Taliban said to shift focus on U.S. targets

WASHINGTON - The failed bombing in Times Square is a possible signal militant leaders in Pakistan have shifted their focus to targets in the United States and other Western countries instead of sticking to their home base, according to U.S. counterterrorism officials.

The attack, they also warned, could be only the first by terrorist groups seeking to avoid detection by using simpler methods that are more independently planned. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the case publicly.

In Pakistan on Saturday, a spokesman for the Taliban claimed they were set to launch new attacks and had dispatched suicide bombers to the United States. Azam Tariq, a spokesman for the Pakistani Taliban, told The Associated Press the attacks would avenge U.S. drone bombings in tribal areas close to the Afghan border.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told CBS' "60 Minutes" Washington expects more cooperation from Pakistan in fighting terrorism. There will be "severe consequences" if an attack on U.S. soil were traced back to the South Asian country, she said.

U.S. investigators and intelligence agencies are trying to establish whether accused bomber Faisal Shahzad was trained or recruited for the Times Square operation by any Pakistan-based terrorist organization. Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, spent five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February.

An FBI team landed Friday in Islamabad, where the FBI has a legal attache office that works with Pakistani law enforcement and intelligence officers, Pakistani officials said.

Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Islamabad had received a formal request for an investigation from the United States that said Shahzad met Qari Hussain and Hakimullah Mehsud. Mehsud is the head of the Pakistani Taliban, while Hussain is the group's chief bomb maker who is also in charge of recruiting suicide attackers.

Malik said Pakistani authorities needed to verify the information. Only Pakistani investigators can interview Shahzad's relatives and other associates. "Pakistan's government will not allow any outside investigators to investigate our people," he said.