After a week of attempting to deflect consideration of connections between failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and the Taliban, top Obama administration officials have now admitted that a link does indeed exist. From FOX News:
Despite conflicting claims over the past week from military and law enforcement officials, as well as Taliban leaders, Attorney General Eric Holder and White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said that authorities now believe suspect Faisal Shahzad acted at the direction of the Taliban in Pakistan and was probably funded by them.
Brennan told “Fox News Sunday” that Shahzad had “extensive interaction” with the group, which he described as virtually “indistinguishable” from Al Qaeda. He said investigators believe the suspect was trained by the militant network.
“It looks as though he was operating on behalf of the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan,” he said. “This is a group that is closely aligned with Al Qaeda. It has a murderous agenda similar to Al Qaeda, they train together, they plan together, they plot together. They’re almost indistinguishable.”
New York law enforcement officials initially said they did not have evidence to support claims made by the Pakistani Taliban that they were responsible for the attempted attack. The Taliban later reversed their claim.
Gen. David Petraeus also previously described Shahzad as a “lone wolf” merely inspired by Pakistani militants in a statement to The Associated Press.
But Holder said Sunday that investigators have found solid links back to Pakistan. He said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the Taliban were “intimately involved” in the plot.
“We’ve now developed evidence which shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack,” he said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that he was working at their direction.”
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4 Comments
Did anyone notice some light bulbs flashing in the White House Saturday night?
Bill,
Since the failed the NYC attack, you have been several steps ahead of both the US government and the MSM.
With regular and numerous LWJ cites in the worldwide press, including another on the Fox News ticker today, and with the Taliban now emailing you, it shows just how important and valuable the LWJ has become, even catching the attention of our enemies.
To all readers and commenters, I recommend a financial contribution (I will be making one) to the LWJ to show support and appreciation for the efforts and work by Bill and his staff. I am sure no contribution is too small.
I was kind of hoping he was a lone wolf, that would explain why intelligence didn’t pick up any chatter of impending major attack. This means taliban figured out how to evade our snooping. Not good news.
Eventually, I SUPPOSE, government officials will get it that they are not in a position to control the narrative. They will learn to say they simply don’t know YET if someone like Shahzad or Major Hassan is connected to the Taliban. Hoping otherwise is one thing – trying to make it so requires a level of narrative control they no longer posses. Since most of the attacks are linked to al Qaeda and/or the Taliban simple prudence would seem to dictate not trying to reflexively rule it out. It is embarrassing for all of us. 😉