E-mail address led FBI to Shahzad

NEW YORK - Federal Bureau of Investigation sleuths have reportedly revealed that they could zero in on Faisal Shahzad as the main suspect of the attempted Times Square car bombing with the help of an e-mail ID.

According to an article written by Steve Coll for the New Yorker, “providing an accurate e-mail address to the seller of a vehicle you intend to use as a murder weapon is the sort of mistake that might get a person’s membership card pulled down at the terrorist union hall.”

He now believes that Shahzad is having a bad day, and that it will probably get worse after he realizes “the trail of breadcrumbs he apparently left behind while planning what the evidence available so far suggests was the only act of violence committed during his young life as a U.S. citizen.”

Coll believes that had the e-mail address not materialized during investigations, Shahzad might already have stepped off an airplane in Karachi and melted away into Pakistan.

He further goes on to say “Shahzad’s case may actually reflect on how Pakistan-based jihadi groups have learned to protect themselves.

A former U.S. intelligence officer, who worked extensively on jihadi cases during several overseas tours, told Coll that “when a singleton of Shahzad’s profile, especially a U.S. citizen, turns up in a place like Peshawar, local jihadi groups are much more likely to assess him as a probable U.S. spy than as a genuine volunteer.

He said “jihadi groups might conclude that a particular U.S.-originated individual’s case is uncertain. They might then encourage the person to go home and carry out an attack-without giving him any training or access to higher-up specialists that might compromise their local operations.”

“They would see such a U.S.-based volunteer as a “freebie,” the former officer said. (ANI)