Faisal and wife Huma

The standard personality profile is emerging for the Faizal Shahzad, the man last night charged with conspiring to car-bomb Times Square: he was ‘a mama’s boy’ who hated violence. His family was apparently not religious. Family friends say they were never seen praying.

“I can’t believe he could have done such a thing,” a neighbour told the media yesterday. “He wasn’t that type of person.” Somehow, they never are. We are often left wondering if all this ‘wouldn’t hurt a fly’ stuff is concocted in order to hide the incompetence of security agencies.

For starters, Shahzan was hauled off a Dubai-bound plane at Kennedy Airport. He’d bought the ticket suspiciously late – and had been able to board Monday night despite being placed on the federal “no-fly” list.

Further, Shahzad only became a US citizen eighteen months ago. But there seems to have been a clear change of attitude to the US some time after he married Pakistani-American Huma Mian six years ago. Before that time, he was described as ‘liberal and cosmopolitan’. Afterwards, his attitudes were gradually radicalised – and it may well be significant that his father-in-law Iftika Mian is among five people arrested in Pakistan.

Confusingly, however, last night the Thaindian News claimed that Huma Mian was not a suspect. On her Orkut social network page, she claims her passions are ‘fashion, shoes, bags and shopping’ – and finds Times Square ‘a great place to shop’…when it isn’t being car-bombed.

This healthy attitude to consumption is not, however, borne out by an as yet unidentified neighbour who alleged that Faisal and his family frequently dressed in traditional Muslim clothes. The neighbour says they were friendly but mysterious, because they didn’t socialize. Also, wife Huma has turned up in Pakistan: if she left with Shahzad, is it likely she didn’t know what was going on?

Finally, a real estate broker who worked with Shahzad in 2004 said the bombing suspect had expressed a dislike for former President George W. Bush and his policy in Iraq. This isn’t particularly unusual now; but one senses that it should’ve been picked up then.

Shahzad returned to his childhood area of Peshawar in Pakistan seven months ago. He has told American investigators he moved on from there to Waziristan (a ‘wild-west’ for militants about five hours drive from Peshawar) in an attempt to join with militants and receive training in holy car destruction. On his departure from there in February, US security officials allege he had already decided to attack America.

It’s beginning to look like Faisal Shahzad had been under surveillance – but the FBI screwed up. Failure to spot obvious preparatory signs is near-ibiquitous in these cases, and this seems as if it was no exception. Hence the federal agency’s determination to underplay the bomber’s connections – and rubbish any idea that he and his wife were a suspicious couple. Or deny any involvement by her. This flies in the face the one consistent remark made by both Americans and Pakistanis – that he changed following his 2004 marriage.

Under a recent shot of Faisal on her Orkut entry, Huma notes ‘What can I say? He’s my everything’. Her brother Suleman Mian notes in his entry, ‘I Dont Belong, Dont accept, Dont Give A Shit ; Don’t Ever Judge Me! You Still Don’t Know Me’.

I suspect there is a lot we still don’t know about the who and why of this case.