Photo: Mayor Bloomberg on his way to the Pink Cloud Motel.
Failed terror thug Faisal saves 900 cop jobs
New York City - Mayor Bloomberg has dropped plans to slash nearly 900 cops from the NYPD's budget -- an abrupt about-face that comes just days after the failed Times Square car bombing.
Bloomberg's executive budget for 2011, which he is announcing tomorrow, “won’t include a reductionin the number of police officers out on our streets keeping New York City safe,” said mayoral spokesman Stu Loeser.
The change-of-heart comes less than a week after NYPD cops discovered terrorist Faisal Shahzad's smoldering, explosives-laden Nissan Pathfinder in Times Square on Saturday.
It was city detectives who helped the FBI wrap up the case and arrest Shahzad within 54 hours.
The reprieve came as several developments emerged in the terror investigation.
* Phone records reveal that Shahzad called a white supremacist near Philadelphia in early April, sources said, though details of their discussion was not immediately clear.
* Authorities said the Kel-Tec rifle found in the car Shahzad left at Kennedy Airport was legally purchased by the self-professed Taliban member about two months ago after he passed a 14-day background check from a gun shop in his former hometown of Shelton, Conn.
* A photo unearthed today shows Shahzad, his wife, Huma Mian, and a group of friends standing in Times Square more than a year ago within a 100 yards of where he left the Pathfinder.
* A source told The Post that Shahzad did a dry run the night before the failed attack, laying out a route to the scene and leaving a getaway car for his escape.
* Shahzads father, retired Pakistan Air Force Vice Marshal Bahar ul-Haq, and his mother remained in hiding after fleeing the family compound in Pakistan. His wife, Mian, was also nowhere to be found.
It was back when the confessed terrorist was hatching his plot that Bloomberg was preparing to cut 892 NYPD jobs through attrition to save $55 million in related costs.
Officials yesterday said higher-than-anticipated tax revenues were allowing Bloomberg to reverse that decision and keep the police force intact at about 35,000. As of March, revenues were running about $225 million ahead of expectations.
The grim early budget was released in January.
The initial plan was to have the cops retire and not be replaced. With the increased funding, the plan is for the NYPD to have a new class at the Police Academy and hire close to 1,000 rookies.
Bloombergs decision was welcomed by police. Its needed, and this Times Square case is the perfect excuse, one veteran cop said. And they better start hiring quickly because high attrition is coming.
Meanwhile, a source said Shahzads mysterious call to a white supremacist was made from a prepaid cellphone that he also used to receive calls from Pakistan and arrange the purchase of the Pathfinder.
Investigators got that phone number from the person who had sold the 30-year-old Shahzad the Pathfinder and pulled the call history, the source said.
Shahzad, who has waived his right to remain silent and be presented in federal court speedily, has told investigators he received explosives training in his native Pakistan after traveling there last July for a nearly eight-month trip.
The naturalized American has also told them that the car bomb, which did not detonate, was intended to slaughter hundreds of innocent pedestrians in retaliation for US drone attacks that have killed Taliban leaders in Pakistan.
Shahzad's plot failed because he put a non-explosive fertilizer in his homemade weapon of mass destruction and used the wrong kind of fireworks to ignite the potentially deadly device. He bought the incendiaries two months ago from a shop in Matamoros, Pa., whose owner told The Post Shahzad clearly had no clue what he was doing.
The fireworks M-88 Silver Salutes will explode only if they are individually lit, according to Bruce Zoldan, who owns the 55-store Phantom Fireworks chain.
But Shahzad bought 152 of them and left them next to canisters of gasoline, propane and bags of fertilizer thinking they would ignite as a group if one was lighted.
Zoldan said that the plan would have worked if Shahzad went to the black market for illegal M-80s instead.
"The outcome in New York would have been much different ... The outcome could have been catastrophic," Zoldan said.
While registering to buy the fireworks in Pennsylvania, Shahzad gave his name in reverse order Shahzad Faisal to cover his tracks.
Surveillance video from the store, which has been turned over to the FBI, clearly shows Shahzad, clad in blue jeans and a green jacket, spending about a half-hour selecting various fireworks for purchase.
At one point, he looks directly into a surveillance camera above the sales counter.
"He seemed very calm, just seemed inquisitive, wasnt nervous and didnt act in any way suspicious," Zoldan said. He acted very normal.
Zoldan was driving back from the Kentucky Derby on Sunday with his son when he heard about the attempted Times Square car bombing and he instantly thought some of his products might have been used by the terrorist.
Zoldan then called his head of security, a retired FBI agent, who in turn reached out to agents assigned to the case. Shahzad's name was discovered in a check of the customer database.
"He said it was very disappointing to learn that we had someone who wants to destroy American life, or American freedom to walk the street, with our product."
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Additional reporting by Carolyn Salazar in Matamoros, Pa., Murray Weiss, Jamie Schram and John Doyle
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/inept_terror_4hlT8Vnxs1hQaGIKtrziAK/1#ixzz0n7Z0PTAB
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Detective Shavedlongcock:
All these big city Mayor rather steal every penny they can than to hire the correct number of police officers, firefighters and paramedics a city needs to protect lives. How ironic that the cops have a terrorist to thank for their jobs. Thanks to Eagle / MW6326 for this posting.
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