Faisal Shahzad (; born , 1979) is a Pakistani-American man who was arrested for the attempted May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing. On , 2010, in Federal District Court in Manhattan, he confessed to 10 counts arising from the bombing attempt. Throughout his court appearance, Shahzad was unrepentant. The United States Attorney indicated there was no plea deal, so Shahzad faced the maximum sentence, a mandatory life term.Weiser, B. Guilty Plea in Times Square Bomb Plot The New York Times. , 2010
Shahzad was arrested approximately 53 hours after the attempt, at EDT on , 2010, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport, after boarding Emirates Flight 202 to Dubai. His final destination had been Islamabad, Pakistan.
A federal complaint was filed on , 2010 alleging that Shahzad committed five terrorism-related crimes, including the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction. Shahzad waived his constitutional right to a speedy hearing.
Shahzad has reportedly implicated himself in the crimes, and has given information to authorities since his arrest. Shahzad admitted to receiving training in bomb-making at a camp run by the Taliban in the Waziristan region in Pakistan along the Afghan border. As of , 2010, Shahzad was continuing to answer questions and provide intelligence to investigators. Pakistani officials have arrested more than a dozen people in connection with the plot.
After pleading guilty to a 10-count indictment in June, on October 5, 2010, Shahzad was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole; the charges had included attempted conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempting an act of a terrorist attack.
Shahzad is married and the father of two children, both born in the United States. Since 1997, he had lived mostly in the United States, attending college on extended visas, and earning an undergraduate degree and an MBA at the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He worked for two major companies, Arden and Affinion Group (2006-2009), as a financial analyst before quitting his jobs. He separated from his wife, Huma Mian, in 2009 and she returned with their children to her parents in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Biography Early life and education Shahzad is a naturalized U.S. citizen. He was born in Pakistan in either Karachi or Pabbi (a village in Nowshera District east of Peshawar in northwest Pakistan), the youngest of four children. His father was born in the village of Mohib Banda (near Peshawar).Julie McCarthy, In Pakistan, Shahzad's Family, Friends Express Dismay , National Public Radio Shahzad comes from a wealthy, well-educated family in northwest Pakistan.
Shahzad's father, Baharul Haq, lives in the Peshawar suburb of Hayatabad. His father was a senior official in the Pakistan Air Force, holding the rank of air vice-marshal (the equivalent of a two-star general) before leaving the air force in 1992. His children grew up in privilege. He is a deputy director general of the Civil Aviation Authority of Pakistan.Julie McCarthy, "In Pakistan, Shahzad's Family, Friends Express Dismay" , National Public Radio, , 2010: The village of Mohib Banda, in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, is the ancestral family home of Faisal Shahzad, the alleged Times Square bomber. ... Ahmed is the former mayor in Mohib Banda and a close friend of Shahzad's father, retired Vice Air Marshal Baharul Haq. Ahmed says the case of Faisal Shahzad is a shame on the village, and tragic for the family. "This is a tragedy for me and every Pakistani, every Pashtun", he says. He had begun as a common airman, but became a fighter pilot excelling in aerobatics, and was posted in England and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Shahzad is probably of mixed ethnic background because the Government of Pakistan stated that he is of Kashmiri descentTimes Square Bomb Arrest Raises U.S. Security Questions , Time, by Tony Karon with Massimo Calabresi and Mark Thompson. , 2010. but Shahzad identified himself as Pashtun.
The New York Times reported that Shahzad's life seems to have followed a "familiar narrative about radicalization in the West: his anger toward his adopted country seemed to have grown in lockstep with his personal struggles. He had lost his home to foreclosure last year. At the same time he was showing signs of a profound, religiously infused alienation."
Shahzad's family moved with his father's military postings, and the boy attended primary school in Saudi Arabia, according to documents found outside his Shelton home. He later attended several schools in Pakistan. In high school, he received Ds in English composition and microeconomics. While he was growing up, the family had servants, chauffeurs, and armed guards in keeping with his father's military rank.
Kifayat Ali, a man who said he is a cousin of Shahzad's father, insisted that Shahzad's family had no political affiliations. He said the arrest of Shahzad appeared to be a "conspiracy so that the [Americans] can bomb more Pashtuns", and that Shahzad "was never linked to any political or religious party [in Pakistan]".
