Patterico's Pontifications

3/6/2008

News on the Times Square Bombing (Updated)

Filed under: Terrorism — DRJ @ 5:11 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Someone is taking credit for the Times Square bombing of a military recruiting office:

“Police are investigating letters that arrived at congressional offices containing a photo of the New York Times Square military recruiting office before it was bombed and the words “We did it.”

A law enforcement official, who spoke Thursday on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing, confirmed the letter’s contents and said police are investigating.

At least eight congressional offices have received the letters, FOX News has learned.”

Here’s an AP report of an email from Sen. Feinstein’s office about the message:

“A few offices on the House side have received a letter today addressed to `Members of Congress’ with a picture of a man standing in front of the Times Square recruiting station that was bombed in New York today with the statement `We did it.’ He is standing in front of it with his arms spread out and he’s attached his political manifesto.”

Most people think this sounds like domestic terrorism. If so, who?

UPDATE 3/7/2008: As noted by several commenters, the “We did it” messages were coincidental and unrelated to the Times Square bombing. In related news, the New York Times has an interesting article on the similarities between this bombing and two earlier bombings of Manhattan-area consulates:

“The British Consulate in 2005. The Mexican Consulate last year. And on Thursday, the Times Square military recruiting station. Three bombings with similar devices at three high-profile locations in Manhattan, each occurring at nearly the same time of day, in the predawn hours; each inflicting little damage; none injuring people.

And in each case, someone — most likely a man — seen pedaling away on a bicycle with a hooded jacket or sweatshirt hiding his face.”

Thus, this might be the work of a bicycle-riding serial bomber. Wiki says the Unabomber was named based on his FBI codename: “UNABOM” for “UNiversity and Airline BOMber.” Is this the Manhattan Government Bomber?

— DRJ

39 Responses to “News on the Times Square Bombing (Updated)”

  1. I am going to go out on a limb and bet that since the target was a recruiting office, the perps were some hippie peace loving anti-war bombers.

    JD (626b4c)

  2. An off-shoot of Code Pink. Their actions regarding other recruiting stations has become more and more hostile. It was only a matter of time before the more fringe members decided to “take the fight to the Military”.

    The same thing has happened with the environmentalist movement (from protests and chaining themselves to trees to spiking trees to be cut and torching develoment sites), so it isn’t a stretch to see it this way.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  3. I’m sorry. I should not have singled out Code Pink. I should have said “Code Pink or some other, similar group”.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  4. If we’re going out on limbs, could it be related to the Washington eco-terrorists? I know this is a completely different issue but eco-terrorists seem to be some of the few protesters willing to use violence to make their point.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  5. I don’t think it’s related, at least not directly…

    I believe utterly that they are spawns of the same gradual progression, the same sort of increased barbarity amongst certain of the left.

    If that makes any sense.

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  6. I’ll guess: Assholes.

    –JRM

    JRM (355c21)

  7. That’s a valid guess? I thought that was part of the assumed trait, like the first line of a mathmatical proof…

    Scott Jacobs (d3a6ec)

  8. DRJ – Why is it that these types of actions seem to occur more regularly amongst a particular subset. The things you reference are horrible for the environment, far more so than what they were protesting. The enviro whack jobs that you referred to, and the peacey hippies that did this one sure ain’t pulling the Republican lever.

    JD (626b4c)

  9. JD – Beats me. Psychology is one elective I didn’t take in college, but I did take a class about insanity that was pretty interesting and that might have some bearing.

    Basically, I learned that people who do things that seem insane (and I’m not talking about people who are clinically insane) start with a premise that makes sense to them but not to the rest of us. For instance, they may think “The government is out to get me” or “It’s illegal to make me pay taxes” or “Capitalism is deliberately ruining the world’s ecosystem.”

    Once you accept the premise is true, then everything they do after that is logical and makes sense.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  10. DRJ – So the premise that “Barack Obama is qualified to be President” would fall in the same type of category, no?

    JD (626b4c)

  11. I would bet dimes to dollars this was done by a leftist. And I would bet dimes to sawbucks that little nugget will be glossed over, if not completely ignored, by the media.

    JD (626b4c)

  12. JD #10, LOL.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  13. Probibly some no good scum from berkeley or SAN FRANCISCO

    krazy kagu (4ca035)

  14. Ahd they’ll probably publish the manifesto, too. After all, it’s not like they killed people like the Unibomber did.

    Kevin Murphy (0b2493)

  15. Is there an abortion clinic nearby?

    stef (3a86e6)

  16. “DRJ – So the premise that “Barack Obama is qualified to be President” would fall in the same type of category, no?”

