Authorities have arrested a Connecticut resident whom they believe was the bomber in Saturday’s attempted terror attack upon Times Square.

Faisal Shahzad, 30, a naturalized US citizen of Pakistan, was apprehended trying to board a flight headed to Dubai from New York John F. Kennedy airport.  Two other passengers, yet unnamed by law enforcement authorities, were also removed from the flight.

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Federal law enforcement authorities were able to track Shahzad as the owner of the Nissan Pathfinder used as an unsuccessful car bomb. The vehicle’s VIN number was scratched off the dashboard, and the license plate was swapped for one in a junkyard, but investigators found the number on the SUV’s axle and engine block.

The former owner informed police that he sold the SUV to Shahzad three weeks before for cash and without paperwork. The owner had email saved tying Shahzad to the purchase.

While elements of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the act, as retribution against the United States for the deaths of high ranking  al-Qaeda leaders, both New York mayor Michael Bloomberg and police commissioner Ray Kelly told Al Jazeera that they had no evidence to support the claim.

Unnamed White house officials were quoted by the Washington Post as saying that evidence did support that several people were involved in the plot, with international links, but that they did not necessarily mean al-Qaeda was involved.