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Police Seek Suspect in Times Square Plot

Crisis Averted

While Obama vows to “see that justice is done.”

Speaking in Louisiana today, President Obama has promised to “see that justice is done,” following the failed potential terrorist attack that shut down Times Square last night. Meanwhile, new details are emerging in the case. As authorities work to identify a suspect, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has revealed that a white male in his 40s was spotted near the SUV shortly before police arrived on the scene. As the man left the area, he was seen taking off a dark shirt, revealing a red shirt underneath, according to ABC News. At a press conference, Kelly also said that police would be reviewing hundreds of hours of videotape from surveillance cameras. Meanwhile, the Pakistani Taliban have reportedly claimed responsibility for the failed attack, claiming it was to avenge the deaths of two Islamists and "Muslim martyrs." Following an evacuation of the tourist-heavy area Saturday night while the bomb was removed, streets in the area reopened Sunday morning accompanied by a heavy police presence. According to a police spokesperson, the bomb malfunctioned when a street vendor alerted a policeman to the smoking vehicle—a Nissan Pathfinder parked at West 45th Street and Seventh Avenue, which police found to be loaded with three propane gas tanks, two one-gallon gas canisters, fireworks and two clocks that formed a makeshift bomb. If it had gone off, it would have surely led to casualties and a “significant fireball,” Kelly said, and the vehicle would have “at least been cut in half.”

Read it at The Wall Street Journal