    Who isn’t qualified these days?

    stef (fb2085)

  17. Definitely one of the leftie “intolerance is the highest form of patriotism” crowd.

    That aside, why aren’t the Code Pink protestors being charged with 18 USC 241, conspiracy to deprive other citizens of their civil rights? Sure, the [C.C.]C.P. crowd has a First Amendment right to protest the Marine Corps recruiting office in Berkeley, but their First Amendment rights do not supersede the First Amendment right of citizens to enter that office and “assemble” with the Marine Corps. And since the City Council has officially sanctioned the C.P. actions, why aren’t they co-conspirators, and why isn’t this state-sanctioned deprivation of civil rights under the color of law? I’d be interested in your views.

    509th Bob (dfa1f1)

  18. http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/Story?id=4407063&page=1

    Not surprisingly, as the facts start to come out, the blogospheric conclusions are being disproved.

    Mcveigh and Nichols described as right wing terrorists – 168 dead
    right-wing Christian fundamentalist Eric Robert Rudolph. 1 Dead and 111 injured in Centennial Olympic Park bombings

    Yes, those darn leftists are the root of all evil and deserve to be the most likely suspects

    voiceofreason2 (10af7e)

  19. VOR – How does that link prove anyone wrong?

    You can try to paint McVeigh and Nichols as some right wing Christian terrorists all you want, but that does not make it so. Rudolph’s Christianity in no way resembles that of anyone around here, and I do not see anybody excusing him. Keep on whacking those strawmen.

    JD (75f5c3)

  20. Racist

    JD (75f5c3)

  21. VOR has never heard of the Weather Underground or the SLA apparently.

    Plus, all those rioters at the WTO in Seattle, College Republicans, the lot of them.

    Techie (ed20d9)

  22. http://michellemalkin.com/2008/03/07/special-report-tracing-the-lefts-escalating-war-on-military-recruiters/

    Plus, it’s not like the far Left has been waging an ongoing campaign against military recruiting centers. Whatever could have given us the idea….?

    Techie (ed20d9)

  23. today’s los angeles times says that the fbi has concluded that the “we did it” letters had nothing to do with the bombing.

    assistant devil's advocate (7d37d0)

  24. http://michellemalkin.com/2008/03/05/draft-card-burning-deja-vu/

    Lefties are now taking to burning fake draft cards and brushing off their Winter Soldier cards…

    Techie (ed20d9)

  25. “VOR has never heard of the Weather Underground or the SLA apparently.”

    – Techie

    Whoa, good point. It must’ve been some wacky lefties, then.

    Leviticus (e87aad)

  26. All VOR and ada have shown is that there is no known connection between the letters and the bombing. They most certainly have not shown that this was not done by left lib peacey people.

    JD (75f5c3)

  27. It’s certainly possible that it’s a random bomber, but I’ve had too many “peace protesters” threaten to kick my ass to buy the whole “love and understanding” shtick.

    Techie (ed20d9)

  28. Fair enough, I suppose.

    Leviticus (e87aad)

  29. “They most certainly have not shown that this was not done by left lib peacey people.”

    – JD

    Yikes. You know what they say about asking people to prove a negative?

    I’ll give you a hint: They say it’s stupid.

    Leviticus (e87aad)

  30. the letters were not someone trying to take credit. they were unrelated to the bombings. “we did it” referred to the democrats taking congress and the “manifesto” was just the person giving a course of strategy to democratic lawmakers. only democratic congressmen got letters. the timing of the letters was just a coincidence. police already questioned the man who sent the letters and released him.
    on a personal note, while i must admit sympathy to the cause of the bomber, assuming this was an anti-war statement, i must condemn it. playing with explosive devices in a crowded city is dangerous and while no one was hurt, they could have been. the reckless endangerment of human life is unacceptable whether it be here or in iraq.
    also, i would caution against any assumption that this act was committed by “leftists”. there are just as many conservatives who are opposed to the war as there are liberals. remember that when the oklahoma bombing first occurred everyone was saying it was middle-eastern terrorists and in the end it turned out to be a home grown militia.
    anouther example of the injustice we incur when we hasten blindly towards justice was the olympic bombing in georgia. if you remember security guard richard jewell was implicated in the beginning and they made his life a living hell when instead he should have been honored as a hero for the many lives he saved as a result of his actions. eventually they caught the real criminal over 2 years later. despite having captured eric rudolph, who committed the acts in the name of “the army of god”, the damage had already been done to jewell. janet reno’s apology was little consolation and the money from the resulting lawsuits mostly went to taxes and lawyers. the real purpose of the lawsuits was to attempt to clear his name in the eyes of the public.
    we should make sure of our facts before hurling any unsubstantiated accusations at any individual or group. if not we risk repeating the same mistakes all over again and condemn innocent people who have to bear the burden of our irresponsibility.

