By Olivia Scheck
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — Investigators are on the hunt for whoever financed last week's failed Times Square bombing, according to news reports.
The individual is believed to have helped pay for the materials used in the attempted attack, including the used Nissan Pathfinder that the admitted bomber, Faisal Shahzad, purchased using 13 $100 bills, the Associated Press reported.
Shahzad, who appears to have been unemployed since February, also somehow purchased approximately 250 lbs. of fertilizer, several gallons of propane, dozens of fireworks and a gun for the failed attack, the AP said.
Investigators apparently know the name of the plot's money man, NBC New York reported.
Although officials did not specify the believed whereabouts of the financier, it has been reported that U.S. law enforcement agents traveled to Pakistan to question members of an al-Qaida-linked terrorist organization.
Shahzad also admitted to authorities that he had received bomb-making training during a five-month stay in the country last year.
"We are directly looking at who did he have contact with while in Pakistan, what did he do, who is supporting him and why," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told the AP.
Meanwhile, Shahzad is apparently still talking to investigators — a lot.
"He's just blabbing away," a federal official told the Daily News.
He's been boasting of ties to several overseas extremists, the paper said.
Among them is US-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, whose English-language calls to jihad have inspired a virulent, and proactive, following on the internet, the New York Times reported.
Awlaki, 39, is believed to be currently hiding in Yemen, and is the first American citizen to be included on the CIA's hit list for approved assassinations, according to the Times.
Among the followers said to have been inspired by Awlaki's incendiary rhetoric are Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan, who allegedly murdered 13 people at the Fort Hood army base in Texas, and Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow up a plane on Christmas Day using explosives in his underwear.
Top-ranked Army General David Petraeus said Friday he still believes Shahzad acted as a "lone wolf."
Petraeus, who oversees US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, told the Associated Press Shahzad may have been inspired by international terrorist groups but had no direct ties.
Shahzad reportedly told authorities after his arrest that he was acting alone when he tried to carry out his bombing.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Friday that it remains to be seen which of Shahzad's claims turn out to be true.
"His claims, his statements have to be verified," Kelly said at a press conference at Police Headquarters. "The interrogators have no reason at this juncture ... to believe he's not telling the truth. That has to be investigated."
