilation. That and the fact that so few Whites understood the culture and the language (as opposed to German) made them even more suspect.
I don't think any of us would advocate doing that to Muslim Americans today, but I fear that our collective guilt over it prevents us from taking more prudent measures. Homeland Security makes things worse, not better. When you see a 89-year-old Caucasian woman frisked at an airport it A) makes you angrier at Muslims for putting her through that indignity just so she can get on an airplane to see her grandchildren and B) it really makes you mad at the idiocy and incompetence of your own government.
Sep '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
There are plenty of people who are NOT from Islamic countries who want into the US. Why not give THEM a priority? Why take the risk?
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
I never said they have the "right" to enter, but if they are going through the long and arduous application process and are deemed fit to enter in every other way aside from what country they come from, then the country they come from (and their religious faith) should not be a barrier to entry. If they come from Pakistan and have a red flag, then they obviously should not be allowed entry. But there are plenty of potential immigrants from Pakistan who are peace loving Muslims that should at least be given a chance to better their lives by coming over here.
Actually, I met one on a bus the other day--an elderly woman who fled from Pakistan with her husband and two daughters. Part of the reason she fled had to do with the education she wanted her daughters to receive here. She told me that she was so happy to be in America for another reason too: one daughter married an abusive Pakistani man (arranged marriage). Here, her daughter was able to get a divorce and continue her education at med-school. Things would have been very different for her had she remained in Pakistan.
Jul '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
ConcernedCanadien
There are plenty of people who are NOT from Islamic countries who want into the US. Why not give THEM a priority? Why take the risk? · Oct 6 at 9:10am
Agreed. I know plenty of highly-educated Russians - doctors, dentists, engineers - who can't even get a visa.
Meanwhile, thousands of practically illiterate immigrants from Somalia, Pakistan, Yemen just waltz right in.
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Did I say we should give "them" priority? No. Let's not build straw men.
ConcernedCanadien
There are plenty of people who are NOT from Islamic countries who want into the US. Why not give THEM a priority? Why take the risk? · Oct 6 at 9:10am
Jul '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Emily Esfahani Smith, Ed. : Did I say we should give "them" priority. No.
ConcernedCanadien
There are plenty of people who are NOT from Islamic countries who want into the US. Why not give THEM a priority? Why take the risk? · Oct 6 at 9:10am
Oct 6 at 9:15am
But they do get priority, Emily, under our immigration quotas and our absurd refugee laws.
May '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
What struck me was the fact that when the judge confronted Shahzad about his taking an oath to the country when he became a naturalized citizen, Shahzad said yes he took the oath but he never meant it.
How on earth can we trust that others will not become like him? That is the conundrum. Of course we want to be fair to peace-loving people, but until we get the Ministry of Mind Reading in place (a day I don't look forward to for many other reasons), how can we tell who is a threat and who is peaceful? We could do a lot more but our immigration officers are already overwhelmed.
I'm with NumbersUSA. We're not anti-immigration, but we should put the brakes on the historically high levels of legal immigration we allow now, not to mention the illegal immigration. Immigrants need time to assimilate, and our system is overwhelmed by the sheer numbers. If we had fewer coming in, at more historical levels, we could vet them more carefully and dedicate more resources to helping them truly become Americans.
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
Do we have any empirical evidence that legal immigrants are assimilating at a lower rate NOW than they have been in the past?
May '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
We never had the sort of identity politics that we have today, no hyphenated Americans. We've never seen immigrants march for "rights" and citizenship while doing so under the flag of another country they way they do today.
Sep '10
Re: Times Square Bomber: "the war with Muslims has just begun"
You're deflecting the point being made. Who cares if they assimilate if they are ultimately dangerous?
Why not diminish the risk and put high-risk countries at the end of the priority list? That includes Muslims from high-risk countries and Tamils from Sri Lanka? There are so many people who want in.