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Latest Updates: Times Square bomb investigation
Faisal Shahzad has been charged in association with the Times Square bombing plot.
[Updated at 9:21Â p.m.]Â Authorities in Pakistan have rounded up a number of people for questioning, as U.S. law enforcement sought Wednesday to piece together the actions and motivations of the Times Square car bombing suspect.
Iftikhar Mian, the father-in-law of suspect Faisal Shahzad, and Tauseef Ahmed, Shahzad's friend, were picked up in Karachi on Tuesday, two intelligence officials said.
[Updated at 8:47 p.m.]Â Â An official familiar with the investigation into accused Times Square bomb plotter Faisal Shahzad said Wednesday that Shahzad felt Islam was under attack.
- From CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve
[Updated at 5:19 p.m.]Â The suspect in last Saturday's botched bombing in Times Square was driven last July to a meeting with at least one senior Taliban leader in Pakistan by a man taken into custody Tuesday, a senior Pakistani official said Wednesday.
The official told CNN that Muhammed Rehan, who was detained Tuesday in Karachi, drove Faisal Shahzad on July 7 in a pickup truck to Peshawar.
At some point, they headed to the Waziristan region, where they met with one or more senior Taliban leaders, the official said. Rehan is believed to have links to the militant outfit Jaish-e-Mohammed, which is close to al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban, the official said.
- CNN's Reza Sayah and Samson Desta contributed to this report.
[Updated at 3:12 p.m.] A law enforcement source with knowledge of the investigation tells CNN that investigators found a train receipt showing that Faisal Shahzad got on a train from New York City to Connecticut some 30 minutes after allegedly parking the car bomb in Times Square. This source says investigators believe he ran to catch the train and that the train pulled out around 7p or 7:15p Saturday night. The source is unsure which CT station he ended up at.
[Updated at 2:05 p.m.] The U.S. entity charged with questioning top terrorist suspects is involved in the questioning of Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square car bombing suspect, an administration official said Wednesday.
The official said the High-Value Interrogation Group is participating in the interrogation.
"We will utilize elements of the HIG and other subject-matter experts to best provide support to the questioning and the investigation," the official said.
[Updated at 10:58 a.m.] A Pakistani Taliban spokesman said his group has no link to Times Square car bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad, but he warned that its fighters have been sent to the United States and the "results" of that decision will soon be evident.Azam Tariq, spokesman for the group, told CNN by phone Wednesday that Shahzad's action was "very good."
While it's possible he got training from other groups, Tariq said that Shahzad - suspected of receiving bomb-making training in Pakistan - didn't receive such instruction from his organization, officially known as Tehrik-i Taliban Pakistan.
Tariq said the Pakistani Taliban recently decided that it "will defend Islam by any means necessary" anywhere Muslims are deemed to be in danger.
"Right now America is the biggest enemy of Islam. We have sent our mujahedeen to America and you will soon see the results."
[Updated at 10:14 a.m.] The Connecticut Post obtained documents and the passport of Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad at his home in Shelton, Connecticut.
They also found cards, documents and transcripts from Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., where he attended school in the 1990s.
"The copy of his Pakistani passport shows a picture of a serious-looking young man dressed in a suit and tie. It lists his occupation as a student and his religion as Muslim," the Connecticut Post reported. "The document expired in February 2000. A copy of one entry shows a stamp allowing entry into the United Kingdom good until June 4, 1996 and is stamped Karachi, Pakistan."
The passport obtained by the Connecticut Post shows a young Faisal Shahzad.
[Updated at 10:03 a.m.] The Department of Homeland Security is changing its no-fly list update policies to prevent a repeat of what happened Monday, when the suspect in the Times Square attempted bombing was allowed to board a plane despite his name being on the no-fly list, a DHS official told CNN Wednesday.
[Updated at 8:51 a.m.] Faisal Shahzad knew authorities were on to him, law enforcement sources directly involved in the investigation told CNN. The sources said they believe Shahzad was aware they were closing in on him following news reports that he allegedly bought a car in Connecticut.
When Shahzad was arrested on a plane at JFK airport headed for Dubai, a law enforcement official tells CNN Shahzad knew his escape attempt failed. According to the official, Shahzad told agents "I was expecting you. Are you NYPD or FBI?"
[Updated at 8:33 a.m.] The father-in-law and a friend of the suspect in the Times Square car bombing attempt were among several people detained for questioning in Pakistan in the last two days, sources here told CNN Wednesday.
Iftikhar Mian, the father-in-law of suspect Faisal Shahzad, and Tauseef Ahmed, Shahzad's friend, were picked up in Karachi on Tuesday, two intelligence officials said.
Several officials in Karachi said others have been taken into custody for questioning on Wednesday, but they could not say how many were detained, who they were or where they were seized.
The officials asked not to be named because they are not authorized to speak to the media.
[Posted at 7:06 a.m.] Fireworks used in the attempted car bombing of New York's Times Square were purchased from a store in Pike County in northeastern Pennsylvania, a federal law enforcement source told CNN Tuesday.
The source says the M-88 fireworks Faisal Shahzad is accused of placing in a Nissan Pathfinder were bought at a Phantom Fireworks store in Matamoras.
