Security officials examine a bus after it was damaged by a bomb in Karachi April 28, 2011. The roadside bomb hit the bus carrying Pakistani navy officials in the port city of Karachi on Thursday, killing three people and wounding at least seven,Taliban militants in Pakistan extended their campaign of violence Thursday against the country's security forces, targeting the navy for the third time this week with a bombing that killed five in the southern city of Karachi ...
Showing posts with label car bomb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label car bomb. Show all posts
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Car bomb kills 30 at Pakistan fuel station
The explosion appears to have targeted offices of the nation's intelligence agency. More than 90 people are injured. Pakistani rescue workers carry a man injured by a car bomb in Faisalabad.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Car bomb hits church in Egypt, 21 killed
The aftermath of a bomb blast in Egypt's northern city of Alexandria
A car bombing outside a church killed 21 people in Egypt’s northern city of Alexandria as worshippers gathered to mark the New Year, security and medical sources said today.
The Interior Ministry earlier said 24 people were also wounded in the bombing, which prompted hundreds of Christians to take to the streets in protest. Some Christians and Muslims pelted each other with rocks, a witness said. Cars were torched.
Christians in Muslim-majority Egypt make up about 10 per cent of the nation’s 79 million people.
Egypt, due to hold a presidential election in September, has stepped up security around churches, restricting cars from parking directly outside them, after an al Qaeda-linked group in Iraq issued a threat against the church in Egypt in November.
The al Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq, which claimed an attack on a church in Baghdad in November, threatened the Egyptian church over its treatment of women the group said the church was holding after they had converted to Islam.
“This is a scene from Baghdad,” a witness said by telephone.
Police used teargas to disperse the crowd on the streets. Ambulances were also at the scene where medical personnel gathered body parts that were scattered over the area.
“We sacrifice our souls and blood for the cross,” shouted protesting Christians near the Coptic Orthodox church where the blast struck, a witness said.
A statement from the Interior Ministry said the blast occurred just after midnight in front of the church after a service to mark the New Year. It said the blast damaged a mosque near the church and eight Muslims were among the 24 wounded.
Security and medical sources said 21 people were killed.
The ministry said an investigation had begun.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that a car was the reason behind the explosion. It was parked in front of the church and had been assumed to belong to one of the people who often come to the church,” said the ministry statement, which was read to Reuters by a ministry official.
Kameel Sadeeq, from the Coptic council in Alexandria, told Reuters: “People went in to church to pray to God but ended up as scattered limbs. This massacre has al Qaeda written all over, the same pattern Qaeda has adopted in other countries.”
In November, hundreds of Christians clashed with riot police, as well as some Muslims who joined in, during a protest over a decision to halt construction of a church. Officials said the church did not have a licence to be built.
Two Christians died as a result of those clashes and dozens were hurt, medical sources said. More than 150 were detained.
Analysts say the state must address grievances such as those over laws making it easier to build a mosque than a church if it wants to stem such sectarian violence.
Officials are swift to play down sectarian differences and are particularly sensitive to emphasise national harmony after a a parliamentary election in November that opposition groups said was rigged and before the presidential poll.
President Hosni Mubarak, 82 and in power since 1981, is expected to run again, if he is able. Gallbladder surgery last March rekindle questions about his health, although he has returned to a full schedule.
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Bombing in restive west China kills 7, wounds 14
A bomb attack in China's restive Xinjiang region killed seven people and wounded 14 on Thursday, and an exile group claimed victims included members of the local police force and its auxiliary unit.
The attack was the deadliest violence reported in Xinjiang since bloody rioting in the regional capital of Urumqi last year that left 200 people dead.
The vast region bordering Central Asia has long been beset by ethnic conflict and separatist violence, leading to a massive and ongoing crackdown by security forces.
Thursday's blast went off after a man of the region's native Uighur ethnic group drove a three-wheeled vehicle laden with explosives into a crowd of people in a suburb in Aksu city in southwestern Xinjiang, said Hou Hanmin, a spokeswoman for the regional government.
"Police say it was an intentional act because the suspect was carrying explosive devices," Hou told a hastily arranged news conference in the regional capital of Urumqi, about 400 miles (650 kilometers) from Aksu.
She said the suspect, who was injured, was captured immediately.
Xinhua News Agency reported late Thursday that a woman also played a role in the attack and died in the blast. The report said the man and woman threw explosives from a three-wheeled motor vehicle.
Some of the wounded were in serious condition. "The casualties are innocent civilians of different ethnic minority backgrounds," she said.
Germany-based Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit said police were the apparent target, with eyewitnesses from Aksu telling him the victims included one policeman and 14 members of a uniformed police auxiliary force charged with monitoring the Uighur population. He declined to give the source of the information other than to say it was highly reliable.
Raxit said he had no information about the alleged attacker but said an oppressive security clampdown in the area may actually be encouraging further violence.
"Since last year's riots, we have seen ... systematic oppression and provocation," said Raxit, whose World Uyghur Congress says it opposes violent tactics.
The July 2009 Urumqi riots saw long-simmering tensions between the Turkic Muslim Uighurs and China's majority Han flare into open violence, with the government saying 197 people were killed. Hundreds of people were arrested in the aftermath and about two dozen sentenced to death, while many other Uighurs remain unaccounted for and are believed to be in custody.
While the riots marked China's worst ethnic violence in decades, Xinjiang has seen a series of bombings and other violence, including attacks on security forces around the time of the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The government says it has broken up several cells intent on carrying out attacks, including a bomb-making operation near Aksu in 2009 and a gang last month that it said was linked to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a banned militant organization advocating independence for Xinjiang.
Anti-government sentiments among Uighurs are fed by the ruling Communist Party's heavy-handed controls over their language, culture and Islamic faith, along with resentment of Chinese migrants and a perception that they are being favored economically to the detriment of Xinjiang's native population.
The government claims attacks are often planned by exile Uighurs overseas, including across the border in Central Asia or Pakistan.
Officially, however, the target of Thursday's attack remained unclear and it wasn't known whether it was motivated by separatist or extremist views. Homemade bombs are used throughout China to seek revenge over personal or property disputes, and the country this year has seen a series of gory rampage attacks by people using knives, guns and construction equipment.
