Did South Park Motivate the Attempted Times Square Car Bombing?

By now you've heard about the car bomb discovered in Times Square on Saturday night. Inside a dark gray Nissan Pathfinder left running on West 45th St., a lethal recipe of explosives sat waiting to ignite. The bomb malfunctioned instead, and its telltale plumes of smoke were noticed by a heroic T-shirt vendor who quickly reported the suspicious vehicle. As feds investigate the possible terrorist attack today though, they are also checking into a connection between the car bomb and the death threats posed to South Park.

It all started with South Park's 200th episode, when creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone poked fun at the Muslim prophet Muhammed. Initially, the prophet was believed to be inside of a bear costume. As it turned out, Muhammed had never been inside the costume, but the insulting implication enraged a radical Muslim website RevolutionMuslim.com enough to post a "warning" on their website. Next to a graphic photo of Theo van Gogh -- the Dutch filmmaker assassinated in 2004 after speaking out about the violence against Muslim women -- the website warned that Parker and Stone would "probably" meet a similar fate.

Two weeks later, Lance Horton, a self-described "average Joe" T-shirt salesman, noticed the smoking SUV in a No Parking zone inside Times Square. Coincidentally, the car was parked right around the corner from Viacom headquarters (on Broadway, between 45th and 46th St.). Viacom owns Comedy Central. While no conclusive links between the bomb and and the anger surrounding South Park's depiction of Muhammed have been discovered yet, the FBI continues its investigation.

One Taliban official already claimed responsibility for the bomb via a YouTube video. But because authorities did not detect any overseas discussion of a possible terrorist activity before Saturday, they are reluctant to link the bomb to an overseas group, saying that it was more likely the act of a "lone wolf."

So far, possible clues leading to the culprit include fingerprints found inside the car, a stolen Connecticut license plate that traces back to a Stratford junkyard, surveillance tapes from the area and a few digits of the SUV's vehicle identification number -- the rest were defaced. Developing...

· Police eyeing link to South Park in Times Square car bomb [NY Daily News]