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Police Find Car Bomb in Times Square


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.

“We are very lucky,” Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said at a 2:15 a.m. press conference. “We avoided what could have been a very deadly event.”

A large swath of Midtown — from 43rd Street to 48th Street, and from Sixth to Eighth Avenues — was closed for much of the evening after the Pathfinder was discovered just off Broadway on 45th Street. Several theaters and stores, as well as the South Tower of the New York Marriott Marquis Hotel, were evacuated.

Mr. Bloomberg was joined by Gov. David A. Paterson, Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and other officials at the early morning press conference to give a chronology of the vehicle’s discovery, its disarming, and the investigation that has been launched. The mayor and police commissioner had returned early from the annual White House correspondents’ dinner in Washington.

At 6:28 p.m., Mr. Kelly said, a video surveillance camera recorded what was believed to be the dark green Nissan S.U.V. driving west on 45th Street.

Moments later, a T-shirt vendor on the sidewalk saw smoke coming out of vents near the back seat of the S.U.V., which was now parked awkwardly at the curb with its engine running and its hazard lights on. The vendor called to a mounted police officer, the mayor said, who smelled gunpowder when he approached the S.U.V. and called for assistance. The police began evacuating Times Square, starting with businesses along Seventh Avenue, including a Foot Locker store and a McDonald’s.Police officers from the emergency service unit and firefighters flooded the area and were troubled by the hazard lights and running engine, and by the fact that the S.U.V. was oddly angled in the street. At this point, a firefighter from Ladder 4 reported hearing several “pops” from within the vehicle. The police also learned that the Pathfinder had the wrong license plates on it.

Members of the Police Department’s bomb squad donned protective gear, broke the Pathfinder’s back windows and sent in a “robotic device” to “observe” it, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the police department’s chief spokesman.

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.”

Bomb squad officers also discovered a two-by-two-by-four-foot metal box — described as a “gun locker” — in the S.U.V. that was taken to the Police Department’s firing range at Rodman’s Neck in the Bronx to be destroyed, Mr. Kelly said. It was not immediately known what, if anything, was inside it.

Officials said they had no reports of anyone seen running from the vehicle. Mr. Kelly said police were scouring the area for any additional videotapes but noted that the S.U.V.’s windows were tinted, which could further hamper any efforts to identify those inside. Some of the surveillance cameras nearby were located in closed businesses, and the mayor made clear it would take time to review all available tapes.

“We have no idea who did this or why,” Mr. Bloomberg said.

Kevin B. Barry, a former supervisor in the New York Police Department bomb squad, said that if the device had functioned, “it would be more of an incendiary event” than an explosion.

The license plates on the Nissan were registered to another vehicle — a Ford pickup truck that was taken to a junkyard near Bridgeport, Conn., within the last two weeks, according to a law enforcement official. The previous owner of the Ford was interviewed Saturday night by the F.B.I., but it did not appear he was regarded as a suspect. Still, the junkyard was considered a primary target of the initial investigation.

The S.U.V.’s standard vehicle identification number had been removed, Mr. Bloomberg said, and investigators were scouring it to see if the number appeared elsewhere.

The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the episode and had pledged federal assistance in the investigation.

Times Square on a Saturday night is one of the busiest and most populated locations in the city, and has long been seen as a likely target for some kind of attack.

A maze of metal barricades kept pedestrians south of 43rd Street. In the center of Times Square, dozens of police and fire vehicles were parked on Broadway and Seventh Avenue, but in Times Square between 42nd and 43rd Streets, tourists milled or sat at tables, much as they do on any other Saturday night. On Eighth Avenue at around 11:30 p.m., people carrying theater playbills were directed west on 44th Street out to Eighth Avenue.

On Eighth Avenue police officers used large pieces of orange netting to corral pedestrians and separate them from traffic.

Many people stayed to watch after being shut out of Broadway shows or prevented from getting back to their hotels, trading rumors about what was happening. Many guests at the New York Marriott Marquis hotel at 1535 Broadway were being kept in an auditorium at the hotel, Mr. Kelly said.

Some theaters were evacuated, but many were not, according to a spokeswoman for the Broadway League, the trade group of theater owners and producers. The spokeswoman, Elisa Shevitz, said she would not have all the details about how many theaters were affected until Sunday.

For some Broadway shows the curtains went up 15 to 30 minutes late. Shows that started late included “Red” and “God of Carnage” — which are both playing at houses on the block of 45th Street where the bomb was found — and “In the Heights.”