In contrast, past separatist attacks in Xinjiang have almost always been aimed clearly at government targets or other symbols of Han Chinese influence.
Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri, speaking at a news conference Thursday before the explosion was reported, said the government was battling separatist forces in Xinjiang.
"I believe we face a long and fierce and very complicated struggle," he said. "Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history, it was there in the past, it is still here now and it will continue in the future."
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Roadside bomb kills four in military bus as Kurdish separatists step up attacks on Turkish army
Blast: A remote controlled roadside bomb has killed three Turkish soldiers and a 17-year-old girl in Istanbul
Four people were killed after a roadside bomb destroyed a bus carrying military personnel and their families in Istanbul today.
The remote controlled device was detonated near a military housing complex in the district of Halkali and comes after the Turkish army stepped up operations against Kurdish rebels.
Carnage: Forensic officers search for evidence near the shattered bus, which was carrying military personnel
Three of those killed were Turkish army sergeants and the fourth victim was a 17-year-old girl, according to state news agency Anatolian.The blast wounded nearly a dozen people and two were left in a serious condition, Istanbul's provincial governor Huseyin Avni Mutlu said.
'This is a terrorist attack, and the aim of the attack is clear - to create divisions, tensions and despair,' he said.
No group has yet come forward to claim responsibility for the blast.
Kurdish separatists, based in northern Iraq, have increased attacks on military installations in Turkey's mainly Kurdish south east, but the group has carried out attacks in large cities in the past.
Left wing groups and Islamist militants have also carried out bomb attacks in Istanbul.
The city is due to host a summit of south east European leaders, including foreign ministers from Croatia and Serbia, today.
Turkish military forces began a major deployment of troops and special forces along the border with Iraq yesterday, as fighting has intensified between the army and militants from the illegal Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
Television broadcasts showed images of the bus's shattered windows and of the wounded being taken to hospital after the explosion at around 5.30am.
It is unclear how many passengers were on the bus or how many were military personnel.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has said Kurdish militants would 'drown in their own blood', faces mounting criticism for his government's failure to stop the escalation in violence.
PKK guerrillas killed 11 soldiers at the weekend and one soldier was also killed on Monday when separatists opened fire on two military police units.
The PKK said earlier this month it had scrapped a year-old unilateral ceasefire and resumed attacks against Turkish forces because of military operations against it.
Some 40,000 people have been killed since 1984 when the PKK took up arms to carve out an ethnic homeland in mostly Kurdish southeastern Turkey.
U.S. citizen faces life in jail after pleading guilty to failed Times Square bomb plot
Charges: Faisal Shahzad, 30, could face life in jail after admitting the failed bomb plot in New York's Times Square
Revenge': Shahzad admitted travelling to Pakistan for bomb-making training before carrying out the failed attack
A Pakistani-born U.S. citizen pleaded guilty to attempting to detonate a car bomb in New York's Times Square and said Islamist extremists would continue to target the U.S.
Faisal Shahzad, 30, admitted travelling to Pakistan to receive bomb-making training from a Taliban group, called Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and receiving $12,000 (£8,000) from the group to carry out the failed attack on May 1.
Packed: A bomb disposal expert approaches the SUV parked in Times Square. It contained three homemade bombs
Carnage: Shahzad said he chose the night of May 1 because Times Square would have been packed with people he could injure or kill
Shahzad, who has a wife and two children living in Pakistan, pleaded guilty to 10 charges, including attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and attempted terrorism transcending national borders. He faces life in prison.
He told a district court in Manhattan that until the U.S. stopped drone aircraft attacks and the occupation of 'Muslim lands' 'we will be attacking the U.S. and I plead guilty to that'.
'I consider myself a Muslim soldier,' he added.
He said he attempted to detonate a bomb in an SUV parked in Times Square, and chose a warm Saturday night because it would be crowded with people who he could injure or kill.
Shahzad told the court he had actually packed his vehicle with three separate bombs and had hoped to set off a fertiliser-fueled bomb packed in a gun cabinet, a set of propane tanks and gas canisters rigged with fireworks to cause a massive fireball.
He said he expected to bombs to beging going off after he lit a fuse and waited for them to explode.
'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.
He dismissed distict judge Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum's questions about targeting children and said the U.s. did not care when children were killed in Muslim countries.
He said: 'It's a war. I am part of the answer to the U.S. terrorising the Muslim nations and the Muslim people.
'On behalf of that, I'm revenging the attack. Living in the U.S., Americans only care about their people but they don't care about the people elsewhere in the world when they die.'
Shahzad parked the vehicle in Times Square with is engine running and hazard lights flashing last month.
Street vendors alerted police to the smoking vehicle within minutes and thousands of people were evacuated from the popular theatre district.
A New York Police Department bomb squad defused the device.
The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing.
CIA-operated drones have targeted Taliban figures in Pakistan's tribal areas and the group has vowed to avenge missile strikes that have killed some of its leaders.
Shahzad, the son of a retired Pakistani vice air marshal, was arrested onboard a Dubai-bound plane at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport two days after the attempted attack. He had been on his way to Pakistan.
He had been living in the neighbouring state of Connecticut and became a U.S. citizen last year.
At least 11 people have been arrested in Pakistan in connection with the attempted bombing and U.S. authorities carried out raids in New York, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Maine - detaining several people on immigration charges.
Shahzad will be sentenced on October 5.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Official: NYC bomb suspect looked at other targets
In this courtroom sketch, Judge James Francis presides over the arraignment for Faisal Shahzad, not pictured, in federal court in New York on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, in New York. The suspect in a botched car bombing in Times Square did not enter a plea to five felony charges against him.
In this courtroom sketch, defendant Faisal Shahzad sits with assistant public defender Julia Gatto, left, during his arraignment in federal court in New York on Tuesday, May 18, 2010, in New York. The suspect in a botched car bombing in Times Square did not enter a plea to five felony charges against him.
Police officers set up barricades in front of Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 18, 2010, in New York. Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in a failed car bombing in Times Square, did not enter a plea to five felony charges against him.
While sequestered in a New York hotel room, the Times Square bomb suspect revealed he had thought about targeting other landmarks and asked investigators why the bomb he built failed to go off, people familiar with the probe said Wednesday.
