This CCTV footage shows the Nissan Pathfinder (left) which carried the bomb shortly before it was abandoned
Daniel Bates
The Daily Mail [UK]
3 May 2010
U.S. police are preparing to release a videotape showing a second suspect at the scene of the failed Times Square car-bombing, it was revealed today.
The video, which was taken by a tourist, shows a man running nearby at the time of the incident.
The news comes after CCTV images of a balding white man, in his 40s, putting down his rucksack near the New York landmark before taking off his shirt to reveal a red T-shirt and walking off, were released…
… Meanwhile fears are growing that the failed attack may have been part of an international plot after The Washington Post quoted a U.S. official who, recounting a conversation with intelligence officials, said, “Don’t be surprised if you find a foreign nexus … They’re looking at some tell-tale signs and they’re saying it’s pointing in that direction.” However officials have cautioned that even if the investigation points toward an international link, rather than domestic or anti-government organisations, it does not mean al-Qaeda or a similar group was involved…
…One theory still being looked into is that the bomb was in response to an episode of the controversial cartoon South Park, which mocked the Prophet Muhammad.
Another is that the Taliban did it – yesterday a new video supposedly filmed in early April surfaced showing bragging Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud, who was thought to have been killed in a U.S. airstrike.
He is seen standing next to a map of the United States, with explosions marked in three locations, but the map was not detailed enough to identify the targets…
…In 2007 a Mercedes packed with an ‘Iraqi-style’ bomb was parked outside the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Leicester Square in central London, close to many West End shows.
Like the New York bomb, it was homemade with propane gas and petrol and designed to be set off by timers in a packed public place.
The complete article, with video and additional photos, is at the Daily Mail.
Also at the Daily Mail, Vendor hailed a hero:
Duane Jackson sets up his sales stand while talking to reporters in Times Square in New York, Sunday, 2 May 2010.
Street vendor Lance Orton, a Vietnam veteran, is being hailed a hero after telling mounted policeman Wayne Rhatigan about the Nissan.
Several other vendors on that street corner also spotted the car and said they scrambled to tell the police.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg praised Orton and Rhatigan on Sunday and had dinner with Rhatigan in Times Square. Orton – who was reluctant to speak to the media — had been unable to join them, Bloomberg said.
Duane Jackson (pictured), another Vietnam vet who said he helped alert police, was back selling handbags and T-shirts across the road from where the vehicle carrying the bomb had been parked.
‘There are a bunch of us disabled vets selling here, and we’re used to being vigilant because we all know that freedom isn’t free,’ Jackson, 58, told The New York Times. ‘All of us vets here are the eyes and ears for the cops.’
