Authorities yesterday were looking for a “person of interest” in the attempted car bombing in Times Square, who was described as a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan who returned after spending several months there.
The man who bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder some two weeks ago for $1,800 in cash, through Craigslist has not been seen by his girlfriend or co-workers since Saturday night, the New York Daily News reported. The man who sold the SUV was not a suspect.
An FBI-led task force took the helm of the investigation yesterday as authorities said forensic evidence found in the car pointed to multiple individuals involved in a plot with international connections.
“This is moving very fast because they left behind a treasure trove of evidence in the unexploded car,” a government official told ABC News.
Congressman Peter King, D-N.Y., the senior Republican on Homeland Security Committee, told the New York Post, “It very well could be a group in this country that is connected to al-Qaida.”
The White House yesterday for the first time used the word terrorism, to describe the incident. “I would say that that was intended to terrorize,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said yesterday in the. “And I would say that whoever did that would be categorized as a terrorist.”
Authorities were still trying to find a man seen changing his shirt near the SUV shortly before the bomb was found.
