WASHINGTON, May 9 � The Pakistani Taliban was �intimately involved� in the failed Times Square bombing blamed on the Pakistani-American suspect Faisal Shahzad, two top US officials said Sunday, reports IANS.
The Taliban in Pakistan �directed this plot�, Attorney General Eric Holder told NBC�s �Meet the Press� and ABC�s �This Week� talk shows.
The Taliban also planned and perhaps financed the plot, he said. �We�ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack.
�We know that they (Pakistani Taliban) helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that he (Shahzad) was working at their direction.�
The attorney general also said he believes there are constitutional problems with a proposal to take away the citizenship of Americans working for foreign terrorist organisations and of lone-wolf terrorists.
Earlier President Barack Obama�s top terrorism adviser told CNN�s �State of the Union� that Shahzad was likely working with the militant Taliban movement in Pakistan.
John Brennan, the assistant to the president for counter-terrorism and homeland security, said that the ongoing investigation pointed to Shahzad having links to Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The militant group is believed to be hiding senior Al Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
�It looks like he was working on behalf of the Pakistani Taliban,� Brennan said. The finding �underscores the serious threat that we face from a very determined enemy�, he said.
Pakistan-born Shahzad, who became a naturalised US citizen last year, spent five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack.
The suspect has told investigators that he trained in areas of Waziristan, known as a hotbed of terrorism where both Al Qaeda and the Pakistani Taliban operate.
Shahzad was arrested when he was about to flee to his homeland. He was picked up from an Emirates Airlines jet in New York just minutes before it was scheduled to take off for Dubai.
The finding could increase US pressure on Pakistan to clamp down on the terrorist network. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has already warned Pakistan that if a terror attack like the New York bombing were to be successful and found to be originated from that country, �there would be very severe consequences�.
