A failed bomb attempt reveals both strengths and weaknesses
Terrorism
May 6th 2010 | NEW YORK | from PRINT EDITION
A lone bomber, or not?“I ♥ New York” T-shirts are back on sale for $2.99, just steps away from where Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born American citizen, allegedly attempted to detonate an improvised bomb inside a car in the heart of Times Square on May 1st. On discovery of the smoking vehicle New York’s police (NYPD) quickly evacuated the area. In a New York minute, Times Square bounced back. Soon after the bomb squad had defused the device, traffic returned and throngs of people again filled its sidewalks and packed into its shops and theatres.
Just over 53 hours after the smoking SUV was discovered, Mr Shahzad was arrested at Kennedy airport as he tried to leave the country on a flight to Dubai. Ray Kelly, New York’s police commissioner, compared the speedy arrest to the work of Jack Bauer, a fictional counter-terrorism agent who repeatedly saves the world in 24 hours. But the fact that Mr Shahzad nearly got away (the plane had closed its doors before it was stopped, because the authorities had earlier lost track of their suspect) is embarrassing, to say the least. And it was not expensive technology or highly-sensitive intelligence that alerted authorities to the SUV on Saturday night. Street vendors, ordinary New Yorkers, did that.
That said, the NYPD has upped its game since the 2001 attacks. It has increased the number of detectives on its joint task-force with the FBI from 17 to 120. It has hired David Cohen, a former senior CIA spook, to head its counter-terrorism outfit. It has posted detectives to Abu Dhabi, Amman, London and elsewhere. It has hired native speakers of Arabic, Dari, Persian, Urdu, Pushtun and Bengali. Since 2001 New York has been the focus of at least 11 foiled plots, which included plans to blow up the Brooklyn Bridge and the world’s most famous stock exchange.
The really alarming thing about the Times Square bomb, of course, is that it may have been an inside job. Mr Shahzad seemed to be living the American dream. He came to America as a student, eventually earning his MBA. He married, had two children, worked as a financial analyst and owned a house in suburban Connecticut. Yet, according to the authorities, he recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, probably from the Pakistani Taliban. Fortunately, he seems to have been a poor student in that subject.
Mr Shahzad, if guilty, would be part of a deeply disturbing trend. Last autumn Najibullah Zazi, an Afghan who grew up in New York, was arrested for plotting to blow up the subway. Last November a Muslim army major killed 12 people in a shooting-spree in Texas. A third of all charged terror suspects have been American citizens. Home-grown terrorists obviously face fewer travel restrictions and, being more familiar with America, are better able to steer clear of intelligence officers. Mr Shahzad was not apparently on anyone’s radar until the weekend.
Terrorism is also causing tension between Washington and New York. Mr Obama’s attorney-general, Eric Holder, is still considering a Manhattan federal court for the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged architect of the 2001 attacks. Opposition from New Yorkers is making this a tricky issue for the White House. Other places have been suggested, such as West Point, a military academy north of the city; no announcement has been made yet. And despite the 2001 attacks, New York has always found it hard to get money from pork-loving Congress for security. Michael Bloomberg, New York’s mayor, headed to Washington on May 5th for a security briefing. He is hoping to use this incident to get more funding for his city.
In particular, Mr Bloomberg wants money to expand his Lower Manhattan Security Initiative to midtown (including Times Square). The plan involves an extensive network of cameras, licence-plate readers and weapon-detectors. The NYPD currently operates 82 cameras in Times Square, but that was plainly not enough. Mr Kelly warned that “in the eyes of terrorists, New York is America.” And next time it may not be so lucky.
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