Associated Press
Faisal Shahzad had boarded a jetliner bound for the United Arab Emirates Monday night before federal authorities pulled him back.
WASHINGTON -- 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 nights events gradually coming to light underscored the flaws in the nations 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 Shahzads 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.
May 1: Police evacuated buildings and cleared streets of thousands of tourists around New York Citys Times Square after finding an apparent car bomb in a parked sport utility vehicle.
It didnt. At the last minute the pilot was notified the jetliners 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 Pakistans 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 evenings 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 Shahzads 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.
Theres a series of built-in redundancies this being one of them Gibbs said. If theres a mistake by a carrier it can be double-checked.
The list is only as good as the nations 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: Shahzads 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.
