Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby redsock » Fri Mar 28, 2014 3:23 pm

Eyewitness: Waltham Crime Scene Didn’t Match Description of Triple-Murder in Todashev’s Confession
By Susan Zalkind | Boston Daily | March 27, 2014 10:06 am

http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog ... onfession/

The English is awkward and the handwriting in places illegible, but the threadbare narrative that emerges from Ibragim Todashev’s alleged confession note seems to contradict the facts of the crime to which Todashev was allegedly confessing.

On Tuesday, Boston magazine obtained what appears to be an unredacted photograph of the confession that law enforcement officials say Todashev wrote just before an FBI agent shot him to death on May 22, 2013. (A redacted version was released earlier Tuesday as part of the Florida state attorney Jeff Ashton’s long-delayed, 600-plus page report on the incident.) In the unredacted note, Todashev appears to implicate himself and his friend Tamerlan Tsarnaev—a suspect in the Boston marathon bombing—in an unsolved triple murder from 2011.

But the note raises as many questions as it answers. The note seems to state that Tsarnaev was armed with a gun when he and Todashev arrived at the house where the murders took place. There were “3 guys in there,” the note reads. “We put them on the ground.” The story breaks off after four clearly written words: “taped their hands up.”

The “taped their hands up” detail may seem glancing. Yet it drew particular attention from investigators; it was cited in the Ashton report as having demonstrated “the gravity of his [Todashev’s] involvement with the crimes being investigated at the time.”

But when Hiba Eltilib discovered the bodies of her boyfriend Brendan Mess, 25, Erik Weissman, 31, and Raphael Teken, 37, their hands were not bound or taped, she said Wednesday in a phone call from Sudan. Eltilib said that she found the bodies in three different rooms, all belly-down, in neat pools of blood, heads turned to the side.

“None of their hands were tied as I recall,” she said.

In an interview Wednesday, Aria Weissman, Erik’s sister, said she’d never heard mention of any of the victims having their hands taped, either. “That was the first time hearing anything about it being him tied up, that’s really bizarre,” she said.

And while the note’s claim that “we put them on the ground” sounds as if the victims were ordered down at gunpoint, at least two of the victims showed signs of a fight, according to friends who saw the bodies. Weissman had a bloody lip, and Mess had puncture marks on his temple and the top of his head, another mark by his ear, bruises on his face and scratches on his arms.

The confession mentions a gun, but it doesn’t mention the murder weapon. When Eltilib discovered the bodies on September 12, 2011, the victims’ throats had been slit with enough force to nearly decapitate them. The note suggests the motive for the crime was a “robbery,” even though eight and a half pounds of marijuana and $5,000 in cash was left in the apartment—and all three of the victims knew Tamerlan. Mess was a close friend.

Of course, by all accounts, the confession was incomplete. And because of the difficulty in deciphering the document, it’s impossible to say for sure that the note is inconsistent with reports of the crime scene. “Put them on the ground,” for example, might have been Todashev’s way of describing a physical fight. The note ends abruptly; there was almost certainly more to the story, but Todashev never finished it.

“Clearly it doesn’t seem like he was writing for very long, and typically those types of statements can be pages long,” said former FBI agent Mike German, a fellow for the Brennan Center for Justice.

German, who is not involved in the case, said it’s unusual for a written confession to contradict the crime scene. Typically, German said, agents address any inconsistencies in a suspect’s story before the confession is written.

“You would go back and say, ‘Well, there is one detail that’s not quite right, maybe you’re remembering that wrong,’” he said.

German also said the length of the interview, which went on for four and a half hours on a sweltering Florida night, could have affected the confession.

“You always have to worry about false confessions,” he said. “Particularly in an interview that’s gone on for so long. The person is sometimes just trying to give the answer that you want.”

According to the Florida state attorney’s report, the FBI has audio recordings of the Todashev interview which end just as he is beginning to hand-write his confession, near midnight, into the fifth hour of his interview. “Okay, I’m telling you I’m you I was involved in it, okay, I, I had no idea [redacted] was gonna kill anyone,” Todashev allegedly said just before a Massachusetts State Trooper got him to sign a form acknowledging he’d been read his Miranda rights.

