Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-12

12 CHICAGO NATION WORLD PAGES 12-15 WASHINGTON The U.S. citizen who attempted to set off a car bomb in Times Square was trained and funded by a Pakistani militant group that works closely with al-Qaida to plot attacks against the U.S., top Obama administration officials said Sunday. now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the Attorney General Eric Holder said on know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he was working at their The assertion was repeated by senior White House counterter- rorism adviser John Brennan, who said it appeared as though 30-year-old Faisal Shahzadwas on behalf of the Teh- rik-e-Taliban, the a group that is closely allied with Brennan said, speaking on News Sunday with Chris train together, they plan together, they plot together.

They are almost Agovernment source who is close to the investigation said Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban instructed Shahzad to always pay cash and never ask for or receive receipts. was told to leave no paper trail at said the source, who requested anonymity because FBI interrogations are still under way with the suspect. paid cash for his gun and he paid cash for the van he the source said. was told to be very careful about not letting anything track back to him. No receipts, and no paper.

No He added that officials now are trying to determine how much Taliban money was provided to front the operation, who put up the funds and how it was paid out to Shahzad. Brennan said the Pakistanis had so far been in the investigation. are a number of terrorist groups and militant organizations operating in Pakistan, and we need to make sure that no support being given to them by the Pakistani government. We will continue this he said. Pakistanis understand the seriousness of this, and we are going to continue to interact with them, but also maintain pressure on them and inside of Officials were still investigating the extent of connec- tion to the Pakistani Taliban, but they believehe was trained during his visits to Pakistan.

Shah- zad, a Pakistani-born naturalized citizen, had anAmerican passport thatallowed him to travel easily between the two countries. Shahzad was arrested as he tried to leave the country on a flight to the Middle East late Monday, 53 hours after an SUV packed with explosives was discovered in Times Square. Although Obama administration officials initially described Shahzad as a lone wolf, since his arrest a fuller picture of his connection to radical Islamic elements has emerged. Shahzad appears to have been radicalized during his time living in the U.S. and allegedly contacted the Pakistani Taliban via the Internet.

The Pakistani Taliban, which initially took credit for the Times Square plot but then retracted the claim, is often described as an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban and has largely been known to focuson attacking the Pakistan government. The Times Square plot indicates the group has broadened its reach and goals. Aleader of the Pakistani Tali- ban, Hakimullah Mehsud, was the target of U.S. drone strikes last year. Mehsud is the architect of suicide bombings and raids on markets, mosques and security installations in the latter half of 2009 and is believed to be involved in attacks against the Pakistani government and Americans.

Asked if the attempted attack was specifically motivated by U.S. drone strikes in Pakistan, Brennan said only that the TPP has U.S. interests and Paki- stani interests in Pakistan. They have threatened to carry out attacks against us, including here in our cities. So this is something that has been on their agenda, and they are determined to carry out those Mehsud appeared last month in avideo threatening attacks in American cities.

Holder said intelligence authorities had been skeptical of the previous claims. think that necessarily was their he said on certainly have seen with the Shahzad incident that they have not only the aim, but the capability of doing that, and why they have taken on, I think, a new significance in our anti- terror U.S.: Taliban set up N.Y. attack now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the said Attorney General Eric Holder, who talked about the Times Square case Sunday on NBC and ABC. Told suspect how to avoid paper trail, source says By Kathleen Hennesey and Richard A. Serrano TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU Holder wants to change Miranda Attorney General Eric Holder said for the first time Sunday that he would recommend changes to the Miranda rules that warn suspects of their rights.

Holder, who was criticized when the Christmas Day bombing suspect was read his rights, defended the way Faisal Shahzad was interrogated. Authorities interviewed Shahzad for hours before reading him his Miranda rights, employing the exception. But the rule, which allows interrogators to get information about immediate threats, may not provide agents with the Holder said. think we have to give serious consideration to at least modifying that public safety exception and one of the things going to be reaching out to Congress to do, to come up with a proposal that is both constitutional but that is also relevant to our time and the threat that we now he said. WASHINGTON A high-tech to catch illegal border crossers.

Next-generation nuclear detectors at ports. Tamper-proof licenses in every state. These were signature Bush administration initiatives to protect the country against terrorism and secure its borders. All have been proven to be flops, according to government and outside experts, and expensive ones at that. The fence, according to a Government Accountability Office report, consistently tell terrorists from tumbleweed.

And advanced radiation detectors were similarly riddled with false alarms, despite being an improvement on older models. The Department of Homeland pushing technology pretty hard under the Bush administration, and we were willing to risk failure because of the said Stewart Baker, the former agencypolicy chief. Aides for Homeland Security Secretary JanetNapolitano say they blame their predecessors, under intense pressure to prevent the next terrorist attack. But outside analysts say the failures were the predictable result of an agency with too little experience at making major purchases and of contractors peddling un- tested products. Corporations figured out that a whole lot of money has been budgeted for homeland security and counterterrorism, and really eager to market all sorts of gigantic technological said Charles former CIA officer and author of Neglect: The Dangerous Illusion of Homeland Instead, Faddis said, the government should use more straightforward approaches like explosive-sniffing dogs at airports and require simple steps to counter vehicle bombs at plants stor- ing dangerous chemicals.

