The Bomb Almost Drops in Times Square

This past Saturday in Times Square, the United States had a brush with a terrorist threat. A car bomb was set up in the middle of Times Square, but it failed to serve its intended purpose luckily. Law enforcement officials began to review surveillance tapes to gain a better understanding of who might be involved with this attempt. When the officials got to the suspicious vehicle they discovered gasoline, propane, firecrackers, alarm clocks, and eight bags of a nonexplosive grade of fertilizer inside a nearly 5 foot tall metal locker. There is no doubt that if this bomb went off, casualties would have occurred.

F.B.I. agents have linked the Pathfinder that was abandoned to being from Connecticut. There does not seem to be a motive of sort, but the Pakistani Taliban have been mentioned amongst who were behind this plan. The Pakistani Taliban is claiming themselves to be behind this plot, but the Pakistani government has quickly denounced that. This is being addressed as a terrorist threat whether it was the workings of a group or one individual.

Two street vendors are to be mentioned here because it was their keen eyes that noticed smoke emerging from the vehicle and notified the police officials nearby. All of this took place around 6:30pm Saturday night when a lot of residents and tourists are on the streets. All the items that were in the vehicle are items that anyone could buy at various stores.

The investigation thus far has concluded that the detonation device was set up for the timers to ignite the can of explosives and that would then cause the five gallon cans to be set on fire and thus explode the propane tanks and trigger off the rifle box that held the fertilizer. The suspect most likely lit the firecrackers, but nothing ended up exploding. The burning fuses are what caused the smoke to begin to appear as part of the interior was being burnt. Investigators have compared the setup and much of the details of the plot to be very similar to what transpired in Glasgow and London in 2007. Both planned and failed attacks involved vehicles parked in a populous area.

Additionally, the car was parked near the headquarters of Viacom, which runs Comedy Central and one of their shows, South Park. The show recently had an episode involving the Prophet Muhammad and some are drawing parallels between the episode and the attempted attack and location of the vehicle.

Despite the claims that might have been made in this short time span, the NYPD have put the Taliban at the bottom of their suspect list. However, Islamic terrorists are certainly on the watch list as they look to apprehend the suspect involved. What might seem like the most reasonable conclusion regarding the incident is to link the action to domestic terrorism. The individual who was behind this might have connections to extremist groups in the Middle East and through their philosophies attempted to set off a car bomb.

We have yet to know all the details involved here, but over the next few days we should get a much clearer picture. The most important thing is a major crisis was avoided and the officials involved are quickly to give more information. The worst part, though, is this individual was able to get into Times Square and if he was more efficient; things could have turned out differently. We have seen a man fly an airplane into an IRS building in Austin, TX. An enlisted man on an Army base turn on his fellow soldiers and go on a shooting spree. And we saw someone attach a bomb to his genital region and fly into Detroit, MI. In the case of the second example, he was stopped before he could do further harm and in the case of the last example, he was caught before he could do anything.

I will not go as far as to say our national security is flawless, but it has shown with this latest incident that the proper officials are more than capable and on top of things. As details are unfolding, I would not be surprised if the culprit were caught sometime this week and despite Pakistani terrorist claims; Islamic terrorists are most likely who are behind much of what was attempted.

Every January 1st, the big crystal ball drops in Times Square to bring in the new year. Luckily on Saturday the bomb didn't drop or go off.