Explosion at Times Square Army recruiting office (Wizbang)

No injuries reported, according to Emily Chasan and Walker Simon for Reuters:

A small explosion damaged a U.S. military recruiting station but caused no injuries in New York's Times Square before dawn on Thursday, triggering a Pentagon alert for other stations across the country.

"We're treating it as if it were an incident of vandalism," Army spokesman Paul Boyce said at the Pentagon.

Times Square -- the normally bustling "Crossroads of the World" with shops, restaurants, hotels, theaters and office towers -- was largely empty when the crude bomb went off at around 3:45 a.m. (0845 GMT).

Low-grade explosives packed in an ammunition box cracked the recruiting station's thick glass door and twisted its metal framing, police said. The blast also shattered a window encasing the classic poster of Uncle Sam saying "I Want You."

The full story is at the link above. A video camera may have captured the bomber's image, reports Tom Hays for AP:

The video shows the bicyclist getting off a bike at 3:40 a.m. Thursday and walking toward the building. A minute or so later, the person returned to the bike and rode away. A brief flash and a cloud of white smoke follows.

A bike, believed used in the crime, was later found in the trash on West 38th Street, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.

I hope they catch the scum.

In an unrelated bomb case, a UC-Davis student has been arrested with bomb materials in his dorm room.

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Comments (5)

If there is a connection, t... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by mantis | March 6, 2008 5:56 PM | Score: -1 (1 votes cast)

mantis:

If there is a connection, this is weird,

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly showed reporters a security camera video of the blast and said police were looking into similarities to small explosions at the British and Mexican consulates in 2005 and 2007, also in the early morning hours.
...

In May 2005, the British consulate in New York was attacked by two small pre-dawn blasts from two "novelty" grenades in the shape of a pineapple and a lemon. Last October, the same types of grenades were used in blasts at the Mexican consulate.

In both incidents, a man was seen fleeing on a bicycle.

Kelly said he could not definitively say Thursday's blast was linked to the two consulate attacks but it was "certainly a possibility" given the similarity in the time of day, sighting of a person on a bicycle and size of the blasts.

The Mexican and British consulates, and an army recruiting station? What could the connection between those three be?

Posted on March 6, 2008 17:56

I suspect, mantis, that thi... (Below threshold)

2. Posted by epador | March 6, 2008 10:31 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

epador:

I suspect, mantis, that this is the work of disgruntled French imperialists.

Posted on March 6, 2008 22:31

See, now that was funny, ep... (Below threshold)

3. Posted by SPQR | March 6, 2008 11:07 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

SPQR:

See, now that was funny, epador.

Posted on March 6, 2008 23:07

Let's hope dusting the bike... (Below threshold)

4. Posted by Son Of The Godfather | March 7, 2008 5:22 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)

Son Of The Godfather:

Let's hope dusting the bike for prints reveals some cyclist stupidity.

Posted on March 7, 2008 17:22

Or some miserble scum-ball ... (Below threshold)

5. Posted by Spurwing Plover | March 7, 2008 5:52 PM | Score: 0 (0 votes cast)

Spurwing Plover:

Or some miserble scum-ball from ether BERKLEY or SAN FRANCISCO or maybe the WEATHERSCUM UNDERGROUND has reared their ugly heads again who ever they are deserved to get life in prison and absolutly no offers from hollywood to make some crappy movie about it all

Posted on March 7, 2008 17:52

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