Bomb In Times Square

Nothingman54

Times Square has been shut down and the NYPD bomb squad is investigating a suspicious package, reports WCBS.
Car and pedestrian traffic has been blocked off between 44th and 46th Streets, from Broadway to Seventh Avenue while police use a robot to inspect the package found in the backseat of a burning car.
[UPDATE: Officials tell the New York Times that authorities now believe the package was a bomb, but it did not explode, and they do not know whether it was related to terrorism.]
[UPDATE 2: The NYT has now pulled back on that claim, retreating to a Reuters report that a firefighter saw "a flash" and a "mini-explosion" from the back of the SUV.]
The square was evacuated around 8 pm.
No injuries were reported.


Glad it did not blow up.

WaveCameCrashin

It's only a matter of time until were hit again.

FiveB247x

Fun stuff. Escalation is good stuff!

catefrances

prfctlefts wrote:

It's only a matter of time until were hit again.

i read theyre looking for a white guy in his 40s. you dont fit that profile do you??? :P



New York police are investigating whether there is any link between an attempted car bombing at Times Square and recent threats made against the creators of South Park.

US media say that although authorities have not found a link between the car bomb and the satirical animated show — which depicted the Muslim prophet Mohammad in a bear suit during a recent episode — they are "aggressively looking for connections" between the two after threats were made by a New York Islamist Web site last month , the New York Daily News reports.

Police have announced several strong leads in their attempt to find out who left a Nissan Pathfinder SUV with a spluttering homemade bomb in the middle of the teeming entertainment and theatre district.

A claim of responsibility by a Pakistani group Tehreek-e-Taliban was quickly dismissed as speculation mounted that a US-based or "homegrown" terrorist may have been responsible for the scare late on Saturday.

"Although a Taliban bomb maker has claimed on the internet... we have no evidence to support this claim," police commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

Kelly said the crude bomb, had it gone off, would have created a "significant fireball" and that the car "would have at least have been cut in half".

However, it remained unclear why the improvised device - comprising fireworks, propane, petrol and possibly fertiliser - failed to detonate, despite smouldering after partly catching fire.

On a visit to the oil spill on Louisiana's coast, Obama said US security services and New York law enforcement would do "what's necessary" to find the culprit.

"My national security teams have been taking every step necessary to ensure that our state and local partners have the full support and cooperation of the federal government," Obama said.

Police were sifting through a mass of clues, starting with footage from 82 security cameras in Times Square and the car and bomb, which were hauled to police laboratories in New York.

One sequence of film showed a man that Kelly said was acting in a "furtive" manner and changing his clothes as he walked away from the area.

He was "a white male in his 40s" and "seen shedding a dark coloured shirt revealing a red one underneath", Kelly said.

There was no firm evidence that the man was linked to the car and the footage may be "innocent", Kelly stressed.

In addition to that footage, Kelly said a tourist passerby had contacted police to say he too "may have got a picture of the individual" caught in the frame while he was filming a nearby mounted policeman.

Another strong avenue was the car itself, which had had its identification marks removed and was carrying licence plates to a different vehicle.

The engine was still running and the emergency lights were blinking when the car, emitting smoke, attracted the attention of a nearby street vendor.

The vendor, a Vietnam War veteran, told police, who quickly realised it was not an ordinary car fire and brought in the bomb squad.

"I did a lap around the vehicle. The inside was smoking," the first officer on the scene, Wayne Rhatigan, told the New York Daily News. "I smelled gunpowder and knew it might blow. I thought it might blow any second."

As soon as a bomb was feared police evacuated thousands of people from the area, turning the usually crammed streets into a ghost town.

Many tourists were unable to reach theatres or hotels, but Broadway shows managed to go on and were running normally on Sunday, a trade group said.

"We are very lucky... (to) avoid what could have been a very deadly event," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Officials said the bomb was terrorism, but remained cautious, declining to say whether the culprit might be US-based or linked to al-Qaeda or another foreign group.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said the FBI, the New York police and the government's Terrorism Task Force were probing a "potential terrorist attack".

So far there was no evidence of a broader plot, but law enforcement authorities had been alerted to "stay on their toes", she said.

Police were checking other cameras that may have captured the vehicle, and more importantly, "people seen driving or leaving the vehicle", Kelly said.

The bomb, while threatening "mayhem", according to Kelly, was made of the kind of materials available from regular stores. Bloomberg called it "amateurish".

Kelly described a multi-layered device consisting of two alarm clocks as timers, a pot of fireworks as a detonator, two canisters of petrol, three propane gas tanks and a large box containing what was believed to be fertiliser.

"If this had detonated, in my judgment, it would have caused casualties," he said. "You have a large number of pedestrians in that area."

The scare raised tensions across the United States where security forces have been on edge since a young Nigerian allegedly attempted to set off a bomb on a US airliner as it came in to land in Detroit, Michigan.

New York City police are on constant alert after a string of terrorist plots and alleged plots in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

In December they closed Times Square while inspecting a van at first feared to contain a bomb, but which turned out to be carrying nothing dangerous.

In February, Afghan immigrant and self-confessed al-Qaeda agent Najibullah Zazi, 25, pleaded guilty to a plot to set off bombs in New York's subway system. He could be sentenced to life in prison.

Last year, four New Yorkers went on trial in an alleged plot to bomb a synagogue in the city and shoot down military planes.

Nearly 3000 people died in the 9/11 attacks when airliners hijacked by Islamist suicide squads slammed into the twin towers of the World Trade Centre in Manhattan, demolishing both skyscrapers.




http://news.ninemsn.com.au/world/104743 ... c-car-bomb

polaris_x

i hear there are armed (machine guns) guards all over manhattan today ... :(

FiveB247x

So silly. Armed guards won't be of any help to some nut blowing up a car...they'd be just bystanders like everyone else. We're lucky the guy who attempted this weekend's bomb didn't detonate it upon arrival compared to a timer.

polaris_x wrote:

i hear there are armed (machine guns) guards all over manhattan today ... :(

WaveCameCrashin

catefrances wrote:

i read theyre looking for a white guy in his 40s. you dont fit that profile do you???

