New York: How did New York car bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad, whose house had been foreclosed, get the money to buy a car, load it with explosives and attempt a bombing in Times Square?
That's the questions authorities were asking when they carried out raids in three states across the US - Boston, New Jersey and New York on Thursday.
Three Pakistani men were arrested in these raids but so far they have reportedly only been held on immigration violations.
"They brought out a man. He was a Middle Eastern man...and they walked him across the street where there was a car parked there. An agent with ICE written on the back of his jacket...and they put the suspect in the car and they took him away," said Vincent Lacerra, an eyewitness to the raids.
Authorities have been quick to clarify that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) raids were not prompted by a fresh terror threat
"These searches are the product of evidence that has been gathered in the investigation since the attempted Times Square bombing and do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States. I share that information just to indicate that this is an ongoing investigation and that we are actively pursuing all those who were involved in it," said US Attorney General Eric Holder.
The raids targeted money couriers or men who were believed to have provided money to Shahzad.
But the question is whether they were witting accomplices of the man who lead the authorities to their door with his confession.