Explosion in Nashville

[Markus Becker]

1 hour ago, Burncycle360 said:

My initial thought was maybe a precursor to further attacks since it targeted communications, but there haven't been subsequent attacks thusfar, and if it was the case, why warn people? So I dunno.

No attacks that were widely reported. This is 2020, so maybe someone did this do distract for their bank job? 

[Burncycle360]

Footage of detonation

https://twitter.com/zerosum24/status/1342570875871244290

 

[Josh]

1 hour ago, Stuart Galbraith said:

Yeah Josh , it's a red building that looks like a grain silo, northeast of the Batman building.

So options are this was an attack on infrastructure, although it's difficult to see why they would start with nashville. If you were going to attack AT and T for owning the libellous CNN, then why attack the switching building and not the office?

Disgruntled worker perhaps?

Well that does seems like a target worth damaging without necessarily killing anyone*, but I can't fathom the motive. Is there any reports on how damaged the building is? Most telecom buildings that serve that purpose are actually quite well armored against such attacks, either because they were built post 9-11 or back in the cold war and expected to survive proxy overpressure. I'm actually surprised that the explosion in that video was enough to cause any sufficient damage to the systems in a building of that type across the street.

 

*ETA: the presence of that switch building makes it seems far less like it was a political statement and far more like a targeted effect supporting some other action. Albeit probably not a Christmas bank heist.

Edited December 25, 2020 by Josh

[Burncycle360]

It was very cramped yet no collapse like Oklahoma City, low order or just a small device maybe but that's well out of my wheelhouse.

[Josh]

8 minutes ago, Burncycle360 said:

It was very cramped yet no collapse like Oklahoma City, low order or just a small device maybe but that's well out of my wheelhouse.

It didn't seem remotely as big as OK City. It will be interesting to see what the size and composition was. The choice of vehicle is also...odd. I'm willing to bet it was an older vehicle not registered to anyone or else stolen; otherwise I can't understand why you'd use an RV vice the standard Ryder truck usually employed for this kind of thing. It is a weird attack the more I learn about it, and yes, at this point I don't think it has anything to do with Trump. The ATT building seems to be the main target.

Maybe someone was really upset with their billing statement or trying to impress Lily.

Edited December 25, 2020 by Josh
added link

[rmgill]

1 hour ago, Josh said:

Was there a smaller ATT building near the location that was a switching station? It looked like a a high end tourist neighborhood of restaurants on the map and it was two blocks from the corporate headquarters building. I haven't been to Nashville in ten years and never went downtown. If there was some kind of identifiable switch or cable line at the location, it almost makes it sound like an Oceans elven style heist distrction.

Do I need to explain the concept of telephone exchange buildings and why they tend to have been in the same places that started with their being telegraph exchange buildings? 

[Nobu]

The noise made by the kaboom aside, it may also end up pushing the Russia House/Solar Winds hack out of the current media cycle.

What a coincidence.

 

[Josh]

1 hour ago, rmgill said:

Do I need to explain the concept of telephone exchange buildings and why they tend to have been in the same places that started with their being telegraph exchange buildings? 

No, I am aware, which is why I asked the question. These buildings also tend to have no windows and be built to withstand local natural disasters and if constructed during the early cold war, secondary overpressure effects.

[Josh]

Saw some footage of the aftermath. The ATT building has scorch marks going up a half dozen or more stories and two buildings across the street look standing but hollowed out. I’m thinking ANFO blast.

[rmgill]

Are the ones across the street that damaged? We saw an AN explosion not a few months back. I'm suspecting that this was not a high order blast, just given how nothing on that street looks worse off than a very showy fuel based explosion. The height of the fireball is also I think indicative of that. 

[JasonJ]

Some human remains were found but nothing defiitive whether or not it's possibly of that of a victim, perpetrator, or unrelated.

https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/ap-human-remains-found-near-nashville-explosion/amp/

[Stuart Galbraith]

9 hours ago, Josh said:

Well that does seems like a target worth damaging without necessarily killing anyone*, but I can't fathom the motive. Is there any reports on how damaged the building is? Most telecom buildings that serve that purpose are actually quite well armored against such attacks, either because they were built post 9-11 or back in the cold war and expected to survive proxy overpressure. I'm actually surprised that the explosion in that video was enough to cause any sufficient damage to the systems in a building of that type across the street.

 

*ETA: the presence of that switch building makes it seems far less like it was a political statement and far more like a targeted effect supporting some other action. Albeit probably not a Christmas bank heist.

It blew a hole in the wall and smashed up the concrete slabs that could seemingly be removed to put equipment in the basement. No idea on damage, but I suspect the building is repairable, with lots of equipment inside suffering shock damage.

The building is interesting, it strongly reminds me of buildings we were putting up in the 1960's and 70's to house telephone eschanges or police stations, to make them more blast resistant to nuclear attack. Im not saying that WAS what they designed the building for, but it certainly does have that appearance.

 

Yes, as Jason says, on CNN, they have claimed they have found what may be human remains near the blast site. So either this is some unlucky joe passing by, or its an extremely elaborate suicide. I do hope we arent looking at another DB Cooper here.

