Monday, May 3, 2010

Stupid Splodey...

So some yutz tried to play Pali in the middle of Times Square with his ricerburner SUV over the weekend...

An eagle-eyed T-shirt vendor spotted smoke coming out of the Nissan Pathfinder used in the ill-fated bombing attempt and alerted NYPD to it. They evacuated the area, cleared out the SUV, and managed to defuse the "bomb" with no injuries. In the grand scheme of attempted car bombings, this is a complete and utter failure. And that's a good thing - we should have more of these.

What caught my eye was this:

Also Sunday, Kelly said an NYPD bomb squad blew open a large gun locker found in the Pathfinder, revealing eight bags of an "unknown substance" and a pressure-cooker-type metal pot containing a "bird's nest of wires and M-88 firecrackers."

Preliminary tests later determined the substance to be "non-explosive grade fertilizer incapable of blowing up," according to Browne.

WTF, over? This dude threw some gas cans, propane tanks, and firecrackers in the back of an SUV and headed off to Times Square. Along the way he picks up some fertilizer - but not the kind that goes kaboom under the right circumstances. He apparently rigged it to a timing device along the lines of a LiteBrite and then left it in Times Square, with the intended purpose apparently to cause a large explosion and fireball in the heart of NYC. Fortunately for us all, he had less imagination and technical know-how than your average 12 year old suburban male, thus averting a crisis.

More "terrorists" like this one, please...

That is all.

9 comments:

B said...

False flag operation. Built like what a 12 year old would do so that everyone can see and understand.

Designed to not work, so that the Administration and the media have something to comment on and someone to blame. (Probably the Tea party folks)

If the Administration were as ruthless as we think, the bomb would have been real and would have gone off and hurt many people. Thank the gods that they are not that ruthless.

Weer'd Beard said...

Thankfully today the asshole flunked high school chemistry, and doesn't know how to use google.

I know I could with little trouble made something REALLY horrible with less equipment than he had in the truck.

I know Jay has taken a LOT more Chem courses than I have, and I know he could do even more of a ka-boom.

God help us the next time.

wolfwalker said...

This story doesn't make any sense. I don't buy Mr. B's "false flag" suggestion (even if he meant it seriously), but neither do I think this was a serious emanating-from-overseas Terror Plot!!11!

The amateurishness of the bomb suggests (IMHO, worth no more than I get paid for it and perhaps less) a homegrown splodeydope flying solo. The "tape claiming responsibility" was probably referring to some other attack that never came off, possibly because it was prevented long before it got to the actual-bomb-on-a-street stage.

BobG said...

Reminds me of when I was in college. One night some idiot threw a molotov cocktail into the ROTC building. There was no damage other than some stains because the would-be revolutionary had used diesel fuel in the molotov, so of course there was no fireworks.

The Packetman said...

The jury (me!)'s still out on this one. The more I hear about it the more it sounds like the rogue sycophant than a false flag, but then again, and ANFO bomb is so ridiculously easy to make, it lends credibility to the false-flag theory.

However, given that it is the government investigating, I'm sure we'll never know!

Robert said...

"Reminds me of when I was in college. One night some idiot threw a molotov cocktail into the ROTC building. There was no damage other than some stains because the would-be revolutionary had used diesel fuel in the molotov, so of course there was no fireworks."

Sounds like an attempted arson that happened in my home town. Someone threw a Molotov cocktail through the window of the firework store. Thing is, whoever made it used a plastic bottle...so, no big fire, and no explody.

Ratus said...

"Television. Television is the explanation for this - you see this in bad television."

That line popped into my head when I heard the description of the "bomb".

Its like a list of every scary item shown on your local news channel.

firecrackers...check
fertilizer...check
propane tanks...check
gasoline...check
something with the word "gun"...check

and all assembled like a prop for a TV movie.

Hell, if you've seen a few episodes of Mythbusters you'd do a better job.

Ratus said...

Also, if it was just the Gasoline and firecrackers.

I'd guess it was a NBC News producer prepping for a story about how import SUVs burst into flames.

Anonymous said...

The 'fertilizer incapable of exploding' part should have been censored. Whoever gave that information to the press should get suspended without pay for a month.