Onlookers crowded against the barricades, taking pictures with cellphones, although only a swarm of fire trucks and police cars was visible.

Pota Manolakos, an accountant from Montreal, was not able to return to her room at the Edison Hotel with her husband and 6-year-old son for several hours.

She said she asked a police officer what was going on, and the officer told her: “Lady, take your kid and get out of here. There’s a threat, take your kid and get out of here.”

“We have nothing with us except for what we have on,” Ms. Manolakos said.

Gabrielle Zecha and Taj Heniser, visiting from Seattle, had tickets to see “Next to Normal” at the Booth Theater on 45th Street but could not get into the 8 p.m. show because the area was blocked off. But they made the best of the spectacle. “It’s a whole different kind of show,” Ms. Heniser said, adding, “It’s almost the equivalent of a $150 show.”

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.

“A lot of people were getting tense who were there longer than we were,” said Billy Wilkerson, 39, a police sergeant in Jacksonville and a chaperone for the trip. “It’s so good to get out, but it was exhilarating.”

He said he was impressed by his New York counterparts. “I just sat back and learned a lot,” he said.

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.”

In December, the police closed Times Square for nearly two hours as they investigated a suspiciously parked van, delaying the rehearsal of the New Year’s ball drop. However, the van turned out to contain nothing but clothing.



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Interesting if it does turn out to be a bomb. It certainly seems like all the ingredients were there. I won't be surprised if it's just some amateur person trying to do it, not an organized terrorist thing.

But, you never know. Maybe this was done as a "dry run", see what could go wrong if you plant a car bomb in a heavily populated area. If it goes off, great (for the people planting it), if it doesn't, you can learn from your mistakes and make a better one.

I certainly hope I'm wrong.

I agree. It certainly does look very amateur. More than likely some lone nut just being crazy. And, we're assuming it's actually a bomb. It sure looks like it, but we've all seen amazing reports like this that turn out to be nothing.

I did think this was interesting:

Official: Times Square incident similar to Glasgow bombing

As authorities conduct their investigation into a car bomb found in Times Square, a federal law enforcement official said the incident was most similar to the events leading up to the 2007 bombing at the airport in Glasgow.

In June 2007, authorities discovered two explosives-filled Mercedes sedans in central London.

One of the cars was parked outside a packed nightclub near Piccadilly Circus and the other was parked just off Trafalgar Square. Like Times Square, both locations are major tourist spots in London.

An ambulance crew notified police about the first car after they saw smoke coming from it. The second car was towed for a parking offense but drew suspicion because it smelled of gasoline.

Officials later said both cars cars were filled with fuel, gas canisters and nails. Police managed to defuse them.

The following day, with attention still focused on the averted attacks in the capital, a Jeep sped through the barriers outside Glasgow International Airport and slammed head-on into the terminal.

The Jeep, filled with propane gas, burst into flames and created a fireball. The driver and passenger jumped out of the car.

The driver, Kafeel Ahmed, set himself on fire and later died in the hospital; the passenger was identified as Bilal Abdulla, an Iraqi doctor who had been practicing medicine in Scotland.

Later that day, police arrested Mohammed Asha as he was driving with his wife on a highway in Cheshire, England. Police said Asha, a doctor of Palestinian descent who grew up in Jordan, conspired with Abdulla to carry out the explosions, but the jury did not agree.

Based on other evidence collected in the investigation, police believe the London bombs were to have been the first in a series of similar attacks. They said it was only luck that prevented the London bombs from going off.

In December 2008, a London jury found Abdulla guilty of conspiracy to murder and conspiring to cause explosions. In a split verdict, the jury acquitted Asha.

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I wouldn't be surprised if this was still some lone nut who saw this on the news one day and said "I can do that!"

And then there's this story ...

April 30, 2010, 3:07 pm
Man Found With Cyanide Pills in Subway Tunnel
By KAREN ZRAICK
New York Times

Updated, 6:26 p.m.

A college student dressed as a laborer and carrying a backpack with cyanide pellets, roadway flares and water was taken into custody early Friday as he walked along the subway tracks in the tunnel between Brooklyn and Manhattan, the police said.

The discovery of the 20-year-old man at about 5:30 a.m., walking alone in the dark tunnel under the East River, triggered antiterrorism alarms because he was in a vulnerable spot precisely at the center of the authorities’ cataclysm projections.

