I have read several reports on the Car Bomb in Times Square and a few have noted that the car was left outside The Lion King, on Broadway, between 45th and 46th Streets. I have seen little discussion of the significance of that location. Of all the shows on Broadway, the great majority are directed at adults and have predominantly adult audiences. The Lion King, on the other hand, specifically attracts children, who are brought there in large numbers by their parents and grandparents. This attack targeted our children.
Bill Roggio suggests that the recent claims of responsibility by the Pakistani Taliban are credible:
Pakistani Taliban claim credit for failed NYC Times Square car bombing
The tape has yet to be verified, but US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journalbelieve it is legitimate. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel on YouTube was created on April 30. Officials believe it was created to announce the Times Square attack, and Qari Hussain’s statement was pre-recorded.
All indications are the tape is legitimate. YouTube has pulled the video and shut down the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel since this article was published.
"This attack is a revenge for the great & valuable martyred leaders of mujahideen," Qari Hussain said. He listed Baitullah Mehsud, the former leader of the Pakistani Taliban who was killed in a Predator strike in August 2009, and Abu Omar al Baghdadi, the former leader of al Qaeda Islamic State of Iraq who was killed by Iraqi forces in mid-April. And although he was not mentioned, an image of Abu Ayyub al Masri, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, was also displayed in the images accompanying the audiotape.
Qari Hussain also said the failed attack was "revenge for the Global American interference & terrorism in Muslim countries, especially in Pakistan for Lal Masjid operation," a reference to the July 2008 Pakistani military assault on Islamists holed up in the Red Mosque in Islamabad, as well as Predator strikes in Pakistan's tribal areas and the arrest and detention of Pakistani scientist Aifa Siddique.
Sadly, this is the MO of our enemies in the Ummah; they specifically target attacks against children and other innocents, their ideology ennobles such attacks, and successful attacks are celebrated across the Muslim world.
It is probably true that while most Muslims find such attacks distasteful, they also exhibit a tribal perspective where criticizing one's own is not only shameful but unhealthy. As well, their spokesmen have become adept at piggy-backing on the left wing mindset that finds reason why we had it coming because our behavior have provoked the Muslims, who cannot be expected to adhere to civilized norms of behavior.
These are our enemies, cowards who believe their religion gives them permission to attack and kill innocents. Make no mistake, this was an attack that targeted children.
Update: Fausta links to Allahpundit and points out that if the explosive had worked as intended, it would have produced a fuel-air explosion, with massive casualties:
Fuel-air bombs are hugely destructive, as this harrowing Danger Room article published after the London plot broke made all too clear. A fuel-air bomb properly detonated in Times Square on a Saturday night likely would have killed hundreds of people. If that’s what this was — and the feds evidently aren’t sure yet, despite reports of “fireworks” going on in the back seat and someone running away from the vehicle — then there’s a seriously dangerous individual running around NYC right now. Stay tuned. While we wait, check out this PowerPoint presentation generated by the NYPD after the London plot was foiled. The last slide is the one you’re interested in.
The typical response of our fearless leaders to failed terrorist attempts is to down play the efforts as the work of amateurs, as if this means any worry is inappropriate. The idea of amateurs as mass murderers can lead to all kinds of amusing conjectures. Just so we shouldn't forget: These particular amateurs were trying to kill children.
Update: Yaacov reminds us of who are enemies are:
Three Stories about Staying Power
The second story began six years ago today, on May 2nd 2004, when Tali Hatuel, eight months pregnant with her first son, loaded her four daughters into the family van. Hila was 11, Hadar was 9, Ronny was 7,and Meirav was 2. They all lived in the village of Katif, and they were off to pick up their husband-father David, and go vote in the internal Likud poll on Ariel Sharon's plan to pull them out of Gaza. On the road to Ashkelon Tali was shot by Palestinian murderers, who then walked up to the stalled van and shot the four girls at close range.
The five were buried in a row: Tali, her foetus still in her, and to either side of her, two daughters.
I assume the murderers understood that such a murder on that particular day would likely hamper Sharon's plan of leaving Gaza. To the best of my knowledge the murderer or murderers were never apprehended, though one may hope they died in the 2009 attack on Hamas.
He also reminds us what kinds of people we are:
David Hatuel mourned his entire family, was forced out of their home the following summer, then remarried and now has three small children. His new wife is scrupulously left alone by our usually irrepressible media: there are some lines that are still not to be crossed. David himself, however, talks from time to time. In an interview over the weekend he said that he hasn't built a new family, he has built a second floor. Tali and her daughters are the first floor, Limor and her three (so far) are the second floor of the same family. His three new children have three sets of grandparents.
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