Patterico's Pontifications

12/21/2010

Breaking: Bomb Found in Rome (Update: A Fake?)

Filed under: General — Aaron Worthing @ 6:21 am



[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here.]

Update: Home sick today, and yes blogging in my PJs.  On Meghan Kelly’s show she just said that authorities said it was a very real-looking fake.  Hmm…  Further update: Reuters backs her up, with an article that seems to be leaving out the word “not” in a crucial spot.

They have found a bomb on a Roman train this morning.  Sky News has bare bones:

An explosive device has been found on an underground train in Rome, the city’s transport authority ATAC said.

It is thought the parcel bomb was found inside an empty carriage during a stop in Rebibbia, on the outskirts of the city.

The area has been cleared and bomb disposal experts are apparently examining the device.

Reports have said it was left in a grocery bag underneath a seat, and was spotted by the conductor this morning.

Rome’s Mayor Gianni Alemanno said the discovery was “worrying”.

Spokesman for the city council Giampaolo Polizzaro said: “It was ready to explode.

“It seems it could have been activated by remote control because it had something that looked like an antenna.”

An attempted repeat of Madrid (among others)?  I’ll keep you posted.

[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]

40 Responses to “Breaking: Bomb Found in Rome (Update: A Fake?)”

  1. Disgruntled pasta maker … not bloody likely. Almost certain to be a Methodist.

    quasimodo (4af144)

  2. No, obviously it’s an Etruscan revivalist sect, don’t you know anything

    narciso (6075d0)

  3. Etruscan revivalist? I scoff in your general direction and cast you a dirty look. You know nothing. Methodists are Christianists … who could be more violent?

    quasimodo (4af144)

  4. If you don’t quit speculating on what the obvious perpetrator of this action hails from, The Religion of Peace will retaliate in kind.

    Dmac (498ece)

  5. Word on the street is that the bomber didn’t get to finish the job completely – he had to run home in order to slice his sister’s throat, she had committed the ultimate blaspheme by asking a Christian man on the street what the time of day was. A man’s gotta have his priorities straight, you know.

    Dmac (498ece)

  6. Bush is Methodist … Q.E.D.

    quasimodo (4af144)

  7. So based on narciso’s update, what’s the collective opinion: more terrorist ineptitude or a dry run to see how long it would take for the device to be discovered?

    I’m guessing dry run with the real attempt(s) slated for Thursday or Friday when the carnage would be at its maximum.

    kaz (e7a67c)

  8. Those darn Zoroastrians!!!!

    orcadrvr (5daf3f)

  9. Hun Zombies, up from the Catacombs.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  10. That was my next guess.

    narciso (6075d0)

  11. kaz-
    Your dry run suggestion is pretty frightening, in a couple of ways. First, the carnage of a bomb/bombs going off in the rush to get to the Papal Christmas service could be a nightmare. Second, to the degree that the radicals want to inflame hate and violence, what could be more “religion baiting” than bombing the Papal Christmas Mass. (I guess blowing up the Church of the Nativity, but that’s a bit harder to do with limited access and Israelis keeping guard.)

    Second, some folks in the past (not many, especially not in positions of responsibility) suggested a “mutually assured destruction” approach, “If you guys can’t police the radicals and they blow up targets in the West, we’ll turn your ‘B-l-a-c-k S-t-o-n-e’ into gravel.” I imagine some of the most extreme Islamic radicals would actually invite that in order to “preciptate Armageddon” (or whatever the Islamic term is). I don’t see any Western countries even considering that as a serious possibility in the near future. Perhaps the Wewst foregoing such a retaliatory strike would go a long ways in cementing good will among the vast majority and actually hurt the radical cause. As so many things, it could go either waym but hopefully nothing more will happen in Rome.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  12. it’s christmastime there’s no need to be afraid at christmastime we let in light and we banish shade

    happyfeet (a55ba0)

  13. you have all overlooked the most likely source of the attack: Carthage.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  14. Comment by redc1c4

    Well, word is they have been looking intently for elephant dung, which is evidence for elephants, which would fit the MO for previous attacks from Carthage.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  15. It’s a good thing that the Italians didn’t support us on the removal of Saddam Hussein from power, or the Muslims would be really mad at them.

