Police investigating letters about Times Square bombing sent to Capitol Hill

[Kenny Guido]

Police investigating letters about Times Square bombing sent to Capitol Hill

By ALISON GENDAR, TAMER EL-GHOBASHY and LARRY McSHANE
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Friday, March 7th 2008, 3:01 AM

Schwartz for News Member of NYPD's bomb squad examines the area damaged by bike bomber's homemade device at military recruiting station in Times Square Thursday.

Schwartz for News Police examine the scene of the bombing at the military recruiting station in Times Square.


"Happy New Year, We Did It," declared a sign held by a man who was photographed with the placard outside the recruiting center sometime before the early-morning blast. Cops were investigating whether he was the elusive bomber.
Copies of the photo and a 32-page missive that railed against the Iraq war and was signed "David Karne" were sent to nine congressional offices, a source briefed on the probe said.
Authorities had contacted Karne, but no one had been arrested, sources said.
One recipient was Rep. Nita Lowey (D-Bronx, Westchester), Senate and House sources said. Lowey and her staff were not immediately available for comment.
The rants were placed in 5-inch-by-8-inch manila envelopes with two $1 stamps and a white label with a Los Angeles return address on them, Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) said.
A source said cops expect up to 100 manifestoes to show up in the next 24 hours because the envelopes were numbered.
Capitol Police warned recipients to leave the envelopes unopened and contact investigators. They said the envelopes went through the standard security process, which involves radiating incoming mail and can take a week or more.
The blast was the work of a two-wheeled terrorist armed with a homemade bomb. It was similar to previous unsolved bombings at the British and Mexican consulates in Manhattan.
Homeland Security and FBI officials were analyzing the manifesto as city police hunted for the bomber.
No one was injured in the 3:40 a.m. attack in a largely empty Times Square. The bomber, who was filmed by a security camera, calmly rode off on his new red 10-speed bike after placing the bomb outside the station, police said.
A police source told the Daily News that the choice of a target in Manhattan's tourist mecca was meant to mock the NYPD.
"It's a taunt," the source said. "He picks a place where, during the day, it's crawling with cops. No one gets hurt, and he shows he can do this."
The suspect, his face obscured by a gray hooded sweatshirt, detonated the bomb behind an NYPD substation and beneath nearly two dozen security cameras.
Police stepped up security at city attractions and recruiting stations after the attack.
"Times Square is the 'Crossroads of the World,' and we're concerned about it," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Mayor Bloomberg said the blast "insults every one of our brave men and women in uniform stationed around the world."

 

[Kenny Guido]

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A private security camera mounted at 1501 Broadway recorded the bicycle bomber at 3:37 a.m., riding unsteadily along the traffic island that holds the recruiting center just south of W. 44th St.
Police said a man walking across the traffic island was unnerved by the sight of the backpack-wearing bicyclist when their paths crossed, believing he was a mugger.
At 3:38 a.m., as the witness continued to 42nd St. to buy a paper, the bomber parked his bike at the side of the recruitment center and walked to the front. At 3:39 a.m., the bomber was back on the bicycle - and 57 seconds later, the device exploded, sending a plume of thick, white smoke into the night air.
An officer at the NYPD substation ran out, but the bomber was gone, police said.
The blast rattled midtown hotel guests, midnight shift workers and straphangers. Subway service was disrupted, and traffic was shut down in the area.
The bomber ditched his two-wheeled getaway vehicle in a trash bin outside an E.38th St. building, Bloomberg said.
"There is no reason to think this is anything other than perhaps somebody who is trying to protest the military," the mayor said before details of the photos and manifestoes were made public.
Cops were called to E. 38th St. after construction workers noticed the new bike in the garbage. Police lifted prints from the bike and were examining it for any additional forensic evidence. They also recovered more video of the suspect near where the bike was dumped.
Although police stopped short of tying the bicycle bomber to the two earlier blasts, there were similarities: All three occurred between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m., and a suspect on a bicycle was spotted in each incident.
"In layman's view...the explosions are roughly similar," said Kelly, who called the bomb "an unsophisticated device."
Hollowed-out grenades - filled with black powder and a fuse - were used in the March 2005 attack on the British Consulate and last October's blast at the Mexican Consulate, police said. Portions of the Times Square device were sent to the FBI in Quantico, Va., for comparison to the grenades from the earlier blasts, police said.
A top and a side panel from the green metal box used to hold the explosives were recovered Thursday.
In the latest bombing, the nation's busiest recruiting station suffered shattered windows and twisted metal.
"I heard a boom," said Sandy Aris, 41, a parking attendant at a 43rd St. garage. "Everything in my booth moved."
A source said that authorities were checking whether the bombing was possibly linked to an incident last month along the Canadian border. Four men stopped there were found to be carrying information, photos and maps of recruiting stations in New York City, including the one in Times Square. Two of the men bolted but left behind a backpack with the material.