Minutes later, he was dead.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 28, 2014 7:13 pm

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was encouraged to be informant, lawyers for brother say

By Milton J. Valencia | GLOBE STAFF MARCH 28, 2014

Lawyers for alleged Boston Marathon terror bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have alleged that his older brother and alleged accomplice, Tamerlan, was questioned by the FBI about his extremist views and encouraged by the agency to be an informant reporting on the Chechen and Muslim community, according to court records filed today.

The lawyers suggested that the interviews could have been misinterpreted by the older brother and could have “increased his paranoia and distress” – factors they want to investigate as they seek to portray the older brother as a dominating figure who may have pushed the younger brother to take part in the bombings.


Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed several days after the bombings last April in a confrontation with police in Watertown. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was 19 at the time, is now in federal custody awaiting a trial that could bring him the death penalty.

Related
Coverage of the Marathon bombings
The lawyers’ allegation was made in a 23-page court filing in which they sought a court order forcing prosecutors to turn over more evidence in the case, specificallyevidence about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, that they argued would be useful in their defense against the death penalty.


The lawyers argued that, now that the prosecutors have declared they will seek capital punishment in the case, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is allowed to present evidence of mitigating factors that would tilt a jury against the death penalty – including evidence about his age at the time of the bombings, his lack of a criminal history, and the possible influence of others, specifically a radical older brother who may have exerted “domination and control” over him.

“The underlying data concerning the brothers’ activities, state of mind, and respective trajectories is critical,” the defense team argued, adding that evidence that “shows Tamerlan to have had a substantially longer and deeper engagement than his younger brother with extremist and violent ideology is mitigating for the light that it sheds on their relative culpability.”

Prosecutors did not immediately respond to the lawyers’ request, though the defense team cited a March 14 letter in which prosecutors said they had “no evidence that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was solicited by the government to be an informant.”

Dzokhar Tsarnaev faces a 30-count indictment for his alleged role in the bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260. He and Tamerlan Tsarnaev also allegedly shot and killed an MIT police officer before the confrontation with police in Watertown.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held at the federal prison at Fort Devens in Ayer. He is slated to go on trial in November.

Prosecutors have described him as a young Muslim extremist who wanted to carry out jihad, or holy war, against the United States. They alleged the brothers learned to build the bombs through websites that supported Al Qaeda.

The defense lawyers filed several requests late this afternoon.

Another filing asked for any evidence prosecutors have collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, including digital records of the brothers’ visits to jihadist websites. The information, the lawyers argued, could show that Tamerlan had a more extensive search history than his younger brother.


Lawyers for accused Boston bomber seek secret data on dead brother
BOSTON Fri Mar 28, 2014 5:48pm EDT

Family members of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev leave the federal courthouse following the arraignment of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston, Massachusetts July 10, 2013 file photo. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
Family members of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev leave the federal courthouse following the arraignment of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in Boston, Massachusetts July 10, 2013 file photo.

(Reuters) - Lawyers for the accused Boston Marathon bomber on Friday asked a judge to order U.S. prosecutors to hand over more information, including surveillance data, on his late older brother in order to assess the relative blame of each man in the attack.

Dzohkhar Tsarnaev, who is charged with killing three people and injuring 264 with homemade bombs at the April 15, 2013, marathon and shooting dead a university police officer a few days later, faces the threat of execution if convicted of the worst mass-casualty attack on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001.

Defense attorneys said any evidence that suggests older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died after a gunfight with police while the pair were preparing to flee Boston a few days after the attack, could boost the 20-year-old surviving Tsarnaev's chances of avoiding the death penalty if convicted.

"Any evidence tending to show that Tamerlan supplied the motivation, planning, and ideology behind the Boston Marathon attack, and that his younger brother acted under his domination and control, is 'material,'" defense attorneys said in one of a series of a filings in U.S. District Court in Boston.

