Gun Found in Bomb Suspect's Car, Sources Say.

[onehandle]

(CBS) A Federal law enforcement source told CBS News that components from the incendiary device left in a smoking SUV in Times Square Saturday evening were found in the suspect's Connecticut apartment.

A 9 mm handgun with extra clips was also discovered in Faisal Shahzad's car at New York's JFK International Airport, CBS News' Len Tepper reports.

Shahzad, a naturalized American citizen of Pakistani descent, was taken into custody last night.

Components from the device that were found in Shahzad's Bridgeport, Conn., apartment last night include the boxes for the clocks that were wired to the Nissan Pathfinder's explosive contents.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/05/04/national/main6459366.shtml

[shadowrider]

1. So? He didn't use it, did he?

[dmallind]

2. ...and the point? NT

[Callisto32]

20. That the media doesn't know the difference between clips and magazines?

[dmallind]

21. Well yeah, but I reconciled myself to that long ago.

It's not like guns are the only issue where technical details or insider nuances are screwed up. Science reporting is worse even.

[Callisto32]

27. Science, engineering, who cares. What's Brittney up to this week!?

[X_Digger]

3. Did he have a disqualifying factor?

(ie, previous conviction, involuntary stay at a mental institution, or a protective order for domestic violence)

No?

Then... and?

[TheCowsCameHome]

4. Maybe he was intending to protect the plane from terrorists.

He is terminally stupid, but that's not a crime.

[slackmaster]

5. Who cares?

The gun and extra MAGAZINES in the car played no role in the attempted bombing, or in the arrest of the suspect.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

6. I highly doubt he was using a WWII Mauser

"9 mm handgun with extra clips" - lol... right :eyes:

[jeepnstein]

7. I'm betting that the gun...

was far more lethal than the Wile E. Coyote car bomb he built. What a loser. At least the dope who set his underwear on fire will have a cell mate.

[onehandle]

8. No doubt.

They say it's becoming clear that he got the plans off of the Internet. I bet off of some teabagger's site.

Good thing they're morons.

[spin]

10. The news is reporting that he was trained overseas ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The suspect in the failed Times Square bombing told authorities he trained at a terrorism camp in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday as they worked to unravel the events leading up to the nearly catastrophic attack.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100504/D9FG7A001.html

I doubt the teabaggers have training sites in Pakistan.

While I'm not fond of the Tea Party movement, let's not blame them for training the incompetent bomber.

And by the way, I doubt if they had anything to do with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

[onehandle]

13. Trained in what? Richard Clarke on Countdown said that the description of the bomb...

...is common on the Internet and that insiders are saying that is likely where he got the plans.

There's nothing in that 'extensive' article that says what he was trained in.

[spin]

22. He supposedly received training in bomb making ...

Peshawar and Lahore, Pakistan; New Delhi

Faisal Shahzad, the suspect in the attempted New York City Times Square bombing, has told investigators that he had received bombmaking training in the Pakistani region of Waziristan.

Typically, such training takes place in camps tucked away in mountainous regions like Waziristan, protected by the rugged terrain and lack of government. It's not known yet at which camp Mr. Shahzad may have spent time.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-South-Central/2010/0505/Where-in-Pakistan-did-Faisal-Shahzad-learn-bomb-making-skills

A similar incident happened in England in 2007.

Echoes of 2007 London attack in Times Square car bomb

An illegally parked car packed with propane gas cylinders and cannisters filled with petrol attached to a crude homemade detonator. That was Times Square, New York, last night. It was Haymarket, London, three years ago.

There are striking similarities between the attempted car bombing in New York and the failed attack on the Tiger Tiger nightclub in the West End three years ago. Details are still emerging from the US, but much is known about the London bombs.

The devices found in London in June 2007 had been an attempt to recreate the kind of explosions then common in Iraq. The rough thinking behind them is that the gas and petrol vapours are ignited by the detonator creating a huge fireball. The two Mercedes cars found in London had also been packed with nails and shrapnel to cause injure as many people as possible.

As in New York, passers-by and members of the emergency services played vital roles in spotting the danger in London - raising the alarm and clearing the area.

Bilal Abdulla, an Iraqi doctor, was convicted and jailed for the London bomb and the suicidal attack on Glasgow airport the following day which killed his accomplice Kafeel Ahmed.

Although it is still not known if the New York incident was al-Qaeda inspired or the work of America's extremist fringe, it also has echoes of the plans drawn up by the British terrorist Dhiren Barot. He travelled the world for years on behalf of al-Qaeda and as a messenger/scout for Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the 9/11 mastermind.
http://timesonline.typepad.com/crime/2010/05/echoes-of-2007-london-attack-in-times-square-car-bomb.html

I don't believe that the teabaggers were around in 2007.

A Televised Birth of a Movement

CNBC's Rick Santelli is widely credited with launching the grassroots movement. While standing on the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange on February 19, 2009, he unleashed what can only be called a rant against the Obama Administration's proposal to help homeowners facing foreclosure refinance their mortgages.

