2010 Times Square car bombing attempt

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40°45′29″N 73°59′09″W / 40.758056°N 73.985768°W / 40.758056; -73.985768

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2010 Times Square car bomb attempt
The dark-colored Nissan Pathfinder SUV in Times Square, 17 minutes after the attempted attack. The vehicle's rear hazard lights are activated.
Location	1 Astor Plaza, 1515 Broadway, Times Square, New York City, United States
Coordinates	40°45′29″N 73°59′09″W / 40.758056°N 73.985768°W / 40.758056; -73.985768
Date	May 1, 2010 6:28 p.m. (UTC–04)
Attack type	Failed car bombing
Deaths	0
Injured	0

On May 1, 2010, a car bomb was discovered by a mounted New York City Police Department officer in Times Square, New York City. A nearby street vendor had alerted the officer to the threat, after he spotted smoke coming from a vehicle. The bomb had been ignited, but failed to explode, and was disarmed before it caused any casualties.

On May 3, 2010, federal agents arrested Faisal Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-born resident of Bridgeport, Connecticut, who had become a U.S. citizen in April 2009. He was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport as he was aboard Emirates Flight 202 to Dubai, which had begun to taxi towards the runway but was called back to the gate. He admitted his role in the attempted bombing, and said that he had trained at a Pakistani terrorist training camp, according to U.S. officials.

In a statement in the early hours of May 4, United States Attorney General Eric Holder said that Shahzad had been the driver of the SUV that contained the car bomb, and that Shahzad's intent was "to kill Americans." Shahzad will be formally charged in federal court in Manhattan on May 4 on charges of attempted to use a weapon of mass destruction and terrorism. According to The New York Times, Shahzad implicated himself and gave information to authorities after his arrest. Seven or eight people were arrested by Pakistani officials in connection with the plot.

President Barack Obama said that Americans "will not cower in fear" as a result of the attempt, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg warned against retribution, saying, "We will not tolerate any bias or any backlash against Muslim New Yorkers," and New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that to terrorists, "New York is America, and they want to come back to kill us."

Incident

The suspect's vehicle, a dark blue 1993 Nissan Pathfinder sport utility vehicle with dark tinted windows, was seen on surveillance video entering Times Square at approximately 6:28 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on Saturday, May 1, 2010. Two minutes later, a T-shirt vendor noticed smoke drifting from the vehicle.

Two street vendors, T-shirt seller Lance Orton, 56, and handbag seller Duane Jackson, 58, were the first to alert police. At that time the vehicle was parked, with its emergency flashers on, on a tourist-crowded block at the eastern corner of 1 Astor Plaza, near the entrance to the Minskoff Theatre which was showing Disney's musical version of The Lion King (intersection of West 45th Street and Broadway). The vendors alerted a nearby NYPD police officer who then approached the Pathfinder to investigate and observed smoke coming from vents near the back seat, unidentified canisters, and the smell of gunpowder. The officer immediately called for backup, a bomb disposal team, and the New York City Fire Department.

An area stretching from 43rd Street to 49th Street on Seventh Avenue, and 45th Street from Seventh Avenue to Eighth Avenue, was quickly evacuated of all vehicle and foot traffic, including Broadway-performance attendees, and the area was barricaded. Several buildings near the vehicle, including the New York Marriott Marquis hotel, in front of which the Pathfinder was parked, were also evacuated.

The vehicle was set ablaze, but did not detonate. Upon arrival, the bomb disposal team used a remote-controlled robotic device to break out a window of the vehicle and explore its contents.

Justice Department photo showing positioning of charges in the vehicle

They found in the rear of the vehicle: two alarm clocks with batteries that apparently were fashioned as triggering devices, connected by electrical wires to two full 5-gallon cans of gasoline, sandwiching 40+ consumer-grade M-88 firecrackers inside a 20-ounce metal container (wrapped in duct tape, with its end removed), gunpowder, three 20-gallon propane tanks, and a green metal gun locker "pressure cooker" holding 8 bags with approximately Template:Lb to kg of urea-based fertilizer and 120 M-88s. A bomb disposal expert with information on the contents indicated that the design of the device was more consistent with that of an incendiary device than that of a traditional bomb.

