Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

[8bitagent]

Someone made a damn fine point.

What if...what if the Boston event doesn't fall into the 9/11, Oklahoma, 7/7, etc category...

what if it falls more into the VT Tech/Columbine/Clackamus/Pearl/Batman/Sandy Hook/Omaha mall/etc variety?

Hell, it's also similar in some ways to DC Sniper. Older radicalized guy with impressionable teenage accomplice who looks up to him?

Anyone else get what Im going at? Boston was 7/7ish at first, but somehow now has morphed to more of a Loughner/Holmes/Lanza sort of vibe. 19 year old goes on gun/bomb rampage?

"You people yelling about martial law conspiracies...what else should have been done? They were just going door to door calmly asking residents if they had seen the suspect"
-paraphrasing the sentiments on here


Ha, yeah right.

But who are those people?

Do you know?

It looks like an arrest. But I can't find any Watertown police action matching it. And that's a problem, no matter how you look at it.

While I agree with those on here rolling there eyes at the "see! evidence of a martial law trial balloon" sentiments, c'mon...you don't think *any* of what we saw/heard was in any way showboat/over the top?

In all of our collective years on earth, when have we ever seen a dangerous suspect on the run met with what we saw last week?

[8bitagent]

well... this does look rather suspicious...

Maybe. Here's a post that works pretty hard to identify the guys in that collage.

tl;dr, they're likely National Guard.

It don't mean they didn't do nothin', though.

However some of the men are absolutely wearing Craft Intl caps, so chances are former Spec Ops/Craft people were working as part of the National Guard response teams.

Not a conspiracy question, but were these guys doing their job? I'm not calling for big brother, but shouldnt a big backpack being left by a shifty acting person rouse suspicion to those TRAINED eyes?

And no the theory is not they were the bombers, but that they were "monitors", much like the theory of Israel spies in 2001

[The Consul]

You can bet that the FBI recorded their meetings with Tamerlane (that they claimed they never had) just like they did with Mohamed Ossman Mohamud. And those tapes will go missing, too; that is if anyone even bothers to ask.

Perhaps I have missed something - but I am most curious as to who was driving that Mercedes and how it is in such a big story the "not American" has managed to remain anonymous. Why did they leave in two vehicles? Why did they let him go...at a gas station (he claims he escaped these heavily armed men with bombs).

Not saying they're innocent. But if the FBI wanted to frame me for doing it while I was taking a shit in Ekalaka, http://www.google.ca/search?q=ekalaka+montana&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=zDh2UfT-HIPTiwLW1IDADg&sqi=2&ved=0CDkQsAQ&biw=987&bih=413 they'd do it. As long as everything is neat and tidy.

Like my redneck nephew said to me today "Well, I guess a lot more people are for waterboarding after this!" Jesus wept in his whiskey. He is ICE formerly Secret Service. This is how they think.

[justdrew]

here's a question...

what do all those tactical units and the rest, tens of thousands of them.. is that right?

What do they do on slow days?

[Joe Hillshoist]

....pressure cookers are weapons of mass destruction...?....so Iraq did have WMD's then....

I know, what a joke.

[stickdog99]

Why I don’t see any Russian plot behind the Boston bombings

inmoscowsshadows.wordpress.com

(snip)

The world is usually a simpler place than people think, and covert actions less common and less attractive than the movies suggest. We’ll wait and see, but to me this is a case of an alienated young man looking for answers and sadly finding them in the ideology of global jihad, and apparently bringing his brother into the cause. In some ways this is harder to understand than deep plots and cunning stratagems, because it requires us to accept that the Western liberal democratic model does not satisfy everyone and that we cannot control the vagaries of lost souls…

(Oh, by the way: North Korea has denied being behind the bombing, too. So that’s alright, then.)




This blog's author, Dr Mark Galeotti has been researching Russian history and security issues since the late 1980s. Educated at Cambridge University and the LSE, he is now Clinical Professor of Global Affairs at New York University's Center for Global Affairs and an associate member of NYU's History and Russian & Slavic Studies departments. Until 2008, he was head of the History department at Keele University in the UK as well as director of its Organised Russian & Eurasian Crime Research Unit.