But the man, a Pace University student, told investigators he was there to take his own life -– not anyone else’s — and the police said they believed his explanation.

He was, however, charged with criminal impersonation, weapons possession, trespass and unlawful possession of noxious matter.

Detectives from the Joint Terrorism Task Force interviewed the man while Emergency Service Unit investigators searched for explosives or other devices along the tracks of the No. 4 and No. 5 train between Bowling Green station in Lower Manhattan and Borough Hall station in Brooklyn.

“He felt he might be able to find an isolated alcove where his body would not be discovered,” said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman. “He did not want anyone to know he killed himself.”

The man entered the tunnel at the Fulton Street Station and walked through to the middle of the tunnel, police said. It was not immediately clear whether any portion of the man’s journey had been captured by security cameras.

The episode underscored the vulnerability of a system that critics say is easy to enter and lacking adequate video surveillance. Of the 4,313 cameras that do exist in stations and tunnels, nearly half do not work, according to Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials, a lapse that was highlighted after last month’s fatal stabbings on a No. 2 train.

The Police Department also maintains booths at the entrances of the subway system’s underwater tunnels, but the police could not immediately confirm that they were staffed at the time the man entered.

Transit employees on a work train first spotted the man on the tracks south of Bowling Green, wearing knee-high yellow boots, a reflective vest and a hard hat. They initially believed he was a fellow worker and took him aboard, only to discover he could not produce identification. They handed him over to the police at the Bowling Green station. The man was in custody Friday afternoon, with charges pending.

Investigators tested the chemicals at a mobile laboratory, confirming their initial belief that they were nonexplosive but toxic sodium cyanide pellets.

The police said they were certain the tools in the man’s backpack were not designed for any kind of detonation. The pellets he carried, which were in a one-quart sealed can with a manufacturer’s label, are available commercially to clean jewelry. Investigators thought he may have considered using the flares to heat the pellets and inhale the noxious fumes. However, the man said he ultimately decided it would be more effective to swallow them with water.

Norman I. Seabrook, chairman of the authority’s safety and security committee, called the incident “another wake-up call” that highlighted the crucial role played by alert employees in ensuring riders’ safety. As the authority has struggled with an $800 million budget shortfall, it has resorted to layoffs, leading some to become concerned about safety in unmanned stations.

“Had this not been caught, who knows what this young man would have done to harm himself,” Mr. Seabrook said.

The man lived in student housing in Lower Manhattan, the police said.

A former roommate of the man said he was antisocial and depressed, often sleeping all day and spending his last birthday by himself, watching three movies in a row in a theater. But he never mentioned violence.

“He was completely harmless,” said the former roommate, Harold Cuartas, 19, a marketing major.

Al Baker, C.J. Hughes and Ray Rivera contributed reporting.

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/30/man-found-with-cyanide-pills-in-subway-tunnel/

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Were they pills or pellets, and why so many just to kill yourself? Why would he go to so much trouble just to commit suicide? Why the subway? Could it be this was a foiled attack? Odd (isn't it?) that they don't give his name. I think we should be very concerned of impending attacks. Keep your eyes open, folks.

another reason lebron will stay in cleveland

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.


By Nick Allen and Gordon Rayner
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.

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at least it's not a nuke...like in sum of all fears...suitcase nukes are going to be problematic, IMO, in the next few years. if you can enrich the uranium enough, you can "get er done."

this looks like a shrapnel bomb of some sort...i'm surprised they didn't use ball bearings or glass fragments. ball bearings are stainless steel, chromed steel or ceramic.

with all that's happened since 9/11 we've been lucky we haven't had any attacks on US soil since.

:fingerscrossed

NEW YORK — Authorities have identified the buyer of the SUV used in a failed Times Square terror attack and are seeking him as a potential suspect, two law enforcement officials said Monday.

The buyer is a man of Pakistani descent who recently traveled to Pakistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is at a sensitive stage.

The officials say the man is a Connecticut resident who paid cash weeks ago for the SUV parked in Times Square on Saturday and rigged with a crude propane-and-gasoline bomb.

The car's last registered owner was questioned Sunday by investigators, and said he sold the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder to a man he did not know three weeks ago to a stranger, one official said.

