(no subject)

[camwyn]

So I heard about the Pathfinder with the explosives and incendiaries in it that turned up in Times Square yesterday. Not my idea of fun, as I walk through that area every day that I go to work. Given that when the OKC bombing happened, my instinctive response of "That's white separatist territory, not foreign terrorist territory" turned out to be right, I'd like to volunteer the instinctive response I had to this one:

This was a lousy, lousy time for a terrorist attack. Tourists are heavier on Friday nights than Saturday, as far as I can tell. And 6:28 PM, when they first saw the thing drive in, was not a great time for a terrorist with anti-Semitic leanings; sundown wasn't until 7:51 PM yesterday, so if this was somebody trying to strike at New York's Jewish population, they really weren't paying attention to their work. The 'explosives' weren't very good, either- propane, gasoline, and fireworks. And the fireworks didn't go off right.

This feels like some kind of dumbass moron amateur, some twerp trying to prove he's dangerous and not getting it right. If it is a terrorist and not a common criminal who couldn't be bothered to get a gun and use that to spill blood instead, it's a terrorist who hasn't worked with his central organization in a while and probably will get disowned by his cause.

Many thanks to the T-shirt vendor who was first to see the smoking car and call for help. Could've been a lot worse. And I'm not really fussed about the call the cops got at 4 AM saying "Don't interrupt me! There's going to be a bigger explosion! The car was just a diversion!", either. New York is full of people who think it's funny to call into TV shows and pose as experts on plane crashes (I was watching a live report the day after TWA 800 and it happened while I was watching). Any number of crazy people in this city could be responsible for that call and believe, really and truly, that there was another explosion coming whether they had anything to do with it or not.

Comments

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't be in the least surprised to discover that the perp was about to lose his pathfinder because he couldn't keep up with his payments or some such, and cooked up the "terrorist attack" scheme to get out from under while sticking it to the bank and everyone else. Looks to me like he wanted the thing to burn as much as anything else. Incendiaries, no shrapnel.

I bet they'll discover an arson somewhere in Connecticut associated with this.

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

I would also lay odds that the fireworks came from Rhode Island. They're illegal in Connecticut, but every year around the Fourth, people drive to Rhode Island and buy them anyway.

And yeah, "Nissan Pathfinder" screams "middle-class suburbia." Which, these days, is hurting a lot, thanks to the economy. So I suspect your theory is correct.

[maps-or-guitars.livejournal.com]

Oh well; I'm okay with being wrong.

[fidelioscabinet.livejournal.com]

Even in the the greater New York metropolitan area, ammonium nitrate fertilizer and diesel fuel aren't that hard to come by, and you could get a fair amount into an SUV, even if you were packing them into containers to conceal them. This was an amateur, and one who couldn't even be bothered to do much effective research.

I'm a lot more concerned about the terrorist raindrops outside right now.

[sdelmonte]

This is similar to the failed London/Glasgow bombings of 2007, so I venture that the perp(s) are at most Jihadi wannabees with no training. (As far as I can tell, despite efforts to link those bombings with the Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda, the perps were acting on their own.) Still scary, especially since there have been no arrests and that mindset seems to be growing, but most likely not a product of Terror Central.

It's possible that this is a right wing nut, too, but I don't feel that here.

There is one other possibility: the guy who threw the grenades at the British consulate and the Army recruiting station has jacked up his attacks. I don't see that as likely, but you never know, and it was May Day.

[camwyn]

Yeah, it doesn't strike me as a right wing nut either. There'd've been more damage, or- or something. This is just a case of stupid.