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Sunday, May 09 2010 3PM 11°C 6PM 10°C 5-Day Forecast (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.html)
Pakistan Taliban 'was behind New York Times Square bomb plot'
By Mail Foreign Service (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+Foreign+Service)
Last updated at 3:34 PM on 9th May 2010
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/09/article-1274288-096DB8EF000005DC-446_306x423.jpg
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced there was evidence that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the failed car bombing in New York's Times Square
The U.S. Attorney General says there is evidence the Pakistani Taliban was behind the failed car bombing in New York’s Times Square.
American authorities had previously rejected claims by the group that it was behind the May 1 plot.
Naturalised American citizen Faisal Shahzad, who was born in Pakistan, is currently facing terrorism and weapons charges after authorities said he admitted rigging a car with explosives.
Appearing on ABC Television’s This Week, Eric Holder said: ‘We’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack.
‘We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that [Shahzad] was working at their direction.’
He added there was nothing to suggest that the government of Pakistan was aware of the plot.
Today President Barack Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser backed up the claims.
John Brennan said that while the investigation is ongoing, ‘it looks like’ Shahzad was working for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
The militant group is believed to be hiding senior al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
Brennan, speaking on CNN's State of the Union, says the finding ‘underscores the serious threat that we face from a very determined enemy.’
Meanwhile a money courier who helped funnel cash from abroad to finance the plot is being tracked by U.S. investigators.
Authorities have the name of the courier, who they believe helped Shahzad pay for the used sport utility vehicle and other materials to rig up a car bomb that would have caused a huge fireball in the heart of New York.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official said investigators did not know how much money may have changed hands, but that Shahzad had reportedly paid for the used SUV with 13 $100 bills.
U.S. law enforcement officials travelled to Pakistan - where Shahzad spent five months before returning to the U.S. in February - to question four alleged members of an al-Qaeda-linked militant group.
Caught on Camera: A still from a video allegedly shows Shahzad buying fireworks prior to the bombing attempt. Authorities say he used elements of the fireworks to rig up the Times Square SUV with explosives
Investigators are trying to trace his movements in his homeland, and were looking into the possible financing of the operation between the Pakistan-born budget analyst and foreign terror groups.
Two new surveillance videos have emerged of Shahzad. Police said one video shows him in a white baseball cap and a dark jacket walking away from the smoking, bomb-laden Nissan Pathfinder parked in the bustling heart of New York.
The second shows him buying a batch of fireworks in a store in Pennsylvania, which has been verified by the shop's owner.
Other pictures have been released showing Shahzad posing for a photo with a group of friends in Times Square less than two years before the car-bomb attempt.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272619-096C8863000005DC-953_306x349.jpg
Family man: Shahzad (left) and with a woman thought to be his wife Huma Mian and one of their children (right)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/06/article-1273618-09700CB8000005DC-547_634x497.jpg From a wealthy family: Shahzad and his wife pose for another New York tourist photo
Shahzad faces terrorism and weapons charges after authorities said he admitted rigging the Pathfinder with a crude bomb of firecrackers, propane and alarm clocks based on explosives training he received in Pakistan.
He was said to have been cooperating with investigators.
It is believed that Shahzad launched the bomb plot almost immediately after returning to his Connecticut home - where he lived with his wife Huma Mian, their children and his two sisters-in-law - in February from the visit to Pakistan.
He did a dry run three days before trying to detonate the car bomb, said an unnamed law enforcement official.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/07/article-0-09726855000005DC-415_634x421.jpg William Weimer, of Phantom Fireworks, speaks to the media yesterday at the company's branch in Matamoras, Pennsylvannia. A video obtained by investigators allegedly shows Shahzad buying fireworks at the shop
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/06/article-1273618-09726701000005DC-492_634x408.jpg
WHO IS FAISAL SHAHZAD?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272619-096D85D9000005DC-999_223x240.jpg Not long ago, Faisal Shahzad had a pretty enviable life: He became an American citizen after emigrating from Pakistan, where he came from a wealthy family.
He earned an MBA. He had a well-educated wife and two children and owned a house in a middle-class Connecticut suburb.
In the past couple of years, though, his life seemed to unravel: He left a job at a global marketing firm he'd held for three years, lost his home to foreclosure and moved into an apartment in an impoverished neighbourhood in Bridgeport.
Shahzad, 30, is the son of a former top Pakistani air force officer, according to Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Shahzad's father.
He came to the United States in late 1998 on a student visa.
