The US has asked Pakistan for help investigating a failed plot to bomb New York’s Times Square, the Washington Post reported yesterday, as investigators kept questioning a Pakistani-American charged in the case.
Washington was preparing a detailed request for urgent and specific assistance in the investigation to be presented by the end of the week, the Post reported, quoting an official in US President Barack Obama’s administration.
So far, the US had only asked to interview the parents of the suspect, the newspaper said, quoting a Pakistani official as saying the parents had not been located.
US investigators see credible signs the Pakistani Taliban movement had links to the the suspect, Faisal Shahzad, in the attempted car bombing, US officials said.
US investigators were taking “a hard look” at the possible links between the suspect and Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), suggesting there was a growing body of intelligence pointing in that direction, a US official said on Wednesday.
“TTP is entirely plausible, but we’re not ruling out other groups,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “It’s important to develop a complete intelligence picture before reaching any final conclusion, but all the brush strokes aren’t there yet.”
In a sign of heightened security in the US’ most populous city since the failed bomb attempt on Saturday, authorities shut down New York’s busy Triborough Bridge on Wednesday night after a rental truck was found abandoned and smelling of gas.
No bomb was found in the truck.
Shahzad, who US prosecutors say admitted driving a car bomb into Times Square waived his right to an initial court appearance on Wednesday to keep talking to investigators, sources said.
Shahzad, 30, who was born in Pakistan and became a US citizen last year, has been charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and trying to kill and maim people within the US, as well as other counts.
The Taliban in Pakistan has claimed responsibility for the plot.
Drones operated by the CIA have targeted Taliban figures in Pakistan’s tribal areas and the group has vowed to avenge missile strikes that have killed some of its leaders. If confirmed that the group sponsored the failed bombing in New York, it would be their first attack on US soil.
US prosecutors said Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal, had admitted to receiving bomb-making training in a Taliban and al-Qaeda stronghold in Pakistan. A law enforcement source said investigators believed the Pakistani Taliban financed that training.
Street vendors alerted police to a smoking vehicle parked awkwardly in Times Square on Saturday evening with its engine running and hazard lights flashing. Thousands of people were evacuated and a police bomb squad defused the crude device, which included firecrackers and propane gas tanks.
Shahzad was arrested on Monday night after he was removed from an Emirates plane at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport that was about to depart for Dubai. He had been on his way back to Pakistan.
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