“Infidels”? You’d almost think the Times Square car bomb plot had something to do with Islam. (Cue chorus of “Naaah’s” coming from the State Department, U.S. intelligence agencies, and the White House.)
More on this story. “Pakistan detainees proud of role in NYC bomb case,” by Asif Shahzad and Kathy Gannon for Associated Press, May 22 (thanks to Davida):
ISLAMABAD – Two men detained in Pakistan for alleged links to the attempted Times Square bombing have admitted playing a role in the botched attack and are unrepentant, with one angrily accusing interrogators of “siding with the infidels,” a senior intelligence official said Saturday.
The pair are among six men officials say have been detained in Pakistan for alleged ties to Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American arrested in the United States two days after the failed May 1 attack in New York. Like Shahzad, the detainees are all members of their country’s urban elite, including several who were educated in the United States.
Details about the six were released late Friday, though officials have not said when they were detained. Five were picked up in the capital, Islamabad, and one is co-owner of a swish catering company that the U.S. Embassy said was suspected of ties to terrorist groups.
The intelligence official, part of the team questioning the men, cited the two suspects as saying they did not do anything wrong and “proudly” describing Shahzad as their friend.
The official said one of the suspects had even accused his interrogators of “siding with the infidels.”
One of the suspects, identified as Shoaib Mughal, is alleged to be a go-between for Shahzad and Pakistani Taliban in their hide-outs close the Afghan border. He was running a large computer dealership in Islamabad before his detention, said the intelligence official who — like most operatives in spy agencies around the world — did not give his name.
The other suspect, identified only by his first name Shahid, is alleged to have helped arrange money for Shahzad. He has an MBA from the U.S. and apparently knew Shahzad from his time there….
Among those detained in Pakistan was Salman Ashraf Khan, the co-owner of the upscale Hanif Rajput Catering Service. Two other suspects “wanted him to help bomb a big gathering of foreigners” whose event his company was catering, the Pakistani intelligence officer said.
Khan’s father said Saturday he was baffled by the accusations because his son is a successful businessman who lived happily as a student in the U.S. for four years. The younger Khan studied hotel management in Florida and computer science in Houston, returning to Pakistan in 2001 to take over the family business.
“How can a man who is so much involved in this business be accused for such an activity, which only a wild animal can think about?” Rana Ashraf Khan said in a telephone interview.
“He might have differences about whatever has been going on in our region for the last 10 or 11 years, we all have differences,” Khan said. “(But he had) no feelings against the United States at all. He lived there happily, he studied there.”…
So did Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
Also detained was a former major who bought his way out of the army because of a “disagreement with its policies,” said the intelligence official.
The ex-major is from Rawalpindi, where the army headquarters is situated. Last week, an army spokesman denied anyone connected to the army was arrested in the probe, saying only a retired major had been arrested on disciplinary grounds and was being investigated.
The link to the army is noteworthy because of the Pakistani military’s past support for Islamist militants in Afghanistan and Kashmir, and Shazad’s family ties to the air force. It was unclear whether the suspect’s alleged ties to Shahzad were ongoing when he still served.