The improvised explosive device's ignition source failed to set it off as intended. However, Mr. Kelly said the bomb: "would have caused casualties, a significant fireball." Police said the bomb would likely have killed or wounded many people.

Investigation

New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the bomb components were all "locally available materials." At least three people other than Faisal Shahzad were involved in buying the bomb materials, sources told the New York Daily News.

Investigators are examining the vehicle for fibers, fingerprints, hair, and DNA, and attempting to track down where the bomb materials were purchased. The Pathfinder and bomb components were taken to the FBI Laboratory in Quantico, Virginia, for analysis.

Investigators uncovered a piece of paper, fingerprints, or possibly both that also indicated international ties, according to a federal official. The vehicle identification number (VIN) plate had been removed from the car's dashboard, but police retrieved the VIN from the bottom of its engine block. That led investigators to the SUV's registered owner, and then to the person who had purchased the vehicle. Law enforcement officials tracked Shahzad by recovering his telephone number from the cell phone of the female college student who sold him the Pathfinder, and running it through a number of databases. They also traced his e-mail address from an email that he had sent to the seller’s computer. A review of his phone call records raised investigators' concerns that he was acting in concert with people overseas.

Its license plates did not match its registration, and had apparently been taken from a Ford F-150 pickup truck awaiting repair at a Stratford, Connecticut, garage. The registered owner of the plates was contacted, and according to law enforcement sources did not appear to be involved in the incident. E-ZPass and other camera records at toll plazas are being reviewed in an effort to identify where the vehicle entered Manhattan.

Law enforcement officials were reviewing security camera footage from 82 city cameras mounted from 34th Street to 51st Street, between Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue, and from business and tourist cameras for additional information.

Investigators also were examining international phone records showing calls "between some of the people who might be associated with this and folks overseas," according to a U.S. official.

The police are looking for a balding white male with dark hair in his 40s who was seen on surveillance footage, changing his shirt in Shubert Alley and looking over his shoulder at least twice near where the vehicle was parked. Investigators were also looking for another person captured on video running north on Broadway, away from the area.

Kelly confirmed the possibility of lone-wolf terrorism, saying: "A terrorist act doesn't necessarily have to be conducted by an organization, an individual can do it on their own." The police are also investigating whether the bomb was planted in response to a depiction of the prophet Muhammad in the episode "200" of the animated sitcom South Park, because the vehicle was parked near the corporate headquarters of Viacom in 1 Astor Plaza. The company owns the Comedy Central channel which airs the show. Investigators are looking at similarities between the Times Square device and the two devices discovered outside London's Tiger Tiger nightclub and in Cockspur Street in the failed bombing attempt of 2007, which were believed to be linked to Iraq. New York Police Department spokesman Paul Brown said, "You can find similarities among different attacks, but there is nothing that we have at this point that has established that link." New York Mayor Bloomberg said, "So far, there is no evidence that any of this has anything to do with one of the recognized terrorist organizations."

Senior Obama administration officials said a flood of international and domestic clues suggested a plot involving more than one person. An FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Force took over the investigation on May 3 as indications of a possible international connection increased. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Joint Terrorism Task Force provided assistance to the NYPD.

Arrests

Faisal Shahzad

Main article: Faisal Shahzad

On May 3, federal authorities announced that they had identified a person of interest in the attack. At 11:45 p.m. EDT, Customs and Border Protection agents arrested 30-year-old Faisal Shahzad. Shahzad was taken into custody at John F. Kennedy International Airport, as he was on board Emirate Airlines Flight 202 to Dubai which had pulled away from the gate and was taxiing towards the runway, before it was instructed to return. His final destination was Islamabad, Pakistan.

He is a naturalized U.S. citizen, born in either Karachi or Kashmir, Pakistan. He has a Karachi identification card, a document which reflects Pakistani residency, and his family is from northwestern Pakistan, according to Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik.

In December 1998 he was granted a U.S. F-1 student visa at age 19. He studied at Southeastern University in Washington, D.C., and then transferred in 2000 to the University of Bridgeport, where he received a B.A. in computer science and engineering. In April 2002 he was granted an H1-B visa for skilled workers. He remained in the U.S. for three years on that visa, earning an M.B.A at the University of Bridgeport in the summer of 2005. He was granted a green card in January 2006.

