There are many possibilities for such a dramatic radical change, maintains James Monahan, a clinical psychologist and associate professor of criminal justice at the University of New Haven.
"Maybe he was the runt of the litter; the child who couldn't meet his parents' expectations," said Monahan.
His father, Bahar ul-Haq, is a retired Pakistani Air Force official. He was able to provide an upper middle-class lifestyle for his family, sending his boys to school in the U.S.
Nothing in Shahzad's early years captured the attention of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
In 1998, they granted Shahzad a student visa which allowed him to attend Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., which lost its accreditation last year. In 2000, he transferred to the University of Bridgeport where he studied computer science and engineering.On May 13, 2001, ul-Haq sat with his wife in the second row of folding chairs at UB's 91st commencement. His parents spoke to a Connecticut Post reporter about traveling to Germany the next week to see another son graduate. As Shahzad passed through the receiving line for his bachelor of arts diploma in computer science, his father excitedly told the reporter, "that's him."
Still Shahzad caught no one's attention at UB.William Greenspan, who served as Shahzad's academic adviser at the school, remembers him "as rather unremarkable ... he didn't do anything to stand out."Greenspan never noticed Shahzad standing among or conversing with the other students who regularly congregate in Mandeville Hall.
"He would come once a term to register for classes and then go on his way," the professor said. "Always very polite but a very forgettable character until today."
In April 2002, ICE granted another three-year visa to Shahzad allowing him to begin graduate studies at UB as well as work in the area.Still professors noticed no change in Shahzad's personality or academics."He didn't impress me as being overly good or overly bad," said Ward Thrasher, UB's assistant dean at the school of business where he is the director of the MBA program. "He didn't stand out one way or the other."
Faisal Shahzad was never one to draw attention to himself.
An average student in college, an average employee in the workplace, an average neighbor in suburbia.Shahzad parlayed this into jobs crunching data for corporate America’s elite like Elizabeth Arden, which enabled him to buy a single-family home for his wife and children in suburban Shelton.
But quicker than the rise came the fall. Last June, Shahzad stopped making payments on his $218,400 mortgage, quit his job at Affinion Group in Norwalk and moved his family back to Pakistan.
By now you know that he was nabbed last night at JFK International Airport, but do you know how it happened?
“They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,” the official said.A huge law-enforcement force tracked the suspect through the afternoon and evening. He was arrested at 11:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.
Faisal ShahzadThe vehicle identification number had been removed from the bomb-laden 1993 Nissan Pathfinder left in Times Square. But investigators were able to lift it from a second location on the vehicle, and used that to track down a Connecticut man who said he had sold the Pathfinder for cash about three weeks ago.
The man had offered the vehicle on Craigslist, and FBI agents were able to recover the number from a disposable cellphone that had been used by the buyer.The suspect didn’t still have the phone. But using a lot of technology and access to database, agents located the suspect.Here’s more on Shahzad, how he became a citizen and what that means:If Shahzad did try to blow up that SUV in Times Square, he’ll represent what many Americans fear: a foreign born naturalized citizen turned against us within our own shores. Basically, somebody who would be nearly impossible to stop from carrying out something truly horrific since he’s “one of us.”Still, I would argue that this seems no different than a lone nut getting angry and flying his plane into a building…except this attempt wasn’t successful. The media spent maybe a day or two on that story. How long will they spend digging into Shahzad’s past, motives, etc.?More as it develops…(Image: CBS News via Orkut)
