Breaking News: Times Square bomber pleads guilty

Faisal Shazad

NEW YORK, (Reuters) – A Pakistani-born American  citizen defiantly pleaded guilty today to attempting to set  off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square, saying that Islamist  extremists would continue to attack the United States.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, admitted traveling to Pakistan to  receive bomb-making training from from the Pakistani Taliban,  called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and receiving $12,000 from  the group to carry out the failed plot on May 1.
Shahzad, who has a wife and two children living in  Pakistan, pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including attempted use  of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted terrorism  transcending national borders. He faces life in prison.
“I’m going to plead guilty 100 times over,” Shahzad told  the court. Until the United States stops drone aircraft attacks  and the occupation of “Muslim lands,” Shahzad said “we will be  attacking the United States and I plead guilty to that.”
Shahzad awkwardly parked a sports utility vehicle in Times  Square with its engine running and hazard lights flashing on a  balmy Saturday evening last month. Street vendors alerted  police to the smoking vehicle within minutes and thousands of  people were evacuated from the popular theater district.
A New York Police Department bomb squad diffused the crude  device, which included firecrackers and propane gas tanks.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the  attempted bombing. CIA-operated drones have targeted Taliban  figures in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the group has vowed to  avenge missile strikes that have killed some of its leaders.
Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal,  was arrested aboard a Dubai-bound jetliner at New York’s John  F. Kennedy International Airport two days after the attempted  attack. He had been on his way back to Pakistan.
Wearing a white prayer cap and handcuffed, Shahzad, who  lived in the neighboring state of Connecticut and became a U.S.  citizen last year, was arraigned by U.S. District Judge Miriam  Goldman Cedarbaum in a packed courtroom.
He cooperated with authorities after his arrest, officials  have said.
Shahzad, a former budget analyst who worked for a marketing  firm in Connecticut, came from a relatively privileged  background that offered no hints of radicalism. He returned to  the United States earlier this year after spending several  months in Pakistan.
Several people have been arrested in Pakistan in the case  and U.S. authorities carried out raids in New York,  Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine, detaining several people  on immigration charges.

Faisal Shazad