Authorities Have Identified Person of Interest in Times Square Bomb Attempt

[WeDidIt]

Source: ABC

Authorities Have Identified Person of Interest in Times Square Bomb Attempt

Investigation Pointing to Coordinated Effort, Foreign Links in Foiled Times Square Attack

By RICHARD ESPOSITO, PIERRE THOMAS and BRIAN ROSS
May 3, 2010

Federal authorities are closing in on the man they say is a person of interest in the Times Square car bomb attempt this weekend, who is described as a naturalized American citizen who hails from Pakistan and just returned after spending five months there.

There is growing evidence the bomber did not act alone and had ties to radical elements overseas, with one senior official telling ABC News there are several individuals believed to be connected with the bombing and that at least one of them is a Pakistani-American.

Attorney General Eric Holder said today the investigators had made "substantial progress" in tracking the man who drove a Nissan Pathfinder into New York's Times Square with a crude bomb that failed to detonate.

Officials declined to provide the specifics that led them to believe there were overseas links to a larger plot.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/times-square-car-bomber-police-release-video-suspect/story?id=10534834

---

I find this interesting. The sources for the information regarding the person of interest are anonymous. Either they are close to busting this guy or they are using this "leak" as a means to make the real suspect feel like they squeaked by.

[rox63]

1. Whoever it is

At least we can be glad that he is a very bad bomb-maker. In fact, one of the things that led me to believe that he couldn't be from any large terrorist organization is how amateurish his car-bomb was.

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

2. I'm afraid the proclamations of "This was a tea bagger" were way too soon.

And the guy may have looked white on a grainy video, but all it meant was he wasn't a very dark-skinned man.

[virgogal]

5. I agree-----some jumped on the teabagger thing right away.

Even if he had been white the teabagger references were silly.

No one really knew anything at that time.

[The Northerner]

6. +1

[Warpy]

9. The reaction that anybody who was that big a goober

had to be a teabagger. He's still that big a goober.

I'll be very surprised if he got any real training in Pakistan.

He's too big a goober. They'd never have taken him on.

[Xenotime]

42. Yes. But all their violent speech is moving in that direction.

[razorman]

46. Yes. We must be careful about making assumptions in the immediate aftermath

of such incidents. I remember the frantic search for middle-eastern types after the OKC bombing, before Timothy McVeigh was revealed as the culprit. Also, there was the surprise everyone felt when the Beltway Sniper turned out to be African-American. I never pay much attention to the media coverage for the first 24-48 hours after a big event. The first reports are ALWAYS wrong.

[No Elephants]

48. Law enforcement must be careful, yes. DUers not so much. .

I think we must be careful not to take message boards or message board posts too seriously.

[liberalpragmatist]

15. Plus who knows if the guy in the video was even the same guy

All it showed was a guy looking over his shoulder a couple times, and then taking off his jacket. It could have just been... a random guy looking over his shoulder, then taking off his jacket.

[DumpDavisHogg]

20. I still believe it was a teabagger

The teabaggers have a way of covering up for themselves.

[Dappleganger]

44. Well the evidence says otherwise.

BTW, welcome to DU. Please don't fall into the RW trap of believing things which aren't supported by evidence. There's plenty of teabagging idiocy in this country already, we don't need add to the problem by behaving as they do.

I'm just glad they caught the FAIL Bomber. ;)

[sufrommich]

45. Wishful thinking run amok. nt

[bluestateguy]

3. "person of interest" = one step away from being called a suspect

Lest we get sued.

[RandomThoughts]

4. Hope they catch the guy. n/t

[pasto76]

7. still no where near WMD

weaponized bio and chem agents are high tech shit. Just reminding everyone that even though this may have foreign fingers in the scheme, the right wing rhetoric is still way off.

SGT PASTO

[Robb]

8. Self-radicalized Pakistani-American perhaps?

Gets the idea in his head to blow up some people in Times Square, knows just enough of the right sort of people to get at most a date back to Tehreek-e-Taliban. They produce the video in advance, make sure it gets put up, but are vague on the details because they have no idea what the attack is going to be?

Boy I bet they're disappointed.

[angel_gurl]

10. ok so here are my questions!

They have apparently discovered that the tape of the pakastani's was falsified. Which I suspected all along. So why do they still believe it was them, especially when they know how to make a bomb correctly so that it will go off? And second, with all the camera's up in Times Square, why is there no video of the vehicle being placed there and someone getting out of it? The guy in the video that we have seen wanted to be seen, did no one but me see him look directly at the camera twice and back at the vehicle? I still say this stinks of someone with alot of money doing everything in their power to divert Obama's attention from something more pressing. The biased media has this country so brainwashed it is unreal. I am quite sure that people who want to make a bomb to explode, who has done research on how to make a bomb, would have read somewhere in those blueprints for one as to what type of fertilizer to use that will ignite. Now I admit, I have no knowledge of how to make a bomb and dont want to know, but I remember a few years back something about a teen research how to make one even found where it stated what type of fertilizer to use. Now I do not remember the details of that incident at this time, but I am sure that its there in the blueprints if one was to look for it. Now you want to tell me that these pakistani's that has bombed more than any other group that they dont know what kind to use? That's just hogwash!!! And they are also saying that it may be a mexican nationalist!!!! How convienient just after Arizona is racial profiling these people and harassing everyone who looks the part. And I know this is happening because its happening to some members of my family who were born here,,,What Happened to American Freedom?!!!! People please question everything you hear and see... Especially if the media is telling it.

