Failed bombing in Times Square

[AdmiralViscen]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyregion/02timessquare.html?hp

[tiesto]

I just got back from Times Square actually... the fire trucks were everywhere, we had no idea wtf was up.

[Rman]

I remember when Federal funding from the Department of Homeland Security was going disportionately to places like Nowherevilles, Idaho.  Not sure if that still goes on.

[Phoenix Dark]

Car bombings, black president? I saw this already in season 6 of 24 yo 

[ManaByte]

They just held a press conference and one of the reporters brought up that the truck was near the Viacom building (South Park).

[Phoenix Dark]

They just held a press conference and one of the reporters brought up that the truck was near the Viacom building (South Park).

oh shit, for real?

If this winds up truly being a scare attack on them for that episode...wow. I hope Matt and Trey leak the unedited version

[Himu]

Matt and Trey are in trouble.

[ManaByte]

The mayor dismissed that as a motive. Maybe they are unaware of the threats?

[drew]

domestic terrorists are such pushovers, cant even smuggle the shit in needed to make a decent ied, they just lazily look around and see what they have "hm, asswok here come and take this propane tank off this grill, tikki takki go drive down the block to BP and get a couple gallons of gasoline, i'm going to go to the home depot to get some fertilizer"

[ManaByte]

The Post (yea I know) is confirming it was near the Viacom building:

Also, the car was parked close to the headquarters of Viacom, which owns the Comedy Central cable network.

[Fresh Prince]

I reckon it was some white boys that did it.

[Ichirou]

Fabyane Pereira, 35, a tourist from Brazil, said the episode would not deter her from another visit. “I feel sorry for America,” she said. “I’m at your guys’ side.”

Fucking terrorists, we got Brazil on our side.

[AdmiralViscen]

[huckleberry]

(Image removed from quote.)

They totally should have taken that picture from behind.

[Dickie Dee]

nvm

[Third]

the government was behind this

[pilonv1]

This sounds rather convenient.

[T234]

I bet my cousin is gonna freak the fuck out when he wakes up in Brooklyn and hears this news. 

[Eric P]

A group of people on a high school senior trip from Jacksonville, Fla., said they were stuck for about an hour and a half in the Bubba Gump restaurant at 44th Street and Seventh Avenue.

fucking tourists

[huckleberry]

You mean regular New Yorkers don't eat at something called Bubba Gump restaurant? 

[tiesto]

Yeah, we were like right there when the van was discovered. Got out of dinner around 6:30 at a tapas place on Restaurant Row, and we went to see the Green Day musical (girlfriend is a big fan). I still can't get over it, it all seems so surreal to me.

[ManaByte]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/7668606/Times-Square-car-bomb-police-investigate-South-Park-link.html

Times Square car bomb: police investigate South Park link
Police in New York are investigating whether a car bomb in Times Square was targeted at the makers of South Park over a controversial depiction of the Prophet Mohammed.

The device, which failed to detonate, was left near the offices of Viacom, which owns the irreverent cartoon series.
Last month postings on an Islamic website warned the creators of South Park - Matt Stone and Trey Parker - that they could face violent reprisals after an episode of the show featured Mohammed in a bear suit.

A posting on the website of a US-based group called Revolution Muslim warned Stone and Parker that they would “probably wind up like Theo Van Gogh”, the Dutch film-maker who was murdered in 2004 by a Muslim angered by his film about Muslim women.

Images of the Prophet are strictly forbidden in Islam, and Comedy Central, which broadcasts South Park, has banned Stone and Parker from depicting Mohammed in the past. In 2006 the network stopped them from featuring Mohammed in an episode which followed worldwide protests over a caricature of the Prophet by a Danish cartoonist.

Detectives are also understood to be investigating striking similarities between the New York bomb and two car bombs planted by Islamic terrorists outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London in 2007.

In both cases, the devices comprised cylinders of propane gas and cans full of petrol intended to be ignited by electronic detonators.

David Paterson, the Governor of New York, described the Times Square incident as an "act of terrorism." He said: “Luckily, no one is hurt, and now the full attention of city, state and federal law enforcement will be turned to bringing the guilty party to justice in this act of terrorism.”

The bomb was left inside a dark green Nissan Pathfinder, left with its engine running and hazard lights flashing near the junction of 45th Street and Broadway.

A T-shirt vendor, who was a Vietnam veteran, alerted police when he noticed smoke coming out of it. Police hurriedly evacuated thousands of tourists and theatre-goers, including women in evening gowns, from the area on Broadway's busiest night of the week.

