A blog for all seasons; A blog for one; A blog for all. As the 11th most informative blog on the planet, I have a seared memory of throwing my Time 2006 Man of the Year Award over the railing at Time Warner Center.
Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
Sources told CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer that another attempt to explode a bomb there is a key concern, and the intelligence suggests it could be a dirty bomb.
Based on informant information authorities are looking for three suspects. One is believed to be an American citizen. Two others apparently have U.S. travel documents.
Some of the information on the latest threat could be coming from Younis al-Mauritani, the man hand-picked by Osama bin Laden to develop terror targets in the United States. He’s a “most wanted list” senior al Qaeda operative who was arrested in Pakistan last week with his computer, BlackBerry and other tools.
“Remember, an awful lot of the security we have you don’t see,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “I’m satisfied that Commissioner Kelly has deployed all of our resources doing everything that we should be doing.”
“Terrorism is theater and this is the stage,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “This is right now probably the world’s biggest stage. “
Law enforcement is concerned that this is an al Qaeda directed threat, and not merely a lone wolf operation. They further note in the report that once al Qaeda selects targets, it continues to carry out attacks against the target until the targets are successfully destroyed.
That would also seem to support the possibility of attacks in Washington, particularly against the Capitol or White House, which were the likely targets of Flight 93, which was crashed in the Pennsylvania countryside when passengers fought the hijackers to keep them from carrying out their suicide run.
Security theater is on parade as the NYPD, like other police forces around the country is making a show of force, with a 1/3 increase in patrols as staffing was adjusted with overlapping 12 hour shifts until further notice. However, security in NYC goes beyond visible patrols and checkpoints. It includes hundreds of cameras and sensors that may detect terrorists before they strike, but which are far more useful for evidenciary purposes in trying to track down movements of terrorists after they strike.
Many New Yorkers are taking things in stride, and are hoping that the NYPD can get the job done of keeping the city safe. It takes more than the police though; it takes a vigilant public. The Times Square bombing that wasn't was prevented not because of police cameras or a cop on the beat saw something suspicious. A street vendor notified police and fire departments of a suspicious vehicle, and the bomb contained therein fizzled to everyone's relief.
I think this weekend will be a muted one in NYC. People don't need a public reminder of 9/11 or politicians dedicating a memorial on the 10th anniversary to know what happened or why. Many of us were there - and we know that the threat will persist as long as this terror group continues to inspire followers to take up the cause of war against the US and putting no value on life.
Faisal Shahzad will learn his punishment today when the court announces his sentence. Shahzad had already entered a guilty plea on 10 counts relating to his attempted bombing in Times Square. The bomb failed to detonate properly, which meant that New Yorkers and visitors to the area were spared a gruesome fate:
A dramatic videotape of the FBI-staged test blast in June has become a key piece of evidence against Shahzad, who faces a mandatory life prison term at his sentencing Tuesday in Manhattan federal court.
Technicians studied Shahzad's design before using it to build a working model they say demonstrated his deadly intent.
"Had the bombing played out as Shahzad had so carefully planned, the lives of numerous residents and visitors of the city would have been lost and countless others would have been forever traumatized," prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Shahzad's bomb fizzled before it could do any harm, doomed by faulty wiring and ingredients such as a low-grade fertilizer that couldn't explode.
The Pakistan-born Shahzad hasn't disputed the allegations while under interrogation and taking a guilty plea.
In fact, "he spoke with pride" about the scheme, in which he bragged that he wanted to kill at least 40 people, the government said in a sentencing memo. If he escaped arrest, he added, he hoped to set off another bomb two weeks later in a second, undisclosed location.
"While it is impossible to calculate precisely the impact of Shahzad's bomb had it detonated, the controlled detonation ... demonstrated that those effects would have been devastating to the surrounding area," prosecutors wrote.
Calling himself a Muslim solider, a defiant Shahzad pleaded guilty in June to 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of which carry mandatory life sentences.
Shahzad had received terror training and financial assistance overseas. He claims that the Pakistan Taliban provided him with more than $15,000 and five days of explosives training late last year and early this year, months after he became a U.S. citizen. He had planned the attack using widely available web feeds and had planned the attack to coincide with when the area would be heavily trafficked with tourists.
