TV channel airs video of Times Square car bomber

Cairo: The man who pleaded guilty to carrying out the attempted Times Square car bombing has appeared in a video recorded before the failed attack, which shows him meeting with senior Pakistani Taliban leaders and vowing to get revenge on the US.

In the video, which was aired in segments on Wednesday by Dubai-based television station Al Arabiya, Faisal Shahzad said the attack on the New York City landmark would avenge the deaths of Muslims killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"All the Muslim Arabs that have been martyred, I will take revenge on their behalf," he said. "I really wish that the hearts of the Muslims will be pleased with this attack, God willing."
One of the figures he praises as a martyr is Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, the former Leader of Al Qaida in Iraq, who was killed in a US air strike in Iraq in 2006.

Shahzad, 30, is seen in the video sitting on the ground, wearing a black turban and an olive-coloured vest, with an AK-47 lying next to him. He calls jihad, or holy war, a pillar of the Muslim faith, and says "Islam will spread on the whole world and democracy will be defeated. Eight years has passed by Afghanistan, and you will see that the Muslim war has just started," he said.

Al Arabiya said the full tape shows Shahzad meeting with Pakistani Taliban Hakimullah Mehsud.

IntelCenter, a US-based group that monitors extremist groups, said Mehsud and Shahzad shake hands in the video. IntelCenter also says the film bears the mark of the Pakistani Taliban's media arm, Umar Media.

Analysts said the Pakistani Taliban appears to be trying to use the video as a means of boosting the reputation of Mehsud and reminding their supporters that they can hit the US on American soil.

Evan Kohlmann, an analyst at globalterroralert.com, a private, US-based terrorism analysis group, said such a video "can significantly prolong the visceral impact of even an unsuccessful operation.”

Shahzad, who was born and raised in Pakistan before moving to the US to study and eventually taking US citizenship, was arrested days after the failed May 1 bombing in Times Square.

He pleaded guilty in June to carrying out the attack, and admitted to attempting to establish contact with the Taliban while on a 2009 trip to Pakistan. He also told the New York court that he considers himself "a Muslim soldier."

He said he sought and received five days' training in explosives before returning to the United States in February to carry out the bomb plot with funding from the militant group.

The indictment said he received $5,000 (Dh18,361) in cash on February 25 from an unnamed coconspirator in Pakistan and $7,000 (Dh25,706) more on April 10.

His image in the video is widely different from the previously circulated snapshots of Shahzad and is typical of previous martyrdom videos released by other attackers.