Car Bomb In Times Square

[The_Pac_Mule]

Car bomb scares Times Square but fails to explode

NEW YORK – Police found an "amateurish" but potentially powerful bomb that apparently began to detonate but did not explode in a smoking sport utility vehicle in Times Square, authorities said Sunday.

Thousands of tourists were cleared from the streets for 10 hours after a T-shirt vendor alerted police to the suspicious vehicle, which contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two filled 5-gallon gasoline containers, and two clocks with batteries, electrical wire and other components, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

"We avoided what we could have been a very deadly event," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. "It certainly could have exploded and had a pretty big fire and a decent amount of explosive impact."

The bomb appeared to be starting to detonate but malfunctioned, top police spokesman Paul Browne said Sunday.

Firefighters who arrived shortly after the first call heard a popping sound, said Fire Commissioner Sal Cassano, who described the sound as not quite an explosion.

"I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire," Kelly said.

No suspects were in custody, though Kelly said a surveillance video showed the car driving west on 45th Street before it parked between Seventh and Eighth avenues. Police were looking for more video from office buildings that weren't open at the time.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that officials are treating the incident as a potential terrorist attack. The mayor said earlier Sunday, "We have no idea who did this or why" but said it's not surprising the city is a frequent target of terrorism.

"These things invariably ... come back to New York," Bloomberg said.

The SUV was towed early Sunday to a forensic lab in Queens, where it was being "thoroughly checked for prints, hairs and fibers," Browne said Sunday. Napolitano said fingerprints had been recovered from the vehicle.

The T-shirt vendor alerted police at about 6:30 p.m, the height of dinner hour before theatergoers head to Saturday night shows.

Smoke was coming from the back of the dark-colored Pathfinder, its hazard lights were on and "it was just sitting there," said Rallis Gialaboukis, 37, another vendor who has hawked his wares for 20 years across the street.

A white robotic police arm broke windows of the SUV to remove any explosive materials. A Connecticut license plate on the vehicle did not match up, Bloomberg said. Police interviewed the Connecticut car owner, who told them he had sent the plates to a nearby junkyard, Bloomberg said.

Heavily armed police and emergency vehicles shut down the city's busiest streets, choked with taxis and people on one of the first summer-like days of the year. Times Square lies about four traffic-choked miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then laid waste to it on Sept. 11, 2001.

The car was parked on one of the prime blocks for Broadway shows, with seven theaters housing such big shows as "The Lion King" and "Billy Elliot."

The curtain at "God of Carnage" and "Red" opened a half-hour later than usual, but the shows were not canceled, said spokesman Adrian Bryan-Brown.

Katy Neubauer, 46, and Becca Saunders, 39, of Milwaukee, were shopping for souvenirs two blocks south of the SUV when they saw panicked crowds.

"It was a mass of people running away from the scene," Neubauer said.

Said Saunders: "There were too many people, too many cops. I've never seen anything like it."

Bloomberg left early from the White House correspondent's dinner Saturday night. President Barack Obama, who attended the annual gala, praised the quick response by the New York Police Department, White House spokesman Nick Shapiro said.

He has also directed his homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, John Brennan, to advise New York officials that the federal government is prepared to provide support.

Brennan and others will keep Obama up to date on the investigation, Shapiro said.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York responded along with the NYPD, said agent Richard Kolko.

The latest terror threat in New York came last fall when air shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway system.

The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007. No one was injured when police discovered two Mercedes loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline.

Officials said the device found Saturday was crudely constructed, but Islamic militants have used propane and compressed gas for years to enhance the force of explosives. Those instances include the 1983 suicide attack on the U.S. Marines barracks at the Beirut airport that killed 241 U.S. service members, and the 2007 attack on the international airport in Glasgow, Scotland.

In 2007, the U.S. military announced that an al-Qaida front group was using propane to rig car bombs in Iraq.

Times Square has been a frequent target, if not for potential terrorists, then for rabble-rousers.

