Timeline: Faisal Shahzad, from Pakistan to the U.S.

December 1998. Faisal Shahzad, son of a former top Pakistani air force officer, comes to the United States on a student visa.

2000. Shahzad graduates from the University of Bridgeport with a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems.

2001. Shahzad works as a temp for an accounting agency. Among the firms he temps at is Elizabeth Arden in Stamford, Conn.

2004. Shahzad and the woman he marries, Huma Mian, an American citizen, buy a single-family, two-story house on Long Hill Road in Shelton, Conn. Former neighbors there say the couple has two children, a boy and a girl, and live there until spring 2009.

2005. Shahzad earns a master's degree in business administration from the University of Bridgeport.

April 17, 2009. Shahzad becomes a naturalized United States citizen.

June or September 2009. Shahzad leaves the United States for Pakistan.

Feb. 3, 2010. Shahzad tells authorities, upon arrival at Kennedy Airport on a one-way ticket from Pakistan, that he was in Pakistan for five months visiting his parents. At an immigration inspection, Shahzad says he plans to stay in a motel in Connecticut while looking for a job and a place to live. He says his wife remained in Pakistan.

Late winter. Shahzad moves into a three-story duplex on Sheridan Street in a run-down section of Bridgeport, Conn.

April. Shahzad's former house in Shelton is in the final stages of foreclosure, with about $212,100 owed on the property. The bank is set to own the house on Monday if the debt is not paid.

Mid-April. Shahzad uses a prepaid Verizon Wireless cell phone activated April 16 to call the seller of a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder who had posted ads on several Web sites. The two agree to meet in a supermarket parking lot in Connecticut on the morning of April 24.

April 22-24. Twelve calls are made from Shahzad's cell phone to the Pathfinder's seller. Five of the calls are made on April 24.

April 24. In the morning, Shahzad's cell phone receives four calls from a number in Pakistan that is associated with Shahzad. He arrives at the supermarket parking lot in a black 1994 Isuzu Rodeo that is registered to him. He inspects the Pathfinder's interior and cargo section. In the afternoon, he takes it for a test drive. He pays for the vehicle with 13 $100 bills and drives away in it, leaving the Isuzu behind.

April 25. At 9:43 a.m., a call is made from Shahzad's cell to a rural Pennsylvania store that sells M-88 fireworks.

Saturday, 6:28 p.m. On a busy Saturday night in Times Square, surveillance cameras capture the image of the Nissan Pathfinder entering West 45th Street between Broadway and Eighth Avenue.

6:30 p.m. A Times Square street vendor alerts police to smoke coming from the Pathfinder, parked at Seventh Avenue and 45th Street.

6:40 to 11:30 p.m. Firefighters and police respond. Inside, police find three full 20-gallon propane tanks, 152 M-88 fireworks, several white bags containing fertilizer, two red 5-gallon gasoline canisters containing gasoline, two alarm clocks with wires rigged as a crude timing device, three residential keys and a key to an Isuzu. The NYPD's bomb squad defuses the device.

11:30 p.m. The Pathfinder is towed to the NYPD's forensic garage for examination. The license plate on the Pathfinder does not match the Vehicle Identification Number number assigned to the vehicle. But detectives find the Pathfinder's VIN on the bottom of the engine block. That leads authorities to the person who sold the vehicle to Shahzad.

Sunday morning. The seller of the Nissan Pathfinder - a 19-year-old Bridgeport woman - identifies Shahzad as the buyer from a police sketch. The woman also gives authorities a cell phone number for the vehicle's buyer.

Sunday night. Authorities had identified Shahzad as the buyer.

Monday, before 11 a.m. The seller IDs Shahzad from a photo array.

Monday afternoon. Officials place Shahzad's name on a no-fly list. Agents with the Joint Terrorism Task Force interview the landlord at Shahzad's Sheridan Street residence. The landlord tells them he saw Shahzad go into the garage and that he spotted bags of fertilizer inside.

Monday night. Shahzad drives from Bridgeport to Kennedy Airport and pays cash for a one-way ticket on an 11 p.m. Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai. The cash purchase and the destination both are red flags for possible terrorist activity. The airline contacts law enforcement.

Monday, 11:45 p.m. Shahzad is belted into his seat on Emirates Flight 202. The jet is stopped and boarded by authorities, who take him into custody. After his arrest, Shahzad states he recently had bomb-making training in Waziristan, a region of Pakistan. He admits to driving the Pathfinder to Times Square and attempting to detonate it.