Sunday, March 09, 2008

Times Square Bombing and Letter saying "We Did It", Very Bad Timing

Last week a bomb went off in Times Square that blasted the front of a recruitment office, later letters were received of a man standing in front of the same recruiting station and the letters said "we did it". A very untimely coincidence.


Link: sevenload.com


Some would say this is a story of horrendously bad timing.

Thursday, March 6, 2008, many people awoke to the news that the Army recruitment office in Times Square had been subject to an explosion blast which caused damage to the front of the building but no injuries.

Later that day members of Congress received letters of a man standing in front of the Times Square recruiting center and in those letters the words "we did it", appeared.

Authorities automatically suspected that the letters and the explosion held some connection and started investigating who had written those letters.

This led the police across the country from New York to California and to the home of Mr. David A. Karnes, a California lawyer, who had sent those letters with a picture of himself standing in front of the Times Square recruiting station.

Karnes had sent those letters in late February, each letter 30 pages, and FBI agents tracked Karnes down, stopped him near his Hollywood home and after questioning him, discovered the letters held no connection to the bombing in Times Square, but was instead "simple political urgings" advising the Democrats on how to win the November elections in 2008.

According to Karnes' mother, "When he got home, about 20 F.B.I. people, they were all over his home."

Mrs. Karnes said her son told the agents that he had written the letters and sent them to Washington out of a deep conviction about politics and social issues. “He sent it and the timing was wrong,” she said. “He had no idea. He didn’t even really know there was a bombing that took place the other day. He is just completely innocent of any of that. This all had to do with his personal conviction.”


In a statement made by Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly he said the "We did it” line was a reference to the Democrats’ winning control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections.

(This surveillance video image released by the NYPD on March 7 shows a bicyclist on Fifth Avenue riding toward an area where a bicycle was found that police suspect is the bicycle in the photo.)

The continued investigation has led police to view dozens of surveillance tapes, which has allowed them to track the movement of the man on the bicycled.

These tapes showed the suspect leaving Times Square, going across 43rd Street to Fifth Avenue, then on to Madison Avenue and East 38th Street, then tossing the bike into a trashbin, where police later recovered a bike they believe is the same one that was ridden away from Times Square.

More surveillance footage shows the suspected bomber then walking away with another person.

Investigators also continued to determine whether there is any connection between the bombing and two similar blasts in 2005 and 2007 at the British and Mexican consulates in New York.


Reports show that Sgt. James Latella, the Times Square's recruitment office commander, makes it clear that the station is getting back to business and says, "It's just another day. The only difference is I don't have a door. We don't give up."

If this attack upon the recruitment center was meant to discourage new recruits from signing up to join the service, one particular potential recruit, shows that the opposite is what has happened.

Erica Randall, 17 years old, says that this attack "spurred on her determination to join the Army", the Randall adds, "It was pointless. I don't know why anyone would do that."

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