Heavily armed police and FBI agents were deployed on the empty streets as bomb disposal experts used a robot to break the windows on the vehicle and remove explosive material. The car contained three propane tanks, fireworks, two five gallon gasoline containers, two clocks with batteries, electrical wires and a 4ft by 2ft metal box.

New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said: "I think the intent was to cause a significant ball of fire."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg returned immediately to the city from a White House dinner. Speaking at the scene, he said: "We are very lucky. Thanks to alert New Yorkers and professional police officers, we avoided what could have been a very deadly event. The bomb squad confirmed that the suspicious vehicle did contain an explosive device. We have no idea who did this or why."

He added: "Terrorists who want to take our freedoms away from us focus on the symbol of those freedoms, and that's New York City."

Mr Bloomberg said the wiring of the bomb "looked amateurish" and it had used "consumer grade fireworks" that were easily obtainable.

The alarm was raised at 6.34pm (10.34pm GMT) and six minutes earlier a security camera had recorded the Nissan heading west on 45th Street. Police have also established that the car's plates, which were from Connecticut, were not the ones registered to it. They have already spoken to the owner of the plates who said he had taken them to a junkyard.
Mr Bloomberg said police had no reports of anyone being seen running away from the vehicle after abandoning it. Times Square is four miles north of the site where terrorists destroyed the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. The area that was evacuated and shut down is one of the prime spots for Broadway shows, with seven theatres and shows including Billy Elliot.

Katy Neubauer, 46, who was shopping for souvenirs nearby, said there had been panic. She said: "It was a mass of people running away from the scene."Don Slovin, watching the police through the window of a shop a block away, said, "Of course it conjures up memories of 9/11."

President Barack Obama praised the quick response by the New York Police Department and said the federal government was prepared to provide support.

Bilal Abdulla, an NHS doctor from Iraq, was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2008 after being found guilty of plotting the failed Tiger Tiger bombings. His accomplice, Kafeel Ahmed, died after driving an explosive-packed Jeep into Glasgow Airport the day after the attempted bombings in London.

[demi]

[img]http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/swimsuit/image/2007/07_brazil_group_01.jpg

Yuck

[Eric P]

Why would a white guy hate south park?   

[Phoenix Dark]

Police are saying it's a whitey.

Whew. For a second I was worried this was the work of terrorism

[Fresh Prince]

Why would a white guy hate south park?   

It was a ginger.

[brawndolicious]

It would make my week if it was a white tea-bagging type.

[AdmiralViscen]

Police are saying it's a whitey.

Whew. For a second I was worried this was the work of terrorism

[The Fake Shemp]

I figured this was domestic the moment the police were able to get the VIN off the car.

[The Fake Shemp]

Like I said, this was a domestic act. When I told this to my folks - before we even knew any details about the suspect - they got real uppity, because they thought I was accusing Americans of being dumb.

My opinion is, if you're going to put forth the effort to travel overseas, plan a major terrorist act and not blow yourself up (thus indicating you do not wish to be apprehended), I somehow doubt you'd be sloppy enough to not remove the VIN from the vehicle.

[Eric P]

so it's a domestic terrorist attack perpetrate by a white guy with international ties who hates southpark?

[The Fake Shemp]

I don't know. Considering the sloppy nature of the act and the amateur hour pyrotechnics, this sounds almost like some random guy that got fed up and haphazardly put together a plan, which I'm sure foreign terrorism contacts were only happy to assist with.

[Eric P]

wow they're pretty specific

has it been released which episode of South Park that caused him to go into a homocidal rage and attempt to murder as many tourists as possible in place that is also "blocks from" such things as a revival of Hair, American Idiot, the NY Times office, a few hotels, Times Square M&M World, the Hershey Times Square store, a Sanrio store, and is also a symbol of New York City in the way the the World Trade Center was?

[The Fake Shemp]

I kind of hope this guy is a Tea Party dude.

[Eric P]

i don't think we've explored the fact that this is obviously related to south park and not at all a coincidence like my myopic worldview with it's cataracts of the blog-entertainment industrial complex further blurring my already limited sight demands.

Could this somehow be related to Osama not liking Blackest Night?  I mean, the car was "blocks away" from DC Comics offices.

What if it was Osama trying to destroy all comics symbolically by having it take place "blocks away" from mid town comics?

Perhaps it was commentary on Dorothy Parker's take on the plays of her day which she would met out with acidic wit at the Algonquin hotel daily which was "blocks away!"

Tragically, we shall never ever know the motivations of the people involved as they are Fantomas like in their brilliance so all we can do is wildly speculate the most inane bullshit we can come up with to support our "theories."