He worked for about three years, up until June 2009 when he quit, as a junior financial analyst in the Norwalk, Connecticut office of the Affinion Group, a marketing and consulting company.

Shahzad lived in Shelton, Connecticut, just outside Bridgeport for about three years until he defaulted on a $218,400 mortgage, was sued by the bank in September 2009, and the bank foreclosed on his home. On October 20, 2008, he reported his marriage to Huma Asif Mian, an American citizen. He became a U.S. citizen on April 17, 2009. Shahzad moved out around May 2009, with his wife following about a month later. A neighbor said that he and his wife spoke limited English, and had two young children, a girl and a boy.

In addition to traveling to Pakistan regularly, "Shahzad has been visiting Middle Eastern countries," according to Pakistan's Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Shahzad had traveled to Dubai before, most recently on June 2, 2009, on an Emirates flight. On July 3, 2009, he reportedly traveled to Pakistan and is believed to have visited Peshawar, a gateway to the militant-occupied tribal regions of Pakistan, and stayed there from July 7 to July 22.

While in Pakistan, he said he trained, including explosives training, at a terrorist training camp in Waziristan, according to U.S. officials. He spent five months in Pakistan, where his wife is now living.

He returned to the U.S. on February 3, 2010, on an Emirates flight from Dubai. Shahzad is believed to have bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder on April 24, a week prior to the attempted bombing. The vehicle had been listed in an online Craigslist ad, and he reportedly bought it from a female Connecticut college student for $1,300, which he paid in $100 bills. He reportedly paid the money and was given the car at a Connecticut shopping center parking lot, without any formal paperwork being exchanged. He had the windows tinted, which made it harder to peer inside.

Shahzad was expected to be transported to Manhattan's Metropolitan Correctional Center. He will appear in Manhattan federal court on May 4 to be formally charged. Shahzad will face terrorism and weapons of mass destruction charges, Attorney General Holder said. "Based on what we know so far, it is clear that this was a terrorist plot aimed at murdering Americans in one of the busiest places in our country," he added.

The FBI and NYPD searched Shahzad's Bridgeport, Connecticut, home on May 4, at Sheridan Street and Boston Avenue, removing filled plastic bags. Materials related to the bomb were found in his apartment, including boxes that had contained the alarm clocks, and his car at the airport had a 9mm handgun with five full magazines of ammunition, according to law enforcement officials.

Attorney General Eric Holder said that Shazad has admitted involvement in the incident and that the bombing attempt "was a terrorist plot," and is providing useful information.

Others

Pakistani authorities arrested a number of suspects in the investigation of the attempted car bombing, including two or three people at a house in Karachi's Nazimabad district where Shahzad is said to have stayed. Pakistani intelligence officials said a man named Tauseef, who was a friend of Shahzad, was detained in Karachi in connection with the case. Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat, said Pakistani officials arrested “alleged facilitators” as part of a “far broader investigation.”

Reaction

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly were in Washington, D.C., to attend the 2010 White House Correspondents' Dinner, but returned immediately to New York after they were informed of the incident.

Attorney General Eric Holder called it a "terrorist act". White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, similarly, said "Anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that was intended to terrorize, absolutely. And I would say that whoever did that would be categorized as a terrorist, yes."

President Barack Obama was briefed on the incident, and promised federal assistance in the investigation. On May 4 he called the bomb attempt a "sobering reminder of the times in which we live" and said that Americans "will not cower in fear" as a result of it.

Mayor Bloomberg warned against retribution, saying, "We will not tolerate any bias or any backlash against Muslim New Yorkers." Commissioner Kelly said that to terrorists, "New York is America, and they want to come back to kill us."

Claims of responsibility

According to a report by the Associated Press, a Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility for an attack against the United States in a video posted on YouTube, saying the attack was revenge for the killing of Baitullah Mehsud and the top leaders of al-Qaida in Iraq — Abu Omar al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri — as well as for general American "interference and terrorism in Muslim Countries, especially in Pakistan." However, "The tape makes no specific reference to the attack; it does not mention that it was a car bomb or that it took place in New York City". According to the New York Times and the New York Daily News, the same group has made far-fetched, false claims for other attacks in the past. Several other groups have claimed responsibility, with no evidence or verified data. Al Jazeera said Pakistani Taliban sources denied being involved.