Times Square bomber's video confession

A video has surfaced of Faisal Shahzad, prior to his failed attempt to bomb Times Square, explaining why he wants to kill Americans. "This attack on the United States will be a revenge attack" for the deaths of Islamic fighters and "weak and oppressed" Muslims everywhere, Shahzad says while clutching an assault rifle in his left hand. First aired on Dubai's Al Arabiya satellite network, the video also shows the convicted terrorist hiking with Taliban leaders in the mountains of Pakistan. "Tapes like these are usually meant to send a political message," says Liam Stack at the Christian Science Monitor. The Taliban may be "showing off Shahzad" to prove that it can attack the US at will. But all the video showcases is Shahzad's cowardice, says James Gordon Meek at the New York Daily News. After all, he "was supposed to blow himself up" — instead, he "set a timer, slithered away and expected to hear the deadly boom from a safe distance." Call it "martyr-dumb." Watch key segments of the video:

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