Dashing hopes that the perpetrator would turn out to be a “right-wing extremist.” “NY bomber confesses in terrorism plot: officials,” by Sebastian Smith for AFP, May 4:
NEW YORK (AFP) – A Pakistani-American man arrested as he tried to flee the country has confessed to the failed bomb in New York’s Times Square and will be charged with international terrorism, US officials said Tuesday.
Faisal Shahzad had “provided valuable intelligence and evidence” to interrogators,” said FBI Director John Pistole.
Officials suggest the plot, initially believed by analysts to resemble a “lone-wolf” attack, in fact stretched all the way to Pakistan, where Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen, was born.
In Karachi, security officials said they had detained two people based on telephone records connecting them to Shahzad. An official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pair were related to the New York suspect.
Shahzad will be charged with “an act of terrorism transcending national borders, attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction,” Attorney General Eric Holder said.
Asked at a press conference if Shahzad, 30, had confessed to involvement in Saturday’s attempted car bomb attack, Holder said: “He has, he has done that.”…
Officials said they were now pursuing leads on whether Shahzad had ties to radical groups in the United States or overseas.
All night, the FBI searched the suspect’s home in Bridgeport, Connecticut, hauling belongings into the street and marking evidence with yellow tags.
According to US television news reports, the suspect had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan and the city of Peshawar, a hotbed for Al-Qaeda and Taliban recruits….
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also said, “We are working closely with the government of Pakistan regarding the ongoing investigation of the bomb plot in Times Square.”…