Thread: N.Y. Bomb inquiry looks at Pakistani-American ARRESTED

Times Square bomb inquiry looks at Pakistani-American

By the CNN Wire
StaffMay 3, 2010 10:35 p.m. EDT

Man in Times Square video sought

New York (CNN) -- Investigators are looking into whether a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin played any role in the failed weekend attempt to set off a car bomb in Times Square, a federal source said Monday.

The report comes as CNN has learned the Joint Terrorism Task Force investigating the bomb attempt is considering the possibility that the attempt to set off the bomb involved more than a single person. The identity of the person under scrutiny was not known, however.

According to a source familiar with the investigation, investigators believe the plan was an intended terrorist attack to set off explosives in the heart of midtown Manhattan on Saturday night, but the individuals didn't have the expertise to detonate their device.

Earlier, a law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation said the sport-utility vehicle used in the unsuccessful bombing attempt was sold three weeks ago in a cash deal with no paperwork exchanged. A seller in Connecticut put the Nissan Pathfinder up for sale through the online classified ad site Craigslist and sold it to a buyer who paid $1,800 for the vehicle, the source told CNN.

The registered owner is not a suspect in the bombing attempt, New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Monday. The seller described the buyer as a man in his late 20s to early 30s, and investigators are checking into phone records between the two, the source said.

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A video obtained from a tourist in the area shows a person apparently running north on Broadway. Another video shows a balding man with dark hair removing a shirt and putting it in a bag before walking out of view of the camera, which was inside a restaurant.

"These are not suspects," Kelly said. "These are people we would like to speak to."

Investigators are examining phone records of businesses that sell some of the bomb's components and chasing leads in "several locations" on the East Coast and beyond, a federal law enforcement official told CNN. The official would not say whether any of the leads were in other countries, and cautioned that the investigation could take "a few more days or weeks."

The device inside the Pathfinder was made of propane tanks, gasoline and fertilizer that turned out to be of a nonexplosive grade, along with a metal pot containing wiring and firecrackers. More firecrackers were found in a can on the back seat of the vehicle, sandwiched between two full five-gallon gasoline cans and connected by wires to clocks.

New York police have been examining the device for clues such as fingerprints, hair and fibers since Saturday. The vehicle and bomb components were taken to the FBI's forensic laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, on Monday, FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Monday evening.

Kevin Barry, a former New York bomb squad member, said the device had "no known signature" -- a style of construction that might link it to known terrorist groups. That suggests it was the work of either an individual or a new organization, said Barry, who is now an adviser to the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators.

Barry said the detonating mechanism lacked the energy needed to properly set off the explosion. Jim Cavanaugh, a former agent with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, called the bomb "a Rube Goldberg contraption" that would have been difficult to set off.

"That does not mean that the bomb's not deadly," Cavanaugh said. Someone close by could be hurt or killed. "But it's not a very reliable working system, a fusing and firing system, at all," he said.

The question of who was behind the failed bomb attempt was the subject of scrutiny Monday.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said investigators have some good leads, but he declined to elaborate. Kelly said it was too early to say whether the attempt was carried out by a lone person, international terrorists, or any other type of network.

Pakistani Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud appeared on a video released less than 24 hours after the attempt, claiming Taliban fighters were prepared to inflict "extremely painful blows" in major U.S. cities. But a senior U.S. military official said Monday there is no credible evidence at the early stages of the investigation that the Pakistani Taliban was responsible for the Times Square incident.

Another U.S. official with direct awareness of the latest U.S. understanding of the incident said the Pakistani group has never shown "trans-national capabilities" like other groups, such as al Qaeda. But such a possibility is "not something one can rule out at this early stage," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Pakistan's Taliban movement has been linked to a 2008 plot to blow up subway stations in the Spanish city of Barcelona, and at least two of the 11 men convicted in the plot came to Barcelona from Pakistan, Spanish prosecutors said.

Times Square evacuation captured on iPhone

One counterintelligence official told CNN there was no evidence of any communications among terrorist organizations overseas about the device after Saturday night's attempt.

