Terrorism charges filed against NY bomb suspect
AFP
NEW YORK- US prosecutors filed terrorism charges Tuesday against Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-American accused of planting a car bomb in New York's Times Square.
The 10-page criminal complaint accuses Shahzad, 30, of attempting "to use a weapon of mass destruction" to kill people in the crowded center of New York on Saturday.
An image of Faisal Shahzad is seen on a TV screen as US Attorney General Eric Holder, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, Deputy Director of the FBI John S. Pistole and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly hold a brief
The criminal complaint detailed elements of the investigation against Shahzad, who was captured on Sunday as he tried to fly out of New York to Dubai.
The document said that Shahzad admitted receiving training in bomb-making in Pakistan's unruly Waziristan region, a key hub for Taliban and Al-Qaeda militants.
Shahzad, a naturalized US citizen, flew back to the United States on February 3 on a one-way ticket, leaving his wife behind in Pakistan.
The complaint said that Shahzad told immigration authorities he had spent five months in Pakistan visiting his parents and that he planned to stay at a motel in Connecticut as he found work.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, speaking earlier at a news conference in Washington, said that Shahzad had been questioned on his return to the United States as he had set off a trigger for additional screening.
The criminal complaint said that Shahzad bought the Nissan Pathfinder, which he would later use in the car bomb, after finding an advertisement on the Internet.
Shahzad met the seller at a supermarket parking lot in Connecticut on April 24. The Pakistani-American arrived in an Isuzu Rodeo with tinted windows and paid the 1,300 dollars in 100-dollar bills, declining to do paperwork for the transaction.
Investigators later helped identify Shahzad through a sketch artist.
The criminal complaint said that Shahzad carried a pre-paid cellular telephone and that he was receiving regular phone calls from Pakistan when completing the purchase of the Pathfinder.
He also telephoned a store in Pennsylvania that sold M-88 fireworks, one of the explosives in the failed car bomb, the complaint said.
Shahzad left a key to his Connecticut home in the Pathfinder, the complaint said, adding that investigators found bomb-making equipment when they searched it.
The criminal complaint said that Shahzad drove a different car from Times Square to John F. Kennedy International Airport -- and told investigators he had a gun inside it.
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