By William Tucker
Both the FBI and the NYPD are searching for a Connecticut man in connection with the attempt to detonate a vehicle borne improvised explosive device in Times Square. According to news reports the individual being sought has not reported to work and his girlfriend has not seen him since the failed attack. With this type of attempted attack it is curious that law enforcement has not yet released a name, nor the identity of the suspect as help from the public in locating this person of interest would be beneficial. As is the trend for would be vehicle bombings in the U.S. the individual made the mistake of not removing all identifying markings allowing law enforcement to learn that the vehicle had been purchased via craigslist.com.
We still don’t have a solid lead on the motivation for this attack. I wrote yesterday that the Pakistani Taliban had claimed responsibility and released a video that appeared to have been made prior to the discovery of the VBIED lending credence to their claim. On the other hand it could have been nothing more than an attempt to garner attention from the media. An interesting twist on this possibility occurred today when a Taliban spokesman denied they were responsible for the failed attack, thus undermining the claim from Taliban bomb maker Qari Hussain Mehsud. Hopefully more information will be released from the government shortly.
Photo: NY Daily News
InHomelandSecurity.com - News & Analysis of Critical Issues in Terrorism & Homeland Defense
News & Analysis of Critical Issues in Terrorism & Homeland Defense
I believe that this was a very poor attempt to sympathize with the Taliban. I feel that this gentleman may have had contact via the internet and that is why the Taliban initially claimed the attack. They wanted to throw some media attention and propaganda out there and they put their faith into someone who couldn’t even make a propane tank explode. They thought they would strike fear because they had “infiltrated America” but in the end this failed attempt has made them look even more inept. Now they are trying to backtrack because the media attention has had a negative effect on them. It’s funny that one of their own very best bomb makers actually claimed this attack. Thoughts?
I see where Obama is increasing budget for HS. Why? It’s an utterly ridiculous agency with a director who doesn’t have the smarts to be a director.
The President needs to take a good look before he does this and decrease spending for HS and that awful TSA.