The relatively quick arrest in the botched May 1 Times Square bombing temporarily quieted the political sparring over national security policies.
But the cease-fire has now ended. Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, says he doesn’t yet buy the Obama administration’s claim that the alleged bomber, Faisal Shahzad, was trained, directed and likely financed by Pakistani Taliban militants.
Attorney General Eric Holder, said in televised interviews Sunday that Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-born American, was working at the direction of the group known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. Holder’s appearance was part of a high-visibility administration response to the Times Square incident, which contrasted with the administration’s previous handling of other terrorism cases.
Bond emerged Tuesday from a briefing arranged by the Justice Department for members of the intelligence panel and said he’s “not convinced by the information I’ve seen so far that there was adequate confirmable intelligence” to make the Pakistani Taliban connection.