"People overseas were not giving high fives ... or saying anything about the bomb not working," the official said. "There is no indication that there was that kind of tie."

Cavanaugh said the bomber could have been "internationally inspired," but the device showed little sign that a group like al Qaeda was behind it.

"Their bombs would be better funded, better fused, better materials, better knowledge," he said.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/03/new ... gletoolbar

CBS News tonight said the guy who sold the suv on Craigs list said the buyer looked Hispanic or Mid Eastern.

Katie was Racial Profiling. Bad girl Katie

Suspect taken into custody in failed Times Square car bomb attack

From the Associated Press
May 3, 2010 | 9:31 p.m.

A law enforcement official says a suspect has been taken into custody in the failed Times Square car bomb attack.

The official spoke to The Associated Press early Tuesday on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld ... 0208.story

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/nyreg ... mb.html?hp

Man Arrested in Times Square Bomb Plot
Hiroko Masuike for The New York Times

A Connecticut woman said she sold the S.U.V. used in the failed bombing to a man she described as Middle Eastern or Hispanic.
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM, MARK MAZZETTI and PETER BAKER
Published: May 3, 2010

* comments (263)

This article is by William K. Rashbaum, Mark Mazzetti and Peter Baker.
Related

Plates on the Nissan Pathfinder were traced to a pickup truck being repaired at Kramer's Used Auto Parts in Stratford, Conn.

Federal agents and police detectives Monday night arrested a Connecticut man, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing on Saturday night, two people briefed on the investigation said.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, was believed to be the one who recently bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was found loaded with gasoline, propane, fireworks and fertilizer in the heart of Times Square, the people said. Charges against the man, who had returned recently from a trip to Pakistan, were not announced.

The authorities began focusing on him after they tracked the vehicle to its previously registered owner in Bridgeport, Conn., who had advertised it for sale on several websites. He paid cash, and the sale was handled without any formal paperwork.

The former owner told investigators that the buyer was of Middle Eastern or Hispanic descent, but could not recall his name. It was unclear how agents from the Joint Terrorist Task Force identified him. Federal authorities Monday night provided few details about the arrest, the suspect, or the scope of any conspiracy in the failed attack.

The authorities have been exploring whether the man or others who might have been involved in the attempted bombing had been in contact with people or groups overseas, according to federal officials. The investigation was shifted on Monday to the control of the international terrorism branch of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multiagency group led by the Justice Departmenthttp, according to two federal officials.

Officials cautioned that the investigation of possible international contacts did not mean there was a connection to a known terrorist group, but they said they were exploring all possibilities.

"It's a prominent lead that they're following, the international association," said a senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation. "But there's still a lot of information being gathered."

On Monday, there was a sweeping response to the attempted attack in the tourist-packed city-within-a-city of Times Square — including an increased police presence, vehicle inspections and a touch of panic from veteran New Yorkers when a manhole fire flared five blocks from the scene of the failed bombing. Consolidated Edison blamed faulty wiring for the fire.

The recent sale of the Pathfinder began online. An advertisement that appears to be for the vehicle, which had 141,000 miles on the odometer and was listed for sale at $1,300 on at least two Web sites, emphasized that it was in good condition — “CLEAN inside and out!!â€

The person arrested became a naturalized citizen of the United States, April 2009. According to news, after he became a citizen, he went to Pakistan for 5 months.

We do a terrible job with immigration.

Revelation 3:20 (New International Version)
It is written,... Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

Originally Posted by GeorgiaPeach

The person arrested became a naturalized citizen of the United States, April 2009. According to news, after he became a citizen, he went to Pakistan for 5 months.

We do a terrible job with immigration.

Revelation 3:20 (New International Version)
It is written,... Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

We do, and it's because the states haven't held their position under the US Constitution to control immigration. They need to reassert their powers to approve through their state legislatures all new immigration into the United States.

And Obama wants Immigration to approve 20 million illegals ASAP.

