As noted by the New York Times early this morning, a naturalized U.S. citizen of Pakistani origin named Faisal Shahzad, aged 30, was arrested by federal authorities in the attempted car-bombing in Times Square, thwarted on May 1. Shahzad was apprehended on a flight to Dubai that was about to take off from Kennedy Airport. The Los Angeles Times reported that more arrests are to come.
Shahzad was caught by tracing the purchase of the SUV filled with explosives and left on a Manhattan street. He had recently visited his country of birth, and his arrest lends credibility to the claim by Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the branch of the Afghan terrorist movement operating there, that they planted the unsuccessful car-bomb. TTP has threatened a campaign of attacks in American cities.
