Faisal Shahzad: Portrait of a patsy

Xymphora
May 7, 2010

Pakistani protesters understand that Faisal Shahzad is a patsy.

It would be ridiculously easy to set up Faisal Shahzad. New American, a little on the make, with family in Pakistan and big financial problems. Friendly government agent approaches him and appeals to his patriotism and love of adventure, plus offers to pay well (note the history). First mission: infiltrate a ‘terrorist’ training camp in Pakistan (little does Shahzad know that the camp is really run by the CIA). Second mission: buy a cheap used car on Craigslist. Third mission: buy some fireworks. Fourth mission: stay at home awaiting further instructions. Shahzad, seeing his car on TV, suddenly got that Lee Harvey Oswald feeling, and decided it might be better to get out of the country before he died in a shoot-out.

Despite a gazillion cameras and CCTVs in Times Square, there is not the slightest evidence that Shahzad was actually there with the car. Complete absence of forensics in the car points to a government job. Strangely enough, so does the utter incompetence of the bomb – even without any training, Shahzad could have done better – and the fact that the bomb was modelled after the incompetent car bomb at Edinburgh (which Shahzad couldn’t have known to copy – we’re supposed to believe it came out of training at the same incompetent bomb-making school in Pakistan!).



They say he’s talking, but who knows. They have him in a tough spot, liable to be labeled an ‘enemy combatant’ with the loss of all rights, and friendly authorities in Pakistan have his family in custody for further blackmail. Patsies always find themselves in a position where there is no way out.

I suspect the ‘no fly list’ problem is phony, intended by American authorities as a way of forcing recalcitrant airlines to get in line. The entire story of his capture is hinky, from the alleged fact that the FBI somehow ‘lost‘ him, to the entire buried story of American Army involvement (whatever happened to posse comitatus?). Gawker investigated the changed story, and the attempt at an innocent excuse is ridiculous (and note the drone reference at the end of the Gawker article: drone blowback against the American people is particularly ironic given illegal American drone killings in Pakistan).