:eh: :lolno: :roll:

Drowned Out

catefrances wrote:

i read theyre looking for a white guy in his 40s.

Phew! So relieved it wasn't a terrorist!

catefrances

Drowned Out wrote:

catefrances wrote:

i read theyre looking for a white guy in his 40s.

Phew! So relieved it wasn't a terrorist!

oh he was a terrorist alright. anyone who is willing to make their point by blowing up innocents is a terrorist.

Drowned Out

catefrances wrote:

Drowned Out wrote:

catefrances wrote:

i read theyre looking for a white guy in his 40s.

Phew! So relieved it wasn't a terrorist!

oh he was a terrorist alright. anyone who is willing to make their point by blowing up innocents is a terrorist.

But but....you said they were looking for a white guy? :roll:
(A wink AND rolling eyes this time, in case anyone else misses the sarcasm )

catefrances

Drowned Out wrote:

catefrances wrote:

Drowned Out wrote:

[
Phew! So relieved it wasn't a terrorist!

oh he was a terrorist alright. anyone who is willing to make their point by blowing up innocents is a terrorist.

But but....you said they were looking for a white guy? :roll:
(A wink AND rolling eyes this time, in case anyone else misses the sarcasm )

well... duh :P

FiveB247x

I find it very funny and almost a bit sad that the comments about a the white terrorist, yet people seem to make ridiculous assumptions. What do Tim McVeigh or the Ted Kaczynski or even the most recent nut who flew a plane into an IRS building all look like again?

catefrances

FiveB247x wrote:

I find it very funny and almost a bit sad that the comments about a the white terrorist, yet people seem to make ridiculous assumptions. What do Tim McVeigh or the Ted Kaczynski or even the most recent nut who flew a plane into an IRS building all look like again?

im not quite understanding your point.

Cosmo

prfctlefts wrote:

It's only a matter of time until were hit again.

...
Hit again with what? Another act of violence in an American city?

FiveB247x

Whether a joke or sarcastic remark about the race of the attempted bomber, it was implied... so either it was a muslim fundamentalist or some nutty white guy. Either way, people should realize that nuts come in all shapes and forms.

catefrances wrote:

FiveB247x wrote:

I find it very funny and almost a bit sad that the comments about a the white terrorist, yet people seem to make ridiculous assumptions. What do Tim McVeigh or the Ted Kaczynski or even the most recent nut who flew a plane into an IRS building all look like again?

im not quite understanding your point.

catefrances

FiveB247x wrote:

Whether a joke or sarcastic remark about the race of the attempted bomber, it was implied... so either it was a muslim fundamentalist or some nutty white guy. Either way, people should realize that nuts come in all shapes and forms.

catefrances wrote:

FiveB247x wrote:

I find it very funny and almost a bit sad that the comments about a the white terrorist, yet people seem to make ridiculous assumptions. What do Tim McVeigh or the Ted Kaczynski or even the most recent nut who flew a plane into an IRS building all look like again?

im not quite understanding your point.

well unfortunately recent history has proven that terrorist actions in your country are divided between these two demographics. and im not even taking into account those crazy nuts who just open fire on innocent folks.

FiveB247x

Absolutely - but it's funny how one person made an insinuation in one direction and another in the other.. talk about a land of equality and equal opportunity.

catefrances wrote:

well unfortunately recent history has proven that terrorist actions in your country are divided between these two demographics. and im not even taking into account those crazy nuts who just open fire on innocent folks.

catefrances

FiveB247x wrote:

Absolutely - but it's funny how one person made an insinuation in one direction and another in the other.. talk about a land of equality and equal opportunity.

catefrances wrote:

well unfortunately recent history has proven that terrorist actions in your country are divided between these two demographics. and im not even taking into account those crazy nuts who just open fire on innocent folks.

so you think that drowned out and myself have differing takes on this cause he was more lighthearted about it than i. is that it??? ill think youll find more than a few people see the situation as both amusing and alarming.

FiveB247x

I just found the varying responses in polar directions quite funny considering they're all a bit based on generalizations and assumption. And yes, extremism is on the rise in all respects, never a good thing.

catefrances wrote:

FiveB247x wrote:

Absolutely - but it's funny how one person made an insinuation in one direction and another in the other.. talk about a land of equality and equal opportunity.

catefrances wrote:

well unfortunately recent history has proven that terrorist actions in your country are divided between these two demographics. and im not even taking into account those crazy nuts who just open fire on innocent folks.

so you think that drowned out and myself have differing takes on this cause he was more lighthearted about it than i. is that it??? ill think youll find more than a few people see the situation as both amusing and alarming.

catefrances

FiveB247x wrote:

I just found the varying responses in polar directions quite funny considering they're all a bit based on generalizations and assumption. And yes, extremism is on the rise in all respects, never a good thing.

catefrances wrote:

so you think that drowned out and myself have differing takes on this cause he was more lighthearted about it than i. is that it??? ill think youll find more than a few people see the situation as both amusing and alarming.

well then would you prefer we start targetting blokes with our comments cause i would bet the farm that a guy planted this bomb.

FiveB247x

I don't think we can target any one classification in order to stop the problem. We can band-aid the problem but it doesn't actually fix the wound. Usually the solution to most of the problems we see in society.

catefrances wrote:

well then would you prefer we start targetting blokes with our comments cause i would bet the farm that a guy planted this bomb.