RELATED

Breaking:Time Square bomb suspect arrested 'at last second'

http://www.alipac.us/ftopict-197618.html

Department of Justice Press Release

For Immediate Release
May 4, 2010 United States Attorney's Office
Southern District of New York
Contact: (212) 637-2600

Statement of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, The Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the New York City Police Department on an Arrest in the Times Square Investigation

“At approximately 11:45 p.m. EDT, Faisal Shahzad was taken into custody. Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and detectives of the New York City Police Department arrested Shahzad for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1, 2010. Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport after he was identified by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection while attempting to take a flight to Dubai.

The defendant will appear in Manhattan federal court (500 Pearl Street, 5th Floor, New York, N.Y.) on May 4, 2010, at a currently undetermined time to be presented on formal charges. No further details are available at this time.

We applaud the collective work of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force and the prosecutors and investigators in the Southern District of New York, who have worked aroundÂ*theÂ*clock for the last two days in this investigation. We would also like to recognize the diligent work of the Customs and Border Protection agents and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Connecticut.

The investigation remains very much ongoing, and the dedicated agents, detectives, and prosecutors on this case will continue to follow every lead and use every tool to keep the people of New York City safe. We will not rest until every terrorist, whether homegrown or foreign-based, is neutralized and held to account,â€

Bomb suspect lost Conn. home to foreclosure

Chase sued him in September after he defaulted on $200,000 loan
updated 55 minutes ago

The suspect in the Times Square bombing attempt defaulted on a $200,000 mortgage on his Connecticut home and the Shelton property is now in foreclosure, according to court records.

The foreclosure records show Faisal Shahzad took out the mortgage in 2004, and that he co-owned the home with a woman named Huma Mian.

Chase Home Finance LLC sued Shahzad, 30, in September to force the foreclosure. The case is pending in Milford Superior Court.

Former neighbors described him as a family man who reportedly said he worked on Wall Street.

After being forced to leave the Shelton home, Shahzad moved to a home in Bridgeport, Conn., and FBI agents searched that property early Tuesday, removing filled plastic bags. A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.

Kept to themselves
In Shelton, former neighbor Brenda Thurman told the New York Times that Shahzad and his wife, Huma Mian, spoke limited English and kept mostly to themselves. The couple had two young children, a girl and a boy, she said.

Thurman told the newspaper that the couple had lived at the house at 119 Long Hill Avenue for about three years before moving out last year.

"He was a little bit strange," she told the Associated Press. "He didn't like to come out during the day."

Thurman showed reporters a laptop computer showing a Facebook photo of her neighbor, the New Haven Independent reported. The photo showed Shahzad with a woman and a child.


Facebook via New Haven Ind.
Brenda Thurman, a former neighbor of Faisal Shahzad, said this Facebook photo shows Shahzad with an unidentified woman and child.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another neighbor, Audrey Sokol, said she thought Shahzad worked in nearby Norwalk. Sokol, a teacher, said that he would wave and say hello and that he seemed normal to her.

The Shelton home is a two-story grayish-brown colonial with a sloping yard in a working-class neighborhood. On Tuesday morning, the home looked as if it had been unoccupied for a while.

Shahzad left around May 2009, Thurman said, and his wife followed about a month later.

Pakistani police told NBC News that Shahzad traveled from the United States to Karachi on July 3, 2009, returning to the United States on Aug. 8, 2009. During that time, he is believed to have traveled to Peshawar, a major city in the region bordering Afghanistan known as the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.

Claims to have acted alone
Shahzad was taken into custody late Monday by FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives at Kennedy Airport after boarding a flight to Dubai, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other officials.

Investigators still don't have evidence that Shahzad is connected to the Pakistani Taliban or any foreign terror groups. Said one government source: "He's claimed to have acted alone, but these are things that have to be investigated."

Shahzad, who was born in Pakistan and became a U.S. citizen last year, had recently returned from another trip to Pakistan, this time for five months, according to law enforcement sources. They said his wife was in Pakistan. It is believed that Shahzad's Pakistani relatives reside in a middle-class neighborhood of Karachi called North Nazimabad, NBC said.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Shahzad had ties to the United States dating back to at least December 1998, when he was granted an F-1 student visa. Immigration officials said then that there was “no derogatory informationâ€