Times Square bomb plotter sentenced to life in prison

[sinkingfeeling]

Source: CNN.com

New York (CNN) -- A 30-year-old Pakistani-American was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for attempting to detonate a vehicle bomb in Times Square this year.

Faisal Shahzad was defiant before a judge sentenced him Tuesday, saying "the defeat of the U.S. is imminent."

Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to all 10 counts in an indictment against him. At the time, he told the court, "I want to plead guilty 100 times because unless the United States pulls out of Afghanistan and Iraq, until they stop drone strikes in Somalia, Pakistan and Yemen and stop attacking Muslim lands, we will attack the United States and be out to get them."


Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/10/05/new.york.terror.plot/index.html?hpt=T2

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Sad that this young man's rage has ended in his life in prison.

[closeupready]

1. You can't really be sad, though, if that's the way he wants it.

I mean, I guess you can be generally sad about the waste of human potential here, but clearly, he was very firmly committed to mass murder. This is one person who - at this point - is beyond redemption.

[slackmaster]

2. Good

Another worthless piece of shit wannabe mass murderer taken out of circulation.

[iandhr]

3. And we did not have to torture him.

We used our regular court system and that was able to punish a terrorist. WOW.

[Haole Girl]

4. Any waste of a human life is sad

It would have been much more sad if he'd succeeded... taking the lives of dozens in Times Square.

[green917]

5. I don't think that it's sad at all

I think justice was served. It does present an important corollary between our foreign policy and the spread of anti-American sentiment and even attempted terrorism though. He did still attempt to kill a lot of innocent people and deserved the sentence that he got. IMHO though, the biggest lesson here is that we didn't bomb his nation of origin (more than we already are that is) to rubble because of his acts. We treated it as all terrorist acts should be treated....as a crime to be punished by our courts and police rather than by our military.

[Freddie Stubbs]

6. I wish him a long life

[opihimoimoi]

7. He is lucky he is not in China...thats where life is cheap....to save $$ he would be toast in a few

days

right after they harvest his organs...

[HoraceX]

8. Have fun dying in jail.

"We do not accept your democracy or your freedom because we already have Sharia law and freedom."

[Mike Marble]

9. We are busy generating more just like him.

Terrorists attacking us didn't used to come from Afghanistan and Pakistan. Nine years of war there is creating an endless supply of guys like him.

[ProgressiveMajority]

13. Not to mention our support of Israel and presence in Iraq. Afghanistan is but a part

The embassy bombings in the 90s (Beirut), the first WTC bombing and other attacks against us came well before we were in Afghanistan or Obama's drone strikes in Pakistan.

To really make amends with the middle east we need to pull out of Afghanistan, re-think our relationship with Israel and get every last trooper out of Iraq. Doing any one of these things (e.g. pulling out of Afghanistan) is not going to do much to stop recruitment.

[leftynyc]

14. Make amends? To terrorists?

Seriously? Why don't we just get them to make a list of things we have to do to make it easy.

[ProgressiveMajority]

16. That they want these things is not the reason, morality is

I didn't mean to say we should "make amends" with terrorists, rather the middle east as a whole. Rethinking our relationship with Israel and withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan would be the right thing to do on a ethical basis. That it would almost totally eliminate terrorist recruitment is a bonus.

[Pavulon]

18. No we could sell Israel down the river, there is nothing we are going to do to stop these people

from their belief. They are the fringe. The USS Cole attack happened before we were involved in any war. as did the 93 trade center bombing.

[ProgressiveMajority]

19. Yes but we still supported Israel back then n/t

[Pavulon]

20. Short of dispersing all our remaining VX over israel, they will keep it up

they will continue to die in places like entebbe too. That's just what they do.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pavulon]

27. Yep, I am sure if we just do whatever "they" want it will all go away

you sound like a neophyte. Reality is more complex than your personal faith in the goodness of men.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

29. And they need to get over that fact.

If they want to help the Palestinians, I'm sure there's plenty of open land in the Middle East. But I suppose it's easier for the oligarchs to enrich themselves and not their people and distract the populace with the specter of another enemy.

[leftynyc]

24. So you honestly think

if we pulled every last soldier out of Iraq and Afghanistan it would change a thing? We weren't in either of those countries (except for policing the no-fly zone with NATO) when we got hit in '01. Try again.