    The diplomatic Dana (3e4784)

  16. MD,

    While I agree that turning the rock to gravel in retaliation would light a very short fuse to a very big powder keg, I’m not completely sold that “turn the other cheek” would not be worse in the long run. At its roots Islam is a warrior religion and any passivity on the part of the West is likely to invite a perception of weakness and an escalation of Muslim attacks to finish the job of conversion under the sword.

    As I’m sure you’ve been asked many times; is it better to take the Band-Aid off quickly or slowly?

    Perhaps it would be best to follow Sir Charles Napier’s advice. Publicly hanging a few plotters when they’re caught – in Rome or elsewhere – might be the best deterrent.

    kaz (e7a67c)

  17. I agree on the dry run theory. There have been dry run plane incidents, too. The “Palestinian band” that was marching around in the plane a couple of years ago was the most obvious one. The six imams might have been one, too.

    Mike K (568408)

  18. I think we agree, kaz. Fierce force against a limited number of perpetrators, but only those directly involved, and perhaps a bomb in the middle of the Saudi Desert showing what we could do to Mecca if we wanted to.

    Actually Dana, I think the Italians did, at least to some extent. At some point an Italian soldier had been captured and was about to be beheaded on video for propaganda. When told to kneel he told them they could guess again and “This is how an Italian dies” as he fought them. Certainly he died, but he spoiled their making sport.

    MD in Philly (3d3f72)

  19. It could have been disgruntled students angry about the austerity measures approved for higher education and set to begin today (**Gelmini Reforms).

    Sky Italia (translations is a bit wonky):

    On the eve of the manifestation of students against the adoption of the reform Gelmini, and after alerts about possible acts of terrorism in Europe, the finding in a bomb suspect after breakfast, but they couldn’t explode, on an empty wagon held in underground agitation for a few hours the political world. After about five hours from his finding, however, came the news that what initially had been called a “potentially explosive bomb”, maybe a “pipe bomb”, there could explode because devoid of initiation.

    **Gelmini Reforms: approved by the Senate which foresees 8 billion EUR of cutbacks in the education budget in the next 3 years and will reduce the quality of public schools. Minister Gelmini states these will transform these into private foundations, opening the way for privatisation of higher education.

    Dana (8ba2fb)

  20. I suggest a thorough investigation in search of the root causes of such an action.

    daleyrocks (a82d72)

  21. There have been dry run plane incidents, too.

    This is a fact, as my wife’s co – workers on American have related many incidents that have gone completely unreported in the MSM. I’m not a conspiracy theorist, but there has been a co – ordinated effort on part of the airlines and the gov’t to make sure these incidents are never exposed to public view. There have been incidents such as holes having been drilled in the wall separating the 1st class lavatories and the pilot’s cabin, as just one example.

    Dmac (498ece)

  22. What if it was a real bomb, and they are lying about it being a fake?

    As Dmac notes, there’s a clear intent by many governments to downplay all threats and all actual attacks. The first thing they potentially could have said, had a plane blown up, was that it was not an act of terror, or once it was proven it was, that it wasn’t Islamofascist terror, even if it were an ‘Asian’ who set the bomb.

    What do we do, as a society, about a government that is striving to conceal information about this? Maybe there even is some wisdom to covering it up and minimizing the terror out there?

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  23. On a smaller scale, I know that local school districts do the same thing: they use all their powers to sit on crimes such as assaults (on students by staff and on staff by students), weapons found on campus, attempted kidnappings, etc, rather than let parents know what has occurred.

    The prevailing reasoning is two-fold: Don’t cause a panic and always strive to keep the image of safe schools at the forefront of parents’ minds. That way parents continue sending their kids into what often can be a battlefield. Lulled into complacency and trusting their betters because word is, it’s a safe and secure place for your children.

    I question whether it’s wisdom motivating the cover up in an effort to minimize terror – how would it? It would seem that the more information the public has, the more they can be alert and watchful as well as being reminded this is an ongoing war.

    Dana (25570a)

  24. You’re right, Dana.

    Ultimately, all this accomplishes is that I don’t trust the ‘everything is OK’ claims anymore. In the short term, it probably does reduce terror itself, but in the long term, it breeds paranoia and fear, while also, as you note, reduces awareness and vigilance.

