Airlines To Check No-fly Lists Within 2 Hours of Notification

The Obama administration plugged the loophole Wednesday in its terrorist no-fly list rules that allowed the Times Square bombing suspect to board an international flight before he was arrested.

But gaps remained in the government’s explanation of how suspect Faisal Shahzad managed to give the slip to officers who had him under surveillance at his Connecticut apartment as early as Monday afternoon. He was gone for hours without investigators knowing he was missing.

The change in no-fly list rules came as federal investigators conducted a second day of interviews with Mr. Shahzad, the 30-year-old Pakistani-born American citizen. He waived his right to appear in court for arraignment so he could continue cooperating with authorities, people familiar with the matter said.

Investigators believe Mr. Shahzad was plotting his attack as early as March, according to New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. On Feb. 3, Mr. Shahzad returned to the U.S. from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he received training in bomb-making at a militant camp in the Waziristan region, near the Afghanistan border, according to his statements to investigators cited in a federal criminal complaint against him.

Source WSJ