http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/02/nyregion/02timessquare.html?fta=y

Quote :

"A crude car bomb of propane, gasoline and fireworks was discovered in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square on Saturday evening, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers on a warm and busy night. Although the device had apparently started to detonate, there was no explosion, and early on Sunday the authorities were still seeking a suspect and motive. [...] Inside, they discovered three canisters of propane like those used for barbecue grills, two five-gallon cans of gasoline, consumer-grade fireworks — the apparent source of the “pops” — and two clocks with batteries, the mayor said. He said the device “looked amateurish.” Mr. Browne said: “It appeared it was in the process of detonating, but it malfunctioned.” [...] “We have no idea who did this or why,” Mr. Bloomberg said."

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 7:07 AM. Reason : ]

5/2/2010 7:06:53 AM

It was either tea baggers or muslim extremist.

I wonder if it has anything to do with South Park…?

and I would think islamic terrorist would know how to make a proper bomb by now…

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 8:52 AM. Reason : ]

5/2/2010 8:50:59 AM

they've all exploded themselves lol

5/2/2010 9:26:52 AM

yeah, shit's nuts. just 2 avenues over from my apt. heard the choppers going throughout the night.

5/2/2010 10:15:53 AM

This is definitely terrorism (unless a white person did it).

5/2/2010 10:20:43 AM

i think its someone acting alone. definitely not a professional because the bomb would've had a hallmark. not a teabagger because it would've been a government target.

5/2/2010 10:34:45 AM

Found it funny how they referred to the explosive as "amateurish". My guess is some domestic nutcase or some homegrown nonsense, because if a foreign terrorist was going to do a car bomb, they would probably have done something more sophisticated than strapping a few sparklers to a BBQ grill and an alarm clock.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 10:40 AM. Reason : I liked BBQ grill better]

5/2/2010 10:39:33 AM

def a teabagger, they are the most dangerous people in the world.

5/2/2010 11:07:25 AM

^^


and yeah, I'm not even convinced that this would've been that damaging even if it had worked as intended.

5/2/2010 11:21:22 AM

The way the device is described, it sounds like the clocks were just in there with the explosive materials, not actually connected in any meaningful way. hahaha

5/2/2010 11:44:07 AM

Quote :

"It was either tea baggers "

Thats my guess. I know those tea baggers probably hate those NYC liberals and colors that live there. Also, NYC is the heart of the Liberal Media that corrupts the mind of our USA #1

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 12:08 PM. Reason : k]

5/2/2010 12:07:52 PM

Quote :

"and yeah, I'm not even convinced that this would've been that damaging even if it had worked as intended."

if it went unnoticed and didn't fail, it would have killed A LOT of fucking people. this is in the middle of times square on a saturday with huge amounts of people packed onto the sidewalks. maybe no major structural damage to nearby buildings, but there would be glass and shit flying everywhere.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 12:21 PM. Reason : [o]

5/2/2010 12:20:58 PM

^ if you’ve watched any mythbusters at all, you’d know that gasoline cans just create big scary looking fireballs if you can eve get them to explode, and propane tanks generally won’t explode unless their safety valves fail. Otherwise you just get more scary-looking fire.

5/2/2010 12:28:34 PM

in before hooksaw blames Obama

5/2/2010 12:50:14 PM

yet another reason to never go to times square.

5/2/2010 1:23:19 PM

^^ I think you mean "in before hooksaw pms somebody to ask them to blame Obama."

5/2/2010 1:24:13 PM

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE64125320100502

Pakistani talibans

5/2/2010 2:34:19 PM

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 2:34 PM. Reason : ]

5/2/2010 2:34:31 PM

I don't think it was a tea bagger. They wouldn't have used a Jap car, because that would have meant owning one, which is un-American.

5/2/2010 2:48:43 PM

they found a bomb on a marathon course in PA today, too. DAMN YOU OBAMA FOR LETTING THE TURRISTS WIN!!!

5/2/2010 2:51:50 PM

Quote :

"if it went unnoticed and didn't fail, it would have killed A LOT of fucking people. "

no, i'm saying that even if it had "worked", i don't think it would've been much of an explosion.

5/2/2010 3:00:21 PM

So they are asserting that someone is both:

A) Smart and motivated enough to set this thing in motion without being immediately found

and

B) Dumb enough, apparently, to use a design like that in an actual attempt to harm people.

This does not compute. Therefore, one of the assumptions is wrong.

Either this person had no intention of harming people and is playing a prank, just having fun, or is trying to stir things up so that the government will get its act together and take terrorism seriously.