Faisal Shahzad said he considered attacking Grand Central Terminal, Rockefeller Center in midtown Manhattan, the World Financial Center near ground zero and Sikorsky Inc. — a defense contractor with an office in his Connecticut hometown — before deciding to abandon an SUV rigged with a homemade bomb in Times Square on May 1, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press.
A person familiar with the case said Wednesday that during more than two weeks of questioning, the Pakistani-American also expressed surprise that the device — a mishmash of fireworks, gasoline canisters, propane tanks and fertilizer — did not detonate. The suspect said he thought the fireworks would trigger a chain-reaction that would rupture the tanks and create a deadly fireball, the person said.
Shahzad, who authorities say has claimed he received explosives training in Pakistan, even asked interrogators to explain why the device failed.
Shahzad left the vehicle on West 45th Street on a spring Saturday evening amid hundreds of people enjoying the tourist haven, prosecutors said. The attempted bombing prompted a massive police response, but no one was hurt.
Experts said the bomb had been poorly constructed with a nest of wires, battery-operated alarm clocks and heavy bags of fertilizer that couldn't explode.
There was no immediate response Wednesday to a phone message left with Shahzad's attorney.
On Tuesday, Shahzad appeared in a U.S. court for the first time since his May 3 arrest. Prosecutors had refused to disclose his whereabouts prior to the hearing, but a third official told the AP on Wednesday that he had been under guard at a Brooklyn hotel while he voluntarily answered investigators' questions.
All three people spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the investigation had not been completed.
Shahzad, 30, was ordered held without bail on five felony charges including attempted use of weapons of mass destruction and attempted acts of terrorism transcending national boundaries, each of which carry potential penalties of life in prison.
The ex-budget analyst from Bridgeport, Conn., was captured while attempting to flee in a Dubai-bound plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Since his arrest, Shahzad "has provided valuable intelligence from which further investigative action has been taken," the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan said in a statement Tuesday.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Pakistan Taliban 'was behind New York Times Square bomb plot'
Family man: Shahzad (right) and with a woman thought to be his wife Huma Mian and one of their children (right)
William Weimer, of Phantom Fireworks, speaks to the media yesterday at the company's branch in Matamoras, Pennsylvannia. A video obtained by investigators allegedly shows Shahzad buying fireworks at the shop
Caught on Camera: A still from a video allegedly shows Shahzad buying fireworks prior to the bombing attempt. Authorities say he used elements of the fireworks to rig up the Times Square SUV with explosives
This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder, loaded with explosives, being driven into Times Square shortly before it was abandoned
American authorities had previously rejected claims by the group that it was behind the May 1 plot.
Naturalised American citizen Faisal Shahzad, who was born in Pakistan, is currently facing terrorism and weapons charges after authorities said he admitted rigging a car with explosives.
Appearing on ABC Television’s This Week, Eric Holder said: ‘We’ve now developed evidence that shows that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack.
‘We know that they helped facilitate it. We know that they probably helped finance it, and that [Shahzad] was working at their direction.’
He added there was nothing to suggest that the government of Pakistan was aware of the plot.
Today President Barack Obama’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser backed up the claims.
From a wealthy family: Shahzad and his wife pose for another New York tourist photo
Tourist: Suspected car-bomber Faisal Shahzad poses with friends for a photo in Times Square. Obtained by CBS News, it is believed to have been taken between 18 and 24 months ago
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today announced there was evidence that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the failed car bombing in New York's Times Square
Connecticut: The press lay siege to a house in Bridgeport, which FBI agents searched after Shahzad's arrest
Other home: A house said to belong to Shahzad's family in Pabbi, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan
Increased security: A police mobile observation tower in Times Square yesterday
The militant group is believed to be hiding senior al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
Brennan, speaking on CNN's State of the Union, says the finding ‘underscores the serious threat that we face from a very determined enemy.’
Meanwhile a money courier who helped funnel cash from abroad to finance the plot is being tracked by U.S. investigators.
Authorities have the name of the courier, who they believe helped Shahzad pay for the used sport utility vehicle and other materials to rig up a car bomb that would have caused a huge fireball in the heart of New York.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, an official said investigators did not know how much money may have changed hands, but that Shahzad had reportedly paid for the used SUV with 13 $100 bills.
U.S. law enforcement officials travelled to Pakistan - where Shahzad spent five months before returning to the U.S. in February - to question four alleged members of an al-Qaeda-linked militant group.
Investigators are trying to trace his movements in his homeland, and were looking into the possible financing of the operation between the Pakistan-born budget analyst and foreign terror groups.
Two new surveillance videos have emerged of Shahzad. Police said one video shows him in a white baseball cap and a dark jacket walking away from the smoking, bomb-laden Nissan Pathfinder parked in the bustling heart of New York.
The second shows him buying a batch of fireworks in a store in Pennsylvania, which has been verified by the shop's owner.
Other pictures have been released showing Shahzad posing for a photo with a group of friends in Times Square less than two years before the car-bomb attempt.
Shahzad faces terrorism and weapons charges after authorities said he admitted rigging the Pathfinder with a crude bomb of firecrackers, propane and alarm clocks based on explosives training he received in Pakistan.
He was said to have been cooperating with investigators.
It is believed that Shahzad launched the bomb plot almost immediately after returning to his Connecticut home - where he lived with his wife Huma Mian, their children and his two sisters-in-law - in February from the visit to Pakistan.
He did a dry run three days before trying to detonate the car bomb, said an unnamed law enforcement official.
Shahzad drove the SUV to Times Square from Connecticut on April 28 apparently to figure out where would be the best place to leave it later, then returned to the area on April 30 to drop off a different vehicle, a black Isuzu, the official said.
He then went back on Saturday to leave the SUV with the car bomb but forgot the keys for both vehicles in the SUV and had to take public transport back home, the official said.
He returned to Times Square on Sunday with a second set of keys to pick up the Isuzu, which he had parked about eight blocks from the bombing site, the official said.
New York police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told a Senate panel that Shahzad bought the gun found in his Isuzu at Kennedy Airport in March, when he appeared to move ahead on the bombing plot.
