NEW YORK – A defiant Faisal Shahzad, a US citizen of Pakistani origin, was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday morning for his failed Times Square car-bombing plot.
Shahzad, 30, speaking before the sentence — a foregone conclusion — was pronounced, warned Americans to “brace yourself” for future attacks.
“The defeat of the US must and will happen in the near future,” Shahzad declared, adding that the attacks were just Muslims defending themselves.
“If you call us terrorists for doing that, then we are proud terrorists,” said Shahzad, wearing a white skull cap and a blue prison-issued outfit.
The sentence in Manhattan Federal Court came just five months after Shahzad parked an explosives-laden van in a crowded street near a theatre and tried to detonate it.
“You are a young man, and you will have a lot of time to reflect on what you have done and what you have said today,” Federal Judge Miriam Cedarbaum said in handing down the life term.
Cedarbaum said her sentence was very important “to protect the public from further crimes of this defendant and others who would seek to follow him.”
At one point, Judge Cedarbaum cut him off to ask Shahzad if he had sworn allegiance to the United States when became a citizen last year.
“I did swear but I did not mean it,” Shahzad said.
“So you took a false oath,” the judge told him.
The unusually quick terror-related case turnaround followed ShahzadÂ’s admissions to his role in the plot to detonate the bomb when dozens of tourists and theatregoers were around on a Saturday night in May.
“I want to plead guilty, and IÂ’m going to plead guilty 100 times over because until the hour the US pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and stops killing the Muslims… we will be attacking US, and I plead guilty to that,” he told the judge in a plea on June 21.
“One has to understand where I’m coming from,” he added.
The one-time resident of suburban Connecticut, a married father of two, declared himself “a Mujahid.”
Prosecutors said Shahzad, 31, was already plotting a second attack if his Times Square bombing came off as planned. He was instead arrested at Kennedy Airport two days after the May 1 bombing bid while sitting aboard a Dubai-bound plane.
Shahzad raised the slogan of “Allahu Akbar” after hearing the sentence, and said he would “sacrifice a thousand lives for Allah.”
“War with Muslims has just begun,” said Shahzad.
Shahzad also said he was happy with “the deal” God had given him. “We have laws made by Allah. We don’t need laws made by humans.”
Judge Cedarbaum remarked, “You are capable of education, and I do hope you spend time in prison thinking about whether the Qoran gives you the right to kill innocent people.”
ShahzadÂ’s exchange with Judge Cedarbaum began with Shahzad reading a prepared statement. Cedarbaum then asked Shahzad not to read, but to speak instead.
Shahzad told Cedarbaum it took him six months to connect with the Taliban in Pakistan. He said he then spent 40 days with the Taliban in Waziristan, only five of which were devoted to bomb training.