****snip****

Santelli, however, can't claim credit as the sole mastermind of the movement. Prior to his appearance in Chicago, Keli Carender, a Seattle at-home mother also known as Liberty Belle, had been using her blog to get the word out about the populist "Porkulus Protest" she was organizing against President Barack Obama's proposed $750 billion stimulus package. About 100 people showed up for her event in mid-February. Similar events inspired by both Santelli and Carender, followed in quick succession in Denver; Mesa, Ariz.; Tampa, Fla.; and other cities. Tea Party organizers claim that the first nationwide Tea Party protest took place on February 27, 2009, with coordinated events occurring in more than 40 cities.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html

We have had a lot of terrorists whose explosives have fizzled, including shoe bombers and underpants bombers.

Very Strange.

[one-eyed fat man]

28. Improvised explosives and devices

Improvised explosives and improvised devices are not always as efficient as they could be. The level of mechanical aptitude and the efficacy of the training a potential bomber might have are additional variables. The 40 year old picture shows VC reclaiming Comp B or TNT from aerial bombs that failed to detonate. Once a bomb like that or an artillery shell has been defused, the explosive filler is incredibly stable and difficult to detonate. However, it can be melted in double boilers and cast into all manner of new bombs. This source of raw material is generally unavailable unless you live in a war zone.



TATP is an excellent explosive in that it is fairly simple to make from chemicals that do not draw attention from the general public, absolutely undetectable by bomb sniffing machines, but has the drawbacks that it breaks down in a matter of days, and if you screw up making it, well, you only do that once. It also makes a great booster if you do manage to get your hands on military grade explosives but lack access to detonators.

This guy was inept. But you can bet that not every one is. There are thousands of men here in their 50's, 60's and 70's that were taught how to build really, really effective bombs. And this was not just theoretical classroom work. The Army always did live fire practical exercises on the demolition range too. We used to call them booby-traps, but I guess IED sounds better. But the ones that were most effective at employing them were those who understood what they really were, "practical jokes" played for keeps. The better your understanding of the target population and how they respond, the more effective you can become in defeating their defenses.

One way to acquire that information is to observe how they deal with a dud. The inept bomber is expendable. The intelligence the ones who set him up have gleaned from this incident in incalculable.

But who cares, the moron left his house keys in the "car bomb", but holy shit, there was a gun in the trunk of his other car at the airport. Save us from "da gunz!!"

[shadowrider]

11. Well then, banning the internet would solve that problem

[jeepnstein]

12. Your basic Teabagger...

isn't exactly the car-bombing type. It's easy, and sometimes fun, to vilify the opposition in politics but lets not get carried away with it. It is possible for a person to be profoundly mis-informed about politics while still being a law-abiding, even patriotic, American.

I won't discuss the finer points of blowing up a car on an internet forum. Let's just suffice it to say he didn't exactly get trained by the best and the brightest in Pakistan if that's all he could do. If he had built something like what they are using on our troops in Afghanistan the outcome would have been much different. If he'd spent a couple of evenings watching Myth Busters on the tube he'd have been reasonably well enough informed to know he was building a dud.

I have a book that I bought at a Goodwill store that explains in gory detail how to blow up about anything you want blown apart. I showed it to a friend of mine who is an arson investigator and he nearly had a cow. Books with information like this are commonly available. Some of it is even reliable information. Most of it will get you blown to bits before the device gets off your workbench.

[brendan120678]

15. Oh goodie...we've found another way to...

try and blame this on right-wing tea-baggers.
:eyes:

[shadowrider]

16. Don't you know

Anything bad that happens is automatically blamed on the RW and it's their fault until proven innocent?

[brendan120678]

18. Sorry. I must have missed that chapter in...

my Democratic Underground User's Guide & Training Manual. ;)

[shadowrider]

19. Heh

It isn't just DU (and NOT all users), but other sites as well.

Personally, I don't blame anything on anyone regardless the party they belong to. The analyst in me makes me get facts before I make up my mind.

As any cop will tell you when investigating a crime, everyone is a suspect until they're proven not to be.

[Glassunion]

9. The funny thing is that even if they allowed the use of the terror watch list as

A disqualification for the purchases of a firearm, he still would have been able to buy one. He was not on the list.

But if your name is Sam Adams, no gun... And lots of scrutiny at the airport.

[Katya Mullethov]

14. " Bomb found in gun suspect's car"

What about the gun !?! What about the gun ?!What about the gun !?! Did he get it from a teabaggin' malicia-man at a gun show ?

[shadowrider]

17. -- Snort --

[Euromutt]

25. Well, obviously not

After all, no right-thinking racist Teabagger would sell a gun to anyone who wasn't lily-white, and since laughing boy here is originally from Pakistan, there's no way in Hell he qualifies.

Unless those devious right-wingers are so racist they'll provide support to any Middle Eastern/southern Asian terrorist plot just so they can heap abuse on them muslims in the aftermath.

[proteus_lives]

23. Nohandle continues to make false connections in the vain attempt to prove his non-point.

[Hoopla Phil]

24. Yep, after the bomb blew up and released the gun it was going to "go off" and

finish off any survivors. All by itself.

[gorfle]

26. Just reinforces the idea...

Just reinforces the idea that even insurgents who rely on improvised explosives still do not give up the importance of small arms.