Cuomo may be implying that it was “right-wing extremism,” not jihad, but this really isn’t clear enough to go by. The only thing it establishes is that Cuomo is more realistic and honest than de Blasio. But this still doesn’t make it clear whether or not this was an act of jihad. If our leaders had been this cagey during World War II about who we were fighting, we would be marking the 70th anniversary of the German occupation of Washington.
“New York blast ‘obviously an act of terrorism,’ governor says,” by Mallory Simon, Tim Hume and Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN, September 18, 2016:
FBI investigators are still collecting evidence from the scene of a bombing Saturday in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood. “The evidence we’ve collected is being taken to our lab at Quantico for review, and we are following every available lead,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge William Sweeney Jr. said Sunday.
Investigators have not found any evidence that an explosion in New York Saturday was tied to an earlier blast in New Jersey, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday. St [sic]
“We do not have any specific evidence of a connection, but that will continue to be considered. We’re not taking any options off the table,” de Blasio said.
“We know there was a bombing. That much we do know. We know it was a very serious incident,” he said.
“But we have a lot more work to do to be able to say what kind of a motivation was behind this. Was it a political motivation? Was it a personal motivation? We do not know that yet.”
Hours after an explosion injured 29 people in a Manhattan neighborhood, police were scouring the area for evidence Sunday as they tried to pinpoint exactly what — and who — caused the blast.
“A bomb exploding in New York is obviously an act of terrorism,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters Sunday, vowing that authorities will catch whoever is responsible.
The governor said there’s no evidence of an international terrorism link to Saturday’s blast, which shook New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood and sent panicked people scrambling for cover.
“A bomb going off is generically a terrorist activity. That’s how we’ll consider it. And that’s how we will prosecute it,” he said.
Cuomo cautioned that the investigation remains in its early stages and added that no terror group had taken responsibility for the explosion.
In light of the blast, he said 1,000 additional New York State Police officers and National Guard troops will be deployed to patrol bus terminals, airports and subway stations.
The stepped-up security is “just to err on the side of caution,” Cuomo said. “I want New Yorkers to be confident when they go back to work on Monday that New York is up and running and we’re doing everything that we need to do.”