Pakistani man arrested for Times Square bomb

Police vehicles fill a street early Tuesday morning May 4, 2010 as they search a home the center of the block in Bridgeport Conn. An arrest in the Times Square bombing was made at Kennedy Airport in New York and local, federal and state officials are searching a residence in Bridgeport.

Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen, had not been seen at his home or at his job since the Times Square incident.

* Investigators are reviewing recent possible terrorist chatter to see if it is connected to the attack. That "chatter" includes overseas phone calls made by one of several peopled linked to the Pathfinder, NBC News reported. NYPost

US police have arrested a US citizen of Pakistani origins in connection with the failed car bomb plot in New York's Times Square, amid increasing concerns that the failed attack was connected to international terrorism.

The man, identified as Faisal Shahzad, a naturalised American who had immigrated from Pakistan, was arrested at John F. Kennedy airport as he was trying to board a flight to Dubai, according US Attorney General Eric Holder.

"it’s clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans," said Mr Holder.

Mr Shahzad, 30, is believed to have recently returned from a five month trip to Pakistan, where his wife lives, to his home in Connecticut. US officials believe he bought the Nissan Pathfinder for cash and no paperwork within the last three weeks.

He will appear in Manhattan Federal Court later today.

His arrest comes as officials said the failed attempt appears to have been masterminded by several people with international ties.

White House officials said that fresh clues were pointing in the direction of a “foreign nexus”.

“I would say that whoever did that would be categorised as a terrorist,” Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman, said.

Police and FBI agents said that they were looking for a second suspect, a man filmed on a tourist’s video camera running from the car shortly after it was parked in Times Square on Saturday. They also want to identify a white man, aged in his forties, who was videotaped on surveillance cameras removing a shirt and putting it in a backpack.

Police said that they had tracked down the registered owner of the dark, 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that contained the crude home-made bomb but he was not a suspect. He sold his car three weeks ago to a man described as of Hispanic or Middle Eastern appearance, aged about 30.

The vehicle identification number (VIN) had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine and axle, and investigators used it to find the owner of record ,said Paul J. Browne of the New York Police Department .

"The discovery of the VIN on the engine block was pivotal in that it led to the identifying the registered owner," said Mr Browne.

Investigators tracked the license plates to a used car parts shop in Stratford, Connecticut, where they discovered the plates were connected to a different vehicle.

Mr Browne said that had the bomb gone off there was a “good possibility of people being killed, windows shattered, but not resulting in a building collapse”. Police were also investigating whether there were links between the aborted plot and the botched car bomb attacks at Glasgow airport in 2007. Both involved cars containing propane and petrol that did not explode. The Glasgow attack allegedly had its roots in Iraq.

Another possible motive being explored centres on the cartoon South Park, which outraged many Muslims after a recent episode depicted the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit. The Nissan was parked near the headquarters of Viacom, the owner of Comedy Central which is the channel that airs South Park.

The car, whose number plates had been stolen from a junkyard, entered Times Square at 6.28pm on Saturday. Two minutes after it was parked, with the engine running and its hazard lights flashing, street vendors noticed smoke coming from inside it and alerted police.

The bomb was big but amateurish. Dozens of firecrackers appeared to be intended as a triggering mechanism to light two jugs of petrol, which in turn were meant to cause three tanks of propane, similar to that used in barbecues, to explode. Eight bags of fertiliser had also been placed inside a metal gun locker but the fertiliser was not the right type to cause explosions.

Pakistani man arrested for Times Square bomb - Times Online