NEW YORK – A smirking Pakistani-born US citizen who tried to detonate a car bomb in New York’s busy Times Square was sentenced yesterday to life in prison after he said defiantly that more attacks on America were imminent.
Faisal Shahzad (31) had pleaded guilty in June to a failed May 1st bombing in Manhattan. He admitted he received bomb-making training from the Pakistani Taliban and that this group, known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, had funded the plot.
Shahzad, who arrived in the Manhattan federal courtroom in shackles, wearing a blue prison tunic and a white prayer cap, smiled and addressed US district judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum before he was sentenced to life without parole.
“We Muslims don’t abide by human-made laws because they are always corrupt,” he said, denouncing the presence of US and Nato forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and mentioning al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
“Furthermore, brace yourselves because the war with Muslims has just begun,” he said. “Consider me the first droplet of the flood that will follow. The defeat of US is imminent and will happen in near future. We are only Muslims . . . but if you call us terrorists, we are proud terrorists and we will keep on terrorising you.”
The judge noted that Shahzad recently became a US citizen, saying he “falsely swore allegiance to his country”. “His desire is not to defend the United States and Americans but to kill them,” she said.
Shahzad, who lived in the neighbouring state of Connecticut, parked a smoking sports utility vehicle in Times Square with its engine running and hazard lights flashing on a balmy Saturday evening.
A bomb squad diffused the crude device, which included firecrackers and propane gas tanks in the square, which is 3½ miles (5.6 km) north of the World Trade Center, destroyed in the September 11th attacks.
Shahzad, whose wife and two children live in Pakistan, told investigators he thought his bomb would kill at least 40 people, and that he had planned a second bombing attack two weeks later. A second target was not identified.
The son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal, Shahzad was arrested aboard a Dubai-bound aircraft at New York’s John F Kennedy International Airport two days after the attempted attack. He had been on his way to Pakistan.
He pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted terrorism transcending national borders.
Prosecutors had sought a mandatory life term.
“Faisal Shahzad is a remorseless terrorist who betrayed his adopted country and today was rightly sentenced to spend the rest of his life in federal prison,” Manhattan US attorney Preet Bharara said.
The judge urged Shahzad to reflect on his actions and “whether the Koran wants you to kill lots of people”.
Shahzad replied: “The Koran gives us the right to defend . . . I am happy with the deal God has given me.” – (Reuters)