'It appears from some of his other activities that March is when he decided to put this plan in motion,' Mr Kelly said.
'He came back from Pakistan on February 3, 2010. It may well have been an indicator of putting something catastrophic in motion.'
Shahzad, the 30-year-old son of a retired air force official in Pakistan, waited two days after the failed bombing before driving to JFK airport and buying a one-way ticket to his native land.
By then the FBI team supposed to be following him had lost him.
Investigators only found out he was on board minutes before take-off when the final passenger list was sent to customs officials.
Despite the best efforts of highly trained investigators armed with the most advanced technology in the world, two simple security failings appear to have allowed Shahzad to come within minutes of escape.
First, he gave investigators tailing him since 3pm on Monday the slip.
Authorities believe he decided to flee after being spooked by news reports that investigators were seeking a Pakistani suspect in Connecticut.
The FBI and the New York Police Department declined to comment.
Second, Emirates officials - unaware that he had been placed on a no-fly list - did not check the web forum where the latest updates are posted in the minutes before take-off.
It was only thanks to a vigilant customs agent who spotted Shahzad's name on the flight manifest just 30 minutes before take-off that authorities knew he was on board the plane.
The Obama administration played down that Shahzad had made it aboard the plane.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would not 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 no-fly list is supposed to mean just that. And Shahzad's name was added to the list early Monday afternoon as a result of breaking developments in the investigation.
When Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a web forum where updates are sent if it were to have flagged him.
Because they did not, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before take-off.
By that time, passengers usually are on board.
Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line: U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took off.
'There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them,' Gibbs said.
'If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be double-checked.'
White House says Pakistan Taliban behind NY bomb
In this undated file photo from the social networking site Orkut.com, a man who was identified by neighbors in Connecticut as Faisal Shahzad, is shown. Shahzad was arrested at a New York airport on charges that he drove a bomb-laden SUV meant to cause a fireball in Times Square, federal authorities said. A day before driving the SUV with a rigged homemade bomb into Times Square, Shahzad made a test drive into the heart of the city, dropped off a getaway car blocks from his target and took a train home to Connecticut, a law enforcement official told The Associated Press. Attorney General Eric Holder told a Senate hearing Thursday, May 6, 2010, that Shahzad has continued to answer questions after being read his constitutional rights, rejecting criticism that reading Shahzad his Miranda rights hindered investigators.
Citing newly obtained evidence, senior White House officials said Sunday that the Pakistani Taliban was behind the failed Times Square bombing.
The attempt marks the first time the group has been able to launch an attack on U.S. soil. And while U.S. officials have downplayed the threat — citing the bomb's lack of sophistication — the incident in Times Square and Christmas Day airline bomber indicate growing strength by overseas terrorist groups linked to al-Qaida even as the CIA says their operations are seriously degraded.
The finding also raises new questions about the U.S. relationship with Pakistan, which is widely known to have al-Qaida and other terrorist groups operating within its borders.
Attorney General Eric Holder said that new evidence shows that the Pakistani Taliban was "intimately involved" in the bombing plot. John Brennan, the president's homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, made similar remarks, linking the bomber to the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP.
The militant group is believed to be hiding senior al-Qaida leaders, including Osama bin Laden.
"We know that they helped facilitate it," said Holder. "We know that they probably helped finance it. And that he was working at their direction."
Faisal Shahzad, a U.S. citizen of Pakistani descent, is accused of spending five months in Pakistan before returning to the United States in February and preparing his attack.
Shahzad has told investigators that he trained in the lawless tribal areas of Waziristan, where both al-Qaida and the Pakistani Taliban operate. He was arrested aboard an Emirates Airlines jet in New York just minutes before it was scheduled to take off for Dubai.
After the attack, U.S. officials said they were exploring potential links to terrorist groups overseas but said it was likely that Shahzad was acting alone.
Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, told NBC News that "at this point I have no information that it's anything other than a one-off." Likewise, Gen. David Petraeus told The Associated Press that Shahzad apparently operated as a "lone wolf."
Brennan on Sunday refuted suggestions that that the attempted bombing shows that terrorist groups overseas were gaining strength.
"They now are relegated to trying to do these unsophisticated attacks, showing that they have inept capabilities in training," he said.
The link between an attack on U.S. soil and terrorist groups operating inside Pakistan opens up a new chapter in relations between the two countries. Until recently, administration officials have said they thought Islamabad was doing all it could.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Washington expects more cooperation from Pakistan in fighting terrorism and warned of "severe consequences" if an attack on U.S. soil were traced back to the South Asian country.
Brennan said Islamabad was being very cooperative in the investigation but that the U.S. wants to know exactly who may have been helping Shahzad.
"There are a number of terrorist and militant groups operating in Pakistan," he said. "And we need to make sure there's no support being given to them by the Pakistani government."
Brennan would not say whether Shahzad may be connected to fugitive al-Qaida cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, other than to acknowledge his Internet sermons are popular among extremist Muslims.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Pakistan has recently stepped up efforts to root out extremist militants.
"The Pakistanis have been doing so much more than 18 months or two years ago any of us would have expected," Gates told reporters at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., this week.
He referred to Pakistani Army offensives, dating to spring 2009, against Taliban extremists in areas near the Afghan border, including in south Waziristan.
Gates said the Obama administration is sticking to its policy of offering to do as much training and other military activity inside Pakistan as the Pakistani government is willing to accept.
"It's their country," Gates said. "They remain in the driver's seat, and they have their foot on the accelerator."
Brennan spoke on CNN's "State of the Union," "Fox News Sunday" and CBS' "Face the Nation." Holder spoke on NBC's "Meet the Press" and ABC's "This Week." Clinton's interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" is set to air Sunday.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
'I was expecting you. Are you NYPD or FBI?' What failed Times Square bomber said as he was arrested on flight to Dubai
Family man: Faisal Shahzad, left, and with a woman thought to be his wife Huma Mian and one of their childre
A U.S. Department of Justice graphic showing the positioning of charges in the Nissan Pathfinder allegedly driven by Shahzad and left in Times Square on Saturday
This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder, loaded with explosives, being driven into Times Square shortly before it was abandoned
Faisal Shahzad asked: ‘Are you NYPD or FBI?’, as he was seized from his seat on a plane that was about to leave JFK airport for Pakistan.
