DC Letters Not Linked to Times Square Bombing; Similarities With Earlier Consulate Bombings

Photographs of the damaged recruiting center (above) and Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly (below) by Mary Altaffer/AP

The FBI said letters sent to many Congressional members with a photograph of a man standing in front of the Times Square recruiting center and an anti-war manifesto were not linked to yesterday's bombing outside the center. A law enforcement source did call the letters an "incredibly unbelievable coincidence," as they arrived in many offices yesterday, after days of sorting (per post-anthrax scare measures).

Now investigators are looking at similarities the bombing has with the 2005 British Consulate bombing on Third Avenue and the 2007 Mexican Consulate bombing on East 39th. All three bombs were thrown by a bicyclist; all three bombs were made with a similar powder.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly added, "The fact of the matter is that all three incidents happened within a 30-minute span, a 25-minute span," with yesterday's bomb going off around 3:43 a.m., the British Consulate bomb at 3:55 a.m., and the Mexican Consulate bomb at 3:40 a.m.

The NYPD and FBI are looking at all the evidence. The NYPD released footage showing a bicyclist near the scene at the time of the blast, and a 10-speed bicycle was found abandoned on West 38th Street. Yesterday's bomb was put in a small ammunition box; though it was an "unsophisticated" improvised explosive device, Kelly said someone could have been killed from it. Mayor Bloomberg also derided the attack which "insults every one of our brave men and women in uniform stationed around the world."

A retired NYPD detective who is now a profiler, Ray Pierce, told the NY Times, "What you have here is a very frustrated individual, someone who is trying to send a message, but it is a very confused message." The suspect could be a bike messenger, because "he feels comfortable on the bicycle."

Also remarked upon was how the bombing took place on the 38th anniversary of the Weathermen's Greenwich Village townhouse bombing. The Mexican Consulate bombing occurred on the anniversary of journalist Bradley Roland Will's death in Oaxaca and the British Consulate bombing occurred on British Election Day.