53

So I've been following the forensic trail the FBI used to eventually capture the failed Times Square bomber. I know the show 24 is immensely popular but if they could have broadcast the 53 hours it took to find Faisal Shahzad from the smoking Nissan to the smoking gun would have been the best piece of reality TV since the OJ chase.
Looking over the Times article over the way the case broke open would have been better than American Idol and the British Office combined.
After the original threat was called in by some vendor selling 'I Love NY' tshirts, it took the NYPD and FBI some 8 hours to disarm the car. After they disarmed it the FBI found the hidden VIN # on the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder on the axel of the car at some forensic lab. From there they found the original owner who recently sold it to a guy of "middle eastern or hispanic" dissent whose name she didn't know. The transaction of the Pathfinder happened in a parking lot, in $1300 cash after they negotiated down from the original $1800 asking price without a bill of sale. Although she didn't know his name and there was no paper-trail, investigators were able to trace the prepaid cell-phone he used to call her had been used a number of times for calls from Pakistan as well as having been used in Pennsylvania near a place that sold fireworks, the type which were meant to ignite the fertilizer stowed in the back of the rusty SUV. They then somehow got a sketch from the seller of the SUV of the buyer and used that to get to some apartment in Bridgeport CT. Once they got there the landlord told investigators that on Sunday his tenant called him from the train out of NYC saying he had lost his keys.

Back in NYC there were surveillance tapes showing the car pulling into the city, a guy walking away from the car and changing into a red shirt and they were investigating which entry way the car used to get into the city using license-plate recognition software.

I can't even imagine what it took to pull all these leads together although while under surveillance the FBI lost his scent for a while as he drove himself to JFK, buying a one way ticket in cash and boarded a flight to Dubai before he was apprehended just as the plane was ready to take-off. With some technicality were able to question him without reading him his Miranda rights and get what Attorney General Eric Holder said was valuable information.

Now obviously this is a mouthful but the few things I noticed that should have gotten some people's ears up included

- I'm not into racial profiling but when a Pakistani guy buys a one way ticket to Dubai in cash at the last minute it maybe time to do a cursory check to make sure he wasn't on America's Most Wanted last night.

- how does an idling car sit for even 5 minutes unnoticed in Times Square. I have had the try to tow me as I sat waiting for a red light to switch.

- how much does a one-way ticket to Dubai cost last minute, can you negotiate it at the counter? I mean they aren't going to sell the ticket anyway, maybe you can get a deal?

- who the hell still buys those I Heart NY tshirts?

- with all these cameras everywhere picking up every movement somebody makes, I gotta stop picking my nose and scratching myself in public.

Then of course I have a question of motive.

The initial suspicion being that this was some retaliation against South Park which had recently had a few episodes mocking the reaction to those Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad, we live in a sad world when some poorly drawn cartoon on Comedy Central can get some radical Islamic extremist to try to blow up a bunch of fanny-pack wearing tourists in the name of his peaceful religion. First of all those two guys that draw South Park probably don't work in Times Square location and chances of them being there on a Sunday evening is slim to non. Plus you gotta have bigger fish to fry than the guy's who end every episode with Kenny's Dead.

RANT/ It would be nice if at some point people stop being so damned sensitive about themselves and it might be time for the legitimate leadership to stop sitting idly on their hands and start calling these lunatics out for this crap. /END RANT

But what the hell do I know but maybe Mr. Shahzad who had recently lost his house to foreclosure was pissed that main-street wasn't getting the handouts wall-street was, maybe he was pissed at those guys handing out the fliers for $10 haircuts or he was protesting Bloomberg's conversion of Times Square into a pedestrian walkway or maybe he was trying to plant tomato plants in his truck using propane and then setting off some fireworks to celebrate Golden Week..

The other though I had was what a loser this guy must feel like after he lugs 250 pounds of fertilizer into an old SUV without realizing that his fertilizer is not the bomb-making type. I get annoyed if I forget to put my newspaper subscription on hold when I head out of town, I gotta imagine this dude was furious with himself as he was driving down to JFK knowing he bought the generic tomato growing type.

But my main thought the entire time is- who the hell would ever consider paying $1800 for a 1993 rusted out Nissan Pathfinder with a bad chassis? This in itself should have prompted officials to know something was rotten in Denmark.
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