The sentencing comes just a day after a UAV airstrike apparently killed a German terror cell that was in the Pakistani frontier province of Waziristan in the town of Mir Ali. Pakistan continues to be a hub of terrorism, and the latest European travel warnings are related as well. Al Qaeda has mutated its efforts to strike at targets around the world to try and carry out attacks. No high level al Qaeda or Taliban were killed in the latest strike, but the elimination of the German cell could have thwarted a major attack down the road. Western intel agencies are concerned that al Qaeda will attempt to carry out Mumbai-style attacks (using a cadre of terrorists to attack hotels and other soft targets to inflict maximum casualties).
UPDATE: Shahzad has gotten life in prison. He was unrepentant to the last - he said: "Brace yourselves, the war with Muslims has just begun," just before the judge handed down the six life sentences.
Shahzad, like many other Islamic terrorists, ignores that the bulk of victims of their terror campaigns are fellow Muslims, but they chalk it up to acceptable losses in a larger campaign of jihad against the West as they promote their version of fundamentalist Islam.
The FBI has conducted tests using the same basic design in Faisal Shahzad's failed Times Square bomb in rural Pennsylvania and came to the conclusion that the City dodged a huge bullet. As the NY Post reports:
Had he built the Times Square device the way he had originally intended to, terrorist Faisal Shahzad, would have turned his SUV and nearby vehicles into a fatal spray of razor-sharp fragments and transformed building windows into glass guillotines hurtling to the streets, cutting down hundreds of people walking by.
The results were discovered after feds composed the type of bomb Shahzad set out to make -- with the exact components he had initially intended to use -- and exploded it in Pennsylvania last month.
"It would have been the biggest thing ever to happen in this country since Sept. 11," another source said.
"It definitely would have been bigger than [the 1995] Oklahoma City" bombing of the federal building that killed 168 people, the source said. "There would have been a lot of casualties."
The main reason the bomb didn't detonate properly was that Shahzad substituted cheaper and more easily obtainable materials for the ones that he originally hoped to use.
That's both reassuring and troubling. It's reassuring that the components to make a truly devastating bomb aren't easily obtainable. It's troubling that he still nearly managed to carry off the bombing to devastating consequences.
Calling himself a Muslim soldier, a defiant Pakistan-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty Monday to carrying out the failed Times Square car bombing and left a sinister warning that unless the U.S. leaves Muslim lands alone, "we will be attacking U.S."
Wearing a white skull cap, prison smocks and a dark beard, Faisal Shahzad entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Manhattan just days after a federal grand jury indicted him on 10 terrorism and weapons counts, some of which carried mandatory life prison sentences. He pleaded guilty to them all.
U.S. District Judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum challenged Shahzad repeatedly with questions such as whether he had worried about killing children in Times Square.
"One has to understand where I'm coming from," Shahzad calmly replied. "I consider myself ... a Muslim soldier."
The 30-year-old described his effort to set off a bomb in an SUV he parked in Times Square on May 1, saying he chose the warm Saturday night because it would be crowded with people he could injure or kill. He said he conspired with the Pakistan Taliban, which provided more than $15,000 to fund his operation.
He explained that he packed his vehicle with three separate bomb components, hoping to set off a fertilizer-fueled bomb packed in a gun cabinet, a set of propane tanks and gas canisters rigged with fireworks to explode into a fireball. He also revealed he was carrying a folding assault rifle for "self-defense."
Shahzad said he lit a fuse and waited 2 1/2 to five minutes for the bomb to erupt.
"I was waiting to hear a sound but I didn't hear a sound. ... So I walked to Grand Central and went home," he said.
Shahzad dismissed the judge's question about the children by saying the U.S. didn't care when children were killed in Muslim countries.
"It's a war. I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorizing the Muslim nations and the Muslim people," he said. "On behalf of that, I'm revenging the attack. Living in the United States, Americans only care about their people, but they don't care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die."
Cedarbaum also asked Shahzad if he understood that the people in Times Square might not have anything to do with what happened overseas.
"The people select the government. We consider them all the same," Shahzad said during the hour-long hearing.
Shahzad didn't particularly care about how many Muslims murdered each other in sectarian violence in places like Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran, but he's complaining about when the US goes after those who are responsible for carrying out terrorist attacks against the US?
It's an ignorance of the fact that Muslim terrorists carried out attacks against the US for decades before the US responded with force to go after the terror regimes.
But this is the twisted ideology that Shahzad and his coreligionists have adopted. It's a hatred of all things America, despite all the things that the US had done for them.
Shahzad faces life in prison when he is sentenced later this year.
