The FBI conducted raids on homes in the Northeast, including ones near Boston and on Long Island, this morning, as part of its investigation into the Times Square terror plot. FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz told the Boston Globe, "there's no known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States... The searches are the product of evidence that has been gathered in the investigation" so far.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko told Newsday, "Two search warrants were executed in Long Island in furtherance of the ongoing Times Square investigation," but didn't really give any details, "The leads in the investigation led us to these two locations."
The manager of a Watertown, MA property that was raided said that his first floor tenants were some Pakistani men who had lived there for "more than two to three years" and who recently mentioned visiting Pakistan, "They seemed to be very good people. They paid the rent on time... The impression that I got is they're working people, making their daily livelihood by driving a taxi and working in a store." A neighbor said that around 6 a.m., he heard someone shouting, "FBI, don't move, put your hands up!" and saw 20 agents with guns drawn, "pointed at the house."
Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani man who became a naturalized American citizen, was arrested for allegedly building a car bomb and leaving it in Times Square on May 1. He is reportedly cooperating with investigators, who suspect the Pakistani Taliban is involved. Shahzad was mostly recently living in Bridgeport, CT.
