The evidence the bomber left behind

NY Times:

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On Saturday in Times Square, a homemade bomb built inside a Nissan Pathfinder did not explode — and as a result, a trove of evidence was left behind for investigators to pore over, not only for physical evidence or forensic clues, but also as a reflection of an assailant’s methods, mind-set and possible motives.

“There is a lot there to read into the case that really helps them,” said James M. Cavanaugh, a former bomb expert with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who investigated car bombs and tracked the Unabomber, Theodore J. Kaczynski, and Eric R. Rudolph, the bomber of abortion clinics and other sites.

Or, put another way by Kevin B. Barry, who retired in 2002 as a detective in the bomb squad of the New York Police Department and is now an official with the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators: “He was trying to cover his tracks, but he left more clues than a guy walking into a bank to rob it without a mask. This guy left everything here but his wallet.”

The evidence, while yet to produce an arrest, has yielded much: police detectives and F.B.I. agents, using the vehicle’s identification number, have already located and spoken with its registered owner and learned that it was sold for cash two weeks ago in Bridgeport, Conn.

Like the 17-character identification number, each bit of material from the car or its insides will be traced to divine its provenance, investigators said.

And when the bomb in the Pathfinder did not go off as designed, the authorities not only had the vehicle, but they also had the raft of explosive elements packed inside: two neon-color alarm clocks and the time one was set to, some batteries, two five-gallon gasoline containers, three propane tanks, firecrackers, fertilizer packed in clear plastic bags adorned with a store’s logo, a cooking pot and a 78-pound metal gun box, the police said.

Moreover, a car is an ideal receptacle for microscopic or invisible traces of who might have been inside. The authorities have been dusting the outside of the Pathfinder for fingerprints. Inside, they can search for traces of hair or skin cells that might have sloughed off on a steering wheel or a seat cover. They may find literature tucked into a glove box, or some food under a seat.

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In the broadest sense, Mr. Cavanaugh said, the device and the way it was designed speak to a “grandiose purpose.”

It was apparently fashioned in short order and with seemingly common tools. The clocks were on the floor of the back seat area, and the plastic gas containers were on the rear seat, on either side of a 16-ounce canister with M88 firecrackers. Behind that, the three propane containers were arrayed, one with some firecrackers affixed to it. And behind that was the gun locker, inside a cardboard box, containing eight bags of nonexplosive fertilizer.

“I call this a Rube Goldberg contraption,” Mr. Cavanaugh said.

“It’s the ‘swing-the-arm-with-the-shoe-that-hits-the-ball-and-knocks-over-a-stick-that-knocks-something-off-a-shelf,’ ” he said, “and it is all supposed to work.”

It malfunctioned, for reasons that are still being pieced together, though Mr. Browne said the packet of M88s attached to one of the propane tanks went off partially, dispersing some of its force. “I don’t know for certain what the designer had in mind,” Mr. Browne said.

Some psychology is also involved, Mr. Cavanaugh said, as investigators must be imagining what the bomber or bombers were thinking. “I can tell you that they thought it was the atomic bomb,” he said. “They have more desire than ability.”

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There is more.

Other stories suggest that authorities are looking for a naturalized US citizen who just spent some time in Pakistan. One of the problems that al Qaeda and the Taliban have now in Pakistan is the limited ability to train their terrorist. If they try to set up a dedicated training area it will become a target for US or Pakistan rockets or bombs. They have no ability to let someone do a practice bomb to see it it works. They are left to go with cookbook bomb making and keeping their fingers crossed. It did not work in the UK doc plot and it did not work in the New York plot.

Taking the war to the enemy has put more stress on his operation and made it more difficult for him to attack us here. This is at least the their such attempt in recent months and only one has resulted in casualties--the Fort Hood shooter. The other failure was the Christmas Day underpants bomber. Both of the failures stemmed from uncertain bomb makers using a cookbook rather than experience.

The enemy will keep trying. They are finding it easier to penetrate our defenses since Bush left office. The failure to interrogate captured enemies and the failure to intercept enemy communication could be one factor. Treating the enemy as a lawfare problem is a gift we should not be offering.