UPDATE:
The photo is from Fox News, which shows that most of Times Square is empty, although crowd barricades are in place at 44th Street and blocks off the area that was in the vicinity of where the Shahzad attack occurred.
UPDATE:
Via the Daily News, more information about that earlier incident, and the fact that more people are coming forward with reports of suspicious packages. That means that the NYPD is going through more calls per day than they were getting before Shahzad carried out his attack.
The section of W. 45th St. between 7th and 8th Aves. was shut down, along with 7th Ave. between 45th and 46th Sts.
A short time earlier, police responded to another suspicious package report on 8th Ave. and 45th St. - near where accused bomber Faisal Shahzad parked his explosives-laden SUV.
The package turned out to be someone's lunch, police said.
NYPD Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the number of reported suspicious packages was up about 30% since last Saturday's botched bombing.
There were 145 calls on Thursday alone, Kelly said, up from the typical 90-100 per day.
UPDATE:
It looks like my first inclination here was pretty much on target.
A suspicious cooler found on the sidewalk in front of the Marriott Marquis Hotel turned out to have water bottles and books inside it, CBS 2 has learned.
The small cooler was discovered at 46th Street and Broadway shortly after 1 p.m., forcing police to shut down a large portion of the surrounding area.
Officials said that after two days of intense questioning of the bombing suspect, Faisal Shahzad, evidence was mounting that the group, the Pakistani Taliban, had helped inspire and train Mr. Shahzad in the months before he is alleged to have parked an explosives-filled sport utility vehicle in a busy Manhattan intersection on Saturday night. Officials said Mr. Shahzad had discussed his contacts with the group, and investigators had accumulated other evidence that they would not disclose.
On Wednesday, Mr. Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired senior Pakistani Air Force officer, waived his right to a speedy arraignment, a possible sign of his continuing cooperation with investigators.
As his interrogation continued, Department of Homeland Security officials directed airlines to speed up their checks of new names added to the no-fly list, a requirement that might have prevented Mr. Shahzad from boarding a flight to Dubai on Monday night before his arrest at Kennedy International Airport.
The failed attack has produced a flurry of other proposals to tighten security procedures, including calls by members of Congress to more closely scrutinize passengers who buy tickets with cash, as Mr. Shahzad did. Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, and Senator Scott Brown, Republican of Massachusetts, proposed stripping terrorism suspects of American citizenship, and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg asked Congress to block the sale of firearms and explosives to those on terrorist watch lists.
The whole notion of stripping terrorism suspects of American citizenship is nonsense. There is a wholly appropriate crime that takes such actions into account, and that is treason. The US Constitution sets forth explicitly the crime of treason:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.
The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.
By taking up arms against the United States and working with the Taliban and received terror training at one of their terror camps in Pakistan's frontier provinces, Shahzad committed treason. He admitted to the actions of carrying out the bombing, which is an open admission (and if he allocutes in court, then the conditions for a treason conviction are met). People like Sen. John McCain and Joe Lieberman are stoking out space for campaign slogans and trying to show that they're tough on terrorists, but they could have also been tough by simply calling for the imposition of the appropriate criminal sanctions - treason.
So, why did Shahzad decide to join the jihad? Well, the Daily News reports that he was slowly radicalized because of the war on terror and personal failures. After downplaying the links, the US is now focusing on Shahzad's travels to Pakistan and his contacts there. Someone was providing him with the financial support upon his return to the US, and that has to be fully investigated.
It's also come to light that Shahzad made a dry run the day before, and even then botched things. He left the keys to his getaway car in the Pathfinder.
The source, who did not explain how Shahzad had attempted to set off the bomb, said he then took a number of turns and wound up entering Times Square by driving south down Seventh Avenue. The source said Shahzad told investigators he turned right onto 45th Street toward Eighth Avenue because he saw a place to pull over.
It's unclear why Shahzad left the Pathfinder's engine running and hazard lights blinking.
But because of an incredible goof, Shahzad couldn't use his escape car. He had accidentally left the keys to that vehicle in the Pathfinder that he thought was about to blow up, the source said.
He apparently went to a train station, where he boarded a Metro North train back to Connecticut.
That fortuitous goof on his part gave investigators still another piece of evidence to tie the attack to Shahzad.
But officials could have called all the airlines themselves in such a critical situation — they've done it before.
This would have put Shahzad on the radar of the carriers, and it could have prevented him from being able to board the Emirates plane headed for Dubai.
The FBI asked the TSA not to make the calls, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the ongoing investigation. The FBI did let the TSA call a few domestic air carriers, which did not include Emirates.
