An Act of Terror in the Theater District (Pun Intended)

In retrospect, the car bomb driven into Times Square by Faisal Shahzad earlier this month probably would not have caused many casualties had it ignited, although even one death would have been one too many. The primitive bomb, consisting of propane, gasoline and fireworks, would have caused a fireball, but it was not designed to shower shrapnel on those gathered in this crowded New York tourist mecca or to bring down a building. Why then was Times Square chosen as the locus for this attack?

As observed by Brian M. Jenkins in a 1974 Rand Corporation Paper entitled "International Terrorism: A New Kind of Warfare":

"Terrorist attacks are often carefully choreographed to attract the attention of the electronic media and the international press. . . . Terrorism is aimed at the people watching, not at the actual victims. Terrorism is theater."

http://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/2008/P5261.pdf

But even as "theater", this attempt at an explosion in New York's theater district bombed. As correctly observed today by theater critic Frank Rich in a New York Times op-ed entitled "They Don’t Report. You Don’t Have to Decide." (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/opinion/09rich.html), the occurrence went largely ignored by the U.S. news media, which was busy reporting/enjoying the festive White House Correspondents Dinner. The correspondents at the Washington dinner were apparently unwilling to have their event upstaged by some trite Manhattan event.

On the one hand this lack of media attention surely must have frustrated those who produced the New York event (you can be certain that this was not a one-man show given the evidence surrounding the would-be spectacular). On the other hand, the ease with which this car was positioned should give the Obama administration - battling economic ills, oil spills and generally poor reviews - cause for reflection: the war on terror is not over, and the Osama Ensemble will regrettably be back soon enough with a "better rehearsed" revival aimed at a much larger audience.