He received a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems in 2000.
Shahzad was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers in 2002. He later returned to the University of Bridgeport to earn a master's in business administration, awarded in 2005.
He worked from mid-2006 to May 2009 as a junior financial analyst for the Affinion Group, a marketing firm in Norwalk.
In 2004, he and his wife, Huma Mian, bought a newly built home for $273,000.
Like her husband, Mian was well educated. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004 with a bachelor of science in business with an emphasis in accounting, the school said.
On her profile on the social networking site Orkut, she described herself as 'not political' and said she spoke English, Pashto, Urdu and French.
She listed her passions as 'fashion, shoes, bags, shopping!! And of course, Faisal.'
She posted a picture of Shahzad, smiling, with the caption, 'what can I say ... he's my everything'.
Last year, the couple abandoned the home, defaulting on the mortgage.
'It was like they just picked up everything they wanted and just left one day,' a neighbour said.
Authorities say Shahzad returned to Pakistan then came back to the United States, when he took an apartment in Bridgeport.
Shahzad drove the SUV to Times Square from Connecticut on April 28 apparently to figure out where would be the best place to leave it later, then returned to the area on April 30 to drop off a different vehicle, a black Isuzu, the official said.
He then went back on Saturday to leave the SUV with the car bomb but forgot the keys for both vehicles in the SUV and had to take public transport back home, the official said.
He returned to Times Square on Sunday with a second set of keys to pick up the Isuzu, which he had parked about eight blocks from the bombing site, the official said.
New York police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a Senate panel that Shahzad bought the gun found in his Isuzu at Kennedy Airport in March, when he appeared to move ahead on the bombing plot.
'It appears from some of his other activities that March is when he decided to put this plan in motion,' Mr Kelly said.
'He came back from Pakistan on February 3, 2010. It may well have been an indicator of putting something catastrophic in motion.'
Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired air force official in Pakistan, waited two days after the failed bombing before driving to JFK airport and buying a one-way ticket to his native land.
By then the FBI team supposed to be following him had lost him.
Investigators only found out he was on board minutes before take-off when the final passenger list was sent to customs officials.
Despite the best efforts of highly trained investigators armed with the most advanced technology in the world, two simple security failings appear to have allowed Shahzad to come within minutes of escape.
First, he gave investigators tailing him since 3pm on Monday the slip.
Authorities believe he decided to flee after being spooked by news reports that investigators were seeking a Pakistani suspect in Connecticut.
The FBI and the New York Police Department declined to comment.
Second, Emirates officials - unaware that he had been placed on a no-fly list - did not check the web forum where the latest updates are posted in the minutes before take-off.
It was only thanks to a vigilant customs agent who spotted Shahzad's name on the flight manifest just 30 minutes before take-off that authorities knew he was on board the plane.
The Obama administration played down that Shahzad had made it aboard the plane.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would not talk about it, other than to say Customs officials prevented the plane from taking off. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the security system has fallback procedures in place for times like this, and they worked.
The no-fly list is supposed to mean just that. And Shahzad's name was added to the list early Monday afternoon as a result of breaking developments in the investigation.
When Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a web forum where updates are sent if it were to have flagged him.
Because they did not, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before take-off.
By that time, passengers usually are on board.
Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line: U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took off.
'There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them,' Gibbs said.
'If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be double-checked.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/04/article-1270991-096E0A23000005DC-766_634x450.jpg Connecticut: The press lay siege to a house in Bridgeport, which FBI agents searched after Shahzad's arrest
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272619-096FFDF9000005DC-977_634x462.jpg Other home: A house said to belong to Shahzad's family in Pabbi, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/06/article-1273618-0971EB21000005DC-209_634x412.jpg Increased security: A police mobile observation tower in Times Square yesterday
Enlarge http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/03/article-0-09680E85000005DC-262_634x427.jpg (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/04/article-0-09680E85000005DC-262_634x427_popup.jpg)
This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder, loaded with explosives, being driven into Times Square shortly before it was abandoned
Watch video of William Weimer, of Phantom Fireworks, speaking to the media:
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274288/Times-Square-bomber-Faisal-Shahzads-financial-backer-sought-police.html#ixzz0nRarH3Cj (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274288/Times-Square-bomber-Faisal-Shahzads-financial-backer-sought-police.html#ixzz0nRarH3Cj)
What a tangle web we weave when we attempt to decieve.