It's possible that the FBI didn't want to compromise their investigation and hoped to perhaps catch any potential coconspirators and that alerting the airline might have tipped off Shahzad and others to the investigation. Still, there wasn't much more that the airline could do under the circumstances since it was the TSA responsibility to clear the flight's manifest.
While Faisal Shahzad claims to have acted alone, investigators are looking at potential links overseas, particularly in Pakistan. Authorities in Pakistan had arrested several of his relatives in connection with his arrest at JFK airport as he was trying to leave the country via Dubai.
Shahzad told authorities he acted alone, but officials said he had spent five months in Pakistan of late and Kelly said Shahzad had a wife and two children living in Peshawar.
The United States and Pakistan will try to trace Shahzad's path to Times Square, determine how he ended up in a militant training camp in Pakistan and which group influenced him, in hopes of preventing future attacks.
Shahzad, a former financial analyst who worked in the U.S. state of Connecticut, is the son of a retired vice air marshal, affording him a special status in Pakistan, where the military is the most powerful and influential institution.
Security officials said Shahzad's parents resided in Peshawar, the city hit hardest by Pakistani Taliban suicide bombings. They said Shahzad also has a residency identification card from commercial hub Karachi.
Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Shahzad's family "are on our radar."
"He is not from a radical or illiterate family. He is from an educated family. We are looking into how he got radicalized," he told Reuters.
JPMorgan Chase's mortgage unit sued Shahzad in September last year to foreclose on his three bedroom home in Shelton, Connecticut, court documents and county records show.
The bomb was in a sports utility vehicle that prosecutors said Shahzad bought three weeks ago in Connecticut for $1,300.
Workers at Emirates evidently did not check the list, because at 6:30 p.m., Mr. Shahzad called the airline and booked a flight to Pakistan via Dubai, officials said. At 7:35 p.m., he arrived at the airport, paid cash for his ticket and was given a boarding pass.
Airlines are not required to report cash purchases, a Homeland Security official said. Emirates actually did report Mr. Shahzad’s purchase to the Transportation Security Administration — but only hours later, when he was already in custody, the official said.
Mr. Shahzad had evaded the surveillance effort and bought his ticket seven hours after his name went on the no-fly list. But the system gives security officials one more chance to stop a dangerous passenger.
As is routine, when boarding was completed for the flight, Emirates Flight EK202, the final passenger manifest was sent to the National Targeting Center, operated in Virginia by Customs and Border Protection. There, at about 11 p.m., analysts discovered that Mr. Shahzad was on the no-fly list and had just boarded a plane.
They sounded the alarm, and minutes later, with the jet still at the gate, its door was opened and agents came aboard and took Mr. Shahzad into custody, officials said. The airliner then pulled away from the gate but was called back.
“Actually I have a message for you to go back to the gate immediately,” an air traffic controller told the pilot, according to a recording posted to the Web by LiveATC.net, which tracks air communications. “I don’t know exactly why, but you can call your company for the reason,” the controller added.
After the plane was called back, the authorities removed two more passengers. They were questioned and cleared. They and all the rest of the passengers were rescreened, as was the baggage, and the flight took off about seven hours late.
There were multiple layers of security involved here, and while several layers didn't manage to prevent him from boarding the flight, he was still captured before the flight took off. Investigators and political leaders need to look at how and why the system was not more efficient and how the notification system could be better improved - whether it is providing clearer and more urgent notifications, better voice communication with those at the gate, or a combination of factors.
Clearly, the law enforcement job of tracking down the terrorist responsible for the attack did a great job of tracing leads that pointed to Shahzad and did so with remarkable speed, but that was due in part to the failure of the bomb to explode - leaving a veritable smorgasbord of evidence that detailed the history of the Nissan Pathfinder, its origin, and ultimately Shahzad's identification as the prime suspect.
The charges in the criminal complaint are as follows:
Now, there are questions as to why he carried out the attack in the first place. Some are speculating that it may have been because of ongoing UAV airstrikes against the Taliban in Pakistan that have targeted Taliban and al Qaeda along the frontier provinces. He also admits to training with Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, which is one of the major extremist Islamic groups in his native Pakistan. The criminal complaint states that he trained in Waziristan, and Bill Roggio notes that it was likely North Waziristan, which is littered with more than 150 Taliban and al Qaeda camps. In fact, it appears that Tehrik-i-Taliban is the latest cover name for Mehsud's Taliban faction.
