Uggh: We Only Caught Pakistani Teabagger Terrorist Because He Continued Using His Own Cell Phone

As you probably know, Shazad almost made it out of the country to Dubai because, despite having his name added to the no-fly lists, the US only checks documents as you enter the US, not as you depart.

What? Even if this is generally the case, we don't have some kind high-alert mode we can go into when it comes to fugitives?

I guess that will change... maybe. It seems like the US almost wants to be attacked.

We caught him at JFK, but only because... Oh Good God. Because he was doing the thing that anyone who's ever watched a television show like 24, or even Law & Order, knows you can't do. Instead of ditching his cell phone and picking up a twenty dollar anonymous pay-as-you-go phone at CVS, he... kept using his cellphone.

In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The charges he'll faces for allegedly planting the explosive-laden SUV in Times Square include an act of terrorism transcending national borders; attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction; use of a destructive device during the commission of another crime; and assorted explosive charges.

There were many developments in the fast-paced investigation, but sources told CBS 2 how the operation went down. Spooked by reports that authorities were looking for a Pakistani-American, Shahzad rushed out of his Bridgeport, Conn. Home and headed for the airport. He made the reservations on the way, paying cash for his ticket.

Yeah, on that last bit: As I said, his near-escape might have been avoided had the Obama Administration not been leaking every damn thing they knew about it as they learned it.

And why did they do that? For politics, to convince people they were "doing something."

Now, if they really wanted to do something, they would have kept silent until his apprehension. So as not to alert the perp.

But they didn't want to really do something so much as they wanted to be perceived as "doing something," and if the latter meant the former might be unachievable, so be it.

Confirmed: The US can stop and even catch the most inept terrorists on earth.

No evidence whatsoever we can stop or catch anyone with even the basic rudiments of cleverness.

Update: Chatter as Shazad's plane is instructed -- just as it throttles for take-off -- to return to the gate:

That's how close this all was.

If this guy had seen a single episode of 24, he would have escaped.

Wrong! Or, wrong?

Vic says that I've got it wrong:

Ace this is contrary to what other reports are saying. Early this morning a phone interview on Fox with an LEO said that they followed him on the plane and that they already had agents on the plane. The intent was to catch any co-conspirators that may have been on the plane or leaving with him. There was never any way he could have "got away".

Also, other reports said he WAS using a throw-away phone.

I don't know if Vic is right because I haven't read the reports he has, but I'm guessing he's right, and that I'm wrong.

posted by Ace at 05:38 PM

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