He tried to car-bomb New York in revenge for U.S. drone attacks that killed Taliban leaders, it was claimed yesterday.
A security row erupted after it emerged he gave a surveillance team the slip and was let on to the plane because of a bungle by airline staff.
Members of the media walk around a house in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where FBI agents had searched for Shahzad
Other home: A house said to belong to Shahzad's family in Pabbi, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan
Shahzad, 30, a naturalised U.S. citizen, had only recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan and has admitted receiving bomb-making training in a Taliban-controlled part of the country.
In court documents the father of two also admitted driving the Nissan SUV packed with a homemade ‘weapon of mass destruction’ to New York and priming it to explode last Saturday.
The New York Post reported he trained with the extremist Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan and was radicalised because he saw first-hand the effects of U.S. bombing on fellow militants.
Shahzad waited two days after the failed bombing before driving to JFK and buying a one-way ticket to Pakistan.
By then the FBI team supposed to be following him had lost him.
Investigators only found out he was on board minutes before take-off when the final passenger list was sent to customs officials. U.S. officials last night said he was co-operating with investigators.
Despite the best efforts of highly trained investigators armed with the most advanced technology in the world, two simple security failings appear to have allowed Shahzad to come within minutes of escape.
First, he gave investigators tailing him since 3pm on Monday the slip.
Authorities believe he decided to flee after being spooked by news reports that investigators were seeking a Pakistani suspect in Connecticut.
The FBI and the New York Police Department declined to comment.
Second, Emirates officials - unaware that he had been placed on a no-fly list - did not check the Web forum where the latest updates are posted in the minutes before take-off.
It was only thanks to a vigilant customs agent who spotted Shahzad's name on the flight manifest just 30 minutes before take-off that authorities knew he was on board the plane.
The Obama administration played down that Shahzad had made it aboard the plane.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano would not 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.
And Attorney General Eric Holder said he 'was never in any fear that we were in danger of losing him'.
The no-fly list is supposed to mean just that. And Shahzad's name was added to the list early Monday afternoon as a result of breaking developments in the investigation.
When Emirates sold the ticket, it was working off an outdated list. Airline officials would have had to check a Web forum where updates are sent if it were to have flagged him.
Because they did not, law enforcement officials were not aware of his travel plans until they received the passenger list 30 minutes before take-off.
By that time, passengers usually are on board.
Gibbs blamed the airline but emphasized a more positive bottom line: U.S. authorities did get Shahzad on the no-fly list and he never took off.
'There's a series of built-in redundancies, this being one of them,' Gibbs said.
'If there's a mistake by a carrier, it can be double-checked.'
The list is only as good as the nation's intelligence and the experts who analyse it.
If a lead is not shared, or if an analyst is unable to connect one piece of information to another, a terrorist could slip onto an aeroplane because his name is not on the watch list.
Officials allege that is just what took place ahead of the attempted December 25 attack on a U.S.-bound jet.
In the case of the Times Square suspect, the intelligence process worked: Shahzad's name was on the list, but the airlines did not check it when he bought his ticket.
More...
* Times Square bomb suspect Faisal Shahzad charged with attempted use of weapon of mass destruction
Shahzad went through normal airport security before he boarded the plane. He was unarmed and had no explosive material on him when he was arrested.
Emirates did not return repeated calls for comments.
Earlier yesterday, the company issued a general statement saying it was cooperating with investigators and takes every precaution to ensure its passengers' safety.
The reliance on airlines to check government lists has been a known problem for years.
The U.S. government has long planned to take over the responsibility for matching passengers to watch lists, but the transition has taken longer than expected.
The new program is still in the test phase for domestic airlines and is still months away from beginning with international carriers.
Last night Shahzad admitted trying to blow up a car bomb in New York's Times Square using explosives training he received in Pakistan.
The Pakistani-born U.S. citizen, who received citizenship in April of last year, was charged last night 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.
He said he was recently taught how to make bombs on a visit to the Taliban-controlled area of Waziristan.
The father of two, 30, lived with his wife Huma Mian, their children and his two sisters-in-law in Connecticut, where neighbours said the family was very religious.
Mian had been spotted wearing a full burka while her husband, who gained U.S. citizenship last year, worked on Wall Street.
In court documents he admits driving the SUV packed with a homemade 'weapon of mass destruction' into New York and priming it to explode.
Pakistani authorities last night arrested several suspects linked to the plot, which the country's Taliban claimed responsibility for.
Shahzad also received four calls to his mobile from Pakistan in the days leading up to the attack on Saturday.
In the court documents, FBI Special Agent Andrew Pachtmansays: 'After his arrest, Shahzad stated he had recently received bomb-making training in Waziristan, Pakistan'
Shahzad bought the bomb truck, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, for cash from a student over the internet a few weeks ago, then filled it with homemade explosives and drove to Times Square, prosecutors said.
Shahzad had not been seen at his job since the failed bombing, which was foiled when a street vendor spotted the car smoking.
The charges Shahzad faces include that he used a weapon of mass destruction, attempted to kill or maim, and tried to destroy buildings.
A law enforcement official said that Shahzad had effectively admitted to all the charges.
'He's admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene,' the source told Reuters.
'He's claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak,' the source said, adding that investigators were still looking into his activities during a recent trip to Pakistan.
However investigators are not buying his story that he was a 'lone wolf'.
'Based on our collective experience it's hard to really believe that this is something someone would do on their own. It seems hard to pull off alone. There's a lot we don't know yet,' the source said.
Pakistani police have arrested several people in connection with the failed Times Square car bomb attack, security sources said.
'We have picked up a few family members' related to Faisal Shahzad, a security official in Karachi said. A friend of Shahzad was also arrested.
Shahzad had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan.
FBI agents searched the home at a known address for Shahzad in Bridgeport, Connecticut, in the early hours of Tuesday morning, said agent Kimberly Mertz.
Authorities removed filled plastic bags from the house, which is in a mixed-race, working-class neighbourhood 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.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said America 'will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice', suggesting additional suspects are being sought.