Officials say the owner, whose name has not been released, is not considered a suspect in the bomb scare. But the revelation of the sale led authorities one step closer to whomever was aiming for mass carnage on a busy Saturday night in the heart of Times Square and achieved only streets emptied for hours of thousands of tourists.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed Monday that investigators had spoken to the registered owner.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner on record.

"The discovery of the VIN on the engine block was pivotal in that it led to identifying the registered owner," Browne said. "It continues to pay dividends."

Cops Probe Car Bomb Attempt


Investigators tracked the license plates to a used auto parts shop in Stratford, Conn., where they discovered the plates were connected to a different vehicle.

They also spoke to the owner of an auto sales shop in nearby Bridgeport because a sticker on the Pathfinder indicated the SUV had been sold by his dealership. Owner Tom Manis said there was no match between the identification number the officers showed him and any vehicle he sold.

In New York, police and FBI examined hundreds of hours of video from around the area. They had initially wanted to speak with a man in his 40s who was videotaped shedding his shirt near the Pathfinder, but backed away as the buyer became clear. The man had not been considered a suspect and officials said it's possible he was just a bystander. Police also received around 120 tips, and three of which were considered promising, and collected forensic evidence from the Pathfinder.

In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Saturday's attempted bombing was a terrorist act.

A motive was unclear. Barry Mawn, who led New York's FBI office at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and has since retired, said suspects could range from those sympathetic to the interest of U.S. enemies to a domestic terrorist to a disgruntled employee who worked in Times Square.

The Pakistani Taliban appeared to claim responsibility for the bomb in three videos that surfaced after the weekend scare, monitoring groups said. New York officials said police have no evidence to support the claims. It was unclear if the buyer of the SUV had any relationship to the group.

The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom Inc., which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show "South Park" that the group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Muhammad by depicting him in a bear costume.

The date of the botched bombing — May 1 — was International Workers Day, a traditional date for political demonstrations, and thousands had rallied for immigration reform that day in New York.

Security had been also been tight in the city in advance of a visit to the United Nations by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at a nuclear weapons conference.

Police said the bomb could have produced "a significant fireball" and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows. The SUV was parked on a street lined with Broadway theaters and restaurants and full of people out on a Saturday night.

The SUV was captured on video crossing an intersection at 6:28 p.m. Saturday. A vendor pointed out the Pathfinder to an officer about two minutes later. Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours.

The explosive device had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate the gas cans and set the propane afire in a chain reaction, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.

A metal rifle cabinet placed in the cargo area was packed with fertilizer, but NYPD bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terrorist bombings.

The exact amount of fertilizer was unknown. Police estimated the cabinet weighed 200 to 250 pounds when they pulled it from the vehicle.

To experts in explosives, it seemed to be the work of someone who really didn't know what they were doing.

Chris Falkenberg, president of Insite Security, which works with Fortune 500 companies, said the device, as described by authorities, "doesn't differ much at all from 'The Anarchist Cookbook'" — the underground 1971 manual for homemade explosives.

He said revelations that the fertilizer used could not have exploded suggested "this is amateur hour. My kids could build a better bomb than this."

President Barack Obama telephoned handbag vendor Duane Jackson, 58, of Buchanan, N.Y., on Monday to commend him for alerting authorities to the smoking SUV. The White House said Obama thanked Jackson for his vigilance and for acting quickly to prevent serious trouble


http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20100502/US.Times.Square.Car.Bomb/

No one will like this much, but here is a good reason for all automobiles to have a VIN transponder welded into the frame,....

Arrest Made in Times Square Bomb Case

Federal agents and police detectives arrested a Connecticut man, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, shortly before midnight Monday for driving a car bomb into Times Square on Saturday evening in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attack, Justice Department officials announced.

The man, Faisal Shahzad, 30, was believed to have recently bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was found loaded with gasoline, propane, fireworks and fertilizer in the heart of Times Square, a person briefed on the investigation said.

Mr. Shahzad was taken into custody at Kennedy Airport as he tried to board a flight to Dubai, U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said in an early morning statement delivered at the Justice Department in Washington. Charges against Mr. Shahzad, who had returned recently from a trip to Pakistan, were not announced.

“Over the course of the day today, we have gathered significant additional evidence that led to tonight’s arrest,” Mr. Holder said. “The investigation is ongoing, as are our attempts to gather useful intelligence, and we continue to pursue a number of leads.

“But it’s clear that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans,” he said.

