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Posted: 5:23 a.m. Saturday, May 8, 2010
NEW YORK (AP) The
Pakistani-American who police say admitted to igniting a failed car bomb in busy
Times Square has made no court appearance since his arrest early this week and,
though he is cooperating, authorities remain unsure he was acting alone.
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly declined Friday to
discuss what Faisal Shahzad is telling investigators, including what his motives
were. He was arrested Monday aboard a Dubai-bound plane two days after the
nighttime bomb scare cleared several blocks of the bustling district.
``This individual is cooperating. In these types of situations, you let
the information flow, so to speak,'' Kelly said.
Police have
surveillance images of Shahzad around Times Square and video that shows his car
traveling to the spot where they say he left a smoking sport utility vehicle May
1 rigged with a gasoline-and-propane bomb.
Law enforcement officials say
they are trying to find links between the Bridgeport, Conn., man and possible
financing sources, including the Pakistani Taliban, which has both claimed
responsibility for and denied roles in the botched bombing.
A money
courier was being sought who may have funneled cash to the 30-year-old budget
analyst, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. The official
spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
Gen. David Petraeus, head of U.S. Central Command, said Friday the Times
Square suspect had apparently operated as a ``lone wolf'' who did not work with
other terrorists. Petraeus said in a statement to the AP that the alleged
perpetrator was inspired by militants in Pakistan but didn't necessarily have
direct contact with them.
Investigators believe Shahzad had some
bomb-making training in Pakistan as he claimed to investigators, and his
training may have been sponsored in part by the Pakistani Taliban, a senior
military official told the AP. But it was not clear where the training took
place nor the quality of it, the official told the AP on the condition of
anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Shahzad has told
investigators that he trained in the lawless tribal areas of Waziristan, where
both al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban operate, and that he came up with the
attack plan himself.
Investigators have not been able to establish
whether Shahzad was recruited for the Times Square operation by the Pakistani
Taliban or another militant group or whether Shahzad came up with the attack
plan himself, the official said.
American officials have been quoted as
saying they believe the Pakistani Taliban, which has no history of attacks on
U.S. soil, had a role in the Times Square plot, either in funding or motivating
and training.
Half a world away Friday, police cleared the streets
around Times Square and called in the bomb squad to dismantle what turned out to
be a cooler full of water bottles. Earlier in the day, police were called in to
check a suspicious package that turned out to be someone's lunch.
Since
the bomb scare in the heart of the city, false-alarm calls are up dramatically,
nerves are jangled, and media and law enforcement are rushing to the scenes to
make sure the reports aren't something bigger.
More than 600 calls came
in since the attempted car bombing a week ago about 30 percent higher than
normal, police said.
Times Square vendor Walter ``Candyman'' Wells said
the constant scares aroused more suspicion.
``I think they're testing
us, whoever is doing this,'' Wells said, sitting on a stool near his table of
T-shirts. ``They're playing chess with us right now, but they ain't gonna win.
'Cause we're the Bobby Fischers.''
Associated Press writers Kimberly
Dozier in Washington and Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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