Holder: Feds Lost Shahzad For ‘About An Hour’ (VIDEO)

Attorney General Eric Holder
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Attorney General Eric Holder said yesterday that an FBI surveillance team watching Faisal Shahzad last week lost contact with the Times Square bomb suspect for “about an hour.

“We lost contact with him for just a bit of time,” Holder said, adding that, “we had a layered approach so at the end of the day, I think, we were always confident that he would be picked up. And the question was only where would he be picked up and when would he be picked up.”

Law enforcement has come under some criticism and scrutiny for losing track of Shahzad after an FBI surveillance team had “eyes” on him. He was later taken into custody at a New York airport after boarding a Dubai-bound flight.

“Contact was lost for a relatively short period of time,” Holder said, noting that the feds had wanted to keep a safe distance from Shahzad during their surveillance.

After ABC’s Jake Tapper suggested that “we got lucky in a few ways,” Holder replied, “there certainly was a bit of that.”

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