Noting that a Congressional report released on Wednesday showed that U.S. investigated the elder Tsarnaev after a 2011 tip from Russian authorities that he may have become radicalized, defense attorneys asked for any classified information gathered on the elder Tsarnaev.

"Evidence that shows Tamerlan to have had a substantially longer and deeper engagement than his younger brother with extremist and violent ideology is mitigating for the light that it sheds on their relative culpability," defense lawyers wrote.

Prosecutors have said that they have turned over reams of evidence to Tsarnaev's attorneys and that the follow-up requests are too broad to fill.

The Tsarnaev family immigrated to the United States from Russia's restive Chechnya region about 10 years before the attack, and were granted asylum before taking residence in a small apartment in Cambridge, Massachusetts, just outside Boston.

Defense lawyers wrote that since the family had been evaluated for and granted asylum, the U.S. government would have far more background on them than it would for a typical family of native-born Americans.

The surviving Tsarnaev is being held in a jail west of Boston awaiting a trial scheduled to begin in November.

The bombs that ripped through the crowded finish line of Boston's best-attended sporting event killed three spectators: Martin Richard, 8, Krystle Campbell, 29, and Chinese national Lu Lingzi, 23. Prosecutors charge that the Tsarnaev brothers shot dead a fourth man, 27-year-old Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer Sean Collier, a few days later, in a failed attempt to steal his gun as they tried to flee the city.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Mar 28, 2014 10:53 pm

Boston Marathon Suspect Gets by With One Letter
Added by Stephanie Tapley on March 28, 2014.
Saved under Opinion, Stephanie Tapley, U.S.
Tags: boston marathon
Boston Marathon

Boston Marathon investigators may have uncovered a costly typographical error that could have prevented the tragic event that occurred on April 15, 2013 from escalating to the level of chaos that it did. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was reportedly already on a watch list by Russian officials for suspicious activity in regards to being a possibly involved with an Islamic terrorist group. The Russian Federal Security Service took appropriate measures and made several attempts to alert the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations in regards to questioning Tsarnaev’s suspicious behavior. Tsarnaev was placed on a “hot list” so that an alert would be sent the proper authorities of all attempted departures and arrivals to and from the United States by Tsarnaev. Under normal circumstances, this protocol would be considered a legitimate safeguard to help keep a careful eye on who enters and exits the United States to cut down on the risks of a possible threat for a terrorist attack against a country. The Boston Marathon bombing suspect was allowed to pass through customs without interruption, all because of the misspelling of one alphabet.

On January 21, 2012, the Boston Marathon suspect Tsarnaev went to John F. Kennedy Airport and passed through all the security checkpoints in order to board an airplane that was destined for Moscow, Russia. No “hot list” alarm was set off. On July 17, 2012, the same Boston Marathon suspect reentered the United States via an airplane that landed at John F. Kennedy Airport. Again, no “hot list” alarm was set off. Attributed to this profoundly simple mistake was reportedly a misspelling of one letter in Tsarnaev’s name on the watch list. As a consequence of Tsarnaev’s name being spelled as “Tsarnayev,” the system did not pick up the physical presence of the Boston Marathon suspect at the airport in New York before departing on the airplane out of the country as well as reentering. Assuming that the “hot list” does not sound off or compensate in some way for typographical errors by performing a synonym, antonym, or auto-correction check on names, those who play a part in the welfare for the public’s safety had no cause for alarm during both moments when the Boston Marathon suspect was present.

One thought that might come to mind when learning of such a costly error as that of a misspelled name on a crucial list is what immediate measure can and will be taken in order to ensure this negligent mistake may never ever happening again. Hopefully, there are not more incidences of this kind of microscopic mistake on record that has already slipped past the supervising eyes that overlook the security operations for the United States. It might be completely accurate to come to the conclusion that no one in America, or anyone in the world for that matter, would want to relive the nightmarish event similar to that of the Boston Marathon; the last thing anyone should ever desire to see is another picture going viral similar to that which is above.
Mazars and Deutsche Bank could have ended this nightmare before it started.
They could still get him out of office.
But instead, they want mass death.
Don’t forget that.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby redsock » Sun Mar 30, 2014 9:58 pm