The authorities began focusing on Mr. Shahzad after they tracked the sport utility vehicle to its previously registered owner in Bridgeport, Conn., who had advertised it for sale on several Web sites. He paid cash, and the sale was handled without any formal paperwork.

The former owner told investigators that it appeared the buyer was of Middle Eastern or Hispanic descent, but could not recall his name. It was unclear how agents from the Joint Terrorist Task Force identified Mr. Shahzad. Federal authorities provided few details on Monday night about the arrest, the suspect or the scope of any conspiracy in the failed attack.

The authorities have been exploring whether the man or others who might have been involved in the attempted bombing had been in contact with people or groups overseas, according to federal officials.

The investigation was shifted on Monday to the control of the international terrorism branch of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multiagency group led by the Justice Department, according to two federal officials.

“As we move forward, we will focus on not just holding those responsible for it accountable, but also on obtaining any intelligence about terrorist organizations overseas,” Mr. Holder said.

Officials cautioned that the investigation of possible international contacts did not mean they had established a connection to a known terrorist group.

“It’s a prominent lead that they’re following, the international association,” said a senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation. “But there’s still a lot of information being gathered.”

Mr. Shahzad was set to appear in federal court in Manhattan on Tuesday to be formally charged, according to a joint statement issued by the office of the Manhattan United States attorney Preet Bharara, the F.B.I. and the New York Police Department.

The statement said Mr. Shahzad was taken into custody at the airport after he was identified by the Department of Homeland Security’s U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Early Tuesday, at Mr. Shahzad’s former home in Shelton, Conn., just outside Bridgeport, a neighbor said that Mr. Shahzad and his wife, Huma Mian, spoke limited English, and kept mostly to themselves. The couple had two young children, a girl and a boy, said the neighbor, Brenda Thurman.

Ms. Thurman said the couple had lived at the house at 119 Long Hill Avenue for about three years before moving out last year. Mr. Shahzad left around May, she said, and his wife followed about a month later.

The house was a gray, two story Colonial-style three-bedroom built in 2003, according to the real estate site trulia.com.

Ms. Thurman said Mr. Shahzad got up early every morning and left to work nicely dressed, and had told her that he worked on Wall Street.

"I think he caught the train to New York," she said.

On Monday, prior to the arrest, there was a sweeping response to the attempted attack in the tourist-packed city-within-a-city of Times Square — including an increased police presence, vehicle inspections and a touch of panic from veteran New Yorkers when a manhole fire flared five blocks from the scene of the failed bombing. Consolidated Edison blamed faulty wiring for the fire.

The recent sale of the Pathfinder began online. An advertisement that appears to be for the vehicle, which had 141,000 miles on the odometer and was listed for sale at $1,300 on at least two Web sites, emphasized that it was in good condition — “CLEAN inside and out!!” — with a recently repaired alternator and a new gas pump, distributor and front tires.

“It does have some rust as you can see in the picture,” the seller allowed on NothingButCars.net, “but other than that, it runs great.”

The other advertisement appeared on Craigslist.

In Bridgeport, the seller refused to answer questions. “You can’t interview her,” said an unidentified man at the woman’s two-story, white clapboard house. “She already talked to the F.B.I.”The police earlier on Monday sifted through footage from 82 city cameras mounted from 34th Street to 51st Street between Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue, and from untold number of business and tourist cameras.

Investigators initially focused on a man who appeared to be in his 40s who was seen on one video, walking away from the area where the Pathfinder was parked and through Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets. He looked over his shoulder at least twice and pulled off a shirt, revealing a red T-shirt underneath.

The New York police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said investigators still wanted to speak to that man, but acknowledged that he might not be connected to the failed bombing. Paul J. Browne, the department’s top spokesman, said the police had stopped looking for additional video in the area that might have tracked the man’s movements.

“It may turn out that he was just somebody in the area, but not connected with the car bomb,” Mr. Browne said.

Before the arrest occurred, the police had said they might release footage of a man running north on Broadway at the time that a fire broke out in the Pathfinder.

The materials found in the Pathfinder were to be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s laboratory in Quantico, Va., for analysis, the police said.

Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, had said on the “Today” show that it was premature to label any person or group as suspect. “Right now, every lead has to be pursued,” she said. “I caution against premature decisions one way or the other.”


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Another story...


Man Arrested for Times Square Bomb Attempt

NEW YORK, May 4, 2010

Naturalized Citizen of Pakistani Descent Faisal Shahzad Nabbed at JFK Airport as he Tried to Flee Country

(CBS/ AP) Updated at 5:02 a.m. Eastern.

