IED Diffused at SF Starbucks
Honestly, I’m surprised that we’re not seeing more of this.
Police defused an explosive device found in the bathroom of a Starbucks on Monday. No one was injured.
Authorities were called around 1:15 p.m., after an employee reported finding something suspicious in the store’s bathroom. About 100 people were evacuated from the store and apartments above it, and the street was closed to traffic, said Sgt. Neville Gittens.
“This was a good device. If it had exploded, it would have caused injuries or damage,” said Gittens, who would not describe its size.
Once the device was disabled at about 2:10 p.m., police allowed people back into the apartment building and reopened the street. The store, located at a busy city intersection, remained closed Monday evening while authorities investigated.
I’m going to take a wild guess and pin this on Islamic radicals. The odds are certainly in favor of that. But regardless of whether or not this specific incident was the work of Islamic terrorists, it causes me to wonder why such groups aren’t planting bombs at Starbucks of McDonalds or shopping malls on a weekly basis.
If America is the Great White Satan, as Islamic radicals repeatedly claim, why aren’t they doing more to hurt us? Placing an improvised explosive device at a Starbucks is fairly cheap. There’s only a slim chance of getting caught. And while the human toll might not be great, the effect on our economy would be quite large if a dozen or so coffee shop incidents were to occur.
It can’t be that we’re keeping the terrorists out. Our borders are as open as they’ve ever been. I see a few possibilities: they’re more organized than we think, and are saving up for one hell of an attack, or they’re all shipping out to the Middle-East to fight U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, or they don’t really hate us as much as they say, and just use America-hatred as a recruiting tool. It also could be that they lack any organization at all in this country, and don’t have the initiative to act on their own.
Yeah, I’m back!
Update: the “bomb” turned out to be a flashlight left by the friendly neighborhood hobo.
I can’t tell if you’re serious with the “pin this on Islamic radicals” part. In reality, it’s probably some anarchists-gone-wrong trying to make their point.
This was more likely a couple of long-haired-corporation-hating-anarchist-hippies from the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood. Corporate entities like Starbucks are a prime target in SF for this kind of crap.
I’ve always said that if they wanted to really strike terror in the U.S. people’s hearts, they’d simultaneously blow up things and strafe them with gunfire at malls, churches and Wal-Marts in Topeka, Des Moines and Orlando, or even smaller towns.
I hesitate even bringing that up, but you can’t tell me they haven’t already thought of it.
And I tend to agree with Robert on this one, except I would’ve thought a Wal-Mart or an animal research clinic would’ve been more their cup of tea.
I’d be hesitant to pin this on Islamic radicals, as we do have a fair number of our very own home-grown wackos that are more than capable of doing this.
McVeigh, the Unabomber, and Rudolph are all homegrown wackos that would have been more than happy to kill innocents at Starbucks. There are plenty more where they came from.
Unfortunately, much expertise isn’t really necessary to create a device that is capable of major harm, as it has always been far easier to destroy than to create.
That said, I’d have to say that America, and the Bush administration’s actions in particular, have become very effective recruiting tools for the Islamic fundamentalists. Didn’t Osama bin Laden say that the great white Satan would invade and then occupy an oil-rick Islamic country. Then GWB, the great white idiot, goes and does exactly that.
I seriously doubt that any of the actions of the Bush Administration have actually don’t anything to make the security of the American people as a whole any better. In fact, with his actions, he has probably made the risks to the American people greater rather than lower.
Bite your tongue Charles! Wal-Mart? In San Francisco? NEVER!
Hell, Best Buy had to practically commit to funding homeless shelters before the Board of Supervisors would allow them to locate within the city limits.
As for the animal research clinic, the only one close is the string of Chiron offices near where I work in Emeryville across the bay – there isn’t a bike lane on the bay bridge and these losers can’t afford Bart fair so that is probably why they haven’t tried bombing over here. Besides, they leave that up to the Berkeley folks just down the road a bit. They have more experience with it anyway.
If you re-read what I said, I said a Wal-Mart in middle America, not one in the Socialist People’s Union of Berkeley.
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this one turns out to be a couple of kids with the Anarchist’s Cookbook.
Yeah. Could be. But even if it is… why aren’t Islamic terrorists taking notes from these long-haired chaos-lovers?
Yeah, exactly. Why aren’t they doing that?! I’m not sure if I should be worried or relieved that it hasn’t happened yet.
Does the follow-up story warrant the same discussion as the original? Worse than a bomb. Fundamentalist hobos are hiding flashlights in our coffeeshops, people. We must respond with shock and awe.
Appropriations Defense Subcommittee. “They need to get a grip. We don’t have IEDs here. They’re creating a state of fear beyond what is helpful.” Really? Rep. Moran and those about to jump on his bandwagon might want to avail himself of a newspaper
[...] Rep. Moran and those about to jump on his bandwagon might want to avail himself of a newspaper and note the relative ease with which terrorists can cause death and destruction with common [...]
very complex events have occurred. people being hurt so good…