NYPD: Video has possible SUV bomb suspect in alley

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http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_times_square_car_bomb

NYPD: Video has possible SUV bomb suspect in alley

By TOM HAYS and DEEPTI HAJELA, Associated Press Writers Tom Hays And Deepti

Hajela, Associated Press Writers – 21 mins ago

NEW YORK – Police investigating a terror attack that could have set off a deadly

fireball in Times Square focused Sunday on finding a man who was videotaped

shedding his shirt near the SUV where the bomb was found.

Police said the gasoline-and-propane bomb was crude but could have sprayed

shrapnel and metal parts with enough force to kill pedestrians and knock out

windows on one of America's busiest streets, full of Broadway theaters and

restaurants on a Saturday night.

The bomb " looks like it would have caused a significant fireball " had it fully

detonated, police Commissioner Ray said.

A large amount of fertilizer rigged with wires and fireworks was found with the

bomb, but police said it was not the ammonium nitrate grade that can explode.

The surveillance video shows an unidentified white man apparently in his 40s

slipping down an alley and taking off a shirt, revealing another underneath. In

the same clip, he's seen looking back in the direction of the smoking vehicle

and furtively putting the first shirt in a bag, said.

The homemade bomb was made largely with ordinary items, including three barbecue

grill-size propane tanks, two 5-gallon gasoline containers, store-bought

fireworks and cheap alarm clocks attached to wires.

" The intent of whoever did this to cause mayhem, create casualties, " said.

Authorities didn't know how deadly the bomb could have been, how it failed or

who was responsible.

Police had already identified the registered owner of the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder

— which didn't have an easily visible vehicle identification number and had

license plates from another car — and were looking to interview him. Police also

were searching more video, believed to be in the possession of a Pennsylvania

tourist, of a person spotted near the car.

The bomb at Times Square, one of the flashiest and best-known places on Earth,

was found at the height of dinner hour before theatergoers headed to Saturday

night shows.

Timers were connected to a 16-ounce can filled with fireworks, which were

apparently intended to set the gas cans and propane afire, said. The

vehicle would have been " cut in half " by an explosion, and people nearby could

have been sprayed by shrapnel and killed, he said.

Police had feared that another component — a metal rifle cabinet packed a

fertilizer-like substance and rigged with wires and more fireworks — could have

made the device even more devastating. Test results late Sunday showed that it

was indeed fertilizer — but the New York Police Department's bomb experts

believe it was not a type volatile enough to explode like the ammonium nitrate

grade fertilizer used in previous terror attacks, said police spokesman

Browne.

The exact amount of fertilizer was unknown. Police estimated the cabinet — with

a manufacturer-listed weight of 78 pounds — weighed 200 to 250 pounds when they

pulled it from the vehicle.

New York's busiest streets, choked with taxis and people on one of the first

summer-like days of the year, were shut down for 10 hours, unnerving thousands

of tourists attending Broadway show, museums and other city sights. Detectives

took the stage at the end of some shows to announce to theatergoers that they

were looking for witnesses in a bombing attempt.

" No more New York, " said Crysta Salinas. The 28-year-old Houston woman was stuck

waiting in a deli until 2 a.m. because part of a Marriott hotel was evacuated

because of the bomb.

A Pakistani Taliban group claimed responsibility for the failed attack in a

1-minute video. and Mayor Bloomberg, however, said police have no

evidence to support the claims, and noted that the same group had falsely taken

credit for previous attacks on U.S. soil. The commissioner also cast doubt on an

e-mail to a news outlet claiming responsibility.

Bloomberg noted that the investigation was in its early stages but said, " So

far, there is no evidence that any of this has anything to do with one of the

recognized terrorist organizations. "

The NYPD and FBI were also examining " hundreds of hours " of security videotape

from around Times Square, said.

Police released a photograph of the dark-colored SUV as it crossed an

intersection at 6:28 p.m. Saturday. A vendor pointed the SUV out to an officer

about two minutes later.

The license plate found on the vehicle did not belong to the SUV; police said it

came from a car found in a repair shop in Connecticut.

Duane , a 58-year-old handbag vendor from Buchanan, N.Y., said he noticed

the car and wondered who had left it there in a no-standing zone.

said he looked in the car and saw keys in the ignition with 19 or 20

keys on a ring. He said he alerted a passing mounted police officer.

They were looking in the car " when the smoke started coming out and then we

heard the little pop-pop-pop like firecrackers going out and that's when

everybody scattered and ran back, " he said.

" Now that I saw the propane tanks and the gasoline, what if that would have

ignited? " said. " I'm less than 8 feet away from the car. "

Times Square lies about four miles north of where terrorists bombed the World

Trade Center in 1993, then destroyed it on Sept. 11, 2001.

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility in a video posted on the Internet

on Sunday, according to the SITE Intelligence Group. SITE, a U.S.-based

terrorist tracking organization, first uncovered the video on YouTube; it later

appeared to have been removed from the website.

In a copy of the video provided by SITE, an unidentified voice speaking in Urdu,

the primary language in Pakistan, says the group takes " full responsibility for

the recent attack in the USA. " The video does not mention any details about

Saturday's attack.

The militant group said the attack was revenge for the death of its leader,

Baitullah Mehsud, and the recent slaying of al-Qaida in Iraq leaders Abu

al-Baghdadi and Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who were killed by U.S. and Iraqi troops

last month north of Baghdad. The video also mentioned Aafia Siddiqui, a

Pakistani scientist who was convicted in a U.S. court in New York in February of

trying to kill American service personnel after her arrest in Afghanistan in

2008.

If the claim is genuine, it would be the first time the Pakistani Taliban has

struck outside South Asia. It has no known global infrastructure like al-Qaida.

In at least one past instance, the Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility

for an attack it played no role in. Mehsud reportedly said his men were behind a

mass shooting in March 2009 at the American Civic Association in Binghamton,

N.Y., in April 2009. That claim turned out to be false.

The last terror threat in New York came last fall when air shuttle driver

Najibullah Zazi admitted to a foiled homemade bomb plot aimed at the city subway

system.

The theater district in London was the target of a propane bomb attack in 2007.

No one was injured when police discovered two vehicles loaded with nails packed

around canisters of propane and gasoline.

___

Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Cristian Salazar,

Kuchwara and Peltz and AP Radio correspondent in

New York, AP Washington bureau chief Ron Fournier and AP writers Eileen

Sullivan, Pete Yost and Dozier in Washington, Colleen Long in North

Carolina, H. Reid in Kabul and Lucas in Cairo.