NYC Bombing attempt..

We could also try stopping men that are running from smoking vehicles...

Close outside the Viacom HQ, apparently. They own Comedy Central.

As MeanMan said, pparently there was a gun cabinet full of fertilizer.  Now, I'm not a demolitions expert or anything, but I wold have gone with something, I dunno, less jury-rigged?

Perhaps that's the difference between myself and would-be-terrorists.

In b4 somebody turns this political.

I shudder at the thought of a van packed full of c4 exploding in the middle of times square... Though that would be hard to get a hold of. They did that cement truck on mythbusters full of c4 and look at what that did.

/random thought

SSOK wrote:   Solution to problem: no parking in or near times square. Thoughts?

a lot of cities in europe don't allow parking in or near the center of the city. of course it was originally designed like that so it would be a nice place to walk around, but its basically two fold in this case.

as for getting a van full of C4, all you need is a nut with the anarchist cookbook or a disgruntled, seasoned, army engineer (preferably sapper) and poof, you can make as much C4 as you want.

Enos Shenk wrote: There must be a lot of conflicting reports about this. What I saw on the news said it was a bucket of fireworks stuck between 2 gasoline cans, with 2 propane tanks in the back of the truck. This really is janky, propane tanks have burst discs just like paintball tanks, the things would just depressurize if overheated instead of a rupture and explosion. You'd get a hell of fire, but no explosion.

Yeah, as mod98 said, it was both.

I can't imagine the propane tanks would be all that dangerous.  I'm sure the fragmentation from a real ANFO bomb would cause a ton of injuries in Times Square, but since they apparently weren't bright enough to rig that either, well, thank God for stupid terrorists.

Unless I'm missing something, I don't see how this kind of thing can really be stopped.  There's really no way to prevent people from driving through Manhattan, it would kill New York (although perhaps it would simply lead to a greater amount of public transportation, which might be good).  The only thing that will help prevent this is first, keeping people from developing the knowledge to effectively create a bomb, and second, to keep some seriously close tabs on the people who might use these weapons.  I just don't see how it's more likely, rather than less likely, that someone will slip through the cracks in that system.

Of course some silly laws won't help, but that won't stop them from passing them FOR TEH CHILDREN. Never underestimate the politicians love of fear.

GI JOES SON wrote: seems like the best way to combat this would be to up the number of K9 units to sniff out bomb making materials and the like. i think the training put into it would be well worth it.

I don't think that would be a particularly viable solution.  It would mean stopping literally hundreds of thousands of cars a day so dogs could check them out.

They city is planning on having sniffers within it's downtown security network.

I guess I should have mentioned  this: I don't know what the difference in actual effectiveness of these two systems would be.  I have the feeling that part of stopping cars and subjecting them to a dog's inspection will make that method a lot better, but it's not exactly a subject I'm an expert on.

I'm not a huge fan of Big Brother, but I think I can live with it in Manhattan, to be honest.  I'm sure I'd be far less psyched if I lived there, but, I don't.  I prefer not to be bombed while I'm going to a Broadway show and Tony D'napoli's.


Edited by ParielIsBack - 03 May 2010 at 2:46am

The problem is if you know what you are doing, there needs to be very little "official" involvement in procuring the explosives, boosters and accelerators.

This one sounds horribly jury rigged but then you always have to start somewhere. If they don't catch you before you get above the learning curve, bad things could happen.

They monitor things like hydrogen sales because it is very useful as a booster. With the right equipment and a tap you get hydrogen. You can bake explosives. You can get or make fertilizer.

Bombs don't always have to be squibs.

KBK