In December, a parked van without license plates led police to block off part of the area for about two hours. A police robot examined the vehicle, and clothes, racks and scarves were found inside.

In March 2008, a hooded bicyclist hurled an explosive device at a military recruiting center, producing a flash, smoke and full-scale emergency response. No suspect was ever identified.

Police have spent years trying to crack down on street hustlers and peddlers preying on tourists. But there have been two major gunfights in recent months. A street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December, shattering a Broadway theater ticket window, before police fatally shot him.

Four shootings and more than 50 arrests on a mile-long stretch of Manhattan last month around Times Square prompted the mayor to call the mayhem "wilding."

___

Contributing to this report were AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier, AP Radio correspondent Julie Walker in New York and Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Pete Yost in Washington, Michael Kuchwara in New York and Robert H. Reid in Kabul.

Car bomb scares Times Square but fails to explode - Yahoo! News

Thoughts?

 

[A_Wanderer]

Islamists or tea-partiers?

 

[The_Pac_Mule]

Islamists or tea-partiers?

That's what I'm wondering.

 

[coolian2]

why do terrorists suck at making bombs? you'd think with all of the resources available to them to be able to get this shit organised they'd at least be able to come up with a reliable means of actually making shit blow up.

funny timing though, i was just reading about the failed terror attacks in london and glasgow from a few years back the other day. very similar.

 

[The_Pac_Mule]

why do terrorists suck at making bombs? you'd think with all of the resources available to them to be able to get this shit organised they'd at least be able to come up with a reliable means of actually making shit blow up.

Personally I see it as divine intervention But its only a matter of time before they get it right..

 

[Irvine511]

this makes me depressed, and tired.

will be filming in the city later in the week. am looking forward to potential logistical headaches.

glad no one was hurt.

 

[corianderstem]

I just heard about this. Scary.

 

[kramwest1]

why do terrorists suck at making bombs? you'd think with all of the resources available to them to be able to get this shit organised they'd at least be able to come up with a reliable means of actually making shit blow up.

funny timing though, i was just reading about the failed terror attacks in london and glasgow from a few years back the other day. very similar.

To be super-suspicious, I think it may have been a trial run.

From the way they've described the bomb and such, it sounds like 10-year-olds could have done a better job.

My paranoid, but realistic outlook says someone just threw something together to see what the reaction/response time would be. If not, those are some seriously stupid terrorists.

It'll be interesting when pictures and video finally come out. I mean Times Square on a Saturday night? Half the people probably had cameras rolling.

 

[corianderstem]

Hopefully their failure here means that they're just not the sharpest crayons in the terrorist box, and they'll be easily caught.

 

[PhilsFan]

To be super-suspicious, I think it may have been a trial run.

From the way they've described the bomb and such, it sounds like 10-year-olds could have done a better job.

My paranoid, but realistic outlook says someone just threw something together to see what the reaction/response time would be. If not, those are some seriously stupid terrorists.

It'll be interesting when pictures and video finally come out. I mean Times Square on a Saturday night? Half the people probably had cameras rolling.

Bingo. It sounds like they just made it look obviously suspicious to wait and see who would alert authorities in how much time. I can't think of it being anything else.

 

[Irvine511]

some rumors that the parking space was adjacent to the Viacom building -- Viacom, of course, owns Comedy Central which shows South Park.

Times Square car bomb: police investigate South Park link - Telegraph

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

this was a very dangerous situation that only didn't work because the ignition device failed, very similar to an event that happened in london a few years back. you have to remember that in most cases these terrorists, be they international or home grown, aren't trained military bomb experts. they follow instructions, sometimes they fail. thankfully this time, they failed. with the amount of evidence left behind at the scene i highly doubt this was a "test run" as suggested. my greater fear is that whoever did this is now going to get a little desperate because it failed and they know it's only a matter of time before they get caught. considering i'm currently sitting 40 blocks north of times square, i'll feel a bit better when they catch whoever's responsible.

