i'm pete williams in new york. now to my colleague richard engel in pakistan. >> reporter: faisal shahzad is from one of pakistan's most elite military families. his father was a top commander in the pakistani air force. he grew up privileged, attending secular private schools and wasn't known to have expressed extremist religious views. it all made him an almost perfect recruit for the taliban or other islamic militant groups because he wouldn't have aroused suspicion. after all, shahzad is married with kids and most importantly, an american citizen. not a usual suspect. brian? >> richard engle in pakistan, along with pete williams before that. >>> turning now to greece where the public backlash sparked by the country's debt crisis turned deadly today. protesters are furious about massive spending cuts and tax increases that were supposed to save that country from bankruptcy. now fears are growing that the bailout in greece won't work. that could cause ripple effects across europe and here in the united states. ou

. >> pete williams our justice correspondent today. >>> there's an active organization overseas in faisal shahzad's pakistan, dozens of people there rounded up, including several relatives of faisal. foreign correspondent richard engel there from islamabad. richard, what do we know about shahzad's pakistan connections given the fact he told authorities he received bomb-making training in wazirstan. >> he has an important pedigree in pakistan, i'm talking to a senior military retired general who knows the family. kae fr he came from one of the most important families in the military, his father was a advice air marshall and quite senior within the pakistani air force. so he was a well-known person here. people who knew where he lived, that he came back to visit quite often. he was a respected family man. he was not someone who was known for expressing extremist religious views. howeverish the fo however, the focus of attention is on a visit faisal shahzad took last year, starting last summer, summer of 2009, and ending in the fall, the fall of 2010. it was during this visit he apparently m

pete williams, nbc news in times square. >>> today in greece, a general strike. a massive protest and violence over big cuts in government spending. those cuts were ordered to help greece recover from an economic crisis that is affecting markets around the world. this morning, police used tear gas on some protesters near parliament. at least three people were killed when a building was set on fire. >>> the coast guard says today that british petroleum oil company has capped 1 of 3 oil leaks in the gulf of mexico, but that that action alone will not stop the flow of oil. crews are also hoping today to tow a 100-ton containment dome to the site. >>> officials in tennessee say it will be several days before floodwaters recede enough to allow a full damage assessment. on tuesday, president obama declared major disaster areas in four counties. >>> in georgia, a close call for hikers who got trapped in a rain swollen river right above a 30-foot waterfall. rescuers were able to pull them to safety. >>> a rescue of a different kind in oxnard, california where a bear roam

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams is in times square with the latest. pete, good morning to you. >> reporter: matt, good morning. investigators say faisal shahzad has admitted building a bomb in an suv, then driving it here saturday night. but they say he also claims he acted alone, even though he admits getting training in his home country of pakistan on how to make bombs. officials have yet to offer an answer for a big question -- why did faisal shahzad try to bomb times square? born in pakistan, he's the son of a retired air force officer there and a well-to-do family. shahzad came to the u.s. 12 years ago to study computer science in connecticut. >> he was fairly unremarkable as a student. didn't stand out in either a positive or negative fashion. >> reporter: he got a job as a junior financial analyst at this connecticut company, was married in 2008 and became a u.s. citizen a year later. he and his wife had two daughters, ages 1 and 4. but he fell victim to hard times, losing his $200,000 house to foreclosure. his wife and children moved to pakista

justice correspondent pete williams is here with the latest on the continuing investigation. reporting it's likely he does not appear in court today. why would that be? >> i think he won't. first of all, federal rules don't require them to be there on a certain time schedule. it says without unnecessary delay. that's what rules say. as long as he's continuing to be cooperative, as long as he's talking, they don't want to interrupt that, take him to court and lose whatever momentum they have. so if i had to guess, i would guess he's being so cooperative, they won't take him into court today. >> talk to us, if you can, about two significant lapses in security. one is fbi lost track of him, in fact, in the hours leading up to this. they had seen him in connecticut but lost him before he got to the airport. the second was the fact he was allowed on that plane. >> it seems clear, as a matter of fact, we were expecting the arrest to happen monday night. we were in touch with the

let's get right to justice correspondent pete williams in new york city with us this morning. ming he did act alone and according to officials i've talked to this morning, there is no indication so far to indicate any reason not to believe him. now, they're not taking him at his word. there's still a lot of investigating done to see if there were others he might have worked with here. and they're interested in trying to find out who it was in pakistan that gave him the bomb training. he has said he received training there. presumably he will say something about that. as for how he was able to board the flight to dubai, it was not the no fly list it turns out that stopped him because the airline is only required, we since learned, to update its database every 24 hours. and it had received a notice earlier in the day on monday to add him to the no fly list. now the government is going to require airlines to update their lists every two hours. it was yet another database that caused the