Or, there are other options that will get me flamed (like the possibility that some gov't dept. set this up to expand their powers and have public support for it), but no matter what the case is, the regular assumptions and storyline don't add up.

People dumb enough to set that up are not smart enough to evade capture, and are unlikely to have any motivation to stay anonymous anyway.

5/2/2010 3:03:05 PM

OMG DOUBLE POST SUSPEND!

5/2/2010 3:03:35 PM

Quote :

"and yeah, I'm not even convinced that this would've been that damaging even if it had worked as intended."

911 caller allegedly claimed that this was planned as only a diversionary event for a much larger attack

probably just fear mongering, but what if the "big bomb" is still out there? yikes!

5/2/2010 3:37:00 PM

Quote :

"New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said a white male in his 40s was seen near the SUV that was parked on a Times Square street and packed with explosives. The man was seen leaving the area and shedding a dark shirt, revealing a red shirt underneath, about a half block from where survellance cameras saw the vehicle entering Times Square in New York City at about 6:28 pm Saturday. The video of the possible suspect is expected to be released later today. Kelly said the individual was looking around in a furtive manner, but also stressed that the behavior could be totally innocent."

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/times-square-bomb-scare-york-authorities-probe-evidence/story?id=10532755

5/2/2010 4:36:42 PM

^^ that doesn't make sense to do, because it just means people are going to be more vigilant now, making a second attack more likely to fail.

If you're going to commit terrorism, you should try and get it right on your first try, because now people are going to be hypersensitive to anything strange.

5/2/2010 4:48:57 PM

Quote :

"If you're going to commit terrorism, you should try and get it right on your first try, because now people are going to be hypersensitive to anything strange"

I would agree. And the same thing was in this month's teaparty mailer...wierd.

5/2/2010 5:03:57 PM

I mean, it's not that difficult to mix up something like ANFO. Who the fuck makes a VBIED to attack Times Square with fucking fireworks? It makes me wonder if the intent was actually to produce casualties (although obviously the culprit couldn't have been too adverse to that possibility).

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 5:10 PM. Reason : ]

5/2/2010 5:09:52 PM

Quote :

" It makes me wonder if the intent was actually to produce casualties (although obviously the culprit couldn't have been too adverse to that possibility)."

I wondered that too. I would almost guess the clocks with wires were completely a decoy. I would bet they weren't actually hooked up to anything.

It's like they wanted to try and scare people without any risk of harming people.

5/2/2010 5:13:02 PM

WTF IS ANFO & VBIED

5/2/2010 5:35:35 PM

Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil (i.e., fertilizer bomb)

Vehicle-borne Improvised Explosive Device


sorry, I deal with this shit a good bit and forget that not everyone speaks the language.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 5:47 PM. Reason : another one is ANAL (with the AL for aluminum)...haha]

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 5:48 PM. Reason : I've seen the acronym "ANUS", too...I think it's another AN explosive, but I'm not sure.]

5/2/2010 5:43:20 PM

nah u were just showin off. nothin wrong with that

5/2/2010 5:45:33 PM

haha, I thought it was "very bad IED", lol

5/2/2010 5:47:11 PM

RCIED=radio controlled IED
VOIED=victim operated IED (pressure plate, trip wire, etc)
SVIED=suicide vest IED
CWIED=command wire IED

just in case you ever see those abbreviations, here are the other common ones that immediately come to mind. there are so many variations of them it'll make you're head spin. There are some sneaky motherfuckers out there, coming up with some nasty stuff that's really pretty simple to build. I wish I could talk about it on here...it's a real cat & mouse game, between IED makers and U.S. countermeasures to them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/specials/leftofboom/index.html

Neat open-source article on some of this stuff.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 5:57 PM. Reason : ]

5/2/2010 5:53:32 PM

what about BLIED (bush lied ied)

5/2/2010 6:02:14 PM

Quote :

"Either this person had no intention of harming people and is playing a prank, just having fun, or is trying to stir things up so that the government will get its act together and take terrorism seriously. "

That's what I'd guess. It seems a lot more like an extremely ill-advised joke than an attempt at creating a legitimate threat.

...Though it's entirely possible that it was just some teabagging nutcase without the slightest understanding of how explosives and propane tanks actually work. Hell, if it turns out to be someone like that, it doesn't even speak negatively of the tea party movement to me (and I hate the tea party).... It's just a product of the so-far-removed-from-normal-society-that-we-all-hope-they-don't-exist sort of lunacy that gets showcased on Hoarders (annoying and pointless show that it is).

And if it really was the Pakistani Taliban (doubtful), then they've lowered their standards quite a bit.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 6:17 PM. Reason : .]

