In the Arena

Well Done

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It is early days yet in the investigation of the Times Square bombing, but not too early to be impressed by the quick and excellent work done by the FBI, NYPD and the Joint Terrorism Task Force in picking up the prime suspect, Faisal Shahzad, from a flight to Dubai last night. We in the media were quick to jump all over the federal government–and the Obama Administration–in the undiebomber case last December…and we should not be afraid to praise the rather amazing work done to piece together the identity of the prime suspect:

A U.S. official said tracing the origin of the Pathfinder was key to the investigation. Shahzad bought the vehicle through an Internet listing. He gave the seller a fake name, but an e-mail from the transaction included a phone number that was from a disposable cell phone. Extrapolating from telephone records, authorities found Shahzad and confirmed his identity with the seller, the official said. 

The big question now is whether Shahzad was linked to a major terrorist group, perhaps the Pakistani Taliban or Al Qaeda. A lesser question–but one that may have greater domestic political implications–stems from the fact that Shahzad is a recent, naturalized American citizen. This, I imagine, will find its way into the coming immigration reform battle. And it continues a recent, disturbing trend in terrorist attacks: for the first time, American citizens who are Muslims are involved.

This is a real dilemma: the overwhelming preponderance of Islamic-Americans are valued, patriotic members of society…but there does seem to be a tiny faction of jihadis mixed in. It will be necessary to keep track of the jihadis and, one hopes, it can be done in a way that respects the patriotism and citizenship of most American Muslims. But it now seems unavoidable that the threat of jihadi terrorism perpetrated by American citizens will have to be taken more seriously than it has in the past.

Update: This column about the changing nature of the terrorist campaign against the United States raises some scary possibilities as well. It is possible that we are at the beginning of a new stage of terrorist thinking–smaller, easier-to-plan attacks than the spectacular 9/11 disaster, a constant skein of truck and suicide bombs that will disrupt American society.