A naturalized American citizen of Pakistani descent has been arrested at New York's JFK International Airport in connection to last weekend's failed car bomb attack on Times Square.

Attorney General Eric Holder identified the suspect Faisal Shahzad, a U.S. citizen. He's being held in New York.

CBS News sources say Shahzad is a resident of Sheldon, Connecticut. The New York Times says he is 30 years old. His Connecticut apartment was still being searched by law enforcement agents early Tuesday morning.

He was arrested by U.S. Customs and Border Enforcement officers at JFK as he attempted to flee the country. The jet had already pushed back from the gate and was forced to return, a law enforcement source tells CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

Investigators believe Shahzad was travelling alone, reports Orr. They questioned a number of people on the jet and all of the passengers and bags were rescreened. The Emirates Airlines jet on which Shahzad was arrested in New York was still on the tarmac Tuesday morning.

Officials say Shahzad recently returned from a trip to Pakistan and bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder used in the failed car bomb three weeks ago for less than $2,000 in cash.

The law enforcement official told Orr that Shahzad has some known connections in Pakistan, but the nature of those connections - whether they are family, friends or individuals associated with any of the Asian nation's terrorist groups - was still unclear.

The SUV was rigged with a crude propane-and-gasoline bomb. It had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks. The contraption has been described as amateur by many explosives experts.

CBS News has learned that a weapon was found in the SUV, aside from the explosives, but it isn't yet clear what sort of weapon it was.


"It's clear that the intent behind this terrorist attack was to kill Americans," Holder said at an early morning news conference from the Department of Justice.

Holder described the investigation as "ongoing, multifaceted and aggressive," suggesting it was "important that the American people remain vigilant" but giving no clear indication as to whether Shahzad may have had accomplices inside or outside of the United States.

The Attorney General said the investigation was drawing on "every resource available, and we will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice."

According to Orr's source, the FBI and New York police "were on to this guy early." The break in the case apparently came from the communications surrounding the sale of the SUV.

The source tells CBS News Shahzad was thought to have been at his apartment in Connecticut Monday night when details began leaking in the media that the FBI was looking for a Pakistani American. This apparently unnerved him and prompted him to try and run.


At least two videos have surfaced with apparent leaders of the Pakistani Taliban claiming responsibility for the attempted bombing. Those claims were initially dismissed but a Pakistani government official tells CBS News' Farhan Bokhari that U.S. intelligence officials have been in contact with their Pakistani counterparts as part of the ongoing investigation.

Holder said Shahzad was attempting to fly to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates from JFK when he was taken into custody. An Obama administration official tells CBS News he was then booked to fly on to Pakistan from Dubai.

Officials stress they have found no definitive link to al Qaeda or any terrorist group, but the White House on Monday called the attempted attack a clear act of terrorism, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

"I think anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that that was intended to terrorize, absolutely," said White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs.

Shahzad was brought to FBI headquarters for processing and was to be housed at a New York metropolitan corrections facility ahead of expected arraignment in Manhattan federal court later Tuesday.

The car's last registered owner was questioned Sunday by investigators, and said he sold the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder to a man he did not know three weeks ago to a stranger, one official said.

Officials say the owner, whose name has not been released, is not considered a suspect in the bomb scare. But the revelation of the sale led authorities one step closer to whomever was aiming for mass carnage on a busy Saturday night in the heart of Times Square and achieved only streets emptied for hours of thousands of tourists.

New York Police Department spokesman Paul Browne confirmed Monday that investigators had spoken to the registered owner.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner on record.

"The discovery of the VIN on the engine block was pivotal in that it led to identifying the registered owner," Browne said. "It continues to pay dividends."

Investigators tracked the license plates to a used auto parts shop in Stratford, Conn., where they discovered the plates were connected to a different vehicle.

They also spoke to the owner of an auto sales shop in nearby Bridgeport because a sticker on the Pathfinder indicated the SUV had been sold by his dealership. Owner Tom Manis said there was no match between the identification number the officers showed him and any vehicle he sold.


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My guess is still that this is some lone nutbar. I certainly hope so.

I just hope that the terrorists are too stupid to learn from the mistakes made here. I doubt they are, but I hope so.

I will say that something my Dad said a year or two ago kind of hit home with me with this car bomb thing.