[Stuart Galbraith]

Im kind of seeing why someone thought it was an exploding Meth lab....

[Ivanhoe]

12 hours ago, rmgill said:

Are the ones across the street that damaged? We saw an AN explosion not a few months back. I'm suspecting that this was not a high order blast, just given how nothing on that street looks worse off than a very showy fuel based explosion. The height of the fireball is also I think indicative of that. 

Yeah, the pervasiveness of soot appeared to me that the technique used was for maximum demonstration, not maximum destruction.

 

[Ivanhoe]

As for cause, one interesting theory posted is that AT&T is the face of the Patriot Act snooping infrastructure*. Purportedly, AT&T and the NSA have been exchanging bodily fluids for years.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/16/us/politics/att-helped-nsa-spy-on-an-array-of-internet-traffic.html

https://www.eff.org/nsa/hepting

* And probably much earlier.

[Markus Becker]

In light of the audio warning that theory makes way more sense than an attack by ordinary terrorists or a lone madman. 

[Jeff]

20 hours ago, Josh said:

It didn't seem remotely as big as OK City. It will be interesting to see what the size and composition was. The choice of vehicle is also...odd. I'm willing to bet it was an older vehicle not registered to anyone or else stolen; otherwise I can't understand why you'd use an RV vice the standard Ryder truck usually employed for this kind of thing. It is a weird attack the more I learn about it, and yes, at this point I don't think it has anything to do with Trump. The ATT building seems to be the main target.
 

Might just have been some crazy guy who lived in the RV. Seeing as they seem to have discovered remains, I'd guess it was meant as a public suicide.

[Ivanhoe]

1 hour ago, Markus Becker said:

In light of the audio warning that theory makes way more sense than an attack by ordinary terrorists or a lone madman. 

Plenty of overlap between lone madmen, ordinary terrorists, etc. As always, we are scouring reality looking for cause/motivation, but the triggering event may have been something banal.

 

[Josh]

1 hour ago, Jeff said:

Might just have been some crazy guy who lived in the RV. Seeing as they seem to have discovered remains, I'd guess it was meant as a public suicide.

The thing is, it was a really well thought out and executed for it to be a lone mad man, and whoever did it went to great lengths to ensure casualties were minimal.

One thing just occurred to me - the ATT building might have been the target specifically because switch buildings aren't heavily staffed (sometimes completely unstaffed) and also any staff inside would have been relatively safe - those buildings are build much tougher than any conventional office building. So the switch building might have been the target purely because it was the most suited to take the blast without getting people hurt. It would fit the MO of the rest of the operation.

EDIT: That might indicate the entire exercise was a warning shot, though what would be weird about that is no one has taken responsibility.

Edited December 26, 2020 by Josh
grammar

[Stuart Galbraith]

The police apparently are not looking for the culpret. Which seems to imply they think this was an elaborate suicide.

[Burncycle360]

Regardless of the motivation in this instance, I believe we should expect domestic attacks at greater frequency post election, and that should hold true regardless of who won.

 The left potentially disrupting the balance of power in the senate and (if successful) could pack the courts will exceed the tolerance threshold of many on the right, and had Trump won the idea of four more years of someone they built up in their head to be an aspiring dictator would exceed the tolerance threshold of many on the left. Either way is destabilizing, especially combined with a congress that can’t seem to provide relief yet won’t allow the country to open up.  Eviction freezes and covid related unemployment benefits are expiring, and people are getting desperate.  If gas or food prices skyrocket next...

Edited December 26, 2020 by Burncycle360

[Ivanhoe]

If you drill down into Google Maps, use search phrase "2nd Avenue North & Commerce Street, Nashville, TN". Mostly restaurants, a few retailers on that block. Nothing one might expect would get targeted. I was halfway expecting to find some municipal/state government office.

 

 

 

[Jeff]

2 hours ago, Josh said:

The thing is, it was a really well thought out and executed for it to be a lone mad man, and whoever did it went to great lengths to ensure casualties were minimal.

One thing just occurred to me - the ATT building might have been the target specifically because switch buildings aren't heavily staffed (sometimes completely unstaffed) and also any staff inside would have been relatively safe - those buildings are build much tougher than any conventional office building. So the switch building might have been the target purely because it was the most suited to take the blast without getting people hurt. It would fit the MO of the rest of the operation.

EDIT: That might indicate the entire exercise was a warning shot, though what would be weird about that is no one has taken responsibility.

While everything is a WAG at this point, some of the smartest people I've known have been the craziest.

[TBeyer]

Owner of the RV identified:

https://heavy.com/news/anthony-quinn-warner/

[rmgill]

1 hour ago, Ivanhoe said:

If you drill down into Google Maps, use search phrase "2nd Avenue North & Commerce Street, Nashville, TN". Mostly restaurants, a few retailers on that block. Nothing one might expect would get targeted. I was halfway expecting to find some municipal/state government office.

 

 

 

Nothing other than that AT&T Central Office.