Faisal Shahzad, the Pakistani-American arrested for the failed Times Square bombing, carefully selected his location as a highly populated target and intended to strike again if he was not caught the first time, prosecutors have said.
According to a sentencing memo submitted to a federal court on Wednesday, Shahzad stated that 'if he had not been arrested he planned to detonate a second bomb in New York City two weeks later.'
The memo further stated that Shahzad found webcams online and studied the real-time video feeds of different areas in Times Square to determine when and where he could inflict the most damage, CNN reported.
The memo said that Shahzad believed that his attempt would kill 40 people and "wanted to select the busiest time for pedestrian traffic in Times Square because pedestrians walking on the streets would be easier to kill and to injure than people driving in cars."
In June, Shahzad pleaded guilty to trying to detonate a car bomb hidden in a Nissan Pathfinder in May 1 near the Times Square in New York.
While pleading guilty on ten terror and weapons charges, Shahzad described himself as a "Muslim soldier" and warned that the United States would face more attacks if they continued operations in "Muslim lands".
"I want to plead guilty, and Im going to plead guilty 100 times over because until the hour the US pulls its forces from Iraq and Afghanistan, and stops the drone strikes in Somalia and Yemen and in Pakistan, and stops the occupation of Muslim lands, and stops killing the Muslims, and stops reporting the Muslims to its government, we will be attacking US, and I plead guilty to that," Shahzad had said while pleading guilty.
Shahzad was apprehended two days later trying to flee the US and his sentencing has been set for October 5.
