By , ,
Published May 15, 2015
It was all very dramatic. An Emirates airliner about to take off from New York's JFK Airport is called back from the tarmac and three men are removed from the plane by federal officials.
One of those men, 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad, has been arrested in connection with the attempted bombing in Times Square over the weekend. Shahzad was trying to flee to Dubai. He is an American citizen, but recently spent five months in Pakistan. He told interrogators he was training to make bombs.
The Justice Department has Shahzad right now, obviously trying to find out exactly who was involved with the terror plot. The other two men removed from the plane have been released.
At this point, there are many questions surrounding the case, but it's similar to the Christmas bomber in Detroit. That is, a rather clumsy attempt to kill Americans.
But a bomb is a bomb, and there is already controversy about who should be questioning Shahzad.
The reason the New York City Police and federal authorities were able to catch this guy so quickly is partly because of surveillance cameras all over Times Square. Somebody call the ACLU and point that out.
Also, Shahzad was on the no-fly list, and the feds acted quickly after he was flagged.
So security tracking and electronic surveillance were the keys to apprehending this accused terrorist, and both of those methods are largely opposed by the left.
"Talking Points" is not big on politicizing terrorism, but these points need to be made.
A disturbing aspect to this case is that a terror group in Pakistan apparently made a tape discussing upcoming attacks on America before the Times Square incident.
As for the suspect Shahzad, the U.S. attorney in Manhattan is handling the prosecution. The FBI has been questioning the man, and politicians are grandstanding:
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, MAYOR, NEW YORK: I want to make clear that we will not tolerate any bias or backlash against Pakistani or Muslim New Yorkers. All of us live in this city, and among any group, there's always a few bad apples.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Maybe somebody should remind the mayor that Muslim fanatics have been threatening New York City and the entire country for almost 20 years. That's a lot of apples there, sir.
Finally, President Obama again avoided mentioning Islam or the terror war in his statements on the case. We understand the president does not want to inflame the Muslim world, but the issue should be dealt with straight-up.
Muslim jihadists want to kill us. Once again, we were lucky in Times Square.
And that's "The Memo."
Pinheads & Patriots
The Los Angeles Lakers basketball team does a lot of good charity work and is very respectful towards the military.
Last week, the Lakers honored some war vets and actor David Arquette was so moved by the halftime ceremony that he gave his courtside seat, a $3,700 investment, to one of the veterans. Three other Laker ticket holders did the same thing. They are patriots.
On the pinhead front, every year some nebbishes interrupt baseball games by running onto the field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got some cat running on the field right now. A security guard is taking care of that gentleman.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the field but out of bounds. Bottom of the 8th last night, the Phillies players on the field, the Cardinals batting, and this fan, still not named publicly by police because he's just 17 years old, running around in the outfield behind second base, eluding all security until a uniformed Philadelphia bicycle patrol officer points his taser gun at the kid and fires, and doesn't miss, taking down the fan face-first.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Now, some criticized the police for tasing the guy, but not me. You could get hurt tackling a nut like that. He deserved the tase because he's a lawbreaker and a pinhead.
— You can catch Bill O'Reilly's "Talking Points Memo" and "Pinheads & Patriots" weeknights at 8 and 11 p.m. ET on the FOX News Channel and any time on foxnews.com/oreilly. Send your comments to: oreilly@foxnews.com.
https://www.foxnews.com/story/inside-story-of-attempted-terror-bombing-in-times-square