Why did faisal shahzad do it

Shahzad's American career began in disappointment and was mired in that house. With two degrees from the University of Bridgeport, a school so poorly rated by its peers it doesn't even have a ranking in the US News and World Report college list, the best work he could find was a series of jobs as an account analyst, the last of which he quit last summer.

By his own account, Shahzad was ditching Shelton to return to Pakistan with his family. He trained as an airman and rose to one of the highest posts in Pakistan's air force. In a country where who you know is far more important than what you know, Haq defeated phenomenal odds. Faisal, one of four children, grew up on military bases in Peshawar, Sargodha and Karachi, studying at air force schools.

His grades were average and he developed a weakness for fast cars and a taste for the Eurotrash look. Baharul Haq's economising paid off. When he retired he moved into Hayatabad, a Peshawar neighbourhood of palatial villas staffed by guards, servants and chauffeurs, favoured by foreigners, military grandees and business notables. Shahzad's Shelton neighbours, by contrast — among them a dental technician, a computer consultant, a school teacher and a nurse — drive their own mid-range cars and mow their own lawns.

It was an arranged marriage. She was very quiet. I talked to him more than her. We used to talk when he was mowing the lawn. She'd had a good job. He told me they were getting the children phase over and then she was going to go back to work. He worked in Norwalk. It's 35 minutes away, but it's a terrible commute, and he used to talk about that.

Much worse than he expected. I could tell he wasn't happy…". There was a sister who came from Massachusetts. She was always in traditional dress.

I don't know what you call it, but the kind of clothing you see in India. It was the house, the neighbour said, that increasingly preoccupied him. What, I asked, is the most lasting image she has of him?

The videotape capturing him buying fireworks? The mugshot after his arrest? Ajani Marwat is an officer in the New York Police Department's intelligence division, formerly special services, or the "red squad". Marwat is an unlikely Cohen acolyte. He has a sinking feeling that Jewish financiers control the world. He thinks the United States is being used by Israel to do its dirty work. But Marwat is also a man in possession of the highest-level security clearance.

He is fluent in seven languages and three of them — Urdu, Pashtu and English — he shares with Faisal Shahzad. Today Marwat is sitting in my kitchen drinking tea and eating cherries.

He does not want his birthplace or real name mentioned in this story; intelligence-division officers are not allowed to talk to the media. What he will do is offer a window into what he thinks motivated Shahzad, and what his New York-born colleagues do not, and perhaps cannot, understand about the Shahzads they encounter.

Marwat lost eight brothers and sisters to starvation, rocket strikes and bombings in his native country. One day when he was 11, he had to go to the market to buy bread. At that time, any such excursion was a risk. His best friend went with him. All I see is smoke. Then I can't hear anything. I look at my friend.

He's running. But he has no head. The damage that United States aerial bombing causes in Pakistan is most heavily concentrated where ethnic Pashtun live. Shahzad's family was Pashtun, and he married one. The village of Shahzad's father is only a minute drive from one of the largest madrasas in Pakistan, the Darul Uloom Haqqania, widely considered the incubator for the Taliban movement. But the village itself is in Nowshera, one of the most secular districts in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where the liberal Pakistan Peoples Party regularly wins elections.

It is also not an area saturated in drone attacks. That distinction belongs to a belt of villages further southwest along the Afghanistan border. In , Shahzad abandoned his Shelton home and went to live with his parents in their posh neighbourhood in Peshawar.

During that year, 47 drone attacks killed people in Waziristan. Peshawar, however, suffered no drone attacks. Shahzad, wearing a white prayer cap, said "Allahu Akbar" after hearing the sentence, and said he would "sacrifice a thousand lives for Allah.

Shahzad also said he was happy with "the deal" God had given him. We don't need laws made by humans. She also reminded Shahzad that he'd sworn an oath of allegiance to the US when he became a citizen. Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to the failed May 1 attack, and admitted receiving terror training from the Pakistani Taliban.

Two of the ten different terror and weapons charges to which he pleaded carry mandatory life sentences. The year-old naturalized American, who was born in Pakistan and lived in Connecticut, warned in June that further terror attacks were coming.

After Shahzad had pleaded guilty to the first charge, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, Judge Cedarbaum said, "I gather you want to plead guilty to all [the charges. Thursday, June 17, The indictment filed today charges Shahzad with 10 offenses which carry the following potential penalties: Count 1 — Attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, life in prison.

Count 2 — Conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, life in prison. Count 3 — Possession of a firearm during and in relation to a conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, life in prison. Count 5 — Conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, life in prison. Count 6 — Attempted use of a destructive device during and in relation to a conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, life in prison.

Count 8 — Conspiracy to transport an explosive, 10 years in prison. Count 9 — Attempted destruction of property by fire and explosive, 20 years in prison.

Component s :. Office of the Attorney General. Press Release Number:. According to the indictment, Shahzad purchased a rifle in Connecticut in March that was found loaded in his car on the day of his arrest. We'll notify you here with news about. Turn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest?

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