DoD: Pakistan Will Not Be Pressured On Terrorism Following Times Square Incident

The Department of Defense does not anticipate putting additional pressure on the Pakistani government to crack down on terrorist safe havens following revelations that Faisal Shahzad, the suspect apprehended for attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square Saturday, may have received training from militias within the country.

“There are safe havens that have yet to be fully targeted … but the pace and the timing and the schedule to undertake those operations is of the Pakistani’s choosing,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell told reporters Thursday. “We have to always remind ourselves that were are dealing with sovereign nations.”

Morrell added that the threat of terrorism within Pakistan’s borders provides enough of an incentive for the country’s government to confront violent extremism and that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates is satisfied with Pakistan’s approach thus far.

Shahzad, who was arrested Monday evening aboard a plane scheduled to travel to Dubai where he would then fly to Pakistan, has reportedly told investigators that he received training in Waziristan, a region within Pakistan’s delicate Federally Administered Tribal Area. He is currently being charged with terrorism and other crimes.