How the Marathon bombing manhunt really happened
In a new Boston Globe book, Scott Helman and Jenna Russell recount the day the city stood still.
By Scott Helman and Jenna Russell | March 28, 2014

http://www.bostonglobe.com/magazine/201 ... story.html

Adapted from Long Mile Home: Boston Under Attack, the City’s Courageous Recovery, and the Epic Hunt for Justice by Scott Helman and Jenna Russell, to be published by Dutton, a member of Penguin Group (USA) LLC, a Penguin Random House company, on April 1. Copyright 2014, Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC.


DAWN BROKE FRIDAY on a still-life city. Streets empty. Businesses dark. Houses closed up. A transit system shut down. The clamorous night, with the frenzy over the suspected terrorists’ photos, the killing of MIT police officer Sean Collier, and then the gunfight in Watertown, had given way to a silent morning, eerie and frightening in its tranquillity. It was the last day of school vacation week. The weather looked promising. A perfect day to hit the playground, to ready a backyard garden for spring. Vacationing families were on their way home, their fridges empty, planning to pick up takeout for dinner. But this was not that kind of Friday.

At daybreak on April 19, 2013, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, his name now becoming known to the public, was still unaccounted for. His 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, had died just hours earlier, after a shootout with police. The strain of the four days since the Marathon bombing was weighing heavily. With conviction mounting that the crisis needed to end, authorities turned to a radical plan: locking Greater Boston down until Dzhokhar was in custody. They knew the idea would be controversial — a major American city going dark to smoke out a wayward 19-year-old. Who had ever considered such a thing? Could it even be done?

Just two months earlier, with a massive blizzard enveloping Massachusetts, Governor Deval Patrick had ordered everyone but essential workers off the roads and shut down public transportation. The decision had its critics — “tyrannical,” some complained — but it had the desired effect: It kept accidents to a minimum and allowed a more rapid and effective cleanup. The gravity of the terror threat now seemed to justify something even more sweeping.

Patrick went before the TV cameras in Watertown that morning and delivered the unsettling message to residents of Boston, Watertown, Cambridge, Newton, Belmont, and Waltham, nearly 950,000 people in all: Stay inside, lock the door, and don’t open it for anyone but properly credentialed law enforcement officers. “There is a massive manhunt underway,” he said. “We’ve got every asset that we can possibly muster on the ground right now.”

Nervous parents drew the blinds, trying to explain to their children why they couldn’t run out into the beckoning sunshine. Watertown prayed for its safety, watching columns of police in full SWAT gear canvass its streets. The same nagging thought crept into the minds of many: What if the bomber is hiding near my house?

***

POLICE DREW UP A MAP that included roughly 20 blocks around the spot where Dzhokhar had dumped a carjacked Mercedes. Using Google Maps, they divided the area into five sections. Tactical teams, each composed of as many as three dozen officers, then went to work scouring Watertown block by block.

They rooted through yards, sheds, barns, pickup trucks whose beds were loaded with debris. They looked under porches and in basements. They asked people whether anything seemed amiss on their properties. Often, residents sought out the scrutiny because they thought they had heard footsteps. “They were kind of begging us — ‘Check the attic, check the basement, check the car,’ ” said Mike Powell, a police officer and SWAT team member from Malden.

For police, the assignment was already stressful enough, but no one wanted to let anything slip by. “You would hate to be the team that goes in there and misses something,” Powell said. Police knew the risks and urgency of their work, but they also knew they had to approach each house with calm and sensitivity, a task complicated by their conspicuous weaponry and armored vehicles.

Throughout the day Friday, police raced around Watertown chasing reports of suspicious activities. There was the 911 call about a woman reportedly being held hostage inside her home by a man with a gun. The person seen running into a home on Oak Street. The man speaking Russian who had crossed a secure line. The kid in a sweat shirt walking through a backyard. The young man sitting on a porch with a laptop, which seemed possibly connected to another report that Dzhokhar was online threatening retaliation for his brother’s death. “At least a dozen [times] just inside the perimeter, and then at the same time in the command post, we’re hearing different stuff that didn’t turn out to be accurate,” said Watertown Police Chief Ed Deveau. “But you have to run it down.” Watertown would receive 566 calls to 911 on Friday. The day before, there had been 28.

