[Reader-list] Shahzad is of Kashmiri descent ?

[A.K. Malik]

Dear Mr Durani,
                Since when Kashmiri nationality being accepted in passport applications?
Regards,

(A.K.MALIK)


--- On Wed, 5/5/10, Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Pawan Durani <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Reader-list] Shahzad is of Kashmiri descent ?
> To: "reader-list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Wednesday, May 5, 2010, 6:17 PM
> http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1987126,00.html?xid=rss-topstories
> 
> The Times Square car bomb failed to detonate, but it could
> yet cause
> political reverberations around two questions: Should the
> government
> have known about the plot and its alleged perpetrator? And
> does using
> the rules of the criminal-justice system against a man
> accused of
> plotting a terror attack against America leave the country
> more
> vulnerable? So far, the answers to both questions seem to
> be breaking
> in favor of the Obama Administration, but it's early days
> yet. And
> questions have been raised over how Faisal Shahzad managed
> to board
> the Dubai-bound flight on which he was arrested shortly
> before takeoff
> Tuesday at JFK International Airport despite being under
> surveillance
> by the FBI.
> The criminal complaint against Shahzad alleges that he
> received
> bombmaking training in a militant camp in western Pakistan.
> Still, the
> suspect appears not to have previously registered on the
> radar of the
> U.S. security bureaucracy through any known association
> with terrorist
> or radical groups.
> (See pictures of the car bomb's discovery in Times
> Square.)
> Pakistani government officials told TIME on Tuesday that
> Shahzad is of
> Kashmiri descent and the son of a former top Pakistani
> air-force
> officer. On his most recent Pakistani passport application,
> he had
> given his nationality as Kashmiri — a fact that some
> analysts suspect
> might tie him to militant groups based in Pakistan
> originally formed
> to fight Indian control of the divided territory. An
> official in
> Islamabad said Pakistani authorities are investigating
> whether he had
> ties to any Kashmiri jihadist groups. During his latest
> spell in
> Pakistan, Shahzad was also said to have spent significant
> time in
> Peshawar, the capital of the North-West Frontier Province,
> where
> Islamabad has waged a fierce war against Taliban
> militants.
> A Pakistani government source, speaking on condition of
> anonymity,
> told TIME on Tuesday that the suspect had had ties with
> militants
> while in Pakistan. "He was here at a training camp," the
> source said.
> The legal complaint against Shahzad, which charged him with
> terrorism
> and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, said he
> admitted
> to receiving bombmaking training in Waziristan, the lawless
> tribal
> hotbed of militancy. Pakistani officials claim that there
> have been a
> number of arrests in Karachi of people suspected by
> authorities of
> having a connection with the suspect. "There will be more
> arrests
> before the night is out," a senior government source told
> TIME.
> (See the TIME 100 list of the world's most influential
> people.)
> But so far, the only indication that Shahzad had raised any
> suspicion
> among U.S. officials is the fact that he underwent
> secondary screening
> at the airport upon his return to the U.S. earlier this
> year.
> According to Congresswoman Jane Harman, chairman of the
> Homeland
> Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Shahzad was pulled
> aside and
> gave "critical contact information that was entered into
> the system
> and used in his arrest yesterday."
> At a press conference in Washington Tuesday, Homeland
> Security
> Secretary Janet Napolitano said Shahzad had been screened
> "because
> some of the targeting rules applied," but declined to
> elaborate. At
> the same press conference, FBI deputy director John Pistole
> said,
> "There are a number of steps that are taken to identify
> potential
> terrorists, whether that's the country from which they
> originate, in
> terms of terrorist training camps, or the individuals they
> associate
> with." The fact that he appears to have briefly evaded
> surveillance to
> buy a ticket and board a flight out of the country also
> raised concern