    And we’re in a war, so we should know what’s going on and face it directly.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  25. And we’re in a war, so we should know what’s going on and face it directly.

    Well of course this is the underlying issue: Are we in a war (on terror) and if so, let’s say it straight up (Big Sis, I’m talking to you) and face it squarely. But how can you face what you refuse to admit or continue to soft-pedal?

    Dana (25570a)

  26. if we decided to go there, i say don’t turn the rock (its actually brick, iirc) into gravel: turn the whole area into radioactive glass.

    islam isn’t a mindset given to understanding subtlety, so we’d want to make sure they got the message.

    redc1c4 (fb8750)

  27. Obviously, happyfeet’s “Meghan’s daddy” obsession has infected you, Aaron. It’s Megyn Kelly.

    Icy Texan (172c11)

  28. Why are you worried about Terrorists when it is Global Warming you should be concerned about?

    (CNSNews.com) – At an all-day White House conference on “environmental justice,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that her department is creating a new task force to battle the effects of climate change on domestic security operations.

    Speaking at the first White House Forum on Environmental Justice on Thursday, Napolitano discussed the initial findings of the department’s recently created “Climate Change and Adaptation Task Force.” Napolitano explained that the task force was charged with “identifying and assessing the impact that climate change could have on the missions and operations of the Department of Homeland Security.”

    thomas (ad76be)

  29. It is astonishing, thomas, that we get such unmitigated crap from these clowns. Climate change impacts on the missions of the DHS … sheesh, like those nonexistant rising sea levels will wash away a Customs’ HQ?

    SPQR (26be8b)

  30. thomas, that would be funny if it were a Monty Python sketch.

    “The system worked”.

    She does not see national security as her priority, she sees expansive power for a ‘progressive’ agenda as her priority. This is clever, because we can’t just cut them off by defunding an out of control FCC or EPA if our national security bureaucracy is so invested in this hysteria.

    However, we should defund that specific kind of waste and abuse. Her department has a certain function, and it is not climate change fearmongering.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  31. According to Wikipedia and other sources, in 2005 the Italians announced they would withdraw all troops from Iraq and the withdrawal was completed in 2006-2007. I guess that wasn’t soon enough for some.

    DRJ (d43dcd)

  32. Quite the contrary, DRJ, if they pulled their troops from the cause of Iraqi freedom out of concern they’d be attacked, all they did was let the terrorists know that they can be manipulated with attacks.

    The only way out of the war on terror is to win it. That’s usually just a platitude… but in this case, the war is going to find us.

    Dustin (b54cdc)

  33. Comment by kaz — 12/21/2010 @ 9:55 am
    Perhaps the French could unlimber one of their guillotines?

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  34. Comment by thomas — 12/21/2010 @ 1:03 pm
    Sounds like an excuse to spend a couple Million$ on what new warm-weather uniform the troops should be wearing.
    I’m confident the results of the study will be ready just about the time the Wooly Mamouths start grazing in Lafeyette Park.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  35. The airlines and the FAA are really only concerned with one thing – making sure the traveling public keeps getting on those planes, no matter what. It all comes down the nature of the FAA’s origins and current MO – it was a gov’t entity that was primaily charged with promoting air travel to the public that hadn’t been on a commercial plane yet (which was almost everyone at that point in time). Issues of safety and sevice were only to be dealt with in terms of putting the best face forward, and not coming down hard on airlines who behaved badly in either area. That’s why we’ve always needed the NTSB to come in and investigate airline crashes, because the FAA does not have the capability to conduct a proper investigation and cannot be entrusted to do the job correctly.

    Dmac (498ece)

  36. Comment by AD-RtR/OS! — 12/21/2010 @ 1:51 pm

    Only if they bring out the pikes too. A head on a stick might even last longer as a “Don’t even think of doing this” display than a dangling body.

    kaz (e7a67c)

  37. kaz, I’m reminded that at one point in the Early Elizabethan Era (or thereabouts) that the heads of executed “traitors” were stuck on pikes mounted along the bridges over the Thames.

    AD-RtR/OS! (b8ab92)

  38. there have been bombs at the Chilean and Swiss embassies, this day

    narciso (6075d0)


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