Who Is Faisal Shahzad? 4 Key Questions

(May 4) -- Late Monday night, U.S. Customs agents arrested Faisal Shahzad for the failed car-bombing attempt in New York City's Times Square. The 30-year-old Pakistani-American man has since confessed to procuring explosives and planting them in an SUV and is facing arraignment in a Manhattan court later today on terrorism charges.

In the meantime, the media, like investigators, remain hot on Shahzad's trail. As the details of his background emerge, so too have several key questions:

1. Who Is He Really?

Before the bombing attempt, Shahzad was "living with a roommate in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multifamily homes in Bridgeport, Conn.," reports CBS. Before that, he apparently resided in Shelton, Conn., "for several years" with his wife and young son and daughter. But in May 2009, the family lost their house to foreclosure and began "selling their belongings on Craigslist," according to local news channel WTNH 8. Many items they couldn't unload were apparently left behind once the Shahzads moved out, and his wife is now "believed to be living in Karachi, Pakistan, with relatives" according to the BBC.

During his time in Shelton, neighbors observed that Shahzad was "a little bit strange" and "didn't like to come out during the day," but was otherwise polite and peaceable. Several neighbors had distinctly different impressions of where he worked and what kind of work it was, with one believing he was based on Wall Street and another out of Norwalk, Conn. CBS reports that he "gave the impression of a quiet family man." The Wall Street Journal notes that he was granted an F-1 student visa in 1998 and attended Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., before transferring to the University of Bridgeport, where he majored in computer science and engineering. As AOL News observed after the failed "underpants bomb" attempt on Christmas last year, European sociologists have shown that a remarkable number of terrorism suspects have engineering degrees.

2. Trained Agent or Incompetent Amateur?

Media coverage has gone back and forth on this point, with most suggesting that the facts -- the bomb was crudely assembled and failed to detonate, and Shahzad was traced via cell phone and picked up just over 48 hours after the bombing attempt -- indicate his amateurishness and lack of experience. However, as others across the blogosphere have pointed out, Shahzad in fact came quite close to escaping the country to Dubai, and his initial efforts to conceal the car bomb and his identity suggest perhaps a more deliberate plot, one unbefitting an utter greenhorn.

3. Is He Connected to the Pakistani Taliban?

Shahzad was born in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city. He became a naturalized U.S. citizen just over a year ago, in April 2009. Yet according to The Wall Street Journal, he traveled back to Pakistan just a few months later to the city of Peshawar, in an area marked by fierce conflict between the Pakistani army and militants and where "a number of Afghan Taliban leaders are believed to be."

A statement claiming responsibility for the failed attack by someone purporting to represent the Pakistani Taliban was posted to Mulsm.net hours after the scare. Two videotapes also briefly surfaced, with voice-overs reaffirming the Pakistani Taliban's purported connection. But still another member of the group has since refuted the legitimacy of these releases, and Shahzad himself has so far steadfastly denied any connections, telling investigators he "acted alone." And it could be that his trip to Pakistan is a red herring as far as signs of a larger plot are concerned. The Christian Science Monitor reports, "Over the past year, police have arrested on terror charges a string of American residents who journeyed to Pakistan to try to meet anti-Western militant groups" -- but most have had limited or no success in securing the militants' support.

4. Who Else and How Many?

Despite (or perhaps because of) Shahzad's claims to authorities that he "acted alone," law enforcement officials continue to round up other "persons of interest." Two other men were picked up with Shahzad from the Dubai-bound Emirates Flight K202 on Monday but have since been released. Meanwhile, several people have been arrested in Karachi, reportedly in connection with the Times Square bomb attempt.