[areafiftyone]

From NY 1 News:

Police are worried that terrorists may be testing out targets in New York City, after discovering a pattern of abandoned empty suitcases.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority sent out an alert to police after five suitcases were found in the last week of March and the first week of April. One turned up at Penn Station, and another was discovered at the New York headquarters of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The MTA says the pattern is troubling because the bags were completely empty. Usually when people misplace bags there is something inside.

Officials say it is possible the bags were left by someone playing a prank.

[cgk]

Malkin talked about the missing tanker truck today:

Terror Tanker

[My Favorite Headache]

April 21, 2004

Sometime between 04/08/2004 & 04/09/2004 a fuel tanker truck appears to have been stolen in New Jersey.

TerroristWarning.com continues to be amazed at the fact that authorities wait so long to inform the public when such incidents occurr. The tanker has been described as "exactly the kind of vehicle that could be loaded with explosives, or chemical or biological weapons, and turned into a nightmare of a weapon." Please be on the lookout for this tanker truck and report any sightings to authorities immediately.

Police are looking for:

A newly refurbished 1996 Freuhauf tanker.
It had "T-K Transport" written on the side when it was stolen, (though that may have been removed by whoever stole it).
It had a chrome tank.
It had the New Jersey license plate T85 2SC.

[mountaineer]

Officials say it is possible the bags were left by someone playing a prank.

Of course! What were we thinking?!

[Sender]

I give the odds 75/25 it was a prank played by lefty black bloc types. They want to cause chaos for the Pub convention. Of course, can we afford to ignore the 25% chance?

[Joe 6-pack]

I would think that if this were a dry run, or test of response time, the actors would not have used identical suit cases.

The fact that they were identical lead me to the following possibilities...

1. The actors do not have the developed systems for effecting a large scale physical attack at this time, but want to effect a little possible psychological terror, as well as possibly "cry wolf," for the first of several times, in anticipation of securing the means for a physical attack.

2. Prankster(s)

[juliew203]

well, we can only imagine if this truck were rammed into a nuclear site...............

[cgk]

I'd like to know how someone got into the NYC FBI headquarters with a suitcase in the first place.

[antivenom]

playing a prank...probably those "Seattle types"...I hope who ever did it...is treated like a terrorist...even tho they are empty...it is a waste of resources, money and nerves to respond to "terrorist's pranks"...

[Aut Pax Aut Bellum]

I love when people panic with little information. This tanker trailer has been missing for over two weeks now. No truck, just an older trailer that they said on the news here, lacks the authentication stickers to get it filled. Plus, it was empty, and unused for some time. Check the scrap yards guys, it was probably aluminum, and at 50 cents a pound, and a weight of over 9000#, I suspect a money motivated crime here.

[bondjamesbond]

A few months after September 11th, some "artist" attached little boxes with wires trailing from them to the walls of several Subway stations.

The world is full of jerks. Maybe this was just another one.