Holder: Pakistani Taliban ‘intimately involved’ in Times Square bomb plot

Holder: Pakistani Taliban behind Times Square plot

WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric Holder says the Pakistani Taliban was “intimately involved” in the failed Times Square bombing.

Holder says the Taliban in Pakistan “directed this plot.” A U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, Faisal Shahzad is accused of spending five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack.

Holder says the Taliban also planned and perhaps financed the plot. Shahzad’s bomb failed to explode.

The attorney general also said he believes there are constitutional problems with a proposal to take away the citizenship of Americans working for foreign terrorist organizations and of lone-wolf terrorists.

Bipartisan legislation on the citizenship question was introduced Thursday in both houses of Congress.

Holder spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and ABC’s “This Week.”