No Taliban link to NYC bomb: police

[CHIMO]

Source: CBC News

There is no evidence of a Taliban link to a failed bomb found in a sport utility vehicle parked in Times Square, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said Sunday.

Kelly said officers were on their way to a town in Pennsylvania to talk to a man who may have recorded a bombing suspect on his video camera.

The commissioner said the possible suspect, a man in his 40s, was captured on security camera video in the area as he took off a dark shirt to reveal a red T-shirt underneath. He said police may be able to release that video in the coming days.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attempted attack, a statement on an Islamist website said Sunday.



Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/05/02/new-york-times-square-bomb.html

[virgogal]

1. Cameras----are-----everywhere.

[Robb]

2. Mark my words

....this guy's a dead end. Kelly's trying to look busy.

[The Magistrate]

14. Consider Them Marked, Sir

This is home-grown, not an import....

[Robb]

16. Were I a betting man

...I believe you'd have yourself a wager. A gentleman's bet? Winner gets first claim to wishing neither of us were right, and the whole thing a dream?

[The Magistrate]

19. Excellent Stakes, Sir

We will see how things shake out.

[truthisfreedom]

3. The Taliban are trying to take responsiblity for an utterly amateur, failed attack?

Let them. Insist that they did it. It's laughable.

[Robb]

5. Like those amateurs that tried to blow up the World Trade Center in 1993?

Fortunately they never amounted to anything, either. Flash in the pan.

[greiner3]

9. They did blow it up;

Not enough, but real close from several reports I've seen.

[bullwinkle428]

6. I almost drove off the road laughing when I heard the radio report!

Seriously? You guys are trying to take credit for an absolute epic failure? C'MON, SON!!!!!

[obxhead]

17. Yes, by all means. Lets frog march someone, anyone.

heaven forbid we capture and prosecute the actual perpetrator. :eyes:

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

4. AP story describes person of interest as "white man"

NEW YORK – Police investigating the failed car bomb left in Times Square have videotape of a possible suspect shedding clothing in an alley and putting it in a bag and found a substance that resembled fertilizer in the parked SUV, Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Sunday.

Kelly said officers were on the way to a Pennsylvania town to talk to a tourist who might have recorded the suspect on his video camera. The video shows a white man in his 40s taking off one shirt, revealing another underneath.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100502/ap_on_re_us/us_times_square_car_bomb

[chrisa]

7. lol. The Taliban are such idiots.

They just take responsibility for everything, including tornados and earthquakes.

[ladywnch]

10. 'They just take responsibility for everything, including tornados and earthquakes.'..

which is really rude since Pat Roberston has told us God is reponsible for all those things......and Pat can't be wrong!!!!

[awoke_in_2003]

11. They can't take credit for earthquakes...

they are the fault of immodest women :)

[niceypoo]

25. Pat Robertson has the hurricane market cornered

...in his own mind.

[defendandprotect]

35. Remember . . .

they're OUR idiots -- created by US/CIA . . .

and financed right up to 9/11 --

and these are the "idiots" who pulled of 9/11????

[dflprincess]

40. I thought we said Al Qaeda pulled off 9/11

and when did we decide it was the Taliban?

[Kablooie]

8. Whoever did it didn't go through terrorist training. Sounds amazingly incompetant.

[TomCADem]

12. The News Media Has Been Generally Cautious, Though Fox Is Playing Up The Taliban Claim...

While ignoring the footage of a white male caught on cameras. On the one hand, the right wing wants to run around and use the incident to attack President Obama as being soft on terrorism, but if it turns out to be a right wing extremist, they want the flexibility to hail him as a hero, as they did with the Texas 9/11 copycat.

[thereismore]

13. How about Christian Taliban? nt

[tabasco]

15. It's amazing how many on DU are pushing stridently the bogus taliban angle.

Really amazing.

[Robb]

18. That the video claiming responsibility seems to predate the event

...is quite compelling. As was YouTube's uncharacterostic haste in pulling it down. Lots of authentic jihadi propaganda films and channels remain.

[tabasco]

20. What's your source? n/t

[Robb]

22. Multiple.

...The video is, at the moment, republished at http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xd5smk_taliban-pakistan-accepts-the-recent_news

[Ian David]

21. If it were The Taliban or international terrorists the bomb wouldn't have been so moronic.

It sounds more like some Teabagger threw something together on a whim and wanted to blow-up The Lion King.

[troubledamerican]

23. American TEA-liban?

[Democat]

28. Tea Party and Bin Laden both hate the American Government

Either one could have done this. It seems the Tea Party and Bin Laden agree that the US government must be destroyed.

[troubledamerican]

33. Do you know how much they agree?

http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-At-Home-Cultural-Responsibility/dp/0767915615/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272936538&sr=8-5

[AlphaCentauri]

24. them those Talibans have to fire their media relation spoke person

[skip fox]

26. Summary of parallels between NY attempted bombing and McVeigh's bombing.

The botched NY City bombing shares a number of striking parallels with the Timothy McVeigh bombing beside the obvious vehicle-building-walk-away narrative (although that, in itself, is very compelling--replicating the act of one's hero in broad strokes). But there seem to be light strokes as well.

The botched bomber used fertilizer which the investigators say was non-explosive, placing it into a gun box. If he knew the fertilizer was useless, it would be a clear homage to McVeigh. (The gun box being a tip of the hat to McVeigh's military background.) If he didn't know this it could still be an homage.