I think it should be even more frequent, and the technology is present to make this pretty much instantaneous, but this is a step in the right direction.
Investigators were able to track wannabe terrorist Faisal Shahzad through his anonymous, pre-paid cell phone — exactly how, they won’t say. But there was a tantalizing explanation posted — and then quickly yanked — from the website of WCBS TV. “In the end, it was secret Army intelligence planes that did him in. Armed with his cell phone number, they circled the skies over the New York area, intercepting a call to Emirates Airlines reservations, before scrambling to catch him at John F. Kennedy International Airport.”
Jeremy Scahill, relying on a source in U.S. Special Operations, says those planes were likely RC-12s, equipped with a Guardrail Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) system. The planes are designed to pluck all kinds of communications from the air. But from the ground, they could easily be mistaken for an executive aircraft. The RC-12 is based on the Hawker-Beechcraft King Air B200 suit-carrier. And while earlier versions of the aircraft were covered in odd-looking antennas, the latest aircraft are far less conspicuous.
Variants of the planes are at the center of “Project Liberty,” a crash project by the Air Force to send more airborne spies to Afghanistan. The first of an estimated 37 aircraft began flying there last December.
“It sucks up everything. We’ve got these things in Jalalabad [Afghanistan]. We routinely fly these things over Khandahar. When I say everything, I mean BlueTooth would be effected, even the wave length that PlayStation controllers are on. They suck up everything. That’s the point,” Scahill’s source tells him.
Also, the video that was released the day after the failed attack showing a man taking off a dark colored shirt in Shubert Alley around the block from the SUV may have reassured Shahzad that the authorities weren't on to him at that point giving him a false sense of confidence.
Meanwhile, an official with knowledge of the investigation told The Associated Press that the video police released right after the botched bombing of a man shedding his shirt near the SUV had the effect of falsely reassuring the real suspect he wasn't a target.
The unidentified man -- whom Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly referred to in his first briefing after the failed bombing as someone police sought to interview -- is now not believed to be involved with the attack, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case. Police have not interviewed the man.
So, we now have an idea of why the JTTF was interested in Shahzad in 2004 but what happened that he wasn't on the lookout list in 2010? Was his name dropped, but only added in conjunction with the investigation and if so, why was his name dropped?
A Pakistan-born U.S. citizen accused of driving a bomb-laden SUV into Times Square and parking it on a street lined with restaurants and Broadway theaters was to appear in court Tuesday to face charges that he tried to set off a massive fireball and kill Americans, federal authorities said.
The suspect, Faisal Shahzad, was taken into custody late Monday by FBI agents and New York Police Department detectives at Kennedy Airport while trying to board a flight to Dubai, according to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and other officials. He was identified by customs agents and stopped before boarding, Holder said early Tuesday in Washington.
Shahzad is a naturalized U.S. citizen and had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation into the failed car bombing.
The U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan was handling the case and said Shahzad would appear in court Tuesday, but the charges were not made public. FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Conn., early Tuesday, said agent Kimberly Mertz, who wouldn't answer questions about the search.
Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house overnight in a mixed-race, working-class neighborhood of multi-family homes in Connecticut's largest city. A bomb squad came and went without entering as local police and FBI agents gathered in the cordoned-off street.
It was the use of a disposable cellphone that led the FBI to the suspect. Shahzad will be in federal court today to face charges and it was believed that he had bought the Nissan Pathfinder about three weeks ago for cash via Craigslist.
The person seen in a video taken from the Junior's Restaurant on Shubert Alley doesn't appear to be involved in the bombing.
Mr. Shahzad, 30, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, told the authorities that he had acted alone, but hours after he was arrested, security officials in Karachi, Pakistan, said they arrested a Pakistani man who had spent time with Mr. Shahzad during a recent visit there.
Investigators said they arrested the man, Muhammad Rehan, in a mosque in the North Nazimabad area just after morning prayers. The mosque is known for its links with the militant group Jaish-e-Muhammad.
Investigators said Mr. Rehan told them that he had rented a pickup truck and driven with Mr. Shahzad to the northwestern city of Peshawar, where they stayed from July 7 to July 22, 2009. The account could not be independently verified.
Pakistani television reported that as many as eight people had been arrested there on Tuesday, but those reports could not be immediately confirmed.
Moreover, there's no way to know whether those arrests are connected with the Times Square plot. Curiously, Jaish-e-Muhammad is more well known for its terrorism in connection with the disputed territories Jammu and Kashmir along the Line of Control with India than terrorism relating to the US.
