Excerpts
JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): Now to more on the Pakistan angle on this story. Earlier today, I talked with Declan Walsh, a correspondent for the British newspaper The Guardian. He's in Karachi.
Declan Walsh, thanks for joining us.
It has become clear in the last day that Faisal Shahzad actually comes from a well-off background in Pakistan. Tell us what is known about him and his family. ~
DECLAN WALSH, The Guardian: Well, yes. Indeed, that's one of the more unusual aspects of this case.
Faisal Shahzad comes from a family of privilege and a family of some prestige here in Pakistan. His father was a fighter pilot who rose through the ranks of the air force to become a serving three-star general. And his uncle was the commander of the Frontier Corps, which is the force that, ironically, fights the Taliban in the tribal areas along the border. So, this is a very unusual set of circumstances, for a young man from this type of background to be involved in terrorist activity, either here in Pakistan and certainly in the U.S.
JEFFREY BROWN: But the Pakistani military is casting doubts on claims of Taliban involvement in this, right? What is that based on?
DECLAN WALSH: It is based on history, really. And the Pakistani Taliban have a history of making false claims in relation to attacks in America.
Just over one year ago, when there was a gun attack in Upstate New York in Albany, the then Taliban leader, Baitullah Mehsud, claimed that he was responsible. It subsequently turned out that that attack was carried out by a Vietnamese immigrant who had no ties to militancy.
So, there certainly is some doubt over their bona fides. But since Faisal Shahzad has made this claim that he was trained in Waziristan, that has caused the authorities to examine the claim with more seriousness this time.
With the above circumstances (family background), our Intelligence Services would have a hard time identifying Faisal Shahzad as a threat.
ABC News 5/5/2010
UPDATE
"Retired general: GOP is undermining national security to score partisan points" by David Edwards & Muriel Kane, Raw Story 5/5/2010
Excerpt
In the wake of the arrest of alleged terrorist Faisal Shahzad, a number of Republican politicians have expressed outrage that the naturalized American citizen is being afforded the constitutional rights of citizenship.
Major General (ret.) Paul Eaton told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Tuesday, "I am a little surprised that we're here to defend our Constitution against a Republican senator and a Republican representative's attack on it."
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) and Representative Peter King (R-NY) have both suggested that it was an error to read Shahzad his Miranda rights and to keep him in the civilian justice system rather than immediately handing him over to the military.
"From a national security perspective, it's damaging," Eaton said of their statements. "Right now, the FBI and our police forces are looking over their shoulder every time they hear a Republican come off with a remark like that. ... Since January of 2009, we have seen a relentless attack on our FBI, on our armed services, on our policemen by the Republican Party. Any opportunity that they can find ... they have pursued. ... I want them to cut it out."
Eaton, who retired from the Army in 2006, has since been a supporter of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He is currently a senior adviser with the National Security Network, a progressive think-tank with close ties to the Obama administration. It was Eaton who slammed former Vice President Dick Cheney last fall as an "incompetent war fighter," after Cheney had criticized the Obama administration as weak on national security, and he appears to be carrying out the same function now.
"It's a purely partisan approach," Easton said of the Republican criticisms. "They're after trying to frustrate the president in his role as providing for the national security. And in so doing, they're actually attacking the viability of the national security of the United States. ... They've chosen to go off the reservation, and they're doing a bad job."
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