The NY attempted bomber locked the van's doors, leaving the keys inside. Some accounts say McVeigh left the keys in the Ryder's cab and locked the doors. (I think the case is that he took the keys, but there is no accounting where these nuts get their information. Source: http://history1900s.about.com/cs/crimedisaster/p/okcitybombing.htm

Fireworks went off in the van alerting vendors. If the attempted bomber was so inept with clocks, it is likely that he lit a long fuse. McVeigh lit two fuses just before or as he left the Ryder.

Additionally,l MSNBC played a show based on The McVeigh Tapes on the 20th of April.

I could be way off, but if I was leading the investigation I'd be putting resources into this question, hoping to find him before . . .

[Robb]

27. By the same argument

...you could call McVeigh's bomb an homage to the 1993 WTC bombing.

[skip fox]

30. that's true. But it doesn't make the parallels irrelevant.

right?

[skip fox]

29. A number of elements point to a Timothy McVeigh wantabe:

Parallels between NY City attempted bombing and Timothy McVeigh’s bombing:

The botched NY bombing shares a number of striking parallels with the Timothy McVeigh bombing in Oklahoma City beside the obvious vehicle-building-walk-away narrative . . . although that, in itself, is very compelling–the botched bomber replicating the act of his (or her?) hero in broad strokes. But there seem to be a couple light strokes as well.

The botched bomber placed eight bags of fertilizer which the investigators say was non-explosive, into a gun box. If he knew the fertilizer was useless, it would be a clear homage to McVeigh. (The gun box being a tip of the hat to McVeigh's military background.) (If he didn't know this it could still be an homage, hoping to replicate his hero's methods as closely as possible.)

The NY attempted bomber locked the van's doors, leaving the keys inside. Some accounts say McVeigh left the keys in the Ryder's cab and locked the doors. (I think the case is that he took the keys, but there is no accounting where these people get their information. Source: http://history1900s.about.com/cs/crimedisaster/p/okcitybombing.htm)

Fireworks went off in the NY van alerting vendors. The attempted bomber appeared to be inept in a number of ways, so it is not likely that the clock set off the fireworks. It is more likely that he lit a long fuse. Similarly, McVeigh lit two fuses just before he left the Ryder.


Additionally, MSNBC played a show based on The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist on the 19th of April.

I could be way off, but if I was leading the investigation I'd be putting resources into this question, hoping to find him before he is successful with his homicidal intentions.


Therefore, in an investiation taking these matters seriously:

I’d look into far-right web/hate sites, those where McVeigh is discussed glowingly. Maybe Free Republic.

Since the person’s issues were important enough to kill for, I think his alignment to McVeigh would be apparent in his screen name (anagram of “Timothy McVeigh”? a character’s name in The Turner Diaries?)

I look very closely at those who passionately referenced MSNBC’s April 19th The McVeigh Tapes.

I’d perhaps put some resource looking into the extreme fringe of the Tea Party, but I think the far-right hate sites would be more fruitful . . . (In which case the FBI should soon be onto him . . . or her!)

[Taverner]

31. Someone needs to tell Fox

Since they are saying "Radical Islamist Terror attack in Times Square"

[skip fox]

32. Are they really? Jesus.

I was watching earlier and they were leaning that way, but had not yet shown their hand.

[npk]

34. Yes but to be fair

They say that after every terrorist incident is discovered.

[dflprincess]

36. Taliban? Whatever happened to Al Qaeda?

Not too long ago the U.S. was ready to bribe the Taliban into being our pals and to help "get Bin Laden". Now we think they're ready to plant bombs here?

Am I confused or is this just the new excuse that will be used to justify our neverending prescence in Afghanistan?

[Robb]

37. Yes, you're confused.

Playing fast and loose with history, too, but I'll chalk that up to confused.

[dflprincess]

38. You're right we weren't paying them to help us get Bin Laden - just bribing them

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/nov/13/us-trucks-security-taliban

How the US army protects its trucks – by paying the TalibanInsurance, security or extortion? The US is spending millions
of dollars in Afghanistan to ensure its supply convoys get through – and it's the Taliban who profit

It's the Warlords we were bribing to be our friends if they "renounced terrorism".

It still doesn't explain what's become of Al Qaeda - they were supposedly the reason we invaded Afghanistan to begin with.

[ClarkUSA]

39. This story is from Sunday. Now law enforcement officials say it's still under investigation.

Another intelligence official in Pakistan said Shahzad received militant training in northwest Pakistan near the garrison town of Kohat. The area around Kohat is a stronghold of Tariq Afridi, the Pakistani Taliban commander in the region.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE6430EA20100504

A Pakistani TV station reported that Shahzad spent time in Karachi and visited the northwestern city of Peshawar during his recent stay in Pakistan. Peshawar is a gateway for foreigners seeking to travel into nearby tribal regions, where militant groups have long had sanctuary... Investigators hadn't established an immediate connection to the Pakistani Taliban — which had claimed responsibility for the botched bombing in three videos — or any foreign terrorist groups, a law enforcement official told the AP.

"He's claimed to have acted alone, but these are things that have to be investigated," the official said.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36892505/ns/us_news-security

It's obvious that law enforcement officials think the Shahzad's story is suspect in light of the fact that he just happened to spend five months undergoing militant training in a stronghold of the Pakistani Taliban commander prior to his attempted car bombing.