The bomb in the vehicle could have produced 'a significant fireball' and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows, police said.
The SUV was parked on a street lined with restaurants and Broadway theatres, and full of people out on a Saturday night.
The vehicle identification number (VIN) had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the recorded owner.
'The discovery of the VIN on the engine block was pivotal in that it led to the identifying the registered owner,' said Paul Browne, chief New York Police Department spokesman. 'It continues to pay dividends.'
Officials say the SUV's registered owner, whose name has not been released, is not considered a suspect in the bomb scare.
In Washington, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said Saturday's attempted bombing was a terrorist act.
The motive remains unclear. The Pakistani Taliban appeared to claim responsibility for the bomb in three videos that surfaced after the weekend scare, monitoring groups said.
New York officials said police have no evidence to support the claims. It is unclear if the suspect in custody has any relationship to the group.
The SUV was parked near offices of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central. The network recently aired an episode of the animated show South Park that the militant group Revolution Muslim had complained insulted the Prophet Mohammed by depicting him in a bear costume.
Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the explosive device, and no one was hurt.
The explosive device had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate the petrol cans and set the propane alight in a chain reaction, said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly.
A metal rifle cabinet placed in the cargo area was packed with fertiliser, but bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertiliser used in previous terrorist bombings.
The exact amount of fertiliser was unknown. Police estimated the cabinet weighed 200lb to 250lb when they pulled it from the vehicle.
Not long ago, Faisal Shahzad had a pretty enviable life: He became an American citizen after emigrating from Pakistan, where he came from a wealthy family.
He earned an MBA. He had a well-educated wife and two children and owned a house in a middle-class Connecticut suburb.
In the past couple of years, though, his life seemed to unravel: He left a job at a global marketing firm he'd held for three years, lost his home to foreclosure and moved into an apartment in an impoverished neighbourhood in Bridgeport.
Shahzad, 30, is the son of a former top Pakistani air force officer, according to Kifyat Ali, a cousin of Shahzad's father.
He came to the United States in late 1998 on a student visa.
He received a bachelor's degree in computer applications and information systems in 2000.
Shahzad was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers in 2002. He later returned to the University of Bridgeport to earn a master's in business administration, awarded in 2005.
He worked from mid-2006 to May 2009 as a junior financial analyst for the Affinion Group, a marketing firm in Norwalk.
In 2004, he and his wife, Huma Mian, bought a newly built home for $273,000.
Like her husband, Mian was well educated. She graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2004 with a bachelor of science in business with an emphasis in accounting, the school said.
On her profile on the social networking site Orkut, she described herself as 'not political' and said she spoke English, Pashto, Urdu and French.
She listed her passions as 'fashion, shoes, bags, shopping!! And of course, Faisal.'
She posted a picture of Shahzad, smiling, with the caption, 'what can I say ... he's my everything'.
Last year, the couple abandoned the home, defaulting on the mortgage.
'It was like they just picked up everything they wanted and just left one day,' a neighbour said.
Authorities say Shahzad returned to Pakistan then came back to the United States, when he took an apartment in Bridgeport.
Abandoned truck on bridge not a threat, NYPD says,NYPD X-rays suspicious truck at bridge, clears it
Police X-rayed the truck, then examined it thoroughly -- including cutting a hole in the side of the truck to see whether it had an explosive device.
New York police determined that a moving truck abandoned on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge did not pose a threat.
Authorities have determined that a moving truck abandoned on the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, formerly known as Triborough Bridge, did not pose a threat.
Police closed off the bridge for about two hours in both directions after being made aware of the incident around 10 p.m. Wednesday.
The department's bomb squad was called to the scene after a toll booth operator who approached the U-Haul truck smelled a strong odor of gasoline, said Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne.
"There's no explosive devices of any kind on any part of the vehicle," he said.
Police will now move the truck to reopen the bridge to traffic.
"When the bridge authority officer smelled the gasoline and saw the driver running from the vehicle, all traffic on the bridge was taken off and the bridge itself was closed in all directions," Browne said.
The truck, with Arizona license plates, was headed to Manhattan from the Bronx when the driver abandoned it about 1,000 feet from a toll both and ran off, witnesses told police.
Browne described the driver as a man in dark clothing carrying a white bag.
The bridge earned its former name -- Triborough -- because it connects three of New York's five boroughs: Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.
The city has been on edge since Saturday night, when a man unsuccessfully tried to set off a car bomb in Times Square.
The New York Police Department says a truck abandoned several yards from a toll booth near the Manhattan side of the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge is empty and isn't a threat.
The bridge has reopened for traffic after being closed briefly.
Police say witnesses had reported seeing a man flee the vehicle Wednesday night. A smell of gasoline was reported coming from the vehicle, which was described as a U-Haul or Ryder truck.
Police X-rayed the truck and cut a hole in the side to discover it was empty. They're looking to speak to the person who abandoned it.
Traffic on the bridge resumed around midnight.
The Robert F. Kennedy Bridge formerly was called the Triborough Bridge. It's a complex of spans connecting Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Man held in NYC car bomb attack to appear in court
In this combination of images taken from video released by the New York City Police Department on Sunday, May 2, 2010, a chronological sequence of frames from top left to bottom right show a man, center right, removing a dark shirt in an alleyway in New York around the time that a car began to smoke in Times Square, leading to the discovery of car bomb Saturday night. Investigators Monday were looking to speak with the man videotaped shedding his shirt near the sport utility vehicle where the bomb was found. The surveillance video shows an unidentified white man apparently in his 40s slipping down Shubert Alley and taking off his shirt, revealing another underneath. In the same clip, he's seen looking back in the direction of the smoking vehicle and furtively putting the first shirt in a bag
Police vehicles fill a street early Tuesday morning May 4, 2010 as they search a home the center of the block in Bridgeport Conn. An arrest in the Times Square bombing was made at Kennedy Airport in New York and local, federal and state officials are searching a residence in Bridgeport.
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.
U.S. authorities "will not rest until we have brought everyone responsible to justice," Holder said, suggesting additional suspects are being sought.