Shahzad studied for five semesters in 1997 and 1998 at the now-defunct Southeastern University in Washington D.C., where he took mostly business classes. He received several Cs and Ds, an F in basic statistics, and a grade point average of 2.78.Ramunni, Kate "Exclusive: Documents found near bomb suspect's former Shelton home" , Connecticut Post , 2010, retrieved same day In December 1998, he was granted an F-1 student visa. In 1999 he was placed on a US Customs (later merged into DHS) travel lookout list called the "Traveler Enforcement Compliance System"."Shahzad on U.S. Travel Security List since 1999", CBS News, , 2010
In 2000, Shahzad transferred to the University of Bridgeport in Bridgeport, Connecticut. On weekends, he would go to Bengali-themed nightclubs in New York City. A classmate remembered Shahzad watching news footage of the September 11 attacks in New York, and saying, "They had it coming." He participated in a wider world than some Pakistanis, and was said to love women and to drink socially. Shahzad earned a B.A. in computer applications and information systems from the University of Bridgeport, and his parents attended his graduation on , 2002.Mayko, Michael, "Who is Faisal Shahzad? 'Unremarkable': American dream faded quickly for accused terrorist" , Connecticut Post , 2010, retrieved same day Just before graduation, in April 2002, he was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers. Shahzad remained in the U.S. for three years on that visa, earning a Master of Business Administration degree at the University of Bridgeport in 2005.
Career Shahzad worked as a junior financial analyst in the accounting department at the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics company in Stamford, Connecticut, while he was still working on his master's degree. After working with them from January 2002 and until , 2006, he resigned to go elsewhere. He complained to friends that the company never raised his salary above $50,000.
Personal life On December 24, 2004, in an arranged marriage in Peshawar, Pakistan, Shahzad married Huma Asif Mian. They have two children.
Huma Asif Mian, a 2004 graduate of the University of Colorado, Boulder, majored in accounting. Mian was born in the United States to Pakistani-born parents. Mian and her parents and siblings had lived in Qatar and Colorado. At the time of Shahzad's arrest, Mian lived with her parents and her two children fathered by Shahzad in Saudi Arabia. Mian's father is Mohammad Asif Mian, a petroleum engineering expert. He has written a number of books and technical manuals, including a best-selling book on project economics and decision analysis; worked for companies such as Saudi Aramco and Qatar General Petroleum; and has two master's degrees from the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, Colorado. After Shahzad was arrested, his father-in-law Mohammad Asif Mian said: "to go to this extreme, this is unbelievable. He has lovely children. Two really lovely children. As a father I would not be able to afford to lose my children."
In 2002, Shahzad bought a Mercedes automobile and a $205,000 condominium in Norwalk, Connecticut. He sold the condo in May 2004 to George LaMonica for a $56,000 profit. LaMonica was interviewed afterward by Joint Terrorism Task Force investigators regarding details of the transactions and information about Shahzad.
In January 2006, Shahzad was granted permanent residence status (a "green card"). He bought a new single-family three-bedroom home in Shelton, Connecticut, just outside Bridgeport in 2006, at which he and his family lived. From mid-June 2006 to June 2009, Shahzad worked as a junior financial analyst, a position he told a friend paid $70,000, for Affinion Group, an affinity marketing and consulting business then located at 100 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk.
He was naturalized as a U.S. citizen on , 2009. A few weeks later, he abruptly quit his job and stopped making payments on his house, defaulting on the $218,400 mortgage.
His marriage became strained in 2009 as he pressured his wife Huma to wear a hijab and insisted that the family return to live in Pakistan while he searched for a job in the Middle East. On , he telephoned his wife from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, saying he was leaving for Pakistan, and it was her choice whether or not to follow him. She refused, and actually left the United States herself, taking their children with her to live with her parents in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Shahzad defaulted on the mortgage of his house, and was sued by the bank in September 2009 as it foreclosed on his home.
The New York Times reported that since 2006, he had become more religiously devout and struggled with questions about Muslims in the world. He began to pray five times a day, at mosques in Stamford, Norwalk, and Bridgeport. On , 2006, Shahzad had sent a long e-mail message to a number of friends. Writing that he understood that Islam forbids killing innocents, he asked those who insisted on peaceful protest, "Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed? And a way to fight back when rockets are fired at us and Muslim blood flows? Everyone knows how the Muslim country bows down to pressure from west. Everyone knows the kind of humiliation we are faced with around the globe."
Attempted bombing of Times Square
Reported preparations On July 3, 2009, Shahzad reportedly traveled to Pakistan and is believed to have visited Peshawar, a gateway to the militant-occupied tribal regions of Pakistan and stayed there from to . While in Pakistan, he said he trained at a terrorist training camp in what was believed to be Waziristan, according to law enforcement officials. Time suggested that his family's background in northwestern Pakistan meant that Shahzad likely spoke Pashto, a rare asset for a Western volunteer in the training camps.
Shahzad's most recent stay in Pakistan lasted for five months; he returned to the U.S. on , 2010, on an Emirates flight from Dubai.
Shahzad was believed to have bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was used in the car bomb attempt within three weeks prior to the incident. The vehicle was purchased through an ad on Craigslist, for $1,300. Shahzad reportedly paid a Connecticut woman for it in $100 bills. He paid the money and received the car at a Connecticut shopping center, without any formal paperwork being exchanged.
Arrest and charges
Shahzad was arrested approximately 53 hours after the incident, at EDT on , 2010, by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers. He was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport, as he sat on board Emirates Flight 202 to Dubai. His flight was minutes from takeoff but was recalled to the gate. His final destination would have been Islamabad, Pakistan.