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'I was expecting you,' bombing suspect tells agents
By: cnn.comPosted On: 05/05/2010 11:21 A
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The Times Square car bomb suspect sensed authorities were closing in on him in the hours leading up to his arrest, law enforcement sources told CNN on Wednesday.
The Times Square car bomb suspect sensed authorities were closing in on him in the hours leading up to his arrest, law enforcement sources told CNN on Wednesday.
"I was expecting you. Are you NYPD or FBI?" Faisal Shahzad asked a law enforcement official when he was seized on a plane late Monday -- a dramatic arrest minutes before the Emirates passenger jet was to depart from John F. Kennedy International Airport for Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
The sources, directly involved in the investigation of the botched bombing attempt on Saturday night, told CNN that Shahzad suspected authorities were on to him after news reports that he allegedly bought a vehicle in Connecticut.
Shahzad, arrested by New York detectives and FBI agents, is now in federal custody.
He was able to board Emirates Flight 202 late Monday despite being put on a no-fly list earlier in the day, leading some to question whether the no-fly list worked.
A Department of Homeland Security official told CNN Wednesday the agency is changing its no-fly list update policies to prevent a repeat of what happened Monday.
The official said the Transportation Security Administration will require airlines to check the no-fly list within two hours of being electronically notified of additions or changes. Previously, airlines were required to re-check the list within 24 hours.
Shahzad made his reservation by phone as he drove to the airport just hours before the flight, investigators said. When he paid for his ticket in cash at the ticket counter, the airline had not refreshed its information, so his name did not raise any red flags, a senior counterterrorism official told CNN.
Shahzad was arrested shortly before midnight Monday after U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which reviews all flight manifests, caught his name when the airline sent the agency its passenger list, according to the counterterrorism official.
Authorities had tailed Shahzad throughout the day, but lost him before he arrived at the airport, the official said.
An FBI official said surveillance operations are designed with redundancies in place, and that agents had to avoid tipping off Shahzad that he was being followed.
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