WASHINGTON — The Pakistani-born naturalized U.S. citizen who tried to set off a car bomb in New York’s Times Square on May 1 was trained and funded by a Pakistani militant group that works closely with al-Qaida to plot attacks against the U.S., top Obama administration officials said Sunday.
“We’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack,” Attorney General Eric Holder said on ABC’s “This Week.” “We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he was working at their direction.”
Despite the Pakistani Taliban’s claims shortly after the attack that they were responsible, U.S. officials originally said they doubted that was likely, and that Shahzad was acting alone and that it was an isolated incident. The Pakistani Taliban later retracted their claim.
The new assertion was repeated Sunday by senior White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan, who said it appeared that 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad was “operating on behalf of the Tehrik-e-Taliban, the TPP.”
“It’s a group that is closely allied with al-Qaida,” Brennan said on “Fox News Sunday.” “They train together, they plan together, they plot together. They are almost indistinguishable.”
A government source who is close to the investigation said Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban instructed Shahzad to always pay cash and never ask for or receive receipts for his transactions. “He was told to leave no paper trail at all,” said the source, who requested anonymity because FBI interrogations are still under way with the suspect.
“He paid cash for his gun, and he paid cash for the van he acquired,” the source said. “He was told to be very careful about not letting anything track back to him. No receipts, and no paper. No nothing.”
He added that officials were trying to determine how much Taliban money was provided to front the operation, who put up the funds and how it was paid out to Shahzad.
Brennan said Pakistani officials had so far “been very cooperative” in the investigation.
Officials were still investigating the extent of Shahzad’s alleged connection to the Pakistani Taliban, but they believe he was trained during visits to that country. Brennan said he could not comment on whether the group recruited Shahzad because his American passport allowed him to travel easily between the two countries.
Shahzad was arrested as he prepared to leave the country on a flight to the Middle East last Monday.
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