MARKET WATCH COLUMNIST
“Thanks For Nothing, Faisal,” Ellis Henican Column, Newsday, May 16, 2010
Gee, thanks, Faisal!
Have you really dragged Long Island into the failed Times Square bombing plot?
Federal investigators seem to think so, at least to the extent of helping to fuel the alleged plot with operational cash—and maybe something even sweeter.
Car bombs and crullers, together at last!
But here are two mysteries the Feds have not yet thoroughly investigated: Did the rigid Pakistani Taliban have any idea Faisal Shahzad might be stopping at a Dunkin’ Donuts near the Ronkonkoma rail? Does Sharia law have a position on jelly-filled?
You see, these are the kinds of cultural clashes that are inevitable when Westernized terror suspects are drawn into some fundamentalist and terror-prone ideology.
Someone lives here, is educated here, has a family here and then turns on us—well, it can get complicated separating the “us” from the “them.”
Investigators spent the past few days trying to piece together the SUV- bomb money trail. Raids were conducted in Maine, Massachusetts and Shirley. Arrests were made. Many hours of security video was taken from that Dunkin’ Donuts. New details are emerging of how the plot was planned and financed.
Clearly, this was terrorism on the cheap. The entire operation, from the junker-car purchase to the aborted Dubai flight, could not have cost much more than a few thousand dollars.
And look how inept the whole thing thankfully was.
In terrorism as in the rest of life, you still get what you pay for.
The alleged bomber was such an empty-pocketed sad sack, he was apparently unable to raise the required funds with his own ATM card. His house in foreclosure, his other resources tapped out, he had no banker to go to. So according to law enforcement types, Shahzad turned to an ancient network of international money transfer called halawa.
No one can say yet whether the hawaladars even knew where the funds were going. But this much is certain: They weren’t extending big credit to Faisal.
Signs of an Early Summer
1. There’s Law and order at the LIA
2. Napolitano and King are flirting again
3. Kagan’s playing softball
4. The Euro’s getting Greece-ed
5. The LeBrons are in full bloom
ASKED AND UNANSWERED: What will they charge for next at Jones Beach? The hot sand or the cool Atlantic breezes?…14 of the state’s top 20 pensioners are LI school retirees? Only 14? Wait, are we slipping in the fat-pension sweepstakes?…Now Amy Fisher is stripping for LI schools? Funny, do you remember Amy being a big student?…Question for Ticketmaster backing Sen. Craig Johnson: Would ticket scalping be popular if it didn’t have scalping in the name?… After Citibank’s $100,000 to restore services at a LI state park, what bank would like to reverse services cuts on the LIRR?…Is the Census Bureau right? White flight is really a suburb-to-city journey now? If so, that has profound cultural implications…Should we call the restructured LI Angel Network a wing adjustment?…Would the whole LI economy grind to a halt if Pearl Kamer left the Long Island Association? Now we won’t have to find out…How soon ’til LI gasoline drops below $3 a gallon? That’s just another 13 cents – not impossible before summer, experts say…Is “quiet billionaire” David Tepper ready to elevate his Hamptons profile now that he’s bought Joanne Corzine’s Sagaponack mansion, asking price $50 million? At least he’ll soon have somewhere nice to entertain…
E-mail ellis@henican.com. Follow him at twitter.com/henican.
ELLIS’ LONG ISLANDER OF THE WEEK
Hubert Keen
College presidents always get blamed when bad things happen on their campus. President Hubert Keen of Farmingdale State can take a bow today. As Long Island and the rest of America struggles to make the world a greener, gentler, more Earth-friendly place, fresh ideas will soon be bubbling off the Farmingdale campus, site of the nation’s first Green Building Institute. Keen didn’t make this happen alone. In a big way, faculty, staff and students got behind the idea. Rep. Steve Israel helped scare up $357,000 in federal funds. But the world is desperate for green-building visionaries. Any reason the dreaming shouldn’t happen at Farmingdale State?
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I lived on Long Island when I was a kid. Funny that I remember thinking that we had great donuts then and not as good here in Illinois. I read Newsday on line to keep up with everything I’m glad my family left behind. Your column was funny and really alot of fun to read. You may be one of the few decent things still on Long Island. But the stress of NY living must have got to you and turned your hair white.