In Times Square Blast, Echoes of Earlier Bombings
By AL BAKER
Published: March 7, 2008
The British Consulate in 2005. The Mexican Consulate last year. And on Thursday, the Times Square military recruiting station.
Three bombings with similar devices at three high-profile locations in Manhattan, each occurring at nearly the same time of day, in the predawn hours; each inflicting little damage; none injuring people.
And in each case, someone — most likely a man — seen pedaling away on a bicycle with a hooded jacket or sweatshirt hiding his face.
These are the similarities that police detectives and federal agents are exploring as they investigate whether these blasts, so seemingly similar, were the work of the same person or group, and what the motive was.
Law enforcement officials stopped short on Thursday of definitively linking the explosions — or of trying to divine the significance of the latest, most visible target: the island at the center of the pinball-game brightness of Times Square.
“The fact of the matter is that all three incidents happened within a 30-minute span, a 25-minute span,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said at a news conference at 1 Police Plaza, where he played a video surveillance tape that showed the blast occurring at 3:40:43, although he said police believed it was closer to 3:43. The May 5, 2005 bombing at the British Consulate occurred at 3:55 a.m.; the bombing last year at the Mexican Consulate was at 3:40 a.m. on Oct. 26.
The device used on Thursday was “roughly similar” to those in the two earlier bombings, Mr. Kelly said. No one has directly claimed responsibility for the explosions, another similarity.
Late Thursday, investigators analyzed letters received by members of Congress with pictures taken before the blast of someone in front of the recruiting station with the words “We did it. Happy New Year.” As the night wore on, investigators increasingly believed the letters had no connection to the bombing, but were probably a strange coincidence, one official said.
The bombings in 2005 and last year involved two devices each, each packed with black gunpowder. One was modeled after the “lemon” type of grenade used in the Vietnam War, the other was scored like the rough “pineapple” grenade used during World War II. This time, the explosives were packed in a metal ammunition box, the kind that can be bought at a military surplus store. The authorities have yet to determine whether the explosive was black gunpowder.
“I read an intelligence briefing this morning that there is a pattern of similarity in the modus operandi, specifically the delivery of the improvised explosive devices to the target,” said Kevin B. Barry, who retired in 2002 as a detective in the New York Police Department’s Bomb Squad and is now an official with the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators.
“The question now is: Are the forensics similar in nature? Are they able to link the three together in any way?” he said. “And, will they declare it a serial bomber if they link the three I.E.D. components forensically?”
The Times Square blast drew the attention of the national news media, the involvement of the FBI and comments from presidential candidates. Experts tried to glean motives from the similarities.
“What you have here is a very frustrated individual, someone who is trying to send a message, but it is a very confused message,” said Ray Pierce, a retired New York City detective who now works as a criminal profiler.
The use of a bicycle, the early-morning hours of the attacks and the improvised nature of the devices, as well as the low-grade or low-velocity explosive, suggest the perpetrator might be a young person who is more focused on sending a message than hurting anyone, Mr. Pierce added.
He said that if the letters that surfaced in Washington were found to be from the individual or group behind the explosion on Thursday, “it’s positive,” because it is a less violent way of communicating than setting off bombs.
“The more dialogue, the higher the probability this could be resolved without further violence,” he said. In light of the letters, Mr. Pierce said, officials should encourage the person to open a dialogue by anonymously writing or calling.
The bombing at the British Consulate, at 845 Third Avenue between 51st and 52nd Streets, occurred on an election day in Britain. The one outside the Mexican Consulate, at 27 East 39th Street near Madison Avenue, came on the first anniversary of the fatal shooting of Bradley Roland Will, 36, a journalist from New York who often traveled to Latin America to chronicle little-known disputes.
And the explosion on Thursday occurred on the 38th anniversary of the day when three members of the revolutionary group Weather Underground accidentally blew themselves up in their town house in Greenwich Village while making bombs. The significance of these dates, if any, is unknown.
People move in ways they are comfortable with, even when carrying out violence, analysts said. Police officers, for example, often use guns to commit suicide, because that is familiar.
“He feels comfortable on the bicycle,” Mr. Pierce said of the bomber, suggesting the person could be a bike messenger.
Several analysts said that the forensics of an explosive device can tell investigators much about what they are dealing with. Bombers tend to have signatures.
Mr. Barry described the components of a bomb that investigators “will be looking for.” He said they are: a power source, such as an AA battery or a fuse; an initiator, like the fuse itself or a cellphone or a timing device; an explosive; and a switch.
Another prime piece of forensic evidence would be the ammunition box fashioned into the bomb and any remnants of it.
In this case it was a metal box used for banded machine gun bullets, the authorities said. Mr. Barry said such a device would easily fall apart.
“They will pick up every scrap they can find,” Mr. Barry said. “They might be able to get powder, they might be able to get a fingerprint and they might be able to get DNA, from sweat, for instance, and they might be able to make a match with any of those other two devices.”
Mark J. Mershon, the assistant F.B.I. director who heads the bureau’s New York office, said the physical evidence would be taken to the agency’s laboratory in Quantico, Va., for analysis, where evidence from the bombings in 2005 and 2007 were also sent.
