Don't fuck with the NYPD

William Rashbau, Peter Baker, and Michael Wilson have a story in The New York Times about the SUV bomber:

Police and FBI investigators have interviewed the owner of the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder found loaded with explosives and rigged to blow up in Times Square, but do not consider that person to be a suspect in the case.
Nonetheless, the provenance of the Pathfinder, tracked down by vehicle identification numbers stamped on its engine block and axle, represents a significant advancement in the investigation, the authorities said. The Pathfinder had not been reported stolen.
Another major prong in the investigation— studying surveillance video from dozens of city cameras and unknown numbers of business and tourist cameras recorded Saturday night, when the SUV was found on West 45th Street— continued on Monday. The police planned to release footage of a man running north on Broadway at the time that a fire broke out in the Pathfinder, according to Raymond W. Kelly, the New York City police commissioner. “It happened just around the time that the fire starts, or the popping starts in the car,” he said on CNN.
It is unclear whether the running man is the same one previously identified as a person of interest in the case, a white man who appeared to be in his 40s walking away from the area through Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets, as he looked at least twice over his shoulder and pulled off a shirt, revealing a red tee-shirt underneath. Mr. Kelly said the police wanted to speak to that man, but acknowledged that he might be innocent. “He was taking his shirt off, but it was a warm day,” he said. “But this happened just around the time that the pops start to go off inside the car.”
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. seemed optimistic in comments he made Monday morning. “I think that we have made really substantial progress,” Mr. Holder told reporters in Washington. “We have some good leads.”
The contents of the Pathfinder— a tidy arsenal every bit as dangerous as it appeared to be amateurish in its design and execution— included gasoline, fireworks, analog alarm clocks, and propane tanks, the police said. Eight bags of fertilizer found inside a metal gun locker were not explosive, the police said, and the fuse on the bomb appears to have ignited part of the vehicle’s interior, drawing the attention of two street vendors, who alerted a mounted police officer.
Had the bomb exploded, it “would have caused casualties, a significant fireball,” said Mr. Kelly.
The materials will be sent to the FBI’s laboratory in Quantico, Virginia for analysis, Mr. Kelly said in an interview with WCBS Radio. “They’ve got the top laboratory in the world to do these sorts of examinations, and we’ll keep some samples here,” he said.
Speaking on the Today show, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, like Mr. Kelly, cautioned, “The person on the tape may not become a suspect. There are millions of people that come through Times Square,” the mayor said. “This person happened to be in a position which a camera got a good shot of him, and maybe he had something to do with it, but there’s a very good chance that he did not. We’re exploring a lot of leads.”
Also on Today, Janet Napolitano, the Secretary of Homeland Security, said it was premature to label any person or group as suspect. “Right now, every lead has to be pursued,” she said. “I caution against premature decisions one way or the other.”
Authorities continued their efforts to determine whether overseas terrorists were behind the failed bombing. The White House condemned the attempt as an act of terrorism, but stopped short of labeling it domestic or foreign. “I think anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that that was intended to terrorize, absolutely,” said Robert Gibbs, a spokesman. Federal and local officials have said there is no evidence to support a claim of responsibility issued by a Pakistani Taliban group.
While the authorities said they were treating the failed bombing, described as a “one-off” by Ms. Napolitano, as a potential terrorist attack, they said there was no evidence of a continued threat to the city.
Additional patrols are in place in Midtown, Mr. Kelly said, but no significant increase in the city’s police presence is planned. Detectives conducted what is known as a “24-hour canvass” on Sunday night and Monday morning. The police also planned to visit nearby businesses that were closed over the weekend to review footage from their cameras.
Although thousands of tourists and theatergoers were evacuated on Saturday after the Nissan was found, all Broadway shows ran as scheduled on Sunday.
The street vendors had flagged down a mounted police officer after they noticed smoke coming from the Pathfinder, which had been parked haphazardly at the curb with its engine running and its flashers on. The area was cleared so the police could examine the sport utility vehicle, which was first seen on video surveillance cameras at 6:28 p.m., heading west on West 45th Street. The Pathfinder was brought to a forensics center in Jamaica, Queens, where investigators were scouring it for DNA evidence and hairs, fibers, and fingerprints. No fingerprints had been found as of Sunday night, officials said. FBI agents and detectives from the Joint Terrorist Task Force were also trying to determine where the three canisters of propane and two red plastic five-gallon containers of gasoline in the Pathfinder had been purchased.
