Life term for failed Times Square bomber

The man who tried to bomb Times Square in May was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday, bringing a quiet end to a case that dramatized what authorities say is a growing threat from domestic and global terrorists.

Faisal Shahzad sparred with the judge and smirked as the sentence was imposed for his failed attempt to detonate an explosives-packed Nissan Pathfinder on May 1 in one of the busiest intersections in New York. "We are only Muslims . . . but if you call us terrorists, we are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing you," he said, adding that "the defeat of the U.S. is imminent."

The government has said the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attempted attack and provided Shahzad, a former financial analyst, with $12,000 to carry it out. Shahzad, who lived in Connecticut with his family, trained in Pakistan in preparation for the bombing attempt.

As he was being interrogated after his arrest, Shahzad boasted that he expected the bomb to kill at least 40 people and that he had planned to detonate a second bomb two weeks later, prosecutors said in court papers filed before sentencing. They quoted him as saying in a video that he had hoped "to join my brothers in jihad" since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Prosecutors also presented as evidence another video showing the results of an FBI-staged test blast designed to reconstruct the damage Shahzad's device would have caused.

The test explosion, at a remote spot in Pennsylvania, triggered a giant fireball that shot debris hundreds of feet in all directions, shredding four cars parked nearby and obliterating about a dozen dummies posing as pedestrians.