Are we nuts?....Why why why do we publicize this kind of info?

[Christians4LessGvt]

hey Al-Qaeda...here's how we nabbed you so quick, so you'll know next time
to use a different tactic! Maybe next time you'll have time to get on the plane
and leave the country! 



Cellphone led FBI to Times Square car bomb suspect arrest

By MIKE ALLEN | 5/4/10 7:16 AM EDT
 
A large law-enforcement force tracked the Times Square car bomb suspect through the afternoon and evening Monday -- he was arrested at 11:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

The number from a disposable cellphone led FBI agents to the suspect arrested Monday night for allegedly driving a car bomb into Times Square on Saturday evening, according to a senior official.

?They were able to basically get one phone number and by running it through a number of databases, figure out who they thought the guy was,? the official said.

A huge law-enforcement force tracked the suspect through the afternoon and evening. He was arrested at 11:30 p.m. at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City.

The vehicle identification number had been removed from the bomb-laden 1993 Nissan Pathfinder left in Times Square. But investigators were able to lift it from a second location on the vehicle, and used that to track down a Connecticut man who said he had sold the Pathfinder for cash about three weeks ago.

The man had offered the vehicle on Craigslist, and FBI agents were able to recover the number from a disposable cellphone that had been used by the buyer.

The suspect didn't still have the phone. But using a lot of technology and access to database, agents located the suspect.

Appearing in person in the Justice Department briefing room at 1:30 a.m., Attorney General Eric Holder said the suspect, a Pakistan-born American named Faisal Shahzad, 30, was arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport while attempting to board a flight for Dubai.

A law-enforcement announcement said: ?The defendant will appear in Manhattan federal court (500 Pearl Street, 5th Floor, New York, N.Y.) on May 4, 2010, at a currently undetermined time to be presented on formal charges. No further details are available at this time.?

President Barack Obama was briefed six times on Monday and was notified of the arrest at 12:05 a.m., all by John Brennan, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the White House said.

Around 2:30 p.m. Monday, Holder had been pulled out of a meeting to take a call from David S. Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. Kris said the FBI thought it had identified the suspect, and knew his rough location.

?There was a huge fog-of-war element, where you think you have him, but you're not sure,? the official said. ?Everyone's telephoning headquarters.?

The attorney general ordered up substantial resources to track and capture the suspect. Holder stayed at Justice until 9:30 p.m., then went home, had dinner and put his kids to bed.

At 11:30 p.m., Holder was called about the arrest. He was rushed back to DOJ, complete with flashing lights. He didn't go to his office but straight to the National Security Division's 7th-floor SCIF (Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility) for real-time updates.

Officials worked until 1:10 to nail everything down. Assured it was the guy, DOJ issued a news advisory. Holder walked in front of the camera at 1:30 a.m.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/36738.html

[Xavier_Onassis]

Why do you think that all this information is accurate? Are you not aware that one way the police eliminate the large number of sickos that walk in taking credit for publicized crimes they did not commit is by spreading FALSE information? Someone walks in, claims that he is Dr. Mustard and killed the victim with a candlestick in the drawing room (as described in the paper), but the cops can eliminate this guy because they know that the weapon was a dagger with mayor McCheese's prints all over it, which was not revealed in the press. The cops use the press to aid them in solving crimes and have done this for generations.


It is hardly a state secret that a quick getaway and good planning is essential to getting away with a crime such as this. Anyone could have built a better bomb, detonated it, and be long gone before they even had a make on the vehicle. I am glad that this was not the case, but this is a no-brainer, and it is hardly a great secret that competence and timing are essential.



You could also discover all the locations of VIN numbers on any vehicle in a matter of minutes. This varies by car maker and year, but it is not a secret, either. I do not see where any major secrets were revealed here.

[Amianthus]

This also shows the power of collecting "call information" - what phone number called what phone number at what time. Even though people were all upset over "illegal wiretapping" - the claim was that they couldn't possibly just be collecting the end-point information, without actually tapping the line, even though that is what was done for the vast majority of calls - here we see where having a large database of the end-point information came in handy. He used a disposable cell phone to make the deal, then he dumped it. Which is correct procedure. However, they said that they used a database to continue to track him. So, what he most likely did was use that cell phone for making calls other than those involved with the vehicle purchase, and they then cross referenced those calls with other calls from other disposable cell phones to the same numbers to pick up other numbers the guy was using. Had he known more about operational security for this type of operation, he would have used one cell phone *only* for locating a car to purchase and dumped it as soon as he made the purchase. This way, the authorities would not have been able to continue tracking him.

[kimba1]

Anyone could have built a better bomb, detonated it, and be long gone before they even had a make on the vehicle.


I think very few can. to make a bomb and be organized enough to get away are 2 different skills.

and don`t forget the ability to simply do it.

the list gets very small and one really fortunate thing that minimize this is the fact not many people has a reason to do it.

good thing teenagers don`t think such actions are in fashion.

[Xavier_Onassis]

You are surely correct about this. I don't think that revealing this in the press is going to tell a dedicated terrorist anything they do not already know, though. They located this guy in a very short time, and actually captured him, so that is the most important thing, as I see it. Was he the guy in the red shirt, by the way?

[Xavier_Onassis]

I think very few can. to make a bomb and be organized enough to get away are 2 different skills.

-============================================
What is important about making a bomb?

Make sure it goes off AFTER you have left the scene. If you use a car, use a stolen one, as then it will be less traceable.
Try to make it appear as innocuous as possible: when it goes BOOM! that should be a big surprise.

What is a good getaway?

One in which you leave rapidly without being noticed. Note to self: wear beige, wear gray. Avoid red, orange and other bright colors.
 

[Amianthus]

A bomb is not that easy to make, nor is a reliable detonator. While the needed materials are easy to obtain (most houses have everything needed) the skills are lacking. I would find little problem doing so, since I was a chemistry major in college and explosives were a part of the curriculum, but not everyone takes advanced organic chemistry. Also, nowadays the chemical stocks used for making most of the simpler explosives have "taggants" added so that they can be traced from the bomb residue. Knowledge of which chemicals to avoid is a bit scarcer.

[Xavier_Onassis]

Danny Drennen and I in the 7th grade made a number of rockets from vacuum cleaner tubing from a thrift store, magnesium powder, Potassium Perchlorate and some other chemicals and combinations of these. We set them off on Saturday mornings in the Elementary School playground. One less than successful launch blew up with a very loud sound, throwing several pieces of tubing up to twenty feet and leaving a nine-inch crater in the asphalt. It also alerted the police, who were not used to bombs. We gathered the pieces and cleared out as the sirens approached. After that, we used the unused part of Fairview Cemetery.

We used a variety of propellants from a college chemistry textbook Professor Edson gave me when I got my Chemistry Merit Badge, and some stuff written by Robert Goddard.  The main problem we had was making a decent nozzle. Danny's older brother had a muffler shop and made some fine nose cones, but nozzles were hard to make from sheet metal.
 

[kimba1]

my only experience with explosives THAT I recall now is NEVER grind silver fulminate.


you can pretty much figure what happened. it tasted nasty to boot

[Amianthus]

Major difference between rocket propellant (which is designed to burn at a slow, steady rate) and explosives (which are designed to all burn at once).