The gun locker, which weighed about 75 pounds empty and upward of 200 pounds with the eight bags of fertilizer in it, could provide important clues because it can probably be more easily traced than many of the other items found in the SUV. “There are lots of different fertilizers that are out there,” Mr. Kelly said, emphasizing that this particular fertilizer did not appear to be explosive. The weight of the locker and the material inside raised questions as to whether it might have required more than one person to load it into the vehicle.
Federal agents and police detectives arrested a Connecticut man, a naturalized United States citizen from Pakistan, early Tuesday in connection with the failed Times Square car bombing, according to people briefed on the investigation. The man, Faisal Shahzad, was believed to have recently bought the 1993 Nissan Pathfinder that was found loaded with gasoline, propane, fireworks, and fertilizer in the heart of Times Square. Mr. Shahzad was taken into custody at Kennedy Airport, apparently trying to flee. Charges against Mr. Shahzad, who had returned recently from a trip to Pakistan, were not announced. The authorities began focusing on him after they tracked the vehicle to its previously registered owner in Bridgeport, Connecticut, who had advertised it for sale on several Web sites. Shahzad paid in cash, and the sale was handled without any formal paperwork. The former owner told investigators that it appeared the buyer was of Middle Eastern or Hispanic descent, but could not recall his name. It was unclear how agents from the Joint Terrorist Task Force identified him. Federal authorities provided few details on Monday night about the arrest, the suspect or the scope of any conspiracy in the failed attack. The authorities have been exploring whether the man, or others who might have been involved in the attempted bombing, had been in contact with people or groups overseas, according to Federal officials.
The investigation was shifted to the control of the international terrorism branch of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multiagency group led by the Justice Department, according to two Federal officials. Officials cautioned that the investigation of possible international contacts did not mean there was a connection to a known terrorist group, but they said they were exploring all possibilities. “It’s a prominent lead that they’re following, the international association,” said a senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a continuing investigation. “But there’s still a lot of information being gathered.”
Prior to the arrest, there was a sweeping response to the attempted attack in the tourist-packed city-within-a-city of Times Square— including an increased police presence, vehicle inspections, and a touch of panic from veteran New Yorkers when a manhole fire flared five blocks from the scene of the failed bombing. Consolidated Edison blamed faulty wiring for the fire.
The recent sale of the Pathfinder began online. An advertisement that appears to be for the vehicle, which had 141,000 miles on the odometer and was listed for sale at $1,300 on at least two Web sites, emphasized that it was in good condition— “Clean inside and out!”— with a recently repaired alternator and a new gas pump, distributor, and front tires. “It does have some rust as you can see in the picture,” the seller allowed on NothingButCars.net, “but other than that, it runs great.” The other advertisement appeared on Craigslist.
In Bridgeport, the seller refused to answer questions. “You can’t interview her,” said an unidentified man at the woman’s two-story, white clapboard house. “She already talked to the FBI.”
The police continued sifting through footage from 82 city cameras, mounted from 34th Street to 51st Street between Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue, and from untold number of business and tourist cameras. But investigators appeared to have begun to assign less significance to a man who appeared to be in his 40s who was seen on one video, and it may well be because they were close to arresting the Connecticut man. The man in the video was seen walking away from the area where the Pathfinder was parked and through Shubert Alley, which runs between 44th and 45th Streets. He looked over his shoulder at least twice and pulled off a shirt, revealing a red tee-shirt underneath. The New York police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, said investigators still wanted to speak to that man, but acknowledged that he might not be connected to the failed bombing. Paul J. Browne, the department’s top spokesman, said the police had stopped looking for additional video in the area that might have tracked the man’s movements. “It may turn out that he was just somebody in the area, but not connected with the car bomb,” Mr. Browne said. Before the arrest occurred, the police had said they might release footage of a man running north on Broadway at the time that a fire broke out in the Pathfinder.
Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. seemed optimistic in comments he made Monday morning. “I think that we have made really substantial progress,” he told reporters in Washington. “We have some good leads.”
The materials found in the Pathfinder were to be sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s laboratory in Quantico, Virginia for analysis, the police said. Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, said on the Today show that it was premature to label any person or group as suspect. “Right now, every lead has to be pursued,” she said. “I caution against premature decisions one way or the other.” But the White House made clear that it considered the effort an act of terrorism, whoever its authors were. “I think anybody that has the type of material that they had in a car in Times Square, I would say that that was intended to terrorize, absolutely,” said the White House spokesman, Robert Gibbs.