I Was Wrong (…But Not Totally)

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

A follow-up to my May 3 Times Square post. As revealed by US Attorney General Eric holder in Tuesday press conferences at 1:30 am and 1:30 pm and  reported by Pakistan native arrested in Times Square bomb case (Washington Post 5/04/10), Probe’s focus shifts to Pakistani Taliban, and No rest for the cheery (Washington Post 5/05/10), US citizen Faisal Shahzad was arrested late Monday at JFK International Airport has admitted his involvement in the plot. Involvement of the Pakistani Taliban (which claimed responsibility, but which I said has made false claims in the past) is also being investigated.

My earlier piece about Times Square was wrong, and I’m glad–

Not that Middle East extremist terrorism isn’t bad.

It is of course, but in a way domestic terrorism is worse.

Murdering innocents is unforgivable, but doing it to yourself is even more perverse.

As a white guy in my 40s, I fit the earlier profile.

Now that the suspect is in custody, I don’t have to lay low for a while.

I was part right though – Shahzad is an American,

Though he received inspiration from his native Pakistan.

The attack was possibly also home-grown

In the sense that Shahzad may have been working on his own.

(The degree of any actual foreign assistance is still unknown;

He doesn’t seem to have had much, given how bad the attack was blown.)

I also think I was right to disclose

The danger that incitement and hatred continue to pose.

Like I said before, I’m actually glad I was wrong

That the perpetrator to some US right-wing group didn’t belong.

But I still believe that somewhere out there is another Timothy McVeigh…

Just not in Times Square on Saturday.

***

Here are Jon Stewart’s “pin the tale on the honky” and Stephen Colbert’s “Boom doesn’t go the dyanmite” 5/04/10 reports.

Tags: hatred, Incitement, Intolerance, Islam, New York, NY, Terrorism, Violence
Posted in National Security, What ails us | 1 Comment »