His books include the edited collections 'The Politics of Security in Modern Russia' (Ashgate), 'Russian & Soviet Organized Crime' (Ashgate) and 'Global Crime Today' (Routledge) and he is a regular contributor to Jane's Intelligence Review, Oxford Analytica and many other outlets. He writes a regular column, 'Siloviks & Scoundrels,' for the Moscow News.

....pressure cookers are weapons of mass destruction...?....so Iraq did have WMD's then....

I love the analysis. The world is usually a simpler place than most people think, and the simplest explanation is whatever TPTB officially proclaim! Thank God for that! No reason to think any further.

[stickdog99]

You can bet that the FBI recorded their meetings with Tamerlane (that they claimed they never had) just like they did with Mohamed Ossman Mohamud. And those tapes will go missing, too; that is if anyone even bothers to ask.

Perhaps I have missed something - but I am most curious as to who was driving that Mercedes and how it is in such a big story the "not American" has managed to remain anonymous. Why did they leave in two vehicles? Why did they let him go...at a gas station (he claims he escaped these heavily armed men with bombs).

Unlike literally everyone else in this case, including multiple falsely accused, the media have respected this hero's request not be interviewed or even identified. NBC actually went with the "they didn't kill me because I wasn't an American" story based on email correspondence. Note that this guy is the first to supply the perps with a motive (US hatred) as well as the first to testify to their confession. But we don't even know his nationality, much less his name, his occupation or his reputation. Just a disembodied email respondent feeding the media well placed sound bytes.

[compared2what?]

While I agree with those on here rolling there eyes at the "see! evidence of a martial law trial balloon" sentiments, c'mon...you don't think *any* of what we saw/heard was in any way showboat/over the top?

In all of our collective years on earth, when have we ever seen a dangerous suspect on the run met with what we saw last week?

I can't remember any. But I also can't remember any searches for suspects where one of the dangers was that they might take out the lives and/or limbs of 180 people at a time with each additional strike, assuming that they were able to make it to some town where people were still out milling about in public and living free.

I don't know if that was a real possibility. But I don't see how it would have been good police-work to assume it wasn't, after they knew he was on the loose with nothing to lose. If it was my job to make that call as a shot in the dark under those circumstances, I'd err on the side of too-much rather than too-little, too.

That doesn't say anything about how they conducted themselves, though. It just explains the size and strength of the response. If they were storming homes for no reason and forcing people out of them with their hands up (a la that video), that's another story.

The thing is that it should really be one, if that's what happened. I mean, speaking personally, if my innocent neighbors were hauled off by the cops and I videotaped it, I wouldn't just post it to YouTube with a generic title to that effect. I'd make all the details as public as I possibly could. Wouldn't you?

Anyway. Back to your question: I can't remember a precedent for a response of that size to one suspect, in terms of manpower. But I also can't remember an equivalent situation involving one. They always shut down whatever streets, blocks or neighborhoods they're chasing suspects on when they think there might be shots fired. (Ten miles of freeway for OJ, for example.) That's not always just out of the goodness of their hearts or their zeal to protect and serve. And sometimes it's the reverse, I don't doubt. But in itself, fwiw, it's SOP for those circumstances,

I guess the answer is that I don't know. I don't see a clear, obvious case that it was showboating for public spectacle's sake only, with absolutely no other imaginable justification. But it''s obviously good for the brand for them to do that. And they do it all the time on a smaller and more local scale. So it's not like I think it's an outrageous accusation. I just think it's being hyped and misrepresented for shady reasons by some. And since that would basically be terrorism. I don't like it.

I could be wrong, though. It's just what I think.

[conniption]

here's a question...

what do all those tactical units and the rest, tens of thousands of them.. is that right?

What do they do on slow days?

*

Do you think they have to hang out with all their gear on waiting for something to happen?

Are they bored? Weary of drills and locking down schools and scaring kids? If only they could take those new tanks onto the streets...

Can you imagine what happens to your head when you put on a uniform like that? It couldn't help but change a person.

[Joe Hillshoist]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2744411.stm

[semper occultus]

Why I don’t see any Russian plot behind the Boston bombings

I love the analysis. The world is usually a simpler place than most people think, and the simplest explanation is whatever TPTB officially proclaim! Thank God for that! No reason to think any further.

