. . . After piecing together the shrapnel, police determined the devices were unsophisticated toy grenades that had been filled with gunpowder. Officers estimated that one was the size of a pineapple; the other the size of a lemon.
They detonated within a minute of each other at 3.55 am - 8.55 British time. . .
Sky notes also that:
. . . The consulate is on the ninth and tenth floors of the building.
If you've been there, you know already that it ain't anything to write home about. It has its own floors, but shares a building with a bunch of other businesses, as Sky explains:
Officials stressed that it was not clear whether the consulate itself had been targeted. The midtown Manhattan building houses a variety of domestic and foreign companies.
. . . Just to clarify, I don't know or claim to know if it was al Qaeda or a nut or an al Qaeda nut. Whoever it was, though, clearly meant to terrorize or worse. And we can't ignore the very real possibility that it was a dry run.
This site created and updated entirely by myself, Robert, a New Yorker living in London and Dorset, England -- and it spares my lovely, soft-spoken English wife from having to endure my carryings on. She thanks you for the peace and quiet she has found.
Expatyank@aol.com EMAIL REQUEST: This writer sure as heck doesn't know everything -- unlike the BBC's Jeremy Bowen, who obviously does -- so disagreement is expected. Well-expressed alternative views and interpretations are more than welcome, for that's how we all learn more in this life. But email is for contact primarily. So please phrase all abuse politely, and place it in the comments. Signed, The Management.
"The more he saw of Europe, the dearer his own country became, taking a
luster to all its parts that no one bound to the farther shore could know it
merited." (p. 331)
