Times Square Bomb Was Purposely Crappy

One of the big mysteries in the Time Square bombing case has always been why a trained terrorist like Faisal Shahzad would build such a lousy bomb. Yesterday police revealed the answer: Shahzad was aware that the FBI monitors the purchase of supplies commonly used to make bombs, and he thought that by using inferior materials he could avoid detection.

He was right, but the result was a bomb that failed to go off, the Wall Street Journal reports. Shahzad used non-explosive fertilizer, and comparatively weak M-88 fireworks, and the resulting bomb was a dud. Chalk it up as a win of sorts for the Bureau, because if he had used higher quality materials, the bomb would have killed thousands. (More Faisal Shahzad stories.)