    alonso (159736)

  31. Alonso, if you study the trends of right and left wing bombings, as I used to do, it becomes clear that there appears to be a 20 to 30 cycle of alternating ideologically-inspired bombings and criminal conduct. The OKC bombing of the Murrah Building occurred in the right-wing cycle of activity (remember all of the loonie “militias”?), and thus the Middle Eastern bomber theory was given little credence after the first day or two within the Government.

    We are now in the left-wing cycle of criminal activity, and the tactics of bombing recruiting stations is a re-play of the late 60s and early 70s. If this perp is captured, I’m fairly certain that he will be identified as a left-wing anarchist/socialist.

    As to Richard Jewell, I agree with you that some individual should not be publicly “outted” as a primary suspect until the evidence is in. I did not see any comments that said that the suspect was [insert name of person]. As to my earlier comments about Code Pink, you may notice that my comments are limited to the Berkeley protestors who have been filmed engaging in criminal activity.

    509th Bob (dfa1f1)

  32. Techie,
    When was the last time the Weather Underground or SLA committed an attack?
    Lefties are now taking to burning fake draft cards and brushing off their Winter Soldier cards…
    If Malkin really said this, my comment to her would be “Why didn’t she line up at the recruiting station in 1990 – she was only 20 and could have easily served. For that matter she could have signed up in 2001 — still under the max age limit.
    How many of the self-professed right are lining up to sign up since 2001? If you want to condemn “lefties” for not serving you must also be willing to condemn “righties” for avoiding service.
    Her comment is meant to inflame, nothing more nothing less. Apparently it worked with you.

    JD,
    Notice that I didn’t list the many abortion clinic bombings and killings — hardly a leftie plot there.

    voiceofreason2 (590c85)

  33. Levi – You are right. I was just pointing out that VOR’s attempt to show that this was not done by some of the “peacey” types of folks that have been targeting military recruitment centers fell short of doing so, as the article he linked to only shows that the FBI does not think that the people that mailed the letter were the same as those that did the bombing. Should this turn out to be some kooky right wing whacko, I will immediately acknowledge that my initial assumptions were wrong.

    JD (75f5c3)

  34. bob – trends do not take into account individuals and as of yet the only evidence that has been revealed, (i.e . the security tapes and the singular bicycle), only shows an individual. i will reserve any judgments as to the ideology of that individual or the membership of that individual to any specific group, until there is evidence to substantiate that judgment. in my opinion any rush to accuse anyone, including a group, is irresponsible and inflammatory and does nothing to bring the perpetrators to justice, but it does defame the name of those who may be trying to express an alternative point of view. if you are wrong, all you can offer is an apology which in the end will be too little too late. a trend is nothing more than the tracking of an inclination, hardly a guarantee of anything. the unibomber conducted his attacks from 1978 to 1995. according to your theory, that makes him both right-wing and left-wing. i guess he changed theories in the middle of his campaign, or it shows how misleading trends can be. the only surety a trend offers is when looking at the past, else wise it only obscures the possible solutions.

    alonso (c6a0cd)

  35. And the chickenhawk line comes out…

    The thread has reached its ultimate form.

    Techie (ed20d9)

  36. “…Unabomber was named based on his FBI codename: “UNABOM” for “UNiversity and Airline BOMber.” Is this the Manhattan Government Bomber?”

    MANGOBOMber?

    MAJ(ret) Kev (d9db9c)

  37. maj(ret) kev – you are correct in that kaczynski was first referred to as the “unabomber” by the fbi but once the media began reporting it the variants of “unibomber” and “unabomer” were both in frequent use.

    alonso (75ae09)

  38. MAJ(ret) Kev – Heh, good thought. If nothing else, it might humiliate him into stopping.

    DRJ (a431ca)

  39. Could it be CODESTINKPINK or maybe the inafmous WEATHERSCUM UNDERGROUND

    krazy kagu (6c49b1)


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