Faisal Shahzad (Urdu: فیصل شہزاد; born June 30, 1979) is a Pakistani-American citizen who was arrested for the attempted May 1, 2010, Times Square car bombing.

The United States Attorney indicated there was no plea deal, so Shahzad faced the maximum sentence, a mandatory life term.

A federal complaint was filed on May 4, alleging that Shahzad committed five terrorism-related crimes, including the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

[6][13] Shahzad admitted to receiving training in bomb-making at a camp run by the Taliban in the Waziristan region in Pakistan along the Afghan border.

[22][23] He had begun as a common airman, but became a fighter pilot excelling in aerobatics, and was posted in England and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

[15][26] The New York Times reported that Shahzad's life seems to have followed a "familiar narrative about radicalization in the West: his anger toward his adopted country seemed to have grown in lockstep with his personal struggles.

"[15]Shahzad's family moved with his father's military postings, and the boy attended primary school in Saudi Arabia, according to documents found outside his Shelton home.

[15] LaMonica was interviewed afterward by Joint Terrorism Task Force investigators regarding details of the transactions and information about Shahzad.

[15][32][44] From mid-June 2006 to June 2009, Shahzad worked as a junior financial analyst, a position he told a friend paid $70,000, for Affinion Group, an affinity marketing and consulting business[45] then located at 100 Connecticut Avenue, Norwalk.

[32] His marriage became strained in 2009 as he pressured his wife Huma to wear a hijab and insisted that the family return to live in Pakistan while he searched for a job in the Middle East.

[15] On June 2, he telephoned his wife from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, saying he was leaving for Pakistan, and it was her choice whether or not to follow him.

[15] Writing that he understood that Islam forbids killing innocents, he asked those who insisted on peaceful protest, "Can you tell me a way to save the oppressed?

[48] Time suggested that his family's background in northwestern Pakistan meant that Shahzad likely spoke Pashto, a rare asset for a Western volunteer in the training camps.

[54] Emirates airline agents did not check the no-fly list for added names at 6:30 p.m. when Shahzad made a reservation, or at 7:35 p.m. when he purchased the ticket at the airport with cash.

[54] Shortly after the arrest, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, "Based on what we know so far, it is clear that this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering Americans in one of the busiest places in our country".

[55][56] According to Deputy FBI Director John Pistole, Shahzad was initially interrogated under the public safety exception to the Miranda rule and cooperated with authorities.

[57] The FBI and NYPD searched Shahzad's Bridgeport, Connecticut home on May 4, at Sheridan Street and Boston Avenue, removing filled plastic bags.

His car at the airport held a 9 mm Kel-Tec SUB-2000 carbine with five full magazines of ammunition, according to law enforcement officials.

[8] On May 9, Attorney General Holder announced pending Obama Administration Miranda-warning legislation in the context of the Shahzad case.

[60] It was reported that Pakistani authorities arrested a number of suspects in the investigation of the attempted car bombing, including two or three people at a house in Pakistan where Shahzad is said to have stayed.

[55] Pakistani intelligence officials said a man named Tauseef, a friend of Shahzad, was detained in Karachi in connection with the case.

[10] Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat, said Pakistani officials arrested "alleged facilitators" as part of a "far broader investigation".

[63][64] According to CBS News, Shahzad has been on the Department of Homeland Security travel lookout list since 1999 because he has been bringing in large amounts of cash (approximately $80,000) into the United States.

[67] Via the Internet, Shahzad contacted al-Awlaki, Baitullah Mehsud, of the Pakistan Taliban (who was killed in a drone strike in 2009); and a web of jihadists, ABC News reported.

[68][69] According to a report of Al Arabiya, Shahzad had recorded a suicide video in which he declared that he planned the attack as revenge for the U.S. war in Afghanistan.

In this video, made before his attempted May 1 attack, Shahzad was dressed in traditional, tribal Pashtun clothing and was sitting with an assault rifle.

"[70][71] On October 5, 2010, Shahzad was convicted and sentenced by federal judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum of the Southern District of New York to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.

"[80][81] Shahzad is serving his life sentence at ADX Florence, a supermax facility in Colorado where the most dangerous male inmates in the federal prison system are held.