How did investigators zero-in on Shahzad? Officials said they found a bevy of evidence by examining that same SUV. NYPD officials say the VIN – or vehicle identification number – was scratched off the dashboard, but was also stamped on the engine block.
Agents tracked down the SUV's most recent registered owner, a 19-year-old Bridgeport, Conn. woman. She told them Shahzad responded to her online Craigslist ad for the SUV and that he bought it on April 24th for $1,300 cash and paid for it in $100 bills.
His arrest was actually part of a law enforcement operation to not only nab Shahzad, but any potential accomplices here in the US:
Emirates Airlines flight 202 out of John F. Kennedy International Airport, which was bound for Dubai, rolled back from the gate at around 11:45 on Monday night. Shahzad was presumably all buckled in, ready to leave the country and ultimately return to his native Pakistan.
CBS 2 has learned that investigators were already onto Shahzad and laid low, hoping he would make contact with an accomplice. Airport authorities had already instructed the pilots that they were not to take off.
UPDATE:
There has been some dispute over exactly where Shahzad was taken into custody and whether he actually made it on the plane.
According to the latest reports, he was allowed to board and be seated aboard the Emirates Air Flt 202 before law enforcement noticed that he was on the no-fly list and should not be allowed to fly:
As federal agents closed in, Faisal Shahzad was aboard Emirates Flight 202. He reserved a ticket on the way to John F. Kennedy International Airport, paid cash on arrival and walked through security without being stopped. By the time Customs and Border Protection officials spotted Shahzad's name on the passenger list and recognized him as the bombing suspect they were looking for, he was in his seat and the plane was preparing to leave the gate.
But it didn't. At the last minute, the pilot was notified, the jetliner's door was opened and Shahzad was taken into custody.
After authorities pulled Shahzad off the plane, he admitted he was behind the crude Times Square car bomb, officials said. He also claimed to have been trained at a terror camp in Pakistan's lawless tribal region of Waziristan, according to court documents. That raised increased concern that the bombing was an international terror plot.
Shahzad, a Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, was charged Tuesday with terrorism and attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction in Saturday evening's failed Times Square bombing. According to a federal complaint, he confessed to buying an SUV, rigging it with a homemade bomb and driving it into the busy area where he tried to detonate it.
The Obama administration played down the fact that Shahzad, a U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, had made it aboard the plane. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano wouldn't talk about it, other than to say Customs officials prevented the plane from taking off. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the security system has fallback procedures in place for times like this, and they worked.
The plane wasn't going to take off, but it is disconcerting that he managed to get on the plane at all.
Investigators are poring over video footage and forensic data from the Nissan Pathfinder that was loaded with propane gas canisters, gasoline tanks, M88 firecrackers, timers, and nonexplosive fertilizer bags. The New York Times has a great graphic showing where the vehicle was located when alert street vendors saw the vehicle and thought something was strange and contacted police.
With its location near the Marriott Marquis and the headquarters for Viacom, the potential for mass casualties was quite high. The Marriott has a covered area for loading and unloading passengers and theater patrons are always walking up and down the block there to reach any number of theaters on 45th Street or the dozens of restaurants beyond. Car traffic frequently backs up because of trying to enter the parking garages both at the Marriott and across the street, so it is a target rich environment, but the Marriott does check vehicle trunks for suspicious cargo. Expect to see more of that in coming weeks.
1515 Broadway, which is the headquarters for Viacom (which owns Comedy Central and may have been targeted by the terrorist for allowing South Park to depict Mohammed in one of its cartoons), also houses the Chancellor's office for the Department of Education.
Investigators are talking to the registered owner of the Nissan Pathfinder involved in the terror incident. They're also looking at hundreds of hours worth of video taken from surveillance cameras in the area and tracing back the vehicle's path through Manhattan.
The Daily News and other outlets wonder whether the person in this image was involved. The footage is grainy, but appears to match the description given of a man in his 30s or 40s. It was reported that he ended up walking into Schubert Alley, which is located behind 1515 Broadway, and switched out of a dark colored shirt into a different shirt.
Meanwhile, the police probe was in high gear, aided by clues that would have vanished if the car had exploded.
The stolen license plate came back to a different car that was being repaired at Kramer's Used Auto Parts in Stratford, Conn.