He said that, if the terrorists really wanted to strike at America, it wouldn't be in a place like NYC or Washington D.C. or Los Angeles. It would be somewhere like Kansas City, or Oklahoma City, or Cincinnati, or St. Louis. A place that people think they're relatively safe.

I mean, you expect terrorists to want to strike at our biggest and most "glamorous" cities. Or the home of our government.

A car bomb explodes in Times Square, while it would be horribly tragic, a lot of people would say "well, I'll just stay away from places like NYC and I'll be safe." But imagine a car bomb at the Mall of America in Minnesota, or a suicide bomber at a Wal-Mart in Little Rock. The thought would start entering your mind "where can I go that I AM safe?"

Think about how vulnerable and unnerved you felt after the Oklahoma City bombing. Those kinds of things shouldn't happen in a place like that (if they should happen anywhere).

A scary yet pretty real thought.

JMHObservation

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a suicide bomber at a Wal-Mart in Little Rock.

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I saw that on youtube. It was a redneck stunt gone wrong. You could here him say, "watch 'is" just beforehand.

I wonder if they'll try this guy for treason along with the criminal charges they are currently working up. He obviously got his citizenship in order to become a terrorist mole. Do they use firing squads for traitors still?

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I wonder if they'll try this guy for treason along with the criminal charges they are currently working up. He obviously got his citizenship in order to become a terrorist mole. Do they use firing squads for traitors still?

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erik...this guy is going to live the rest of his life, locked up.

It is very likely, how he is treated in prison...whether living among the regular prison population or treated as a valuable source living, somewhat protected from the regular prison population...will depend on his level of cooperation.

If this guy did train in the no man's land between Afghanistan and Pakistan, where Bin Laden is thought to be living...he could be a gold mine of information.

How Faisal Shahzad lives the rest of his life behind bars will be determined by his level of cooperation and the information he gives up.

So? Extract the information and shoot him. Traitors deserve no less.

While cold hearted, that is the same knee jerk reaction I always have when someone like this is caught. Better yet get the information out of him and then release him into the regular prison population.

My reaction is not "knee jerk". This man became a citizen of this country for the sole purpose of being a terrorist mole. This was an orchestrated plan. He returned his family to pakistan almost a year ago. He spent time in pakistan learning his bombcraft, albeit he poorly built his bomb.

The man became a citizen under false pretenses. He sought to create murder under the cover of his falsehood. He deserves no less than to be tried and hopefully treated like the traitor he is.

also, an additional point:

i am sure that we are trying to get our own moles into Al Quaeda to extract information if not cause issues. if they found out one of their members was actually a traitor, how would they be treated?

i realize we must hold ourselves to a higher standard than they would in this case, but i also believe we should be effective in our information extraction. there is a middle ground.

times square has been evacuated again due to a suspicious package

cnn.com

Interesting, I am only about 10 blocks away and haven't heard anything...

Wow. You are right. Might have to walk down there and see what is going on.

The package is an abandoned cooler.

Kash, forget your beer cooler?

It had nothing in it but water bottles.

If it was a small package it could have been the guy from TSA.

It sounds like Faisal Shadhzad is still talking to the feds...


3 in Custody May Have Supported Bomb Suspect

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Three Pakistani men taken into custody during a series of raids across the Northeast as part of the investigation into the failed Times Square car bombing may have provided money to the man who has admitted carrying out the unsuccessful attack, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said Thursday.

Mr. Holder said it was unclear if the men knew that the funds they provided were going to be used for an act of terrorism — one that Obama administration officials have said was aided and directed by the Pakistani Taliban. As of late Thursday, they were being detained on civil immigration violations and had not been charged with a crime.

Several people briefed on the case said that Faisal Shahzad, the naturalized Pakistani immigrant who the authorities say drove the crude car bomb into Times Square, traveled to the suburban Long Island community of Ronkonkoma in the days before the failed May 1 attack to collect several thousand dollars in cash, some of which he used to finance his plan.

But the people could not say whether the person who provided that money was one of the men taken into custody, and it was unclear whether the person was aware of what Mr. Shahzad intended to do with the money.

Two of the men taken into custody in the early morning raids were picked up after one of two searches in the Boston area, part of a sweep in which Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and local police officers executed six search warrants there, in New Jersey and on Long Island. A third man was taken into custody in Maine.

Mr. Holder called the development “a significant step” when he was asked for details about the three men.