.....ummmm "analysis".......yeeeeah....Galeotti is spook-central UK-US if that wasn't fairly clear from his cv.....

[stickdog99]

Jahar Admiration Society

She is a 20-year-old student at Holmes Community College in Mississippi, uncertain at the moment of whether she’ll stick with her current career track. But Emily Jolly is fairly certain of this: Dzhokhar “Jahar” Tsarnaev is no terrorist.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is shown in the upper center of the frame, wearing a white baseball cap, walking away from the scene of the explosions on April 15. (David Green/AP)

Jolly is among a growing legion of people who have examined enough of the mountain of “evidence” now available since last week’s bombings in Boston to be convinced the 19-year-old is innocent. Which is why, she says, she has taken to Twitter in recent days hoping to make the hashtag #freejahar a trending one, and of drumming up enough support for the hospitalized suspect to get him a “badass lawyer.”

Tsarnaev wasn’t even charged with a crime until Monday, and the government’s evidence has only begun to dribble out. But Jolly and thousands of other, mostly young people have already made up their minds, albeit with a wide array of conclusions. It was a setup. A false flag. Dzhokhar’s brother maybe did it, but not Dzhokhar. That Saudi guy was the ringleader. On and on and on.

Much of the support for Tsarnaev comes from another 20-year-old from Chelsea, Massachusetts, named Troy Crossley, who claims he is a friend of the suspect and who has been posting hundreds of tweets, links to pictures and hashtags, from #troycrossleytruth to #fuckthegovernment, over the past several days. Crossley didn’t respond to several attempts by The Daily Beast on Monday to talk with him, but one of his followers did: Jolly. And she explained at length in an interview conducted via Google Chat why she thinks the government is lying.

“Here is a kid with no known terrorist ties,” she said. “He is nineteen years old, he’s a US citizen, he has never been in trouble with the law previously, and the main reason—there’s no motive. There’s no evidence that Jahar was a radical Islamist. He barely even attended his local mosque. What reason does he have to hate the U.S.? He’s got scholarships from the state of Massachusetts. he’s a citizen, this is his home and it has been his home since he was nine years old.”

Asked how she knows what the evidence against Jahar is—given that most of it hasn’t been released yet—Jolly referred to Twitter.

“When I first started to express my opinions online, I found that so many of the people that know Jahar were expressing similar opinions,” she said. “Also, these people are being watched by the FBI. Why does the FBI care what these guys’ opinions are if they have evidence to prove otherwise?”

“He is nineteen years old, he’s a US citizen, he has never been in trouble with the law previously.”

Jolly and her cohorts have been researching the case ever since, they said, trying to pick apart holes in statements they hear on the media. Why would Tsarnaev tell the carjacking victim they were responsible for the bombings, as police allege? “Makes no sense.” Those unexploded bombs found in older brother Tamerlan’s apartment? “They didn’t live together.” How could Jahar have run away as quickly as he allegedly did with “multiple guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition?” What about this video with 350,000 views that maybe looks like he still had a backpack on after the bombs went off?

The problem, Jolly contends, is that “the majority of the ‘evidence’ we have to go on was ONLY seen by police and officials,” which is pretty much how the criminal-justice system works. If the government proves its case in court—releases a video of Jahar dropping a backpack, for example—“I will accept his guilt,” she said. “But until then I am not going to. If we don’t stand up for him now, it’s possible that he might not get a fair trial. They didn’t read him his Miranda rights, and yet he is a US citizen.”

Jolly cautions that she’s no “conspiracy theorist,” but this case has her rethinking everything, she said. Even her own future. “This case has me re-assessing my choice of major,” she said. “I’m considering law. Criminal-defense attorney.”

[stickdog99]

Boston Herald Op-Ed

The simple fact remains that several hundred terrorists and would-be terrorists have been prosecuted in federal court. The conviction rate — one expert calculated it at 89 percent — is a sobering one for any defense lawyer to contemplate. And the evidence amassed against Tsarnaev is enormous — some of it from that carjacking victim who survived his Thursday night ordeal and much from the videos and forensics collected by federal investigators.

Is there anyone who thinks Tsarnaev will walk out of prison a free man some day? No, we didn’t think so.

