Taliban take credit for Times Square car bomb attempt

They had set up a youtube.com channel the day before, that was now taken down.

A top Pakistani Taliban commander took credit for yesterday's failed car bomb attack in New York City.

Qari Hussain Mehsud, the top bomb maker for the Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan, said he takes "fully responsibility for the recent attack in the USA." Qari Hussain made the claim on an audiotape accompanied by images that was released on a YouTube website that calls itself the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel.

The tape has yet to be verified, but US intelligence officials contacted by The Long War Journal believe it is legitimate. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel on YouTube was created on April 30. Officials believe it was created to announce the Times Square attack, and Qari Hussain’s statement was pre-recorded.

All indications are the tape is legitimate. YouTube has pulled the video and shut down the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan News Channel since this article was published.

Homeland Security chief Janet Janet Napolitano said otherwise:

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told ABC's Jake Tapper this morning that authorities had not found any evidence that the bomb scare in New York City on Saturday May 1 was part of a larger plot.

"We have no evidence right now that this is anything other than a one off," said Napolitano.