A New York City police officer stands watch on Times Square in New York, Monday, May 3, 2010, as pedestrians pass by. Activity appeared normal in the wake of a car bomb incident over the weekend. (
A Bridgeport Conn. Police car blocks a street in Bridgeport early Tuesday morning Tuesday May 4, 2010, as FBI search a home of a suspect in the failed bombing in New York's Times Square.
A television at John. F. Kennedy International Airport displays the news that an arrest was made in relation to the car bomb discovered in Times Square in New York, Tuesday, May 4, 2010.
A television at John. F. Kennedy International Airport displays the news that an arrest was made in relation to the car bomb discovered in Times Square in New York, Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Agents from the FBI and other law enforcement agencies work at a 24-hour operations center at FBI headquarters, Monday, May 3, 2010, in the Chelsea section of New York. The center was set up to coordinate the investigation of the Times Square incident involving a vehicle loaded with explosive material.
Shahzad, 30, 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.
Shahzad was being held in New York overnight and couldn't be contacted. A phone number at a listed address for Shahzad in Shelton, Conn., wasn't in service.
He used to live in a two-story grayish-brown Colonial with a sloping yard in a working-class neighborhood in Shelton. On Tuesday morning, the home looked as if it had been unoccupied for a while, with grass growing in the driveway and bags of garbage lying about.
Brenda Thurman, 37, a neighbor, said he lived there with his wife and two small children until last year. Shahzad had told Thurman's husband that he worked on Wall Street, she said.
"He was a little bit strange," she said. "He didn't like to come out during the day."
Law enforcement officials say Shahzad bought the SUV, a 1993 Nissan Pathfinder, from a Connecticut man about three weeks ago and paid cash. The officials spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the case.
The vehicle identification number had been removed from the Pathfinder's dashboard, but it was stamped on the engine, and investigators used it to find the owner of record, who told them he had sold the vehicle to a stranger. As the SUV buyer came into focus, investigators backed off other leads.
The SUV was parked on Saturday night on a busy midtown Manhattan street near a theater showing "The Lion King." The explosive device inside it had cheap-looking alarm clocks connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to detonate gas cans and set propane tanks afire in a chain reaction "to cause mayhem, to create casualties," police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
A metal rifle cabinet placed in the SUV's cargo area was packed with fertilizer, but NYPD bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terrorist bombings.
Police said the SUV bomb could have produced "a significant fireball" and sprayed shrapnel with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows.
A vendor alerted a police officer to the parked SUV, which was smoking. Times Square, clogged with tourists on a warm evening, was shut down for 10 hours. A bomb squad dismantled the explosive device, and no one was hurt.
But Holder said Americans should remain vigilant.
"It's clear," he said, "that the intent behind this terrorist act was to kill Americans."
Authorities did not address Shahzad's plans in Dubai. The airport there is the Middle East's busiest and is a major transit point for passengers traveling between the West and much of Asia, particularly India.
President Barack Obama was told of the arrest shortly after midnight, according to press secretary Robert Gibbs.
In Pakistan, Interior Minister Rehman Malik said authorities had not been formally asked for help in the probe.
"When the request comes, we will cooperate with the U.S. government," he told the AP.
The Pakistani Taliban appeared to claim responsibility in videos that surfaced after the weekend scare, monitoring groups said, but police had no evidence to support the claims.
More than a dozen people with American citizenship or residency, like Shahzad, have been accused in the past two years of supporting or carrying out terrorism attempts on U.S. soil, cases that illustrate the threat of violent extremism from within the U.S.
Among them are Army Maj. Nidal Hasan, a U.S.-born Army psychiatrist of Palestinian descent, charged with fatally shooting 13 people last year at Fort Hood, Texas; Najibullah Zazi, a Denver-area airport shuttle driver who pleaded guilty in February in a plot to bomb New York subways; and a Pennsylvania woman who authorities say became radicalized online as "Jihad Jane" and plotted to kill a Swedish artist whose work offended Muslims.
Monday, May 3, 2010
New York bomb investigators hunt for balding, middle-aged white man
CCTV footage show the man taking off one shirt to reveal a red one underneath. He then puts it in a bag.The balding white man in his forties then picks up the bag and moves on
This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder (left) which carried the bomb shortly before it was abandoned
The alarm clock found in a dark SUV which is said to be in the vehicle with the bomb
* Similarities with Tiger Tiger bomb outside London nightclub
* Handbag seller alerts police to smoking car
* Police investigate South Park link
The hunt is on in the U.S. for a balding, middle-aged white man who seen taking off his shirt near the car where the New York bomb was found.
Surveillance video shows him slipping down an alley close to Times Square and taking off a shirt, revealing another underneath.
In the same clip, he's seen looking back in the direction of the smoking vehicle and furtively putting the first shirt in a bag.
The images were released as U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said detectives had made substantial progress in their investigation and that those involved would eventually be caught.
He added that agents were still looking for the man spotted in the surveillance video taking off his shirt.
'We have some good leads,' said Holder referring to the middle-aged man, adding. 'We are following a number of other leads as well.'
Holder was cautious about linking it to international terrorism and claims of responsibility by the Taliban in Pakistan.
'I know that group in the past has claimed responsibility for incidents that (they) ultimately were not connected to," he said, adding it was too early to say who was in fact responsible.
New York police commissioner Ray Kelly said had the bomb detonated it 'looks like it would have caused a significant fireball'.
The petrol-and-propane bomb was crude but could have sprayed shrapnel and metal parts with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out windows on one of America's busiest streets, full of Broadway theatres and restaurants on a Saturday night.
Detectives are understood to be investigating similarities between the New York bomb and two car bombs planted by Al Qaeda terrorists outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London three years ago.
In both cases, the devices were composed of propane gas and cans full of petrol intended to be ignited by electronic detonators.
A bomb disposal vehicle arrives at the scene after an explosive device was found in an SUV parked in Times Square
The alarm clock found in a dark SUV which is said to be in the vehicle with the bomb
Bomb squad members worked through the night to defuse the explosive device found in the car
Like the bomb in New York's theatreland the London device was found in Leicester Square close to the capital's theatres.
A Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility for the failed attack in a one-minute video but Commissioner Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said police have no evidence to support the claims. They noted that the same group had falsely taken credit for previous attacks on U.S. soil.
