Who Was Behind the Times Square Car Bomb?
No one knows for sure yet — but the Pakistani Taliban, according to the AP, are claiming it. And The Daily Telegraph says that police are investigating a link with NY-based South Park and Triscuits-hating extremists Revolution Muslim.
The bomb, inside a dark green Nissan Pathfinder, failed to fully detonate after a street vendor alerted police to the suspicious vehicle. It was parked near the offices of Viacom, the media company which owns South Park. The Daily Telegraph say police are investigating the link, and "striking similarities between the New York bomb and two car bombs planted by Islamic terrorists outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in London in 2007."
Younus Abdullah Mohammed, a member of Revolution Muslim, said by phone today that he had not yet been contacted by authorities. He would not comment further on the attempted bombing. In our conversation with him last month, he said the group does not "condone or condemn" terrorist acts against Americans. But he also added that "we did not start the war on September the 11th 2001. You started the war."
The AP meanwhile, say that intelligence monitoring service SITE has found a one-minute video, allegedly from the Pakistani Taliban, claiming the failed bomb was revenge for the recent killing of one of its leaders, Baitullah Mehsud and Al Qaeda leaders in Iraq. The video, they report, features "images of the slain militants," while an "unidentified voice recites the message. English subtitles are at the bottom of the screen."
Obviously no one knows anything for sure yet. We'll have to wait for more leaks from the NYPD, White House and anti-terror agencies in 4, 3, 2...
UPDATE: NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly points out that there is no evidence of a Taliban link, but that "officers are on their way to a town in Pennsylvania to talk to a man who believes he may have recorded a bombing suspect on his video camera. He says a white man in his 40s was seen taking off his shirt in an alley and putting it in a bag."