NOTHING TO SEE, FOLKS, NOTHING TO SEE – AT 8:17 A.M. ET:  One of the frustrations in dealing with failed terrorist attacks against the United States is that they're quickly forgotten, and we never quite understand the horror that could have occurred.

Consider the Times Square attempted bombing.  Apparently, had it come off, it could have been a major disaster.  From Fox:

Sources close to the investigation of failed Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad confirm to Fox News that the FBI tested a correctly constructed version of the explosive device.

Shahzad tried to detonate a car bomb in a Nissan Pathfinder on May 1, but the device fizzled and caused no injuries. But if the bomb had been detonated properly, it could have "killed in the thousands on the high end" and in the "hundreds on the low end," according to a source familiar with the investigation.

While the blast might have been more deadly than the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that claimed 169 lives, the force of the Times Square explosion would probably not have been as great. The impact of the explosion would have been felt both "upwards and outward," a source said.

A source close to law enforcement said "too many variables" make a precise damage estimate difficult to calculate adding that the bomb would "have caused a lot of damage." Although surrounding office buildings were mostly vacant on the Saturday evening of the planned attack, the high number of tourists on the street would have contributed to the number of causalities.

COMMENT:  It is inevitable that one of these terror operators will eventually get it right, just like Al Qaeda got 9-11 right.  And yet we seem so relaxed. 

I wonder, when the inevitable happens, whether the administration will give a name to the perpetrators, or just call them "misguided criminals."   I don't think we'll have to wait too long to find out.

July 21, 2010