[Cindy]

LONG WAR JOURNAL.org: "TIMES SQUARE BOMBING SUSPECT TRAINED IN PAKISTAN'S NORTH WAZIRISTAN" by Bill Roggio (SNIPPET: "A Pakistani intelligence official told the Express Tribune that Shahzad may have trained in a terror camp in Kohat, a district in Pakistan's northwestern province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Al Qaeda and the Taliban were known to have operated 157 training camps in the province and the tribal areas as of the summer of 2008. Further links between Shahzad and Pakistan have emerged over the past 24 hours. Pakistani authorities have reportedly detained nearly a dozen people associated with Shahzad, most of whom are friends or family members. Among those detained are a friend named Mohammed Rehan, according to The Telegraph, and another named Tauseef, according to the Associated Press. Rehan is said to have been detained at a Karachi mosque that is associated with the al Qaeda and Taliban-linked Jaish-e-Mohammed.") (May 4, 2010, 6:21 pm)

[Cindy]

http://www.longwarjournal.org/threat-matrix/archives/2010/05/times_square_bomber_met_with_q.php

“Qari Hussain met with Times Square bomber: Report”
By BILL ROGGIO
May 5, 2010 12:30 PM

SNIPPET: “According to AKI, Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American in custody who admitted to carrying out the failed Times Square bomb plot, had met with Qari Hussain Mehsud, the Taliban’s top trainer of suicide bombers:

Officials believe 30-year-old Shahzad, a Karachi-born Pushtun, had no relationship with any militant organisation, until Rehan put him in contact with Qari Hussain Mehsud, the chief of the Pakistani Taliban’s suicide squad and explosives expert.
Hussain is believed to have provided training to Shahzad on improvised explosives on a recent visit to Pakistan.

I have heard a similar report from a US intelligence official but have not been able to confirm this, so the AKI report is very interesting. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a video of Shahzad flanked by Qari Hussain or Taliban leader Hakeemullah Mehsud.

Qari Hussain took credit for the planned Times Square attack in an audiotape that appeared on a YouTube site created by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel on April 30, just one day before the attack. Qari Hussain’s audiotape was uploaded on April 30, the same day the Taliban news channel was created.”