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.
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This is a poor example by Fox News of reporting that seeks accuracy and competing theories. Anybody who has studied the composition of the Oklahoma City bomb constructed by Timothy McVeigh knows that the Times Square device doesn’t even begin to come close to the destructive power of McVeigh’s truck load of ANFO (ammonium nitrat fuel oil).
HSTV has produced a detailed program on the OKC bombing, featuring the lead bomb forensic investigator from the FBI. The OKC bombing was not only thousands of times larger, but it was constructed in the form of a shape charge to maximize the blast damage — by a terrorist who really knew what he was doing.
The only way “thousands” would have been killed by the Times Square device is if “thousands” were gathered within 50 yards of it when it detonated. And even then, many would probably have survived.