[Robb]

11. I'm sorry, who discovered the tape was falsified?

Hadn't heard that.

[leeloo]

13. What are you talking about, what tape was falsified who is saying maybe Mexicans?

[X_Digger]

12. What? Not a teabagger? Awwww

Hate to see all the gleeful predictions come to naught.

:sarcasm:

[angel_gurl]

17. I never said I thought it was a teabagger

Just that something about all this isnt right! Its funny to me that just yesterday there was a bomb boxed and mailed to a lady in texas and before the evening was over the authorities there knew more about that bombing attempt than the government and media still know about the one in Times Square. And they have less experience with these things than the federal government.

[paulsby]

14. and like isaid (i don't hate to say " i told you so")

directed at the madding hordes...

assuming it was a teabagger is silly, and frankly evidence of the same kind of prejudice we see amongst freepers.

just in a funhouse mirror

it could have very well been one, but people just assume it MUST be, exactly like oh say... ft hood

[angel_gurl]

18. Again I say

I never said it was a teabagger. But look I am caucasian and I still find it difficult to believe that in a country that was built with people from other countries that all the rich white men in power are so quick to blame things on anyone who is not white and are from any other country but here..I mean seriously, I am more afraid of our own Rich white american citizens than I ever will be anyone from another country. Just dont believe everything you hear on tv without looking logically at the facts and question everything.

[Robb]

22. You're from the Caucasus?

[paulsby]

23. i;m not referring to you, just to the metric assload of posts that assumed it was a teabagger

and nary a hint that it could be anybody but

i'm not about to blame it on ANYBODY until the facts are in but the DU hoi polloi were.

note the irony

[The abyss]

16. Person of Interest

Oh yeah – remember Brandon Mayfield?

A suspect built upon totally fabricated evidence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brandon_Mayfield

I feel like this is the foundation of a “sell job. I’ll wait and see – this hasn’t smelled right from the beginning.

[angel_gurl]

19. Thanks for using your own brain!!

At least now I know that everyone in this country is not totally brainwashed. All I was asking was for people to learn to think for themselves. Too many of these threads are just getting caught up in the media fed lies and not even to stop to think about how ridiculus this all sounds, what we're expected to just believe and go with the flow. I have learned to always question everything no matter who is telling you things. Never take anything at face value.

[complain jane]

21. I would have guessed the CEO of BP.

[deminks]

24. Officials: Pakistani sought in NYC bomb case

Source: MSNBC

NEW YORK - Two law enforcement officials say that authorities have identified the buyer of the sport utility vehicle used in the botched Times Square bombing and are seeking him as a potential suspect.

One of the officials tells The Associated Press that the potential suspect 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.

NBC News' Pete Williams reported the man's name was on an e-mail that was sent to the seller of the car last month, as well as other evidence suggesting he had a role in the attempted bombing.

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

[BrklynLiberal]

25. I thought it was a 40 year old white guy

[virgogal]

26. Maybe it's a white Pakistani.

[lxlxlxl]

27. yeah...guess that was wrong ?

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[HipChick]

28. Middle Eastern or Hispanic or Pakistani?

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/teen_who_sold_suv_in_times_sq_scare_9b5QKI97Cyy04OHNGNp96I#ixzz0mvCQRVW0

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Flaneur]

34. Ya really ought to take that "religion of peace" tripe over to Free Republic.

Where it belongs.

[Name removed]

39. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

36. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cosmicone]

30. I win !!

I had bet $20 that it was a Pakistani. The pakistani government has used terror as an official state policy for 40+ years and terrorism has become as much a pakistani phenomenon as McDonalds is American.

This won't stop until Pakistan is balkanized and its military and ISI dissolved forever.

[Imajika]

31. Maybe...

...the Pakistani Tea Party ;)

[Psephos]

32. More like the Pakistani Tea-N-Tea party. ;) n/t

[Tx4obama]

33. He's a U.S. naturalized citizen

Update at Huffington Post says:

Update: Federal officials have identified the man who bought the Nissan Pathfinder used in the attempted bombing of Times Square Saturday night.

Authorities did not name the suspect, but described him as a naturalized US citizen from Pakistan who lives in Connecticut.
------------------------------

So, the republican's heads will be exploding when he is read his Miranda rights, given a court appointed attorney (paid for by the taxpayers), and a criminal trial in the federal court system!

[Robb]

35. Much of DU will have to turn on a dime as well

...Unless he picked up a truck with a Confederate flag decal on the rear window.

[Phoonzang]

37. Uh oh. Now this will be some kind of secret right-wing conspiracy .

If the mad smoke bomber isn't a teabagger then it's surely a conspiracy.

[Codeine]

38. So now there will be one or two threads about this

that trail off and disappear. Had it been a teabagger the forums would be loaded down with fifty+ threads about how we knew it all along.

Sigh. This place is just as loony as The Other Place sometimes.

[Name removed]

40. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[The Straight Story]

43. +100000 (nt)

[sufrommich]

47. Yep. nt

[Lone_Star_Dem]

49. Here's his picture

He a light skinned person of Middle Eastern decent. I can see how they got it wrong from the videos.