Times Square car bomb
Posted: Sun May 02, 2010 3:11 pm
Strange MO. If we set aside "batshit-insane-loner-who-hears-dog-voices-in-his-head-giving-him-divine-instructions" for a minute, the profile here is driven by the inconsistencies of the reported evidence.
The apparent complete lack of technical expertise around the device tells us one of two things;
1. This wasn't the intended target at all and this was less an assembled device than it was a gathering of items to build such a thing where one of them ignited due to the high ambient temperature. This was the warmest it'd been in NYC in quite a while, it's not impossible one of the heat sensitive items just became unstable.
2. This is the work of a very small group amazingly technically inept people. The reported items display an almost childlike inventory of "things that might explode" seemingly ordered in no particular fashion. Fireworks, propane tanks, gasoline, then the clocks and batteries, maybe the strangest part. It's what you'd expect to see in the shot of "car bomb" from A Uwe Boll movie. I'm almost surprised there wasn't a big iron ball with a fuse sticking out of it. It leads me to believe this almost certainly can't be related to any sort of even marginally organized or motivated "cause".
Then there's the vehicle and its' prep where the inconsistency gets very interesting:
Reports are that the VIN numbers were removed, and the plates swapped. The lack of reporting of new leads might mean that most other tracking information was also removed from the vehicle. How does this mesh with an amateur made bomb? Incompetent perps bought a stolen vehicle from competent vehicle thief?
Just so strange.
I'd be looking for a couple of youngish white men, mid twenties at the oldest, possibly involved in a self escalating relationship that led to this, something neither of them was particularly motivated towards except as way demonstrate to the other how "tough"/"serious"/"etc." they were to each other.
It'll be interesting to learn more.
The apparent complete lack of technical expertise around the device tells us one of two things;
1. This wasn't the intended target at all and this was less an assembled device than it was a gathering of items to build such a thing where one of them ignited due to the high ambient temperature. This was the warmest it'd been in NYC in quite a while, it's not impossible one of the heat sensitive items just became unstable.
2. This is the work of a very small group amazingly technically inept people. The reported items display an almost childlike inventory of "things that might explode" seemingly ordered in no particular fashion. Fireworks, propane tanks, gasoline, then the clocks and batteries, maybe the strangest part. It's what you'd expect to see in the shot of "car bomb" from A Uwe Boll movie. I'm almost surprised there wasn't a big iron ball with a fuse sticking out of it. It leads me to believe this almost certainly can't be related to any sort of even marginally organized or motivated "cause".
Then there's the vehicle and its' prep where the inconsistency gets very interesting:
Reports are that the VIN numbers were removed, and the plates swapped. The lack of reporting of new leads might mean that most other tracking information was also removed from the vehicle. How does this mesh with an amateur made bomb? Incompetent perps bought a stolen vehicle from competent vehicle thief?
Just so strange.
I'd be looking for a couple of youngish white men, mid twenties at the oldest, possibly involved in a self escalating relationship that led to this, something neither of them was particularly motivated towards except as way demonstrate to the other how "tough"/"serious"/"etc." they were to each other.
It'll be interesting to learn more.
This has got to be my favorite youtube video of the weekend. I'm litteraly trying to dry the tears from laughter right now at quarter to 4am from watching this thing for probably about the four dozenteth time.