5/2/2010 6:15:15 PM

I'd like to remind people that several of the most recent islamic terrorists have been white americans. Just because the suspect is white doesn't implicate tea party, nor does it exonerate muslim groups.

5/2/2010 6:18:39 PM

^True, but the complete misunderstanding of propane tanks/fireworks/etc says to me "fat uneducated old person" (stereotyping+ageism, I know)... and having grown up in the south, that particular combination also tells me "Baptist."

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 6:32 PM. Reason : that's probably the worst thing I've ever posted in TSB, but fuck it, I don't care.]

v It's not so much about intellect as it is about age. I'd expect a muslim in America to be somewhat younger. Combination of a old person's resistance to change (less likely to immigrate from muslim area) plus America's mostly-Christian cultural attitudes throughout much of the 1900s.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 6:51 PM. Reason : .]

5/2/2010 6:22:02 PM

yes, you think that because you didn't grow up with a bunch of idiot fundamentalist muslims. trust me, there's no difference. muslims aren't magically smarter than baptists just because you aren't used to them or because their shit sounds multicultural.

5/2/2010 6:46:10 PM

You would think some crazy musim terrorist, taking the effort to come to America, drive to the heart of NYC to blow shit up; would actually know how to make an explosive device.

After all I thought this shit was their specialty, sheiks trained in the 80's by US ops, turned terrorist today teaching a new generation of followers the tricks of the trade. The person doing this

A.) Was trying to "create" what appeared to be a botched terrorist attack.

or

B.) Was some dumb rural/ignorant fuck who thought he teach some liberals and the media a lesson by blowing up his cousin's Billy Rae's SUV in NYC using his propane tank and left over sparklers from last year's 4th of July bash.

5/2/2010 8:28:53 PM

regardless I'm worried.

I would like for them to find the guy and have him turn out to be some crazy old white guy rather than a larger terrorist group.


the trains worry me the most. Im on them all the time.

5/2/2010 10:14:48 PM

^^ I know we get redneck terrorists in the form of shooters (abortion clinics and the like) but is there any historical precedent for redneck car bombers? One would especially think that given the stereotypical hatred for "furriners" that rednecks have, that they would avoid a technique that is a trademark of the "turrists"

^ I'm expecting it to be some college age kid, from a middle / upper class family of European descent, who is trying to strike against "the man" for one or more of the following "crimes":
Support of Israel
War in Iraq
War in Afganistan
The recent shootings on wikileaks
Commercialism/Consumerism

I don't know why I think that, but just the way the whole setup was described, it sounds like an attention seeking thing rather than a damage seeking thing. The sort of "making a statement" that college kids are known for.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 10:30 PM. Reason : dfa]

5/2/2010 10:25:17 PM

^ everything you typed is kinda retarded.



[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 10:37 PM. Reason : IMAGE!]

5/2/2010 10:36:24 PM

I should have said "much historical precedent", as it's obvious there would have been some in our history as you point out.

5/2/2010 10:58:47 PM

With reports of militia and racist group activity sky rocketing post Obama, as well as tea bagger blind rage, i don't know how applicable to old rules of "rednecks" would apply.

I see your point, but at the same time, things are different now than in the past.

5/2/2010 11:06:27 PM

So let's summarize this thread.


Liberals hope the bomber was a conservative or a redneck.
Liberals hope the bomber was not a minority or other "multi-cultural" bullshit identity.

Conservatives hope the bomber was an ignorant ass rural muslim or liberal eco-terrorist.
Conservatives hope the bomber was not a conservative or otherwise disaffected anti-government type.


What a surprise. Nobody wants the bomber associated with their side of the aisle. I bet $10 its a muslim. Who wants to take that bet?

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 11:14 PM. Reason : s]

5/2/2010 11:09:05 PM

^ i wouldn't take that bet, but thanks to right-wing extremist, gone are the days when it's a forgone conclusion that it was muslims.

5/2/2010 11:10:59 PM

lol @ "I wouldn't take that bet"

indeed!

5/2/2010 11:11:31 PM

I don't care who the fuck it is. I just don't like how we let terrorist win by bunkering into our homes in fear of terrorist attacks. The American people as a whole have no problem handing the keys of liberty over to the government as we quiver in fear, hoping the gov't will do "whatever is necessary" to ensure such events do not happen again.

BTW



so much for precedent.

[Edited on May 2, 2010 at 11:31 PM. Reason : l]

5/2/2010 11:30:48 PM

^ oh you must mean like how the liberals are afraid to draw pictures of Mohammed or otherwise say anything critical about muslims (abuse of women, boys, violence, etc) while they lambast southern baptists for not going to movies?

5/2/2010 11:40:54 PM