The SUV's vehicle identification number was defaced, but detectives were able to find it stamped on the engine block and identified its owner, who had not yet been interviewed, Kelly said.
The SUV had not been reported stolen, he said. Cops were also able to lift some fingerprints from the vehicle.
Cops also scoured videos from bridges and tunnels to try to track the would-be bombers' movements.
Surveillance videos caught the SUV heading west from Sixth Ave. on crowded W. 45th St. at 6:28 p.m.
It took only a New York minute for bystanders and cops to go on full alert: Rhatigan made his first radio call at 6:34 p.m.
Rhatigan and some rookies patrolling the area began pushing thousands of people away from the scene. Times Square from 43rd to 47th Sts., between Sixth and Eighth Aves., was shut down, and the south tower of the Marriott Marquis hotel was evacuated.
UPDATE:
Fixed the google map that was showing an incorrect location. It was one block off.
UPDATE:
Despite no evidence linking the Taliban to the failed attack, the Taliban is threatening more attacks in the US. While an authentic video showed a Taliban leader taking credit for the failed attack, law enforcement has found no links.
UPDATE:
Investigators are looking into the vehicle, and traced back the license plates to a junkyard in Connecticut, and the owner claims that the plates were stolen. Yet, he didn't report the theft and that raises some interesting questions. They also obtained the VIN number, and have traced back its sale to its origin, but don't know the in-between steps.
The Connecticut license plates on the SUV matched a Ford; according to WFSB, "The investigation led agents to a scrapyard in Stratford and a shoreline car dealership. Police said the Pathfinder could have been sold from Thomas Anthony Auto in Bridgeport at some point. The SUV's vehicle identification number led officials to the dealership... Police were also at Kramer's scrapyard in Stratford in a search to hunt down the license plates, which they said came off a pickup truck."
UPDATE:
More updates - video reaction from NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly and from Rep. Peter King (R-NY):
UPDATE: The Washington Post reports that there are tentative links with a foreign terrorist group, quite likely in relation to a pair of videos released by the Pakistani Taliban taking responsibility/credit for the failed attack and warning of more to come.
Another U.S. official, recounting a conversation with intelligence officials, said, "Don't be surprised if you find a foreign nexus. . . . They're looking at some tell-tale signs and they're saying it's pointing in that direction."
Officials cautioned that even if the investigation points toward an international link, rather than domestic or anti-government groups, that does not mean al-Qaeda or another terrorist organization is necessarily involved.
The emerging picture came as police and federal investigators searched for a man in his 40s whom surveillance cameras caught changing his shirt in an alley and looking over his shoulder near where the car was parked about 6:30 p.m., and another person seen running north on Broadway from the area. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly also said detectives had spoken with the registered owner of the car but revealed no details other than that the man was not a suspect.
It's way too easy to shrug this off as a failed attack by a novice to let our guard down, and as always we have to stay vigilant against threats.
Here, the US has increased scrutiny on passenger screening on flights in and out of several East Coast cities, but did they do the same for AMTRAK?
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.
Authorities said another clue in the investigation is a video posted online early Sunday morning by persons in Connecticut, who may have been involved in the bomb attempt and are being sought by law enforcement. The video, posted on a site registered one day before the attack, has the Taliban in Pakistan claiming responsibility for the attempted bombing.
UPDATE:
It was only a matter of time before video surfaced showing the vehicle just after the bomb failed to detonate as its makers' intended. Anyone who's walked or driven through Times Square knows how many people are carrying around cameras or video. Well, video has surfaced showing the vehicle smoking just after the bomb failed to detonate.
While reports indicate that the bomb that was discovered in a Nissan Pathfinder was
"amateurish" in design, the reports also say that it was a massive bomb that could have done significant damage had an alert street vendor not called police over to investigate further.
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.
The Pathfinder was driven into Times Square and apparently abandoned. The driver's whereabouts are unknown, as is his motive. The vehicle's license plates were stolen and the VIN number was filed off.
New York City dodged a bullet given that this bomb had the potential to do significant damage. Times Square was exceedingly busy last night with the unseasonably warm temperatures bringing people out to enjoy the weather, plus the usual large crowds going to the theaters, restaurants, and sights in Times Square. The vehicle's location was outside the Marriott Marquis, and that large hotel (1,949 rooms, plus convention space, restaurants, and theaters) was affected by closures, as were other restaurants and theaters in the area. Street cordons blocked off much of Times Square to all traffic, but has since reopened this morning.
