05-04-2010, 04:52 AM
[url="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/05/03/officials-reportedly-foreign-plot-times-square-car-bomb/"]American Who Recently Visited Pakistan Eyed in Times Square Bomb Plot[/url]
Quote:Federal authorities have identified person of interest in Saturday night's car bomb attempt in New York City's Times Square, Fox News confirms.
The person is a naturalized American citizen who was in Pakistan for several months and returned to the United States recently, though the person's identity has not been made public.
The latest developments come as a senior administration official confirmed earlier to Fox News that investigators have begun to suspect the failed attack was the work of an international plot. The official could not definitively say whether a foreign conspiracy was behind the incident, but that the body of evidence was moving in that direction.
The Washington Post first reported that officials were eyeing an international connection. One official told the Post that "some tell-tale signs" have led investigators to look at a "foreign nexus."
Police, meanwhile, have interviewed the registered owner of the bomb-laden sports-utility vehicle but say he is not a suspect. CBS News reports that the man told investigators he recently sold the vehicle on Craigslist for $1,300 to someone who looked "Middle Eastern" or "Hispanic." The buyer reportedly paid in $100 bills.
New York City police close down parts of Times Square after a 'failed incendiary device' was found in car.
Sources told Fox News that investigators are focusing on the similarities between the failed attack in New York City and both the 2007 attack on Glasgow's airport in Scotland and the attempted bombing of a London nightclub the same year. Propane gas and gasoline were used in all three incidents.
The administration's assessment came after the White House for the first time clearly defined the attempted attack as an act of terrorism, without saying whether it was the work of a foreign or domestic plot.
"I think anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that that was intended to terrorize. Absolutely," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said when asked by Fox News how the White House would categorize the incident. "And I would say that whoever did that would be categorized as a terrorist. Yes."
Obama administration officials previously stopped short of declaring the incident terrorism.
New York Gov. David Paterson immediately called the attempted attack an "act of terrorism" after police were alerted to the bomb and cleared out Times Square Saturday night. But Attorney General Eric Holder on Monday said it was too early to officially designate the incident as terrorism.