Authorities directed the manhunt operation out of a makeshift command post set up near Watertown’s Arsenal Mall. Around midday, as Patrick and Boston Mayor Tom Menino were preparing to brief the media again, there was a man in the street, not far from where the media had assembled, who said he had an explosive device and was going to blow himself up. Police had to move Patrick and Menino to the other side of some buildings while they checked it out; just another false alarm, in the end. “That,” Patrick said, “was the nature of the day.”

As the hours ticked by, nervous faces peered warily from windows of Watertown houses and apartments as people wrestled with whether to watch or retreat behind the curtains. They were frightened, but they were interested, too. Nothing like this had ever happened here, and it probably never would again. As the day wore on, many couldn’t resist stepping outside their homes, curious, dazed, and increasingly stir-crazy, just to take stock of it all. They watched in disbelief as convoys of armored trucks, State Police cruisers, ambulances, and fire engines from across New England roared up and down their streets, and they tried to read news in their speed and direction. They stiffened at the growl of low-flying helicopters. They leaned on one another for news and comfort. They gripped their smartphones like lifelines. Some turned to alcohol to calm their nerves. The whole day was like one big pregnant moment, and no one knew how it would end.

***

THEY WERE STARVING when they arrived in Harvard Square around 2 p.m. Deval Patrick was with about a half-dozen state troopers in full-body gear. Nobody had eaten in hours. They pulled up to Charlie’s Kitchen, happy to find the place open. Patrick had to laugh at the irony of it: We know we’ve asked everyone to remain indoors and businesses to close, but, hey, can you make us some cheeseburgers? People in the restaurant applauded the troopers when they walked in. After the meal, Patrick returned to the State House. Exhausted, he lay down on a couch in his office, not bothering to even take off his shoes.

Less than an hour later, his cellphone rang. It was the White House. The president was on the line. Barack Obama, with whom Patrick had been close for years, asked him how he was doing, whether he had everything he needed. The president had been following the investigation closely. They talked about the possible threats that were still out there, what they knew of the intelligence. They discussed the latest development, which involved promising police searches in New Bedford; authorities had picked up a ping down there from one of Dzhokhar’s electronic devices. Then Patrick and Obama discussed the shelter-in-place request. Obama told Patrick what the governor already knew: that they’d have to lift the request soon, regardless of whether they had found the suspect. They couldn’t ask people to stay in lock-down forever. Patrick told the president they planned to wrap up the house-to-house searches by the evening, and then they’d tell the public to carefully resume their lives.

Patrick knew, by day’s end, that it was time to go back before the cameras. What he had wanted to say — what everyone hoped he would say — was that after hours of searching, police finally had their suspect in custody. But that was not in the script. Instead he had to deliver the truth: that authorities did not know where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was. The Red Sox and Bruins had called off their games. The Big Apple Circus was in town, but there were no clowns or elephants or trapeze acrobats. The city had more or less ground to a halt. And yet the dragnet had come up empty.

Around 6 p.m., the governor stepped up to a bouquet of microphones at the Watertown command post, a blend of determination and disappointment evident on his and other leaders’ faces. Menino was by his side in a wheelchair, frustrated by how little they had to report but convinced that Dzhokhar was contained in Watertown and that the shelter order should not drag on any longer. “We can return to living our lives,” Patrick said, urging residents to use extra vigilance. Mass transit would reopen immediately.

It made for an odd and unsatisfying juxtaposition — residents were being told to resume their lives, but a man suspected of killing four people and maiming scores more could still be right there in their midst. Later, Patrick said he had come to understand that you could trust the public with information — that you could be upfront about what you did and did not know and that people would respect that. “I’m not saying there was unanimity in support for what we had to do,” he said. “I think people basically got that we were trying to do what was in their best interest.”

