Times Square bomb suspect Shahzad admits role

Pakistan officials detain five people believed to have worked with suspect

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36892505/ns/us_news-security/

NEW YORK - Pakistani-born U.S. citizen Faisal Shahzad has admitted trying to set off a car bomb in busy Times Square and will face terrorism and mass destruction charges, Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday.

"Based on what we know so far, it is clear that this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering Americans in one of the busiest places in our country," Holder said.

Shahzad, 30, is being questioned and has provided useful information to investigators, Holder said. The FBI read Shahzad his constitutional rights after he provided information, and he continued to cooperate, FBI Deputy Director John Pistole said.

The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that he told interrogators he received training in bomb making during a recent five-month trip to Pakistan, according to a senior U.S. official familiar with the matter.

The official said received his training in the tribal region of Waziristan bordering the Afghan border, the Journal reported.

Authorities tracked down Shahzad using the vehicle identification number on the Nissan Pathfinder that failed to detonate. They linked that number to a recent sale in Connecticut, Holder said.

Once they identified Shahzad, authorities placed him on a federal air travel no-fly list. He was arrested late Monday night aboard a plane bound for the United Arab Emirates.

U.S. government officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Shahzad made his flight reservation on the way to the airport and paid for his ticket in cash.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, while refusing to criticize agencies, said the suspect was "clearly on the plane and shouldn't have been." An FBI official said Shahzad was placed on No Fly list hours before his arrest.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declined to say how Shahzad was able to board the flight if he was on the No Fly list.

In Pakistan, intelligence officials told NBC they had detained five suspects in the southern city of Karachi in connection with the Times Square case, including one woman.

A Pakistani TV station reported that Shahzad spent time in Karachi and visited the northwestern city of Peshawar during his recent stay in Pakistan. Peshawar is a gateway for foreigners seeking to travel into nearby tribal regions, where militant groups have long had sanctuary.

Pakistan's embassy in Washington said it would work with U.S. intelligence to unravel the failed bombing but said at the moment it appears the would-be bomber was a lone "disturbed individual."

President Barack Obama said "hundreds of lives" may have been saved Saturday night by the quick action of ordinary citizens and law enforcement authorities who saw the smoking SUV parked in Times Square.

"As Americans and as a nation, we will not be terrorized. We will not cower in fear. We will not be intimidated," Obama said.

Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen who was born in Pakistan, was accused of driving a car bomb into Times Square, authorities said.

"It is clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans," Holder said.

Shahzad, 30, had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation into the failed car bombing.

Shahzad became a naturalized U.S. citizen last year shortly before traveling to Pakistan, a federal law enforcement official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity amid the ongoing investigation.

Investigators hadn't established an immediate connection to the Pakistani Taliban — which had claimed responsibility for the botched bombing in three videos — or any foreign terrorist groups, a law enforcement official told the AP.

"He's claimed to have acted alone, but these are things that have to be investigated," the official said.

Shahzad has been answering questions for investigators, the official said, declining to say what information was provided. It's unclear if those conversations will continue.

Another law enforcement official said Shahzad was not known to the U.S. intelligence community before the failed bombing attempt, in which authorities found a crude bomb of gasoline, propane and fireworks in a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder parked on a bustling street in Times Square.

The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was handling the case and said Shahzad would appear in court later Tuesday. Shahzad will face charges "for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1," according to a statement by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara, FBI agent George Venizelos and New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., early Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz, who wouldn't answer questions about the search.

Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multifamily homes in Connecticut's largest city. A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street. FBI agents appeared to have found fireworks in the driveway that they were marking off as evidence.

Shahzad was being held in New York and couldn't be contacted. A phone number at a listed address for Shahzad in Shelton, Conn., wasn't in service.

He used to live in a two-story grayish-brown colonial with a sloping yard in a working-class neighborhood in Shelton. The home looked as if it had been unoccupied for a while, with grass growing in the driveway and bags of garbage lying about.

"Nobody ever had a problem with him," said Dawn Sampson, 34, who lives across the street from Shahzad's third-floor apartment. She said he had remodeled it and had put on the market to rent for $1,200, a fee she thought was much too high.

Law enforcement officials say Shahzad paid $1,300 cash three weeks ago for the Pathfinder, going first for a test-drive in a mall and offering less than the $1,800 advertised price. Peggy Colas, 19, of Bridgeport, sold the car to Shahzad after he answered an Internet ad, law enforcement officials said. The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner of record, who told them a stranger bought it. As the SUV buyer came into focus, investigators backed off other leads.

The SUV was parked near a theater where the musical "The Lion King" was being performed. The bomb inside it had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate gas cans and set off propane tanks in a chain reaction "to cause mayhem, to create casualties," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

A metal rifle cabinet in the SUV's cargo area was packed with fertilizer, but NYPD bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terrorist bombings.

Police said the SUV bomb could have produced "a significant fireball" and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows.

A vendor alerted a police officer to the parked SUV, which was smoking. Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the bomb and no one was hurt.

"It's clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans," he said.