Top US security officials used an urgent meeting with Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari to present a dossier on Pakistani-American terror suspect Faisal Shahzad, including his links with the Pakistani Taliban, according to a media report on Wednesday.
The dossier contained “a detailed chart” describing Shahzad’s contacts with the Pakistani Taliban before his attempt to detonate an explosives-laden vehicle in New York City’s Times Square, US officials were quoted as saying in the Los Angeles Times.
The evidence was part of an “emphatic American warning” that there would be “inevitable pressure” on the US to take action if there was an attack traceable to Pakistan that resulted in US casualties, officials familiar with the talks said. The warning was delivered to Mr Zardari by US national security advisor James Jones and CIA chief Leon E. Panetta during a meeting in Islamabad last week.
Mr Panetta said Pakistan needs to “intensify” its crackdown on the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan and other militant groups. The evidence, which included photographs of militants suspected of assisting Shahzad, was shown to Mr Zardari, Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and other Pakistani officials, US officials said. Mr Jones and Mr Panetta attempted to convince the Pakistanis that the US had “hard evidence that Shahzad had received support from the Pakistani Taliban,” the officials said. The chart, assembled by US intelligence agencies, “showed who all he had contacts with”, one official said. The chart drew “clear links between Faisal Shahzad and the TTP leaders in Pakistan”. Mr Jones and Mr Panetta did not spell out action the US might take, an official said. The delegation did not rule out military action but it didn’t talk about it specifically, he said. Officials in Islamabad had initially denied that the Pakistani Taliban was involved in the bombing attempt by Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistan Air Force officer.