Bloomberg Speculates Times Square Bomber Was Protesting Healthcare Law

Hours before U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrest of a Pakistani-American suspected of being involved with an attempt to detonate a car bomb in the middle of New York’s Times Square, the city’s Mayor, Michael Bloomberg, told CBS News anchor Katie Couric that the alleged attacker may have been trying to make a political statement.

Couric interviewed Bloomberg to discuss the possibility that the failed attack might have been a precursor to something bigger and potentially, more deadly. At one point, the veteran anchor asked the Mayor whether or not he thought the suspect was American.

“A home-grown?” she asked, to which Bloomberg responded, “Home-grown, maybe a mentally deranged person or somebody with a political agenda that doesn't like the health care bill or something. It could be anything.”

Technically, Bloomberg was right about one thing. It is now known that the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, 30, was born in Pakistan, but had lived in the U.S. for a number of years. He had a home in Bridgeport, Connecticut and was granted American citizenship last year. It is also known that Shahzad traveled to the Peshawar region of Pakistan for a period of about five months last year.

Today, a law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told a reporter with Reuters that Shahzad, who appeared in federal court to face charges of "driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1," claimed he acted alone. However, there are reports now that authorities in Pakistan say they’ve arrested a person they believe conspired with Shahzad to carry out the attack. This new revelation contradicts yet another statement Bloomberg made to Couric last night.

"There is no evidence here of a conspiracy,” he said. There is no evidence that it's tied in to anything else. It looks like an amatuerish job, done by at least one person.”

U.S.-Pakistan Relationship Improving, Say Officials

By Benny Martinez - University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Department of Defense (DOD) Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Michael Mullen met with Congress Wednesday to discuss a $549 billion DOD budget for FY 2011, and the U.S.'s relationship with Pakistan.

The budget request does not include an extra $159 billion to support Overseas Contingency Operations, primarily in Afghanistan and Iraq, and a war supplemental of $33 billion this fiscal year to support the military's mission in Afghanistan.

During a hearing before the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, Mullen said Afghanistan is becoming the “center of gravity” for U.S. forces, adding that the nation’s efforts will yield positive results in the coming months. Within months, Mullen said the number of American troops should decrease to 50,000, and the military’s role will shift from combative to an advise-and-assist role.

Both Mullen and Gates testified that Pakistan is becoming more cooperative with U.S. forces deployed in the area.

“There is a developing partnership or relationship with General [Stanley] McChrystal, in terms of coordinating what’s going on on both sides of that border, that I think represents a hugely salutary development,” Gates said.

Mullen added that improvement will not happen overnight, but the efforts of the Pakistani military show lasting promise.

“It is a matter of us building trust in the relationship,” Mullen said. “It’s coming back and we’ve had an impact on that border area and we will continue to do that.”

Petraeus, Eikenberry Testify Before Senate Foreign Relations Committee

By Ravi Bhatia - Talk Radio News Service

A day after U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Eikenberry joined General David H. Petraeus and Deputy Secretary of State Jacob Lew to discuss the civilian efforts in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The three testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and Committee, chaired by Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.).

Aside from reiterating U.S. Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s acknowledgment that U.S. efforts to stabilize Afghanistan and Pakistan would be difficult “but possible,” the three witnesses asserted that the United States would not abandon civilian efforts to stabilize the region, if and when U.S. troops remove the threat of al-Qaeda and the various Taliban networks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Many Pakistanis believe that America will once again abandon the region,” Kerry said in his opening statements. “Let me be clear: It would be a mistake for anyone in Pakistan or elsewhere to believe that the President’s words about drawing down troops from Afghanistan mean an end to our involvement in the region.”

President Barack Obama committed 30,000 additional troops to the region, in response to McChrystal’s request for 40,000. Unlike the McChrystal hearings, war protestors were not present in the Dirksen building hallways during Eikenberry, Patraeus and Lew’s testimonies.

None of the three witnesses could confirm Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai’s estimation that the country would not be able to pay for its own security until 2024. Nor could they provide an estimate to the cost of training and deporting civilian troops to the region for another 15 years. However, Eikenberry said there will be almost 1,000 civilians from “numerous government departments and agencies on the ground in Afghanistan” by early 2010, tripling the total number of civilians from early 2009.

“The integration of civilian and military effort has greatly improved over the last year, a process that will deepen as additional troops arrive and our civilian effort expands,” he said.

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a member of the committee, suggested that the witnesses’ testimonies made him believe that after $13 billion dollars given to Afghanistan for development and infrastructure efforts, “we are basically starting from scratch as it relates to development efforts.”

“We hope that Karzai will do everything right,” he said. “But, you know, we may prod and poke but at the end of the day, this depends on an Afghan government that can ultimately sustain itself.

“At some point we need to get the price tag here,” Menendez continued.

Lew disagreed with Menendez’s notion.

“Before the development assistance that you're describing, there was virtually no access to health care in Afghanistan,” Lew said. “[Now] there’s very substantial access to health care, in the 80-percent range. There were virtually no girls in schools, there are a lot of girls enrolled in schools - more every day, every week, every month. It’s fair to say we have an awful lot of work ahead of us. [But] I don’t think it’s quite the same as starting from scratch.”

Most Pakistanis Don’t Know What Al-Qaida Is, Says Survey

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

The average Pakistani citizen has little to almost no understanding of the al-Qaida network or the Afghan Taliban organization, according to Georgetown University School of Foreign Service Professor Christine Fair.

“Many Pakistanis don’t know what al-Qaida is...Sure enough we went around a room and asked if people knew al-Qaida: Few knew,” said Fair of a survey she conducted in Pakistan earlier this year.

According to Fair, one woman that openly responded to the survey correlated the Taliban and al-Qaida with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Kerry: Afghan Surge Won't Work Without New Strategy

Travis Martinez, University of New Mexico/Talk Radio News Service

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) stated Monday that sending additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan will be fruitless without an updated strategy.

“The bottom line is that deploying additional troops won’t result in sustainable gains if the Afghan security, civilian and governance capacity isn’t there,” Kerry said during a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations.

Kerry, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, suggested that both the Generals on the ground in Afghanistan and U.S. leaders develop a plan that establishes an attainable mission in the region.

“If we redefine our strategy and objectives to focus on what is achievable as well as critical, and empower the Afghans to take control of their own future, we will give us the best chance to succeed,” said Kerry.

The Massachusetts Democrat condemned General Stanley McChrystal's call for approximately 40,000 more troops, saying it goes too far and that a solely military approach will not fix the region.

Kerry also spoke on Pakistan's significance in the region, stating that there needs to be a supportive and open relationship between both the U.S. and Pakistani governments.

“Regardless of what happens in Afghanistan, and especially if we want to reduce the need for boots on the ground, it is vitally important that we intensify our support and improve our cooperation with Pakistan,” said Kerry.