He said the men were connected to Mr. Shahzad, 30, but investigators were “trying to determine exactly what the nature of the connection was.”

“There’s at least a basis to believe that one of the things that they did was to provide him with funds,” Mr. Holder said. “And so we are trying to trace back to see what exactly was the nature of those transactions, what was the purpose of the sharing of that — of those moneys.”

Statements released by the office of the United States attorney in Manhattan and the Boston F.B.I. office said the searches “do not relate to any known immediate threat to the public or active plot against the United States” and were undertaken based on evidence that was gathered in the investigation that came after the car bomb attempt.

Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, whose office is prosecuting Mr. Shahzad, said at a news conference that Mr. Shahzad, who has been providing information to agents and prosecutors since his arrest late on the night of May 3, had continued to do so. “Faisal Shahzad is still cooperating and still being interviewed by agents,” said Mr. Bharara, who was conducting a news conference in White Plains on an unrelated case.

Mr. Bharara added that agents and detectives from the Joint Terrorism Task Force “are still getting all the information we can in regard to any and all associates he may have.”

Mr. Shahzad, who has been charged with trying to use a weapon of mass destruction in the Times Square bomb attempt, has waived his right to remain silent and his right to a speedy appearance before a judge each day since his arrest, Mr. Bharara said.

“Mr. Shahzad will be brought to court at the appropriate time,” Mr. Bharara said.

The five-count criminal complaint charging Mr. Shahzad says he admitted driving a sport utility vehicle packed with a crude explosive device into Times Square; it also says he told federal authorities that he was trained to build bombs in Pakistan.

Federal authorities on Thursday did not expect to charge anyone else with terrorism, according to the official briefed on the investigation.

Also on Thursday, a senior American official confirmed news reports that at least one of a dozen people arrested in Pakistan following the attempted bombing had told investigators that he worked with Mr. Shahzad as he sought explosives training in Waziristan. The Washington Post reported on Thursday night, however, that there were inconsistencies between Mr. Shahzad’s story and the account of the Pakistani suspect.

Agents conducted searches Thursday in the Boston suburbs of Watertown and Brookline, and at two locations on Long Island, one in Centereach and another in Shirley. Agents from the Philadelphia F.B.I. office conducted searches in Camden and Cherry Hill, N.J., according to a spokesman for that office, J. J. Klaver.

Much remained unclear about the actions, including precisely why the warrants were executed and what evidence the federal authorities were seeking.

At one of the homes searched on Long Island, Mohammad Iqbal, a limousine driver in New York City, said seven or eight F.B.I. agents arrived at his two-story red brick home in Shirley at 6 a.m. and stayed until 11:30 a.m. They questioned him about whether he had any knowledge of the Times Square plot. They also asked about an old friend of his: Mohammad Younus, the target of the search in Centereach.

Mr. Younus had lived with him for “a couple of months” during a fight with his wife four years ago, Mr. Iqbal said. They had become friends when they worked together at a 7-Eleven. He did not think Mr. Younus was involved with the plot and said he was still confused as to why the agents had come to his house.

“I answered all their questions,” he said, adding that the agents were polite and respectful and did not take anything with them from his home.

The searches in New Jersey were focused on the same man, whose home and business, a printing press sales company, were both searched, according to one person briefed on the matter.

The house that was searched in Watertown is across the street from the local middle school and next door to a housing development for the elderly on a tree-lined street of mostly two-family homes. Neighbors said about 15 to 20 F.B.I. agents with guns drawn approached the house between 6:15 and 6:30 a.m. Sirens blared, helicopters circled overhead and agents yelled, “F.B.I.! Don’t move!” and “F.B.I.! Put your hands up!”

“When I looked out the window, they all had their guns pointed at the house,” said Barbara Lacerra, who lives across the street.

Later, agents wearing raid jackets from Immigration and Customs Enforcement could be seen leading a handcuffed man to an unmarked car.

“They had him in handcuffs and shackles,” Mrs. Lacerra said. “He was very calm and had his head down.”

She said she also saw agents take computers out of the house.

Another neighbor, who would not give his name, said two men “with connections to Pakistan” had lived in the top floor of the house for a few months.

The neighbor said he had seen law enforcement officials conducting surveillance at the house for about a week. The men who live there are auto mechanics, the neighbor said, and often tinkered with a Honda in a driveway behind the house. The neighbor said one of the men works at a Mobil station in Brookline — one of the locations of the searches.