***BREAKING NEWS***

From the New York Times:

The police discovered a car bomb in a smoking Nissan Pathfinder in the heart of Times Square, prompting the evacuation of thousands of tourists and theatergoers from the area on a warm and busy Saturday evening.

There was no explosion.

“It appears to be a car bomb left in a Pathfinder between Seventh and Eighth” Avenues on 45th Street, said Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman.

The device, he said, contained “explosive elements” that included “propane tanks, some kind of powder, gasoline and a timing device.”

“This is very much an active investigation,” he said.

Mr. Browne, speaking shortly before 1 a.m. Sunday, said that no one was in custody. “We haven’t identified any kind of a motive,” he said. “It appears to be a car bomb, but we haven’t attached a motive to it.”

Mr. Browne said the police were checking security cameras after reports that someone had fled from the car.

A federal official said that domestic security officials had been informed that the event did not appear to be a terrorist threat. The official referred all requests for additional information to New York City police.

The explosive materials were discovered about 6:30 by a mounted police officer who saw a box with smoke pouring from it in the back of the Pathfinder, Mr. Browne said. The officer called for backup, and the Fire Department and bomb squad.

The Pathfinder’s back window was broken out, Mr. Browne said, and the police sent in a “robotic device” to “observe it.”

Mr. Browne said gunpowder had been found in the vehicle, but not a high-grade explosive. The timing device was a clock attached to wires. The gasoline was in two five-gallon cans and there appeared to be three propane tanks, like those used for barbecue grills.

Kevin B. Barry, a former supervisor in the New York Police Department bomb squad, said he was told it was an improvised explosive device. But somehow, he said, the ignition source “failed to function the main charge.”

We can look forward to more of these if we continue on this weakened stance the Obama administration has placed us on in regards to national security. Remember folks, we have to be right 100% of the time; the terrorists only have to be right 1% of the time.