[stickdog99]

OK, Now this is too much. The SUV "victim" is now supposed to be Chinese. How is that the gas station attendant supposed to have confused a Chinese dude with a white dude?

Also, the victim now "managed to escape while Tamerlan became distracted as his brother was in the store shopping." What happened to not killing him because he was not an American? And now "the stolen car was spotted by police in Watertown having been given its licence plate and description." What happened to the police chief's story that it was tracked by cell phone pinging?

A man taken hostage by the alleged Boston bombers after he was car jacked was able to escape after they stopped to buy cans of Red Bull at a gas station, MailOnline can reveal.

The carjacking victim, whose name has not been revealed, has told authorities that being Chinese almost certainly saved his life, saying that the brothers told him they would not kill him because he was 'not American.'

The victim was able to jump out of the car and flee while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, looked to buy cans of the energy drink and chocolate bars.

From interviews with the staff at both gas stations and court records, MailOnline has been able to piece together the frantic events of the early hours of last Friday. ...

Dzhokhar was caught on a CCTV camera entering an all night garage with his face partially hidden by a grey hooded sweatshirt. But he left empty handed after his brother Tamerlan hammered on the glass front door of the gas station kiosk saying: 'We've got to go.'

His intervention came after the victim of the car jacking managed to escape and run across to another all night gas station where he pleaded for help. The victim, who is Chinese and his early 20s, was paralyzed with fear after bursting into the Mobil station where cashier Tarek Ahmed was working. The terrified victim said: 'Some men are trying to shoot me. They have a bomb and guns.'

In an exclusive interview with MailOnline Egyptian born Ahmed, 44, said the victim was so scared he could barely stand and collapsed on the floor.

Witness: Mobil station cashier Tarek Ahmed was working when the terrified victim burst in after escaping his captors Ahmed said that when the man went behind the counter to hide, he knew he was telling the truth. Ahmed dialed 911 and within minutes the area was flooded with police. ...

After being forced to hand over $45, they drove to an ATM where $800 was withdrawn from the victim's account. All three headed towards an all night Shell garage on Memorial Drive in Cambridge where Tamerlan pulled up alongside one of the gas pumps.

Dzhokhar went inside - and was captured on the CCTV camera at the front of the store. The photograph was released by the FBI hours after the impromptu stop and gave law enforcement and members of the public a much clearer view of the alleged teen bomber.

Mohammed Malah, 46, was working the night shift but paid little attention to the customer who head to the row of fridge where the drinks were stored. Moroccan born Malah, who speaks little English, told colleagues that he did not take any notice of Tsarnaev when he came into the all night store. He only realized he had been with the alleged bomber when the FBI swarmed into garage in the early hours of the morning last Friday. They had been alerted to the garage stop by the carjacking victim who had managed to escape and run across the road to a neighboring Mobil garage.

Cashier Tarek Ahmed described how the victim burst into kiosk. 'He was shaking, absolutely terrified and started shouting that some men had guns and they were trying to kill him,' he said.

'He said they had a bomb. He was so scared that he could not stand up. He fell over and at first I thought he was drunk. 'But then he got up and pushed his way to the back of the counter and said 'you have to hide me.'

He kept saying there were men out there who wanted to kill him. I'ver never seen anyone so scared. Ahmed said the man hid behind a metal door in a back room and he again pleaded with him to call police. 'I rang 911 and told them what happened. Within three minutes there were police cars here.'

He added: I did not see who he was running from, but he was so scared.'

Police spoke with the victim and were able to get a description of the car and it license plate.

FBI agents recovered footage from the security camera at the entrance to the Shell garage. Owner Alan Mendick:'The police came and we went through the CCTV footage.

'Yes, one of them came in here, but I am told before he could buy anything his brother came and hammered on the window and told him they had to go. He had some stuff in his hands but he just put it down and left. There are reports that he was shoplifting, but that's not true.'

The victim told FBI agents he managed to escape while Tamerlan became distracted as his brother was in the store shopping. Neither brother made any attempt to kill the carjacking victim. After speeding away along Memorial Drive the stolen car was spotted by police in Watertown having been given its licence plate and description.

[stickdog99]

Daily Mail article about disinfo page which seems to have been set up to discredit legitimate questions