we make fun of "if you see something, say something" a bit, but the constant barrage of advertising since 9/11 seems to have really paid off in this instance. the NYPD did a tremendous job as always to make what could have been a very panicked situation quite calm.

as for the viacom/south park connection? we'll see... that is exactly where viacom's headquarters are. the MTV studios that overlook times square is right on the corner of 45th and 7th. so that's not out of the realm of possibility, but that block is also filled with broadway theater's and has an incredible amount of foot traffic, so it could be as simple as that.

we'll see... i also have suspicions about a few random small bombings at embassy's and the times square recruiting station over the past few years that went unsolved... perhaps that person/persons tried taking a step up.

who knows, all speculation at this point... and obviously the NYPD has the finest police force in the world so they'll get to the bottom of it.

as if this isn't enough, ahmadinejad is due to speak at the UN tomorrow.

 

[Pearl]

Scary shit.

Here's who might have done it:

Pakistani Taliban claim failed New York bomb attack | Reuters

Pakistan Denies Taliban Claim in Times Square Bomb Attempt - World Watch - CBS News

 

[deep]

I have not heard or read much of the details of this incident


but, I don't think it was a test at all. small, small chance a false flag, but not likely

most likely this person, group were just not successful. for some reason,
I don't think it is jihad related

with the amount of evidence left behind, it is hard to believe that they will not be able to trace this back to its origins


heaven forbid, but a McVeigh type bombing could be repeated in any large urban area, I guess that is one reason why the Bush invasions of privacy (Patriot Act, etc) often seem like a necessary evil.

 

[BVS]

This doesn't sound like the work of a highly organized group. Like Deep said, the evidence seems pretty easily traceable. I wouldn't be suprised if the fireworks alone point back to the person who did this...

 

[deep]

The bits and pieces I have been able to read on the internet

this does not add up as a real terrorist attack


I could come up with 3-4, maybe five possible theories here


but the reasonable thing to do, is just wait 2-3 days for this to play out.

I am hopeful that we get close to an honest reporting on this.

 

[kramwest1]

I don't want to get too conspiratorial, but if it was a trial run, they would have been smart and had a patsy set it up and do it given the obvious amount of possible evidence--physical and visual/witnesses.

I hope it is nothing more than a poorly-plotted, failed attempt.

And yes, absolutely, kudos to the people that reported it and to the NYPD.

 

[Jive Turkey]

Why bother setting up a trial run? Not only is it so risky to begin with that you might as well go through with the real thing, but after a trial, its only going to put the city on high alert making it even tougher to pull off a second time. They had the car and the bomb in place; theres no reason to not make that the real thing

 

[kramwest1]

Why bother setting up a trial run? Not only is it so risky to begin with that you might as well go through with the real thing, but after a trial, its only going to put the city on high alert making it even tougher to pull off a second time. They had the car and the bomb in place; theres no reason to not make that the real thing

Oh, I know.

But, why not put a little more effort into it and make sure it works?

Even if it had worked, it wasn't going to bring down a building. A lot of fire, maybe a dozen deaths and a lot of panic is all that it seems it might have accomplished. It isn't adding up to me for some reason. Trial run might not be the fully accurate term, maybe a test of someone's commitment/loyalty? I don't know.

I really hope it's just some dumb zealots who get caught.

 

[AliEnvy]

its only going to put the city on high alert

Perhaps this was the intended result.

A brazen demonstration that it can be done - perhaps by people who don't want to kill anyone but have a vested interest in keeping people afraid and authorities on alert.

 

[cobl04]

this was on page three of our paper today... any developments?

 

[NotBono]

I was six blocks away from this at the time. I went to a Yankee game earlier that day and at 6:30pm had to meet my group on 51st and 7th to get on the coach bus to head back. NYPD did a great job of not causing a panic, I had no clue that anything was even going on despite being so close.

 

[cobl04]

OPRAH WAS NEARBY! HAD IT BEEN REAL, AND OPRAH KILLED, WHAT WOULD THE WORLD HAVE DONE?!?!?!

clf!

