Posted on 02/01/2007 5:02:47 AM PST by Puppage
BOSTON -- Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
"It's a hoax -- and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick.
Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force."
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.
"We regret that they were mistakenly thought to pose any danger," the company said.
Police said only that they were investigating where the device came from. The Department of Homeland Security said there are no credible reports of other devices being found elsewhere in the country.
An angry Mayor Thomas Menino said a stiff penalty will be pursued against whoever was responsible for the devices.
"It's about keeping a city on edge. It's about public safety," he said.
Authorities said some of the objects looked like circuit boards or had wires hanging from them.
The first device was found at a subway and bus station underneath Interstate 93, forcing the shutdown of the station and the highway.
Later, police said four calls, all around 1 p.m., reported devices at the Boston University Bridge and the Longfellow Bridge, both of which span the Charles River, at a Boston street corner and at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.
The package near the Boston University bridge was found attached to a structure beneath the span, authorities said.
Subway service across the Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge was briefly suspended, and Storrow Drive was closed as well.
Wanda Higgins, a 47-year-old Weymouth resident and a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, heard about the threat as she watched television news coverage while preparing to leave work at 4 p.m.
"I saw the bomb squad guys carrying a paper bag with their bare hands," Higgins said. "I knew it couldn't be too serious."
Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.
"Aqua Teen Hunger Force" is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of the Adult Swim late-night block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.
The surreal series centers on a talking milkshake (Master Shake), fries (Frylock) and a meatball (Meatwad).
The cartoon also includes two trouble-making, 1980s-graphic-like characters called "mooninites," named Ignignokt and Err -- who were pictured on the suspicious devices. They are known for making the obscene hand gesture depicted on the devices.
Did you see their "press conference"? Total jerks. I hope they rot the rest of their lives away in jail.
Are you even listening to yourself? You sound like a complete lunatic.
Ah, spoken by the person with his/her head in the sand.
Why? Because paranoid public servants made fools of themselves?
No wonder they were mocking the process... it's highly mockable.
And gee, thinking these things might be explosive devices is almost as silly as...hmmm...flying airplanes into building? Or how about putting explosives into the soles of shoes? Or maybe it's as silly as thinking a pregnant woman might actually be wearing a bomb vest?
You stay in your bunker. The rest of us have lives to live.
And you, Wormwood, should of course go on your merry way thinking nothing can go wrong in your life...until that terrible moment when you have to pay the stupidity tax. Sometimes it's a real killer.
They could be sentenced up to 190 years if convicted of all 38 counts.....and one of them could face deportation.
Madam, you are hysterical. Perhaps a you should take a nice nap.
No, three weeks for someone to come along who can look at a marketing campaign piece that looks nothing like a bomb, decide it looks like a bomb, and call the police.
Proof that the terrorists have finally won.
So any pregnant woman walking around in public is obviously committing a bomb scare?
Ridiculous. The people that should be facing 190 years are the politicos that got fat on big dig dough.
No, it's much, much sillier. Airplanes, flown into buildings, are potent weapons. A long history of aviation accidents, terrorist plans, and terrorist attacks proves this. Bomb vests are potent weapons. A long history of terrorist attacks proves this. In a confined area, even a shoe bomb may be a potent weapon. Reasoning about the effect of small explosives in airborne planes proves this. These tiny devices, in their context, could not have been potent weapons. Not unless you throw out all experience and reasoning, and operate on fantasy alone.
Exactly. It's interesting that they were in all these cities, and yet only in John F. Kerry's "terrorism = nuisance" city they got worried about possible terrorist act.
BTW, I wouldn't underestimate this to capture attention of jihadists - they've been trying to "immunize" us (like recent "airplane imams" trial run) from paying attention to this kind of stuff.
Unfortunately, they have violated several city and state laws.
Uh, like what? "POST NO BILLS?"
An infraction, like littering, at the most.
That is another topic ..... but 190 years each for the big dig politicos is much too lenient.
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