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Security Slip Let NYC Bomb
Suspect on Plane
Faisal Shahzad had boarded a jetliner bound for the United Arab
Emirates Monday night before federal authorities pulled him back.
AP. Washington, DC. May 05, 2010. The no-fly list failed to keep the
Times Square suspect off the plane.
Faisal Shahzad had boarded a jetliner bound for the United Arab Emirates
Monday night before federal authorities pulled him back. Although under
surveillance since midafternoon, he had managed to elude investigators
and head to the airport.
The night's events, gradually coming to light, underscored the flaws in
the nation's aviation security system, which despite its technologies,
lists and information sharing, often comes down to someone making a
right call.
As federal agents closed in, Faisal Shahzad was aboard Emirates Flight
202. He reserved a ticket on the way to John F. Kennedy International
Airport, paid cash on arrival and walked through security without being
stopped.
By the time Customs and Border Protection officials, using a no-fly list
updated earlier Tuesday, spotted Shahzad's name on the passenger list
and recognized him as the bombing suspect they were looking for, he was
in his seat and the plane was preparing to leave the gate.
It didn't. At the last minute, the pilot was notified, the jetliner's
door was opened and Shahzad was taken into custody.
After authorities pulled Shahzad off the plane, he admitted he was
behind the crude Times Square car bomb, officials said. He also claimed
to have been trained at a terror camp in Pakistan's lawless tribal
region of Waziristan, according to court documents. That raised
increased concern that the bombing was an international terror plot.
Shahzad, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, was charged Tuesday with
terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Saturday
evening's failed Times Square bombing. According to a federal complaint,
he confessed to buying an SUV, rigging it with a homemade bomb and
driving it into the busy area where he tried to detonate it.
Shahzad had been under constant watch at his Bridgeport, Connecticut,
home since 3 p.m. Monday and federal authorities had planned to arrest
him there that evening, two people familiar with the investigation told
The Associated Press. Authorities believe he decided to flee after being
spooked by news reports that investigators were seeking a Pakistani
suspect in Connecticut, one of the people said.
Shahzad somehow lost the investigators who were trailing him, the two
people said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not
authorized to discuss the incident.
The FBI and the New York Police Department declined to comment.
The Obama administration played down that Shahzad had made it aboard the
plane. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would not talk about
it, other than to say Customs officials prevented the plane from taking
off. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the security system has
fallback procedures in place for times like this, and they worked.
And Attorney General Eric Holder said he "was never in any fear that we
were in danger of losing him."
It seemed clear the airline either never saw or ignored key information
that would have kept Shahzad off the plane, a fact that dampened what
was otherwise hailed as a fast, successful law enforcement operation.
The no-fly list is supposed to mean just that. And Shahzad's name was
added to the list early Monday afternoon as a result of breaking
developments in the investigation, according to a law enforcement
official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing
investigation.
When Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list.
Airline officials would have had to check a Web forum where updates are
sent if it were to have flagged him. Because they did not, law
enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they
received the passenger list 30 minutes before takeoff, the official
said.
By that time, passengers usually are on board.
Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line:
U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took
off.
"There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them,"
Gibbs said. "If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be
double-checked."
The list is only as good as the nation's intelligence and the experts
who analyze it. If a lead is not shared, or if an analyst is unable to
connect one piece of information to another, a terrorist could slip onto
an airplane because his name is not on the watch list.
Officials allege that is just what took place ahead of the attempted
Dec. 25 attack on a U.S.-bound jet. In the case of the Times Square
suspect, the intelligence process worked: Shahzad's name was on the
list, but the airlines did not check it when he bought his ticket.
Shahzad went through normal airport security before he boarded the
plane. He was unarmed and had no explosive material on him when he was
arrested.
Emirates did not return repeated calls for comments. Earlier in the day,
the company issued a general statement saying it was cooperating with
investigators and takes every precaution to ensure its passengers'
safety.
The reliance on airlines to check government lists has been a known
problem for years. The government has long planned to take over the
responsibility for matching passengers to watch lists, but the
transition has taken longer than expected. The new program is still in
the test phase for domestic airlines and is still months away from
beginning with international carriers.
Source: Associated Press
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