Asking Pakistan for help on NY bomber

Washington Post:

As investigators continued questioning Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad on Wednesday, the Obama administration was preparing to deliver to Pakistan a detailed request for urgent and specific assistance on the case.

U.S. officials said that they had reached no firm conclusion about whether Shahzad had ties to any domestic militant group in Pakistan but that information gathered thus far continued to point to the Pakistani Taliban, which has asserted responsibility for the bombing attempt.

The question of which group, if any, was involved is an important one for the future of the uneasy counterterrorism alliance between the United States and Pakistan. The Pakistani military has been waging war against the Pakistani Taliban for more than a year, with U.S. assistance.

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A U.S. counterterrorism official said it was possible that two or more groups had worked together in grooming Shahzad for a terrorist mission during an extended trip he made to Pakistan last year. "There is a serious Venn diagram issue going on here," the official said. U.S. intelligence suspects there is increasing overlap and coordination among domestic Pakistani groups and the Pakistan-based Afghan Taliban and al-Qaeda.

In New York, Shahzad continued his extensive cooperation with members of the FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force, law enforcement officials said. He waived his right to an initial court hearing.

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The official said the administration's goal was to present a detailed request for cooperation to Pakistan by the end of this week.

A senior Pakistani official said that the United States "hasn't done any comprehensive briefing of what they want from us. That doesn't mean they haven't told us what they would like."

So far, the only specific U.S. request has been to interview Shahzad's parents; a Pakistani official said the parents had not been located.

In the Hayatabad township of the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, residents and workers said the couple and close relatives had vanished from their house Tuesday night, although it was unclear whether they had been taken away or had left of their own accord.

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A senior Pakistani official said a person arrested Tuesday in Karachi, Mohammed Rehan, had traveled with Shahzad to Peshawar in July. The official said that Rehan was the Jaish-i-Muhammad chief from Peshawar and that he had been arrested in a Karachi mosque with known links to the organization.

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I do not think his father would approve of an attack on the US. He objected in the past to the son's desire to go to Afghanistan and fight for the Taliban.

He clearly did have help for someone who put him in contact with the Taliban and helped him get the bomb making training. Those are the people of interest. Finding the bomb makers would be the highest priority.

Reuters reports there were some ties between the bomber and a Kashmir group in Pakistan.