Lisa Curtis is an analyst at the Heritage Foundation: "When somebody like Shahzad is easily able to find training and inspiration and easily connect up with these various militant groups in Pakistan,it shows that there is a certain level of tolerance for terrorist groups in the country."

VOA: standard.2010.05.18

It appears that much of this may be directly connect - the belief that there was somebody helping them, maybe directly connected to their Internet use and other communications.

NPR: German Officials Look for Others in Terror Plot