A complaint filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court says Shahzad made a phone call to an unnamed Pennsylvania fireworks store.
Bruce Zoldan, the president of Phantom Fireworks, which has 55 stores across the country, would not confirm exactly what was purchased, or when, so as not to compromise the investigation. But he did confirm that the Matamoras store sells M-88 Silver Solutes, which are similar to what was found in the Nissan Pathfinder.
Zoldan says his company has been in touch with the FBI from the beginning of the investigation. The company's national security director is a retired member of the FBI, Zoldan says, and is currently dealing with active members of the FBI and exchanging information.
The company's vice president, William Weimer, says the M-88s are legal to purchase by consumers because they have a limited amount of pyrotechnic composition and are not very strong.
"The products simply do not chain detonate as I'm sure the culprit anticipated they would," Weimer said.
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it is related to religion in the sense that these are religious extremists. G.W. called his action to war in Iraq a, "CRUSADE". Only a small percentage of any religion are extremists. Be it a gun toting tea-bagger or a car bombing nut job. Their extreme view of the text the follow is their guideline. If you hope to harm people in the name of a supernatural being, I believe it is more of an issue of serios mental illness.
hang him and bury him with a dead pig
what did the pig do to deserve that, save the bacon. lol
The biggest "joke" about him buying fireworks in PA is that PA residents are not even allowed to enter the store (forget about buying any fireworks). Yet, terrorist can buy them and use them as he pleases... What is wrong with this picture???
America should stopped giving arms and billions to pakistan without knowing what pakistans military is up to,they should go down deep and find out who the real culprit are,and also please bomb all the terrorist camps in Pakistan which are run by their ISI,which truely is the real threat to everyone and who are the masterminds.
Henceforth please do not call pakistan but do call them TERRORISTAN as they are left with only terrorist to export
I am a patriot! I served my country for 4 yrs in Beirut Lebanon. I have promoted joining the military to become a responsible person. I have also had the misfortune of killing another human being to protect the USA. Let me tell you, the rest of your life you think about what you took from someone!!
Now, after all these years with government corruption, the republican party (Bush-Cheny) making so much money. (those guys aren't even behind bars for what they have done!), the resistance to actually open up a conversation with these terrorist organizations, one of the leaders in pollution, the complete disregard of it's citizens, the lying! Do people actually have their ears, eyes and mouth completely shut? Are we all brainwashed to think we are doing the right thing always, without any doubt? Let us all stand on our soap boxes and proclaim our complete righteousness without even putting ourselves in other peoples shoes. Do we actually blame these people for hating us the way they do? I do not agree with their tactics, nor the killing innocent people. But when someone feels cornered, they become very strong!
ferg
You can not stop the hate cycle from the east because they teach it to the children . So that being said is where the change must start otherwise it is all for-not !
Pat Robertson says the oil rig fire is god's punishment for all those lazy welfare recipients along the gulf who didn't participate in boobquake. long live the apartheid in arizona at least I have somewhere to go when obama ruins this country
Here in the UK we had the IRA for nearly 40 years and it didn't once affect my plans, outlook on life or make me paranoid and scared. Also, they was part funded and supplied with weapons fron the USA (and places such as Libya).
What does scare me is the draconian laws our (UK) government has passed for the sake of a few (amateurish) Islamic extremists, that it didn't see fit to pass for ore proffesional and deadly Christian extremists from Ireland. Does make me wonder....
SO this guy looks smug....does he not realize that not only did he try to kill innocent people (like the cowards these terrorist are) but he also failed to do so? So he is a waste of a human being but also a waste of a terrorist. I think we should release him back to his moron buddies....if this is our enemy I'm not sure why we should be scared...
And the analogy to McVey is illogical....McVey wasn't killing for his religion....I don't even know if he had a religion. I'm not saying round up muslims in our country and kick them out but until Muslim extremists stop trying to blow us up why are we giving out visa's and citizenships and allowing travel into our country? Then we complain that the government didn't do enough to stop things like this. Protect us government....but don't stop the enemy from coming and living with us....Americans are dumb.
I completely agree that there need to be harsher penalties for terrorists. If they are willing to kill us , why are we not willing to kill them. I have no compassion for people who think they have a right to end human life, just because there is difference is goverment and
beliefs. So if you come to this country looking to kill, you will get the same in return!
we are only defending ourselves. I agree that there is a lot of history where religion was used to torture and kill innocents. But where does it stop? For us the young generation, the ones who are having kids and hope to bring them in a peaceful country is not fair.
I have no compassion whatsover for terrorists. Kill them all if they come here with intentions to kill the innocent.
The greatest right is; of course, to live in Freedom as an American, yet there are many Natural Rights within that scope really granted by a government won through the service of the Revolutionary-Era soldier and kept in place by others service around the world.
The Locke concept might be balanced by the Moral Relavatism and Kantian theories, but it's value is unprecedented in that the very real outcome is people's initial understanding that they can balance the rights of an individual against the backdrop of representative government and questionable standpoints of other vested interests. This understanding can be both attributed to what is logical and constantly requires our input on an ongoing basis; as well.