Terror Scare in Times Square

Was the botched terror attack in
Times Square retaliation for
US terrorism perpetrated by predator
drones in
Pakistan? Our war in
Afghanistan and
Pakistan is
tremendously more expensive than such amateurish blowback attacks by
sympathizers of al Qaeda or the Taliban. We have spent almost $270 billion on the
war in
Afghanistan. It
is a big money bonanza for the
US military
industrial complex and big oil companies.
One of Osama bin Laden's tactics has been to use relatively inexpensive
terror attacks to provoke the
US into
increasingly expensive military ventures and higher energy costs that bleed our
economy.

Pentagon parlance for the war in
Afghanistan is
"Operation Enduring Freedom" but a more accurate term is Operation Enduring
Terror. According to Pakistan authorities, 44 predator strikes carried out by the
CIA in Pakistan in 2009 killed more than 700
innocent civilians and only four of their intended al Qaeda and
Taliban targets. As a result, those attacked might be
striking back. Hakimullah Mehsud, one of the leaders the
CIA said they killed in January seems to be
alive. Mehsud appeared on a video
on May 3, threatening attacks on major
US cities in acts of retaliation
against the US drone attacks on
Pakistan. A second video showed Mehsud saying that
"good news will be heard within some days or weeks."

Mehsud referred to reports of his death as lies and propaganda in the footage
that was apparently recorded in April.
The
BBC's correspondent in
Islamabad said if the video is
verified it will end all speculation about his death. US and Pakistani officials had claimed
until recently that Mehsud was killed in a
US missile attack in the remote tribal
region of north-west
Pakistan. But
last week Pakistani intelligence officials said they believed Mehsud was only
wounded.

Is there a link to the failed weekend bomb attack in
New York and Mehsud? Claims by the
Taliban group that it was responsible for the
failed attempt to detonate the car bomb in
Times Square have
credibility. Faisel Shahzad,
the person arrested for committing the act, is a 30 year old naturalized
US citizen originally from
Pakistan. He spent much of the past year in
Peshawar province
of Pakistan, a haven for
Taliban activists. Shahzad is reported to have trained with
Taliban operatives. Whether or not he acted alone, blowback
seems to be the most logical motive for the
Times Square
scare.

The Dawn newspaper in
Pakistan
reported, "For each al Qa'eda and Taliban
terrorist killed by US drones, 140 innocent Pakistanis also had to die. Over 90
per cent of those killed in the deadly missile strikes were civilians, claim
authorities."

President Obama has been much less reticent than President Bush to increase
air strikes on Pakistan and shares
responsibility for the blowback in
Times Square.
The President doesn't get it. Obama made a crude and dehumanizing joke
at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. He said his daughters were huge fans of
the Jonas Brothers and warned, "but boys, don't get any ideas.
Two words for you: predator drones. You'll
never see it coming."

Shahzad was on board a Dubai-bound flight at
Kennedy
Airport when FBI agents and New York
Police Department detectives arrested him. He lived with his wife and two small
children in Shelton,
Conn. for three years. After Shazad became a naturalized
U.S. citizen on April 17, 2009, he spent much of the
past year in
Pakistan where
his wife is currently living. Details of his activities in
Pakistan remain speculative, but
Shahzad last entered the
U.S. on
Feb. 3, 2010 after
a five-month visit to the country of his birth. The NY Times reported that 7 or 8 people
allegedly linked to the Times Square
scare have been arrested in
Pakistan.

In the past two years several people with American citizenship or residency
have been accused of terrorism in the U.S. like Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S.born
Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent
charged with fatally shooting 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas, and Najibullah
Zazi, an airport shuttle driver from Afghanistan, who pled guilty to a bomb plot
on New York subways.

Terrorizing
Afghanistan and
Pakistan with
war brings blowbacks of terror from the terrorized and their sympathizers. War is not the answer. The two
bumper stickers on my car read; War is
Terrorism: With a Bigger Budget and Peace on Earth.