> among legislators, although Attorney General Eric Holder
> insists there
> was never any danger of Shahzad slipping through the net.
> Despite the allegation that he trained in Waziristan,
> Shahzad can't
> have been any jihadist professor's star student: the bomb
> contraption
> he is alleged to have built was so dysfunctional that it
> could have
> illustrated a how-not-to-build-a-bomb manual. Perhaps the
> good news is
> that jihadist training may have deteriorated as networks
> based in
> Afghanistan and Pakistan have come under sustained attack
> from the
> U.S. and its allies.
> More distressingly, the case could highlight a downside of
> the
> U.S.-led war against terrorism since 9/11: while wars in
> Afghanistan
> and Iraq — and drone strikes in Pakistan — have killed
> hundreds of
> militants, those who survive tend to operate more
> independently, and
> there are plenty more willing to join them.
> "We haven't bent their determination one bit, but these are
> smaller,
> lower-quality efforts," says Brian Jenkins, a terrorism
> expert at the
> Rand Corp. "We have managed to break up their capability to
> conduct
> large-scale, centrally directed operations," he adds.
> "Clearly there's
> a quality-control problem. So they're exhorting violence by
> locals, to
> do whatever they can, wherever they are." Instead of
> 9/11-style
> attacks carried out under direct orders from Osama bin
> Laden and
> lieutenants, recent efforts have been attempted by more
> amateurish
> lone wolves.
> And Americans should not take too much comfort from the
> ineptitude of
> the Times Square bombmaker. "If Major [Nidal] Hasan had
> jumped up on
> the desk at Fort Hood and shouted 'Allahu akbar' and his
> guns jammed,
> he would have looked like a buffoon," says Ralph Peters, a
> retired
> Army officer who writes often about terrorism. "But his
> guns didn't
> jam. This guy didn't get it right — he didn't know how to
> do bombs —
> but the next guy might know how to do bombs."
> Coming after months of fierce debate between congressional
> Republicans
> and the Administration over the appropriate legal strategy
> for dealing
> with terror suspects, Shahzad's treatment after his arrest
> was always
> going to be controversial. At Tuesday's press conference,
> Pistole said
> that "Joint Terrorism Task Force agents and officers from
> NYPD
> interviewed Mr. Shahzad last night and early this morning
> under the
> public-safety exception to the Miranda rule. He was, as the
> Attorney
> General noted, cooperative, and provided valuable
> intelligence and
> evidence. He was eventually transported to another
> location,
> Mirandized and continued talking."
> Before hearing that Shahzad had been read his rights,
> Republican
> Senator John McCain of Arizona said, "I don't believe
> [people like
> Shahzad] should be given Miranda rights ... [in case] he
> gets lawyered
> up and doesn't give any information. We need information to
> know how
> this thing happened." Peter King, the senior Republican on
> the House
> Homeland Security Committee, said the Attorney General
> should discuss
> reading Shahzad his rights with the intelligence community
> before
> doing so.
> As details of the arrest began to emerge, legislators from
> both
> parties were effusive in their praise for the efforts of
> the U.S.
> law-enforcement community, though the GOP leadership has
> been more
> circumspect on the issue of Shahzad's handling. Senate
> minority leader
> Mitch McConnell said Tuesday, "Hopefully the appropriate
> officials are
> using this opportunity to exploit as much intelligence as
> he may have
> about his overseas connections and any other plots against
> Americans
> either here or abroad."
> But the controversy over Mirandizing terror suspects is
> unlikely to go
> away: Connecticut independent Senator Joe Lieberman
> announced Tuesday
> that he plans to propose a bill stripping the citizenship
> of those
> Americans deemed by the U.S. intelligence community to have
> joined
> foreign terror networks. Presumably the Shahzad case, as it
> unfolds,
> will feature in that debate on Capitol Hill.
> — With reporting by Katy Steinmetz / Washington; Omar
> Waraich / Islamabad
> 
> 
> Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1987126,00.html?xid=rss-topstories#ixzz0n3hcLe8c
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