[Nihil]

22. I bet you that the list would start with this ...

"Stop bombing the living fuck out of innocent civilians in our country."

If you can't see that every "drone attack", every checkpoint death,
every "targetted" assassination and every "bad apple" that your country
is committing in their homeland is creating terrorists by the score,
you are not just blind but wilfully stupid.

"Why do they hate us?"

[leftynyc]

23. Really?

Osama said he hated us because we were on saudi soil (and with (gasp) women soldiers). He never mentioned the Palestinians until he found out he could yank the cord of lefties that way. But I guess it's pointless to argue with those who think the US is the source of all evil in the world.

[Nihil]

25. "the US is the source of all evil in the world"

If that's your belief, you are welcome to it - it isn't mine.

In the meantime, please don't go putting words in my mouth.

(FWIW, I didn't mention Palestinians either - another one of yours - nor did
I suggest that Osama the only terrorist in the world who might have a grievance.)

My previous statement still stands.

With every little drop of "collateral damage" that your armed forces shed,
the debt being incurred by your government increases (despite any whitewashes
of "bad apples" or "unfortunate circumstances") and so does the risk to *your*
innocent countrymen from one of the grieving/angry/crazed victims.

All of the cowboys cheering upthread over the jailing of this particularly
incompetent nutcase seem to have overlooked the fact that this "failure"
has allowed another turn of the screw on your "freedoms" without a single
American being hurt. Pavlov would be proud.

[alp227]

10. Now let's stop the wars and prevent further anti-Americanism/terrorism

Oh yeah, did it take Guantanamo and waterboarding to put Monster Shahzad behind bars? No. Just our regular federal court system, with a so-close-to-100% conviction rate for terrorists. Of all the detainees in Guantanamo right now, two are released, one has been released, two have had their charges dropped, one is serving a life sentence, and the rest still have charges pending. So why again is there so much hostility in NYC to the official trial and conviction of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed again?

[ProgressiveMajority]

12. Opposition to NYC trials is more a Cost/Inconvienence Issue for many

I think a good bit of the opposition to having trials for KSM and others in NYC simply came from the inconvenience and cost.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction
When the German government tried the Red Army Faction and Baader-Meinhoff Group they didn't do it in Berlin or any other city where said groups were active. They did it in a prison well outside any urban areas so it would be easy to secure, and put as few people at risk as possible. It's not a question of whether we can hold the trial in New York, but whether it makes sense to. Personally I'm against it for simple cost and safety reasons. We can do it safely, but that would be costly in New York. Or we can do it cheaply in New York, but that wouldn't be safe.

[maxsolomon]

11. so young, so dumb

may he acquire wisdom over his next 50 years.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

15. Good riddance, asshole.

[proteus_lives]

17. Have a pleasant 50-60 years, you prick.

I'm sure they love terrorists in prison.

[pettypace]

26. Silly Faisal Shahzad

If he had realized that only the United States and its proxies are allowed to mutilate, rape, burn, and horrificly murder innocent people in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan or anywhere else they please, he'd still be sleeping in his own bed.

Silly silly Faisal Shahzad. May you dream of Haditha in your captivity.

[Pavulon]

28. Maybe we can cut his head off and post it on liveleak.(nt)

[pettypace]

30. Although I see where you're going

I do think it's not valid in relation to my (regretably) sarcastic post.

Nick Berg being in Iraq in 2004 was directly related to his unfortunate and grotesque demise. That was not the safest spot to be in would you agree?

And if you want to go tit for tat, recall the gruesome crimes that our side has perpetrated since Haditha in 2005.

Remember Steven Green who raped a 14 year old and then killed/burned her and her entire family. (Got the same sentence as Shahzad btw).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/21/steven-green-spared-death_n_206538.html

How about the Qana bombings that took 16 children's lives.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5232434.stm

And even today we have news of Afghan civilians being used as target practice by our guys.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/05/world/asia/05afghan.html?ref=asia

And if you want to argue it's all on account of retaliating for 9/11, the US/UK had been bombing Iraq long before that day.

Not trying to go out of my way to justify Shahzad's actions, but the reasoning behind his attempt has to be inspected. He was driven to that event by our previous engagements. Why would he throw away his life so wrecklessly if that wasn't the case?

Read Mr. Glenn Greenwald's article today on Salon. It's very much intune with my thoughts.

http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/10/06/terrorism/index.html