Sunday, May 09 2010 3PM 11°C 6PM 10°C 5-Day Forecast (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/weather/index.html)
Pakistan Taliban 'was behind New York Times Square bomb plot'
By Mail Foreign Service (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/search.html?s=y&authornamef=Mail+Foreign+Service)
Last updated at 3:34 PM on 9th May 2010
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/09/article-1274288-096DB8EF000005DC-446_306x423.jpg
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced there was evidence that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the failed car bombing in New York's Times Square
The U.S. Attorney General says there is evidence the Pakistani Taliban was behind the failed car bombing in New York’s Times Square.
American authorities had previously rejected claims by the group that it was behind the May 1 plot.
Naturalised American citizen Faisal Shahzad, who was born in Pakistan, is currently facing terrorism and weapons charges after authorities said he admitted rigging a car with explosives.
Appearing on ABC Television’s This Week, Eric Holder said: ‘We’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack.
‘We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that [Shahzad] was working at their direction.’
He added there was nothing to suggest that the government of Pakistan was aware of the plot.
Today President Barack Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser backed up the claims.
John Brennan said that while the investigation is ongoing, ‘it looks like’ Shahzad was working for the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
The militant group is believed to be hiding senior al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
Brennan, speaking on CNN's State of the Union, says the finding ‘underscores the serious threat that we face from a very determined enemy.’
Meanwhile a money courier who helped funnel cash from abroad to finance the plot is being tracked by U.S. investigators.
Authorities have the name of the courier, who they believe helped Shahzad pay for the used sport utility vehicle and other materials to rig up a car bomb that would have caused a huge fireball in the heart of New York.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official said investigators did not know how much money may have changed hands, but that Shahzad had reportedly paid for the used SUV with 13 $100 bills.
U.S. law enforcement officials travelled to Pakistan - where Shahzad spent five months before returning to the U.S. in February - to question four alleged members of an al-Qaeda-linked militant group.
Caught on Camera: A still from a video allegedly shows Shahzad buying fireworks prior to the bombing attempt. Authorities say he used elements of the fireworks to rig up the Times Square SUV with explosives
Investigators are trying to trace his movements in his homeland, and were looking into the possible financing of the operation between the Pakistan-born budget analyst and foreign terror groups.
Two new surveillance videos have emerged of Shahzad. Police said one video shows him in a white baseball cap and a dark jacket walking away from the smoking, bomb-laden Nissan Pathfinder parked in the bustling heart of New York.
The second shows him buying a batch of fireworks in a store in Pennsylvania, which has been verified by the shop's owner.
Other pictures have been released showing Shahzad posing for a photo with a group of friends in Times Square less than two years before the car-bomb attempt.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272619-096C8863000005DC-953_306x349.jpg
Family man: Shahzad (left) and with a woman thought to be his wife Huma Mian and one of their children (right)
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/06/article-1273618-09700CB8000005DC-547_634x497.jpg From a wealthy family: Shahzad and his wife pose for another New York tourist photo
Shahzad faces terrorism and weapons charges after authorities said he admitted rigging the Pathfinder with a crude bomb of firecrackers, propane and alarm clocks based on explosives training he received in Pakistan.
He was said to have been cooperating with investigators.
It is believed that Shahzad launched the bomb plot almost immediately after returning to his Connecticut home - where he lived with his wife Huma Mian, their children and his two sisters-in-law - in February from the visit to Pakistan.
He did a dry run three days before trying to detonate the car bomb, said an unnamed law enforcement official.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/07/article-0-09726855000005DC-415_634x421.jpg William Weimer, of Phantom Fireworks, speaks to the media yesterday at the company's branch in Matamoras, Pennsylvannia. A video obtained by investigators allegedly shows Shahzad buying fireworks at the shop
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/06/article-1273618-09726701000005DC-492_634x408.jpg
WHO IS FAISAL SHAHZAD?
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272619-096D85D9000005DC-999_223x240.jpg Not long ago, Faisal Shahzad had a pretty enviable life: He became an American citizen after emigrating from Pakistan, where he came from a wealthy family.
He earned an MBA. He had a well-educated wife and two children and owned a house in a middle-class Connecticut suburb.
In the past couple of years, though, his life seemed to unravel: He left a job at a global marketing firm he'd held for three years, lost his home to foreclosure and moved into an apartment in an impoverished neighbourhood in Bridgeport.
Shahzad, 30, is the son of a former top Pakistani air force officer, according to Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Shahzad's father.