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

I could come up with 3-4, maybe five possible theories here


but the reasonable thing to do, is just wait 2-3 days for this to play out.

I am hopeful that we get close to an honest reporting on this.

how can we expect to get honest reporting when our own congressman is on every network possible tossing out this south park retaliation theory?

patience is a virtue that we do not have in this country anymore.

even this guy who took his shirt off...

Surveillance Video Before Times Square Bomb Attempt - ABC News

... the on the scene reporter in this video pretty much convicts the guy of being the bomber. "a white man in his 40's who sent thousands into a panic on saturday night."

maybe he is the guy who did it, and maybe he was a guy coming off work and heading out to a bar and decided to take his work shirt off. maybe he just got out of the subway and realized "hey, it's pretty hot out, maybe i should take off my long sleeve shirt." or maybe he said "hey, i should change my shirt in case someone saw me leave that large bomb there on the corner."

nobody really knows. the police have never said that he's a suspect... it's just something that caught their eye and they want to make sure they explore every possible avenue.

one has to assume, with all the cameras there, that the FBI and NYPD actually have video of someone getting out of the SUV. it wouldn't be unreasonable to believe that they released this video of this guy to make the people who they know did it feel a little more comfortable before they launch their sting.

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

some rumors that the parking space was adjacent to the Viacom building -- Viacom, of course, owns Comedy Central which shows South Park.

Times Square car bomb: police investigate South Park link - Telegraph

I hadn't heard that, interesting

Or it could just be some angry random non terrorist guy who's just looking for attention

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

some things don't add up here.

if that's the guy, and that's the SUV, then that's not shubert alley. that's 45th street, and the dude walked past the SUV.

how does that make him a suspect?

and if that isn't 45th street, then he's not looking back towards the SUV whatsoever, 'cause the SUV would be around the corner to his right, completely out of his sight.

 

[deep]

The bits and pieces I have been able to read on the internet

this does not add up as a real terrorist attack

some things don't add up here.

this does not add up
is our common denominator

that guy, stops in the middle of the side walk, all by himself, to try and not be noticed?

and the South Park thing is just plain stupid. Are the two writers, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, even in that building?

and at most if the bomb was successful it would have only been a small fire ball and only harmed (perhaps killed) people adjacent to it.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

it appears whoever did it used the wrong kind of fertilzer...

but that said, even if the explosion had been succesful and the fire ball reached, say, 10 to 15 feet away from the SUV, with shrapnel going another 5 to 10 feet beyond that... this is times square on a saturday evening.

i mean just look at all the people...

even a "small fire ball" could have created a terrible situation. hundreds of people were within 25 feet of that car.

 

[kramwest1]

it appears whoever did it used the wrong kind of fertilzer...

but that said, even if the explosion had been succesful and the fire ball reached, say, 10 to 15 feet away from the SUV, with shrapnel going another 5 to 10 feet beyond that... this is times square on a saturday evening.

i mean just look at all the people...

even a "small fire ball" could have created a terrible situation. hundreds of people were within 25 feet of that car.

That's the difference between a fire ball and a concussive bomb blast.
From the way they're described the materials, there was no way that car was going to be shredded to pieces. A true diesel/fertilizer bomb would have taken that car apart and done damage to close structures and obviously killed a number of people. The worst possible scenario of the materials that were used would have been a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion). But, it wasn't rigged properly. I don't believe the deaths would have been very high.

This is so bizarre because it was so amateurish. I really, really hope it was just a deranged person. I don't think an organized terrorist group would have done such a poor job--I mean that purely clinically, I certainly don't wish for anyone's harm or admire anyone's handiwork.

 

[Headache in a Suitcase]

That's the difference between a fire ball and a concussive bomb blast.
From the way they're described the materials, there was no way that car was going to be shredded to pieces. A true diesel/fertilizer bomb would have taken that car apart and done damage to close structures and obviously killed a number of people. The worst possible scenario of the materials that were used would have been a BLEVE (Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion). But, it wasn't rigged properly. I don't believe the deaths would have been very high.

