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from the we-have-NJ-jokes-but-maybe-not-the-right-time dept.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/19/us/new-york-explosion-investigation/
The intense investigation into the weekend bomb blasts in New York and New Jersey is leading authorities to signs of a possible terror cell in those two states, law enforcement officials told CNN Monday. The ongoing investigation, which includes two bombs in New York City and devices in two cities in New Jersey, has given authorities leads on specific people who are urgently being sought.
Also on Monday morning, a federal law enforcement official said BBs and ball bearings were among the pieces of metal that appeared to be packed into both pressure cooker bombs in New York. One of those devices exploded on 23rd Street, but the fact that it was partly under a metal trash container may have diminished the force of the blast.
The latest developments came just hours after a backpack containing multiple bombs was found Sunday night near an Elizabeth, New Jersey, train station, according to the FBI and the city's mayor. [...] The [New York City] blast occurred on the same day an explosion went off near a Marine Corps charity run in New Jersey and a man stabbed nine people at a Minnesota mall. Authorities are investigating all three incidents as possible terror acts.
Update: NYT: Police Hunt for Ahmad Khan Rahami in Connection With Manhattan Bombing
Update 2: The suspect has been captured alive, despite getting into a shootout with police.
[Ed's Note: Whereas in some parts of the world, BB is an abbreviation for ball bearing, in the US in particular it refers simply to a round pellet fired from a compressed air weapon.]
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday September 19 2016, @10:08PM
The basis of Saudi authority is their custodianship of the Holy places of Islam. They might not be military targets but they certainly qualify as symbols of State power. Think of it more like an attack on the Statue of Liberty or Eiffel Tower... or the WTC for a brutally relevant example that straddles the categories of target. The attackers dispute that authority and attack to undermine Saudi regime credibility, not to terrify the worshipers into political action. Riddle me this, under what possible conditions would the opinion of ordinary Saudi citizens matter? Would randomly attacking them bring those conditions about?
The correct word for your example would probably be guerrilla warfare.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday September 19 2016, @10:40PM
Oh please, you are just trying to no true scottsman your way out.
(Score: 2) by jmorris on Monday September 19 2016, @11:20PM
Not at all. I asserted that the definition of 'terrorism' required two elements. You cite an example that possibly meets one. Terrorism requires the target be a civilian target AND that the motive is to bring about political change by terrifying said population. These attacks on the Holy Sites of Islam in Saudi Arabia certainly don't meet the second requirement and I would argue don't even meet the first. That is part of the complaint, the fact the Saudi government is using the Holiest places in Islam as instruments of secular power.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday September 20 2016, @03:33AM
OK, sunshine! Put that goalpost right back where you found it. You have to play the ball where it lies!