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WASHINGTON: Defiantly warning Americans that "the war with the Muslims has just begun," as he was sentenced on Tuesday to life in prison for a botched terrorist attack on New York City's famed Times Square, a Pakistani-American jihadi has further complicated US ties with Pakistan and the Islamic world.
Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistan-born US citizen and son of a Pakistani air force commander , remained unrepentant as a New York judge announced his sentence. "The defeat of the US is imminent and will happen in the near future," a smirking Shahzad told the court. "Brace yourselves because the war with the Muslims has just begun."
Shahzad is the second person of Pakistani origin who has been sentenced in recent weeks, after Aafia Siddiqui, an MIT researcher now hailed in Pakistan as the "Daughter of the nation," was given an 86-year prison sentence last month for terrorism-related assault on US personnel.
The two sentences have complicated US ties with Pakistan , and sent Pakistani expatriates into despair over the stringent security scrutiny it has brought on them. On Tuesday, Shahzad compounded their misery by scoffing at the US citizenship he obtained in April 2009, just months before his botched terror attack.
"Didn't you swear allegiance to this country?" Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum asked him. "I sweared, but I didn't mean it," Shahzad replied.
The judge then noted that Shahzad had repeatedly expressed his total lack of remorse , and his desire if given the opportunity to repeat the crime. Asked by the judge to consider whether the Koran wants him to kill people, he replied: "The Koran gives you the right to defend. That's all I'm doing." But from all accounts there was nothing defensive about the manner in which he tried to set off a bomb in New York City's landmark Times Square. (the times of india)
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Read more: Defiant Times Square bomber gets life term - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Defiant-Times-Square-bomber-gets-life-term/articleshow/6696111.cms#ixzz11Y0AgiAx
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