A night after CBS's Bob Orr insisted botched terrorist bomber Faisal
Shahzad's "motive also remains unclear" and fretted "he has not realized
any American dream," Orr on Thursday night asserted "investigators
say financial pressures may have helped fuel his rage" because "he
defaulted on both his mortgage and another $65,000 equity loan."
Orr highlighted Inside Edition video of Shahzad's Bridgeport,
Connecticut apartment, empathetically describing how Shahzad "lived a
spartan and seemingly lonely existence" as evidenced by "a weight
bench that passed for furniture, a collection of art supplies, a
largely empty kitchen with a solitary plant on the counter. And in the
bedroom, a rumpled air mattress on the floor."
ABC's Diane Sawyer saw "a bare kitchen" with Oreos, but she also
showed "a shelf with the George Clooney movie in it - Up in the Air," as
well as "professional paints on the table" he may have used to make a
painting of "a mosque and a tree." Unmentioned by ABC and CBS? The Inside Edition's site reported [1] their video "found a
copy of the Koran written in English."Orr reported on the CBS Evening News:
...Shahzad claims he's angry about U.S. Predator attacks on Pakistan. But investigators say financial pressures may have helped his rage. Sources tell CBS News he defaulted on both his mortgage and another $65,000 equity loan.
In video taken just after the FBI's raid of Shahzad's Connecticut apartment, shows the 30-year-old Pakistani-American man lived a spartan and seemingly lonely existence. A weight bench that passed for furniture, a collection of art supplies, a largely empty kitchen with a solitary plant on the counter. And in the bedroom, a rumpled air mattress on the floor...
Sawyer narrated a short item on the May 6 World News:
We also had a look inside his life, thanks to photographer Robert Kalfus, who went into his apartment after police finished their search. You can see it's a spartan existence. A bare kitchen, there were Oreos there, a shelf with the George Clooney movie in it - Up in the Air - and most surprisingly in a way, professional paints on the table. The FBI took away a painting apparently he may have made of a mosque and a tree.
From Wednesday night, with video: "Shahzad's
Motive 'Unclear' to CBS, Cites Money Pressure Since He 'Hasn't Realized
Any American Dream [2]'"
-Brent Baker is Vice President for Research and Publications at
the Media Research Center. Click
here [3] to follow him on Twitter.