[Phoenix Dark]

I kind of hope this guy is a Tea Party dude.

Why would a Tea Partier threaten a corporation 

[The Fake Shemp]

Who says he was trying to threaten a corporation

[Phoenix Dark]

Attacking Viacom tho

A bombing would be against the corporation's constitutional rights, and would make tea partiers no different than liberal socialists who burden corporations with regulation - a word not found in the constitution I might add 

[ManaByte]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-31727_162-20004018-10391695.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/05/03/2010-05-03_times_square_car_bomb_square_evidence_points_to_overseas_terrorist_involvement_w.html

[brawndolicious]

It's possible that the car's former owner is involved as the car sale was done pretty shadily.

[The Fake Shemp]

Not really. Tons of people sell used cars like that, am nintenho. That's not really a rare thing.

[The Fake Shemp]

It is in most places, but it doesn't make it uncommon - especially if it's an older car. I wouldn't say that it is the normal standard transaction in how people purchase and sell used cars, but it happens. It doesn't mean the original owner is a terrorist.

[brawndolicious]

Not really. Tons of people sell used cars like that, am nintenho. That's not really a rare thing.

I'd imagine they know the customers' name though.

[Boogie]

It's possible that the car's former owner is involved as the car sale was done pretty shadily.

am nintenho:  Security expert.

Truly, the areas of his expertise know no bounds.

[The Fake Shemp]

Why would you want a bunch of details if you were selling the car illegally? Again, this doesn't really strike me as terrorist behavior.

[Phoenix Dark]

It's possible that the car's former owner is involved as the car sale was done pretty shadily.

am nintenho:  Security expert.

Truly, the areas of his expertise know no bounds.

The funny thing is that someone like him would have a better chance getting on CNN to discuss this than you  :'(

[Boogie]

The funny thing is that someone like him would have a better chance getting on CNN to discuss this than you  :'(

nintenho is furiously preparing his ireport as we speak.

Not having the details is the illegal part in California.  If it turns out the guys isn't involved (and it sounds like he wasn't) he gets the award for dumbest oversight of the decade.

Rule #1 in policing:  People are stupid.

[ManaByte]

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/sources-man-tied-to-pakistan-sought-in-nyc-bomb/19463345

[Phoenix Dark]

The attack seems so half assed I kinda wonder if it's some type of decoy for the real attack. Or maybe I watch too much 24

[Boogie]

The attack seems so half assed I kinda wonder if it's some type of decoy for the real attack. Or maybe I watch too much 24

Almost certainly the latter.  See the above rule #1.

The homegrown terrorist plot that we foiled up here in 2006 had elements of incompetence to it as well, though the threat was still very real.  Not all terrorists are expert professionals.

If this is the work of the Taliban, we have to take a look at why America is at war with such fucking amateurs.  This doesn't help our image at all.

eh, I don't necessarily agree.  It's a matter of perspective.  You dismiss the the enemy based on the crude nature of the bomb and its lack of success.  Whereas I might look at the fact that, allegedly, a bunch of goat-fuckers in Afghanistan and Pakistan were able to plant a potential car bomb right in the middle of Times Square, and that would make me very fucking concerned.  ie.  There was no advance warning, probably no intel on this threat. From an operational security standpoint, it might have been flawless, even though the bomb didn't go off.  And obviously, if it had, everyone would be singing a different tune.

[Phoenix Dark]

Well I've definitely lost respect for terrorists regardless. I know it's wrong to generalize but come on, poor form guys.

[ManaByte]

The funniest part is that they used non-explosive fertilizer. OOPS.

[The Fake Shemp]

Yeah, what gives! Everyone knows you don't use non-explosive fertilizer! What rubes!

[Joe Molotov]

The attack seems so half assed I kinda wonder if it's some type of decoy for the real attack. Or maybe I watch too much 24

Yeah, like how the Underwear Bomber was really just a decoy to destract us from Leno stealing Conan's job.

[brawndolicious]

seriously, the underwear bomber got defeated by passengers and this plot got defeated by a street vendor.  We need more expert professionals as boogie says or else how will we get more youth into terrorism?

[Human Snorenado]

Well, looks like they caught the guy trying to flee from JFK.  Apparently he's of Pakistani descent.

[Himu]

whew

he's not black

[Phoenix Dark]

stick to soccer fellas

[ManaByte]

Well, looks like they caught the guy trying to flee from JFK.  Apparently he's of Pakistani descent.

Bububu what about that video of the white guy that CNN was looping in slow motion all day?

[Donono]

That guy?  That guy's probably in an Egyptian rendering facility right now.