caretaker

Placing a bomb, calling the police and reporting it, then detonating it after waiting a bit is sometimes an attempt to kill the first responders. If they have a second bomb concealed in the area, detonating it 15 minutes or so after the first one is sometimes good for killing many more. The Nashville bomb (because it was in a big vehicle) seems at first glance to possibly be a smaller version of the Oklahoma City fertilizer truck bomb. If so, investigators will be trying to find where the components were sourced. If it was militia types, they could of had that stuff in storage for years making it hard to trace. The fact that they didn't park it in front of any government buildings or guaranteed crowd scene, mosque, synagogue, or church could indicate lack of will, but not necessarily - could still be intended to send a message if someone claims responsibility or posts some kind of manifesto. The FBI is probably sorting through dozens of crackpot confessions and false leads while they're collecting evidence.

scrubbedexpat091

Whoever did it did quite some damage to the AT&T infrastructure, internet and phone, flights even had to be delayed due to telecommunication issues, as well as some police departments reporting 9-11 service down.

https://www.tennessean.com/story/new...on/4045278001/

caretaker

That's a possible target then....
According to this, the police weren't phoned, but a recording blaring from the vehicle warned people to evacuate, and shots were fired shortly before the explosion. There are some conflicting reports, but it's early days. After they run tests on some tissue found at the scene, they may even find that the bomber lit himself up,
https://globalnews.ca/news/7542234/n...christmas-day/

scrubbedexpat091

Photo of the RV a few hours before it blew up driving around downtown Nashville.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/26/u...explosion.html

scrubbedexpat091

FBI believes it was a suicide bomber and they don't believe anyone else was involved, they have been searching a house in the area for more clues.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/26/us/na...ion/index.html

zzrmark

Is it just me or does anyone else think that the reporting on this incident has been remarkably underwhelming? A bomb goes off on Christmas day, in the heart of music city, takes out 41 businesses, injures some and, despite covid fatigue, a silent president and general relaxation over the EU-UK negotiations,the story fell off most stations status as headline news story almost as soon as news broke.

As for motives, quietest day of the year in most downtown areas, warnings to evacuate, would indicate the perpetrator wasn't interested in damaging people. AT&T probably just pissed off the wrong person but it could just as easily have been a religious nutcase who doesn't like Hooters.

robin1234

Yes, agreed, it is intriguing. I can’t help thinking that the lack of response and the low-key coverage may reflect the poisonous echo-chamber ultra partisan division in the country. Every potential terrorist-like incident, partisans want the perpetrator to be shown to be their enemy. (He was antifa/BLM. No, he was Q-anon or white supremicist.) In this incident, a day or two goes by, which way is it going to pan out. Last night, I read a couple of initial profiles of the putative perpetrator - one initial observation was, he didn’t seem to have a social media profile. And neighbors said, he was quiet and kept to himself. So- was he a commie or a trumpite? Enquiring minds need to know!

zzrmark

That sort of thing hasn't stopped partisan media in the past, if anything they'll usually hype it up as being the actions of their 'enemy' then just go quiet when it's found to be one of their subscribers, by which time the adoring hordes have had enough time to absorb the misinformation, set it in stone and still blame the the opposing wing long after the dust has settled.

caretaker

Even if the blaster/blasted was a cypher, the trail of bomb-making and materials acquisition might show some affiliations. Sooner or later they have to say what they found in the house.

zzrmark

That's another thing, how long does it take to collect enough go-bang stuff and organization to pull off that kind of stunt by one person? You'd have thought that Joe Bloggs might have been flagged stocking up on Ammonium Nitrate, I'd have thought it tricky getting much of that stuff (assuming the obvious material for a big bang) unless you had a bona fide farm account?

caretaker

It seems crude, but if we take the Oklahoma city bomb and divide by....? 5? 10? 20? That one had about 4800 lbs of fertilizer. This has some info on availability and the Okla City bomb. Apparently McVeigh used nitro-methane as an igniter, and that is RC model airplane fuel.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1151975/posts
It's jumping to a bit of a conclusion until the FBI says what residue the thing left behind, and it could have been something else.

robin1234

That was a nice looking camper van. I can think of better ways to use it than blowing it up.

scrubbedexpat091

The lack of interest in the news isn't super surprising, there were no mass casualties, and FBI isn't saying much, so there isn't much to keep the audience interested, and apparently Trump brings in better ratings because that seems to be the big topic still along with the stimulus or lack of, and unemployment running out for some, and possible government shut down.

Apparently the house the FBI searched on google street view over the last few years had a similiar RV sitting in front, and some neighbors reportedly have seen the RV parked there. But apparently the reporter didn't think to ask the same neighbors if they knew who lived there or any info about their neighbor.

robin1234

The intriguing detail is that he transferred his house, recently, to someone else for $0. The beneficiary of this transfer has clammed up - says the police have told her not to disclose her relationship with the guy. She claims it was a total surprise, doesn’t know why she was given the house. But it sure sounds like he was planning to kill himself, so putting his affairs in order

caretaker

The neighbours said he was quiet and kept to himself. It's always the quiet ones.