" not recognizing the cute little cartoon characters."
I respectfully disagree. Circuit cards, batteries, placed at bridges here and there. (OK, to take advantage of darkness). Multiple phone calls.
But soldiers in WWII painted funny stuff on 250 lb bombs, too. That did not lessen the lethality.
Once the call "suspicious package" and "circuit card, batteries" goes out, the professionals who take stuff seriously start to roll, and they have a procedure to follow, and they followed it as far as I can see.
I bet the bomb squads may feel stupid, but the media played this up like this was 1/31, perhaps to divert attention away from W's speech on the economy.
I was not agreeing with the mindset that this isn't serious. Reread my post.
While it may improve the morale of the bombers, a taunt painted on an aerial bomb does not help the targets escape. That's not the case with a subway bomb.
A terrorist bomb is not supposed to be noticed until it's too late. So you might leave it concealed in a toolbox or wrapped in a wool sock. Or maybe slash a seat and cram it into the cushion.
You would not put flashing lights on it or have wires sticking out of it or make it tick audibly. That's just silly!
Dry run doesn't make sense, either. A live run is just as easy, so why not do it? All a dry run does is vaccinate the enemy's immune system, so to speak, making it harder to pull off the live run.
I love how the clueless newsies reported that police had "detonated" the devices but they contained no explosives. How the hell do you detonate something that isn't explosive?