It has also emerged that the bomb could have been aimed at the creators of the controversial cartoon South Park.
Viacom, which makes the comedy show, has offices near where the bomb was found and defused in Times Square.
The show's writers were threatened with reprisals last month over an episode mocking the prophet Mohammed.
When asked if the Viacom Inc office was a target in any way, Commissioner Kelly said: 'We can't rule anything out at this time.'
South Park is shown on the Comedy Central network owned by Viacom.
A large amount of fertilizer rigged with wires and fireworks was found with the bomb, but police said it was not the ammonium nitrate grade that can explode.
The homemade bomb was made largely with ordinary items, including three barbecue grill-size propane tanks, two 5-gallon gasoline containers, store-bought fireworks and cheap alarm clocks attached to wires.
'Clearly it was the intent of whoever did this to cause mayhem, to create casualties,' Kelly said.
Authorities didn't know how deadly the bomb could have been, how it failed or who was responsible.
Police had already identified the registered owner of the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder - which didn't have an easily visible vehicle identification number and had licence plates from another car - and were looking to interview him.
Police also were searching more video, believed to be in the possession of a Pennsylvania tourist, of a person spotted near the car.
The bomb was found shortly before theatergoers headed to Saturday night shows.
Timers were connected to a 16oz can filled with fireworks, which were apparently intended to set the gas cans and propane afire.
Commissioner Kelly said. The vehicle would have been 'cut in half' by an explosion, and people nearby could have been sprayed by shrapnel and killed.
Police had feared that another component - a metal rifle cabinet packed with a fertilizer-like substance and rigged with wires and more fireworks - could have made the device even more devastating.
Test results late Sunday showed that it was indeed fertilizer - but the New York Police Department's bomb experts believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate grade fertilizer used in previous terror attacks, said police spokesman Paul Browne.
The exact amount of fertilizer was unknown. Police estimated the cabinet - with a manufacturer-listed weight of 78 pounds (35 kilograms) - weighed 200 pounds (90 kilograms) to 250 pounds (113 kilograms) when they pulled it from the vehicle.
New York's busiest streets, choked with taxis and people on one of the first summer-like days of the year, were shut down for 10 hours, unnerving thousands of tourists attending Broadway show, museums and other city sights.
Detectives took the stage at the end of some shows to announce to theatergoers that they were looking for witnesses in a bombing attempt.
"No more New York," said Crysta Salinas. The 28-year-old Houston woman was stuck waiting in a deli until 2 a.m. local time because part of a Marriott hotel was evacuated because of the bomb.
A monitoring group, IntelCenter, said the Pakistani Taliban released another video, apparently dated early April, of their leader promising an imminent attack on major U.S. cities.
The video is about 9 minutes long and features Hakimullah Mehsud, the Pakistani Taliban chief, according to IntelCenter, a U.S.-based group that monitors militant media.
Mehsud does not specifically mention New York but says he is speaking on April 4 of this year and promises, "God willing, very soon in some days or a month's time, the Muslim (community) will see the fruits of most successful attacks of our fedayeen in USA."
Bloomberg noted that the investigation was in its early stages but said, "So far, there is no evidence that any of this has anything to do with one of the recognized terrorist organizations."
The NYPD and FBI were also examining "hundreds of hours" of security videotape from around Times Square, Kelly said.
Police released a photograph of the dark-colored SUV as it crossed an intersection at 6:28 p.m. Saturday. A vendor pointed the SUV out to an officer about two minutes later.
The license plate found on the vehicle did not belong to the SUV; police said it came from a car found in a repair shop in Connecticut.
Duane Jackson, a 58-year-old handbag vendor, said he noticed the car and wondered who had left it there in a no-standing zone.
Jackson said he looked in the car and saw keys in the ignition with 19 or 20 keys on a ring. He said he alerted a passing mounted police officer.
They were looking in the car "when the smoke started coming out and then we heard the little pop-pop-pop like firecrackers going out and that's when everybody scattered and ran back," he said.
"Now that I saw the propane tanks and the gasoline, what if that would have ignited?" Jackson said. "I'm less than 8 feet away from the car."
Times Square lies about four miles north of where terrorists bombed the World Trade Center in 1993, then destroyed it on Sept. 11, 2001.
The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility in a video posted on the Internet on Sunday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. SITE, a U.S.-based terrorist tracking organization, first uncovered the video on YouTube; it later appeared to have been removed from the website.
In a copy of the video provided by SITE, an unidentified voice speaking in Urdu, the primary language in Pakistan, says the group takes "full responsibility for the recent attack in the USA." The video does not mention any details about Saturday's attack.
The militant group said the attack was revenge for the death of its leader, Baitullah Mehsud, and the recent slaying of al-Qaida in Iraq leaders Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops last month north of Baghdad. The video also mentioned Aafia Siddiqui, a Pakistani scientist who was convicted in a U.S. court in New York in February of trying to kill American service personnel after her arrest in Afghanistan in 2008.
If the claim is genuine, it would be the first time the Pakistani Taliban has struck outside South Asia. It has no known global infrastructure like al-Qaida.
In at least one past instance, the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack it played no role in. Mehsud reportedly said his men were behind a mass shooting in March 2009 at the American Civic Association in Binghamton, New York, in April 2009. That claim turned out to be false.
The last terror threat in New York came last fall when air shuttle driver Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway system.
The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007. No one was injured when police discovered two vehicles loaded with nails packed around canisters of propane and gasoline.
VENDOR HAILED A HERO
Several other vendors on that street corner also spotted the car and said they scrambled to tell the police.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Orton and Rhatigan on Sunday and had dinner with Rhatigan in Times Square. Orton - who was reluctant to speak to the media -- had been unable to join them, Bloomberg said.
Duane Jackson (pictured), another Vietnam vet who said he helped alert police, was back selling handbags and T-shirts across the road from where the vehicle carrying the bomb had been parked.
"There are a bunch of us disabled vets selling here, and we're used to being vigilant because we all know that freedom isn't free," Jackson, 58, told The New York Times. "All of us vets here are the eyes and ears for the cops."
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