He came to the United States in late 1998 on a student visa.
He received a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems in 2000.
Shahzad was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers in 2002. He later returned to the University of Bridgeport to earn a master's in business administration, awarded in 2005.
He worked from mid-2006 to May 2009 as a junior financial analyst for the Affinion Group, a marketing firm in Norwalk.
In 2004, he and his wife, Huma Mian, bought a newly built home for $273,000.
Like her husband, Mian was well educated. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004 with a bachelor of science in business with an emphasis in accounting, the school said.
On her profile on the social networking site Orkut, she described herself as 'not political' and said she spoke English, Pashto, Urdu and French.
She listed her passions as 'fashion, shoes, bags, shopping!! And of course, Faisal.'
She posted a picture of Shahzad, smiling, with the caption, 'what can I say ... he's my everything'.
Last year, the couple abandoned the home, defaulting on the mortgage.
'It was like they just picked up everything they wanted and just left one day,' a neighbour said.
Authorities say Shahzad returned to Pakistan then came back to the United States, when he took an apartment in Bridgeport.
Shahzad drove the SUV to Times Square from Connecticut on April 28 apparently to figure out where would be the best place to leave it later, then returned to the area on April 30 to drop off a different vehicle, a black Isuzu, the official said.
He then went back on Saturday to leave the SUV with the car bomb but forgot the keys for both vehicles in the SUV and had to take public transport back home, the official said.
He returned to Times Square on Sunday with a second set of keys to pick up the Isuzu, which he had parked about eight blocks from the bombing site, the official said.
New York police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a Senate panel that Shahzad bought the gun found in his Isuzu at Kennedy Airport in March, when he appeared to move ahead on the bombing plot.
'It appears from some of his other activities that March is when he decided to put this plan in motion,' Mr Kelly said.
'He came back from Pakistan on February 3, 2010. It may well have been an indicator of putting something catastrophic in motion.'
Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired air force official in Pakistan, waited two days after the failed bombing before driving to JFK airport and buying a one-way ticket to his native land.
By then the FBI team supposed to be following him had lost him.
Investigators only found out he was on board minutes before take-off when the final passenger list was sent to customs officials.
Despite the best efforts of highly trained investigators armed with the most advanced technology in the world, two simple security failings appear to have allowed Shahzad to come within minutes of escape.
First, he gave investigators tailing him since 3pm on Monday the slip.
Authorities believe he decided to flee after being spooked by news reports that investigators were seeking a Pakistani suspect in Connecticut.
The FBI and the New York Police Department declined to comment.
Second, Emirates officials - unaware that he had been placed on a no-fly list - did not check the web forum where the latest updates are posted in the minutes before take-off.
It was only thanks to a vigilant customs agent who spotted Shahzad's name on the flight manifest just 30 minutes before take-off that authorities knew he was on board the plane.
The Obama administration played down that Shahzad had made it aboard the plane.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would not talk about it, other than to say Customs officials prevented the plane from taking off. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the security system has fallback procedures in place for times like this, and they worked.
The no-fly list is supposed to mean just that. And Shahzad's name was added to the list early Monday afternoon as a result of breaking developments in the investigation.
When Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a web forum where updates are sent if it were to have flagged him.
Because they did not, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before take-off.
By that time, passengers usually are on board.
Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line: U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took off.
'There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them,' Gibbs said.
'If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be double-checked.'
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/04/article-1270991-096E0A23000005DC-766_634x450.jpg Connecticut: The press lay siege to a house in Bridgeport, which FBI agents searched after Shahzad's arrest
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/05/article-1272619-096FFDF9000005DC-977_634x462.jpg Other home: A house said to belong to Shahzad's family in Pabbi, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/06/article-1273618-0971EB21000005DC-209_634x412.jpg Increased security: A police mobile observation tower in Times Square yesterday
Enlarge http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/03/article-0-09680E85000005DC-262_634x427.jpg (http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/05/04/article-0-09680E85000005DC-262_634x427_popup.jpg)
This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder, loaded with explosives, being driven into Times Square shortly before it was abandoned
Watch video of William Weimer, of Phantom Fireworks, speaking to the media:
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274288/Times-Square-bomber-Faisal-Shahzads-financial-backer-sought-police.html#ixzz0nRarH3Cj (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1274288/Times-Square-bomber-Faisal-Shahzads-financial-backer-sought-police.html#ixzz0nRarH3Cj)
What a tangle web we weave when we attempt to decieve.