Without having a person in custody, there is no word on motive, or whether there was a specific target in mind. Right now, all the talking heads can do is speculate on who, what, and why.
Times Square has witnessed several incidents in recent years, including a pipe bomb that hit the Armed Forces Recruiting station, and an abandoned vehicle that was deemed suspicious last December that was ultimately found to be not a threat.
It will take reviews of video from the area - many of the buildings and law enforcement have videos of Times Square - to see if the vehicle's driver can be identified. Investigators are also tracking back the ownership of the Pathfinder to see if there's anything that can shed light on last night's failed bombing.
The U.S.-based SITE intelligence group, which monitors militant websites, said the Pakistani Taliban claims the attack is revenge for the death of its leader Baitullah Mehsud and the recent killings of the top leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq. Images of the slain militants are shown as an unidentified voice recites the message. English subtitles are at the bottom of the screen.
New York authorities were combing through the SUV at a forensic lab for fingerprints and DNA evidence and had isolated a 200-pound gun locker at a police firing rang in the Bronx, trying to determine whether it could contain more power explosives that could have detonated the explosive device.
Police say that they have no links just yet. Rep. Peter King posited that this could have been an attack done as revenge for Comedy Central allowing South Park to go forward with its depiction of Mohammed.
The US authorities are considering this to be a potential terror attack and the NYPD and other law enforcement are investigating, using all the means at their disposal.
UPDATE:
The feds are treating this as a potential terror attack; it clearly wasn't an accident. It was a failed terror attack, and the failure means that obtaining forensics will be easier.
There is also word that someone called in to 911 the possibility that this incident was a diversion:
On Sunday, police and F.B.I. officials were also investigating a 911 call placed at around 4 .a.m. on Sunday, several officials said. The caller, who one official said sounded intelligent, admonished the 911 dispatcher not to interrupt him until he was finished and then said there would be a massive explosion soon and the car in Times Square was only a diversion.
The call came from a payphone at West 53rd Street and Seventh Avenue, which detectives have since dusted for fingerprints, the officials said.
It remained unclear what link, if any, existed between the caller and the failed car bomb from hours earlier, the officials said.
UPDATE:
The tape of Taliban thugs claiming credit for failed TS bombing appears legitimate. Well, they can claim credit but doesn't mean that they did it - they could be claiming credit for a lone wackaloon or jihadi lone wolf, or they could have been behind it - in which case, that means that there may be coconspirators involved domestically and abroad.
Police said Saturday the bomb squad was investigating the contents of the car on 45th Street.
They say the block was closed between Seventh and Eighth avenues as a precaution.
A webcam at 46th Street and Broadway showed the streets had been cleared of pedestrians. A line of police cars blocked one street.
Police say a call of a car fire came in about 6:30 p.m.
Broadway is closed between 44th and 46th Street, as can be seen with the police cars on the photo above. The vehicle, apparently an SUV, was seen smoking in the area and fire and police responded. Something must have gotten the attention of the police, since they called in the bomb squad. A car fire by itself wouldn't be cause for concern, but this kind of response suggests that there was something more here. The investigators found flammable materials and combustibles at Times Square.
ABC News in NYC is reporting that the SUV appeared to contain propane canisters and gasoline canisters in the trunk. With its location, had those canisters gone off, it could have resulted in significant casualties.
The driver of the vehicle is nowhere to be found and the license plates don't match the vehicle, increasing the likelihood that this may have been a terror incident.
Times Square is one of the busiest locales in Manhattan, and there are continuing crowds in the area gawking at the situation.
As they say, developing.
UPDATE:
Bear in mind too that Thomson-Reuters HQ is down the block from the incident and the NYT HQ is a few blocks away. It's the heart of Midtown.
Police officials said a witness reported a running Nissan Pathfinder with Connecticut plates, with smoke coming out of the back. A bomb squad robot popped the back latch of the Pathfinder, and officers found what they initially believed was a bomb. The vehicle was found to contain explosives, gasoline, propane and burned wires, a Fire Department officer told Reuters.
The officer, who did not give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the news media, said that a man was seen fleeing the S.U.V. and that the police evacuated the area in case there were other threats nearby.
The officer said that the police were treating the vehicle as a “failed device.” The police were searching for a suspect.
A federal official said that it was not considered a terrorist threat and that the New York Police Department had told the Department of Homeland Security to stand down.
That last bit is... odd.
Who exactly has a car that contains gasoline, propane, and explosives and yet isn't considered a terrorist threat?
