I do not believe for a second that the FBI “lost” would-be Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad and only managed to yank him off an Emirates airliner with minutes to spare.

Much more likely is that Shahzad was allowed to play out for as long as possible in order to help expose any possible co-conspirators. Just the mere fact that Shahzad bought a ticket to Pakistan with cash is a vital investigative datapoint.