Posted on 10/10/2005 10:03:38 PM PDT by Dr. Eckleburg
A calm and quiet Westwood was briefly disrupted Friday afternoon when the Los Angeles Police Department bomb squad inspected and detonated an explosive device found within the Midvale Plaza apartment complex on the 500 block of Midvale Avenue. After responding to a call made at 11:13 a.m., the bomb squad arrived at 527 Midvale Ave. to find "an improvised explosive device" in the building's open-air courtyard, said Grace Brady, a spokeswoman for the LAPD.
No injuries were reported, but authorities have been slow to release details about the incident and the device.
Residents said they first heard a small explosion sometime between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. Friday, but most said they went back to sleep. It was not until a resident found an explosive device later that morning that the police were called.
Police cars, FBI vehicles, ambulances, fire trucks and parking-enforcement vehicles blocked access to the street, and police officers restricted nearby pedestrian traffic while the bomb squad inspected the device. About 15 people waited at the corner of Midvale Avenue and Ophir Drive until they were allowed to return to their apartments near where the explosive was found.
Neither the apartment building nor nearby buildings were evacuated, but Paul Robi, a detective with the FBI bomb squad, said the squad executed "a moderate evacuation," which amounted to telling residents to stay off their balconies and in their apartments. Curious onlookers who stepped onto their balconies said they were immediately told to go back into their apartments.
Shortly after 1 p.m., the bomb squad remotely detonated the device. A low boom was audible for about a one-block radius, and several people who live across the street said they felt their apartments shake.
Beau Gillman, a second-year business economics student who lives across the street, said he heard shouts of "fire in the hole" before he heard and felt the explosion.
About five minutes later, police reopened the street to vehicles and pedestrians.
Most of the residents interviewed said they were aware of the situation, but they did not feel afraid or threatened. Most were surprised that someone would put an explosive in a Westwood apartment building.
Several residents said their apartments were briefly searched after the incident, but they said the searches did not appear to specifically target any residents. They also said it appeared to be apartment management who conducted the searches, though Midvale Plaza managers refused to comment.
Nancy Greenstein, director of the UCPD community services division, said UCPD officers were not on the scene Friday, but they routinely investigate suspicious packages. None of the recent calls to the department have revealed actual explosive devices, she said.
I would hate to think the jihadists are stupid enough to alienate their base.
I would normally say probably we are just noticing it more, that there isn't really an increase at all.
But, since most don't know about the OU incident, that doesn't make much sense.
BTTT
That's not the issue. Their base is in cahoots with the jihadists.
Doesn't take much to get their attention does it /sarcasm
It's Ramalamadingdong!
LOL.
All these incidents over the past week add up to a pattern. Taken individually, the only really significant one is the event at OU. But something is definitely going on. One more report of anything found on or near a campus and my tinfoil hat will be permanently riveted to my skull.
I have to wonder what similarity there may be between the Georgia Tech devices and those bottles that were found in Hinrichs' car in Norman, OK. I suppose it's possible that domestic cells with links to Al Qaeda might use primitive and relatively inexpensive methods to cause some chaos, especially where American converts might be concerned. Not all operations have to be heavily financed, spectacular affairs. They most certainly aren't in Israel, but they do get the point across. A few explosive devices found across the country, even if they don't cause much damage or injury, is enough to get people jumpy and wondering what might happen next. That's one of the psychological effects of terrorism. Are these guys having fun playing with us instead of killing us outright?
I think 9/11 has spoiled most people where terrorism is concerned. People now equate terrorism with a spectacular attack that causes thousands of deaths. But the truth is that kind of attack is the exception, not the norm. When has an attack in Israel caused deaths in numbers greater than double digits? In Israel, the norm is a terrorist taking himself out along with 5 to 20 people. Sometimes they only take themselves out (like Hinrichs). I call this death by a thousand cuts. If we get incidents like that here, they'll be reported only locally and the public at large won't see the overall pattern. And such incidents are easy to cover-up and dismiss. But they will add up.
Perhaps the enemy has decided this is the way to get the US. Little by little, with small attacks. The OU bombing, though, if successful, could have ended up causing more deaths than at the WTC, if there had been a stampede and a human avalanche.
If I was more of a doubter of the hearts of men, I would say this spate of bombs at US universities is the work of American leftists, trying to foment dissent and protest against the war on terror.
Or the work of American leftists recruited by the jihadis. Remember, the enemy of their enemy is their friend, at least until their new friend beheads them after making use of them.
laz, were muslims connected to all of these bombs or not?
No connections except for the one at OU. And that connection only becomes obvious if you assemble all the pieces of info that local media and eyewitnesses have reported over the past week. Anyone who hasn't done that, or watches only the MSM, would never consider any connection at all.
The first time it was enemy action, and we knew it less than 24 hours afterwards.
Seems pretty weak though if it was intended as an attack...my inclination, if terrorism is involved, would be to look at these events as a "test" of the campus security, etc.
Shiny side out. But it appears that a bunch of amateur Johnny Jihaddy's are trying to make this a Ramalanadingdong to remember.
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