Nerd jihad! Shades of Adam Gadahn, the Al-Qaeda traitor and self-described “revolting geek of mass proportions”!
“Who is Faisal Shahzad?: ‘Unremarkable’: American dream faded quickly for accused terrorist,” by Michael P. Mayko for the Connecticut Post, May 5 (thanks to Tom):
Faisal Shahzad was never one to draw attention to himself.
An average student in college, an average employee in the workplace, an average neighbor in suburbia.
Shahzad parlayed this into jobs crunching data for corporate America’s elite like Elizabeth Arden, which enabled him to buy a single-family home for his wife and children in Shelton.
But quicker than the rise came the fall. Last June, Shahzad stopped making payments on his $218,400 mortgage, quit his job at Affinion Group in Norwalk and moved his family back to Pakistan.
Then it happened — on May Day, a national workers’ holiday in Pakistan and often a celebration for socialism, communism and anarchy elsewhere.
On this May 1, the Pakistani-born Shahzad, who only returned to the U.S. in February, allegedly loaded his recently purchased Nissan Pathfinder with explosives and drove it to the meeting place of the world — New York’s Times Square.
From that moment on, Shahzad, left the world of anonymity and stepped into one of worldwide attention.
What caused him to change?
There are many possibilities for such a dramatic change, said James Monahan, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven.
“Maybe he was the runt of the litter; the child who couldn’t meet his parents’ expectations,” said Monahan.
His father, Bahar ul-Haq, is a retired Pakistani Air Force official. He was able to provide an upper middle-class lifestyle for his family, sending his boys to school in the U.S….
But…but…I thought poverty caused terrorism!
By June, Shahzad stopped paying the mortgage and other bills. He began selling off the furnishings. He packed his family and left behind a second floor filled with toys, clothing and DVDs.
“Maybe he was starting to see the hopes of living the good life in America die and he began feeling like a failure,” said Monahan. “Maybe he wanted the satisfaction of going out with a bang.”…
Maybe he was on his way to Paradise and the houris.
“They need to be grilling him in an attempt to determine his connections and his associations to radical groups,” Monahan said. “His wife is someone who they should want to talk to.”
One would think, but you never know: to do so might be “Islamophobic.”
Despite his eight months away, once again Shahzad was allowed entry into the U.S.
Correction: “Despite his apparent presence at a jihad training camp in Pakistan, Shahzad was allowed entry into the U.S.”