Monthly Archives: May 2010

Go Chili, Go Chili…

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Just a brief post on this: Surya Yalamanchili, the Democratic congressional candidate from Ohio we mentioned last week, just won the primary in Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District.

He defeated David Krikorian by 650 votes; last week, Krikorian made comments about the difficulty a person with the name “Yalamanchili” might have in winning an election. Yalamanchili is going on to face the sitting representative for the district, Jean Schmidt, in the general election in November.

Surya Yalamanchili has won the Democratic primary for the 2nd District congressional seat.

With 98 percent of precincts reporting, Yalamanchili appeared to have beaten David Krikorian by 650 votes and Jim Parker by more than 4,400 votes.

The race took an unexpected turn last week, when Ohio and Hamilton County party officials condemned remarks attributed to Krikorian about Yalamanchili.

State and county Democratic officials and Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt sent letters saying that Krikorian owed an apology to Yalamanchili and the Indian-American community.(link)

At least now he can cross “best known for being a candidate on TV’s The Apprentice” off his resume. Continue reading →

A Pakistani man of U.S. citizenship?

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After the alleged mastermind — and I use that term loosely — of the attempted Times Squareshahzad.jpg bombing was arrested, I was intrigued to see how he’d be described in the media on first reference. Was he a Pakistani, a Pakistani-American, a Pakistani native with U.S. citizenship, an American of Pakistani descent, or an Ameristani?

Here’s an early AP story (after his U.S. citizenship was established): A Pakistani man believed to be the driver of an SUV used as a car bomb in a failed terror attack on Times Square was taken into custody late Monday by FBI agents and local police detectives while trying to leave the country, U.S. officials said. [Link]

Here’s a later AP story: Seized from a plane about to fly to the Middle East, a Pakistan-born man admitted training to make bombs at a terrorism camp in his native land before he rigged an SUV with a homemade device to explode in Times Square, authorities said Tuesday. [Link]

Here’s the Wall Street Journal: A naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Pakistan admitted to federal agents on Monday that he attempted to detonate a car bomb in Times Square this weekend, according to court documents filed Tuesday. [Link]

Here’s Slate: Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistan-born American citizen arrested on suspicion of being Times Square’s would-be May Day bomber, did not act alone. [Link]

Here’s Al Jazeera: An American former financial analyst has admitted attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York City’s Times Square. [Link]

Here’s the Washington Post: The arrest of a Pakistani American in connection with the failed Times Square bombing again put a spotlight on Pakistan as a global terrorist training hub, raising the prospect of intensified U.S. pressure to break up militant networks. [Link]

Here’s Newsday: Reports that American Faisal Shahzad flew to his birth country of Pakistan to train for the attempted car-bombing in Times Square highlight that nation’s long history as a haven and training ground for terrorists, experts say. [Link]

Here’s Fox News: A Pakistani man from Pakistan with strong ties to Pakistan has been arrested for the attempted car-bombing in Times Square. [Link]

Continue reading →

Faisal Shahzad: Another Well-Heeled Terror Suspect

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faisal shahzad.jpg
One detail about Faisal Shahzad’s family background in Pakistan that caught my eye is the disclosure of his father’s military background. As has been widely reported, Shahzad was arrested on suspicion of attempting to set off a car bomb in Times Square, New York Monday night. Shahzad has been a U.S. citizen since 2009, and he had been working in the finance industry until sometime in 2009. He and his wife owned a house in Connecticut until the bank foreclosed on it last fall.

In Pakistan, Shahzad does have some relatives in Karachi, but his father’s family lives near Peshawar, in a suburb called Hayatabad. This story in the International News, a Pakistani newspaper, states that his father is a retired Air Vice Marshal in the Pakistan Air Force.

Air Vice Marshal (R) Baharul Haq, father of Faisal Shahzad, the accused in New York’s failed bomb plot, hurriedly vacated the family home in Hayatabad town here late Tuesday apparently to avoid attention.

Eyewitnesses said he packed some belongings in a vehicle and left the house located in Phase IV of the posh Hayatabad town along with male and female members of the family. Their destination wasn’t known.

Earlier, members of the media, in particularly TV crews had converged on the house in a bid to talk to family members and learn more about Faisal Shahzad, who was arrested Tuesday in the US on charges of plotting the vehicle bomb attack and now accused of an attempted act of terrorism. However, nobody in Air Vice Marshal (R) Baharul Haq’s household or the neighbours were ready to talk to reporters. A Geo TV reporter was shown outside the house trying to engage in conversation with neighbours. Some people in the neighbourhood expressed ignorance about Faisal Shahzad’s arrest in the US. (link)

What is there to learn from this? First, I think it reaffirms that potential terrorists could come from virtually any economic and educational background; a surprising number of major terror suspects in recent years have had advanced degrees (Shahzad has an MBA). Second, there’s hardly a long history of identification with extremist ideology here. With a big smile and a bluetooth headset in his ear, he looks like he should be selling me cell phone accessories at the AT&T store, not wiring amateur bombs. Finally, this guy is the son of a senior officer in the military, a powerful institution in Pakistan, with several other male family members apparently also in the military. They are undoubtedly deeply embarrassed by all this.

In the days and weeks to come, I’m sure we’ll learn more about Faisal Shahzad. Judging from the many mistakes he made in assembling a bomb (with the wrong kind of fertilizer! propane tanks that weren’t opened! completely useless wiring and timers!), my guess is that he had little, if any, “training.” It seems more like a version of the American dream gone horribly awry: something snapped. Continue reading →

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