Authorities seek man tied to Pakistan

May 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Newsday

NEW YORK

Authorities have identified the buyer of the SUV used in a failed Times Square terror attack and are seeking him as a potential suspect, two law-enforcement officials said Monday.

The buyer is a man of Pakistani descent who recently traveled to Pakistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is at a sensitive stage.

The officials say the man is a Connecticut resident who paid cash weeks ago for the SUV parked in Times Square on Saturday and rigged with a crude propane-and- gasoline bomb.

The car’s last registered owner was questioned Sunday by investigators, and he said he sold the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder to a man he did not know three weeks ago, one official said.

Officials say the owner, whose name has not been released, is not considered a suspect in the bomb scare. But the revelation of the sale led authorities one step closer to whoever was aiming for mass carnage on a busy Saturday night in the heart of Times Square.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed Monday that investigators had spoken to the registered owner.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from the Pathfinder’s dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner on record.

“The discovery of the VIN on the engine block was pivotal in that it led to identifying the registered owner,” Browne said. “It continues to pay dividends.”

Investigators tracked the license plates to a used auto-parts shop in Stratford, Conn., where they discovered the plates were connected to a different vehicle.

They also spoke to the owner of an auto-sales shop in nearby Bridgeport because a sticker on the Pathfinder indicated the SUV had been sold by his dealership. Owner Tom Manis said there was no match between the identification number the officers showed him and any vehicle he sold.

In New York, police and FBI examined hundreds of hours of video from around the area. They initially had wanted to speak with a man in his 40s who was videotaped shedding his shirt near the Pathfinder but backed away as the buyer became clear.