Napolitano told Congress recently she supports expanding the use of bomb-sniffingdogs. Homeland Security also says it has hired more experts to better evaluate contract proposals and oversee projects. Virtual fence and radiation detectors did have something else in common, the GAO said: The technologies were largely unproven. Sometimes a reasonable way to deploy new security measures, said Brian Jenkinsof the RandCorp. Still, he said, the departmentis too reliant on technology.

think that (we) can solve all problems with superior he said. Boeing disputes the notion that its virtual fence project has been a failure. Roger Krone, the president for network and space systems, told a House committee in March that providing and actionable situational awareness to border patrol remains a sound idea. Technology aside, some major homeland security initiatives have buckled in the face of political and fiscal resistance. Napolitanolast year called for the repeal of a 2005 tamper-proof license law, known as Real ID.

She also told Congress that her department could not meet the 2012 deadline for screening 100 percent of ship cargo coming into the United States. To do so would require resources for greater manpower and technology, technologies that do not currently exist, and the redesign of many she said. are all prohibitive High-tech anti-terror tools fall short of hype By Ken Dilanian TRIBUNE WASHINGTON BUREAU Many of the new technologies have been unreliable Unfulfilled promise SBINet, a contract with Boeing Co. to build a along the border Next-generation spectroscopic radiation detectors at ports Real ID Radar and other technologies would scan the border to detect and stop illegal crossers. A Department of Homeland Security fact sheet called it critical component of the strategy to control U.S.

They were deployed to replace first generation detectors that are set off by radiation from bananas, cat litter and granite countertops. The detectors are supposed to catch a radiological device, such as a being smuggled into the U.S. The 2005 law set a 2008 deadline for states to come up with tamper-proof licenses. The idea is to prevent terrorists from obtaining false identification. The Government Accountability Office found that the system sometimes had problems differentiating people from which could be everything from animals to tumbleweed.

The GAO found that the units would cost $822,000 each, more than twice their original price tag; that testing had been to ensure a good result; and that the units still produced false alarms. They are now being contemplated only as a a secondary measure. The deadline was twice extended, and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Congress last year that the law should be repealed in favor of a yet-to-be-determined alternative. $1.1 billion Initially the government planned to spend $1.5 billion to install the detectors as a primary screening device; it now expects to spend $350 million to use them in a secondary capacity. The National Governors Association estimated that Real ID would cost more than $11 billion to implement, including one-time upfront costs of $1 billion unclear what portion of that has been spent by states.

HOW MUCH WAS SPENTWHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENEDWHAT IT WAS SUPPOSED TO DO PROGRAM nin Scaliawhen he marked his 20th anniversary on the high court. In part because of that track record, some liberal activists had come to consider Kagan one of the more conservative people on Oba- working list of potential nominees. But advisers to the president characterize her as a progressive who is able to find common ground with legal thinkers across the left-to-right spectrum. advisers say that is what the president was looking for: a nominee who might work to keep the five conserva- tives from running roughshod over the four liberals. Kagan would replace Justice John Paul Stevens, a Chicago native and a regular member of the liberal minority.

Kagan looks to be a safe pick for Obama because, unlike her rivals for the job, she does not have a record as a judge. For example, Judge Diane Wood from Chicago has written several decisions upholding abortion rights. Kagan would be the first high court justice since 1971with no judicial experience. That year, President Richard Nixonchose Lewis Powell and William Rehnquist, even though neither had served as a judge. has an excellent chance, and she would be Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribesaid.

has a masterful command of so many areas of Although she published alot, she has provided senators with enough material to pick over. In a 1995 law review article, for example, Kagan said that Senate hearings are a and hollow where nominees are permitted to and avoid detailing their actual views. Some conservatives say Senate Republicans should question Kagan closely because she has a limited public record. especially important that the Senate hold Kagan to the Kagan said Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Supreme Court nominees over the last 50 years or more, Kagan may well be the nominee with the least amount of relevant he said.

Her colleagues at Harvard say they doubt Kagan is a liberal. Her heart on the as professor Charles Fried put it earlier this spring in the New Republic. She clerked for liberal judges Abner Mikva and Thurgood Marshall, he points out, arguing that she is unlikely to turn out to be kind of crypto-Republican who would shift the court to the David G. Savage of the Washington Bureau contributed to this report. Continuedfrom Page1 Source says president will nominate Kagan to Supreme Court Kagan in brief Born: April 28, 1960, New York City.

Education: Princeton University, 1981; Worcester College at Oxford, 1983; Harvard Law School, law degree, 1986. Product: CTBroadsheet PubDate: 05-10-2010 Zone: ALL Edition: HD Page: MAINNATWLD1-12 User: mrowan Time: Color:.