This is so bizarre because it was so amateurish. I really, really hope it was just a deranged person. I don't think an organized terrorist group would have done such a poor job--I mean that purely clinically, I certainly don't wish for anyone's harm or admire anyone's handiwork.

Bomb expert: 'A millisecond' from disaster in Times Square
Originally published: May 3, 2010 12:14 PM
Updated: May 3, 2010 3:37 PM
By PERVAIZ SHALLWANI. Special to Newsday

New York City came within "a millisecond" of "several hundred casualties" Saturday night, when explosives packed into a Nissan Pathfinder left parked in Times Square failed to detonate, an international bomb expert said Monday.

"Had that detonation functioned correctly, we would have seen a huge explosion," said Kevin Barry, chairman of the board of advisers of the 5,000-member International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators.

Barry was asked how close the city was to disaster, as he stood near the intersection of Seventh Avenue and 45th Street - the place where the SUV was parked.

"We came within a millisecond," said Barry, a former supervisor with the NYPD bomb squad.

Had the device gone off, Barry said, a 50-yard radius of Times Square would have been singed with a "huge thermal ball" rising 30 to 40 feet blowing out windows of buildings, but not strong enough to bring down any surrounding buildings.

That chilling assessment came as New York police announced they have interviewed the owner of the Pathfinder, which was found packed with propane containers, gasoline and fertilizer after a street vendor noticed it smoking at about 6:30 p.m. Saturday and promptly notified a mounted police officer. That officer, Wayne Rhatigan of Holbrook, quickly summoned NYPD emergency personnel and the area was ordered locked down.

On Monday, police declined to say if the interview with the owner of the Nissan had advanced their investigation.

NYPD Sgt. Steve Rodriguez said police are still searching for the man caught on video changing his shirt near the Pathfinder. A video shot by a Pennsylvania tourist is "of no significance to this investigation," he said. The tourist video does not show the man changing his shirt, he said.

Barry, who retired as first grade detective from the NYPD bomb squad in 2002, called the explosive an "improvised incendiary explosive device."

He insisted on the double classification because the main charge that was built in the steel locker was designed to be enhanced by the gasoline and the propane.

"That was going to be used to destroy the evidence of the car," Barry said. "It's an inferno machine and it was created to cause death and havoc. That's the basic line in this."

The city hasn't seen this kind of potential threat since the 1970s when "18 to 20 terrorist groups were operating in New York City."

The inferno would have lasted only "a few seconds" as the fuel would quickly be burned up, but the level of catastrophe, just from the propane tanks alone, "had they exploded in this intersection, would have cause several hundred casualties," mostly from burns and fragmentations, in some cases burning people's throat.

"The problem with a thermal ball like that, when it encapsulates people as it goes out, people inhale it and then we get lung damage and burns, and you get thermal burns of the skin, face, hair. So this would have been a real horrific scene."

There is no certainty from what has been learned so far how long the suspect was building the bomb, but Barry said all the supplies used were bought "over-the-counter, all readily available in this area."

"It may not have been sophisticated. It worked. It did function, but it didn't function as he designed it. The main charge did not go off. That was a critical mistake for him. We have to get him before he goes back and builds one and fixes his mistake."

The key component to the bomb is the detonator, which is hard to come by because of strict laws in the states, Barry said.

"You just can't get them. So he built one, probably from a manual. When he built it, his construction was faulty. It went off. It deflagrated rather than detonated. It burned rapidly at high speed."





yea but no, you've probably got more insight than that guy. it woulda been fine. just a few flesh wounds!

i mean maybe some of you don't realize exactly how busy that area is with pedestrian traffic at that time of day. but an explosion of that "small" magnitude would have effected a large number of people. like i said... there were easily a couple hundred people within 10 feet of that car... as there always is in times square.

a bomb that brings down a building is not neccesary to cause incredible damage in such a high traffic pedestrian area.