In the car on the way home, Patrick felt drained. And he felt uneasy. He called the house, where his wife, Diane, and his daughter Katherine had been looking after each other. They decided that, on his way back, he would pick up Thai food from a place in Quincy they liked called Pad Thai. They had found it on Yelp a while back. Diane and Katherine placed the order; Patrick didn’t have enough brainpower left to do it himself. Comfort food for an uncomfortable night.

***

ALL DAY LONG, David Henneberry had been looking through his window at the two fuzzy paint rollers lying on his lawn. They weren’t supposed to be there — they had fallen out from the tight cover on his boat. He was itching to put them back where they belonged, but he didn’t want to disobey the police. Already, officers driving up and down his street had spotted him on his back steps smoking a cigarette. They had waved, with a look that said OK, but that’s far enough.

The boat in Henneberry’s backyard, the Slipaway II, was 32 years old, but it was nearly impossible to tell. He had owned it for 11 years, and he had been working on it the whole time, restoring the cabin, installing a new teak floor. When winter threatened, Henneberry took pains to protect it from the weather. That was where the fuzzy white paint rollers came in. When the boat was sealed in protective white plastic, Henneberry liked to tuck 10 or so rollers under the bottom edge of the wrap, so it wouldn’t chafe against the boat and leave scratches. It was an extra, almost obsessive bit of care. Now two of the rollers were just lying there on the grass. As soon as he was allowed to venture that far, he would check it out.

Henneberry and his wife, Beth, watched the 6 p.m. press conference on the TV in their living room. They heard Patrick announce that “the stay-indoors request is lifted.” It was all Henneberry needed to hear. Well, they didn’t get him, he thought. He got away somehow, and now he’s in Boston, Worcester, wherever.

Beth was not convinced. I wonder what they’re not saying, she thought. I think they think he’s still here. “I’m going to check the boat,” said her husband, heading to the back door.

Henneberry crossed the small backyard to his garage. He grabbed his stepladder, carried it outside, leaned it up against the side of the boat, and climbed on. He rolled up a section of wrap that covered the boat, put a clamp on it to hold it up, and peered in through the sheet of clear plastic underneath. Sunset was an hour away — there was still plenty of light — and Henneberry could clearly see blood on the floor. He looked forward, toward the cabin, and saw more blood, under the seats. His eyes traveled back and forth between the sets of bloodstains, his mind working to make sense of what he saw. His gaze shifted, to the deeper interior — that’s when he spotted the body. The person had his back toward Henneberry, the hood of a sweat shirt pulled up over his head. The body remained perfectly still as Henneberry, stunned, backed silently down the ladder. Later, he would not remember stepping onto the ground.

He ran into the house. “I . . . there . . . He’s in the boat,” he managed to stammer. Beth grabbed the phone, dialed 911, and thrust it at him.

“This call is recorded,” the operator told him.

Henneberry recited his name and Franklin Street address. “There’s a body in my boat in the backyard,” he recalled saying.

“Sir, did you say there’s a body in your boat?”

“Yes, there’s someone in my boat,” Henneberry repeated. “And a lot of blood.” He stood at the kitchen sink, watching the boat out the window.

The operator told him that police were on the way. Then he asked whether the man was still in the boat.

“I think so,” Henneberry said. “But I can only see one side.”

Henneberry decided to go back out and check. Cordless phone to his ear, he walked down the porch steps and onto the grass. He moved closer to his 6-foot wooden fence, peering down the side of it to check behind the boat.

“He’s still in the boat,” he assured the operator.

“How do you know that?” the operator asked.

“I’m looking at the other side,” Henneberry said.

As the operator ordered him to get back in the house, Henneberry turned away from the boat. He was facing his driveway when police came running up it, weapons drawn, yelling: “Get back! Get down! Where is he?”

***

AROUND 6:45 P.M., right after Henneberry’s 911 call, Boston Police Superintendent William Evans jumped in his car with two lieutenants, racing toward Franklin Street behind a Watertown cop. State troopers and other police officers quickly descended on the property, too. Evans positioned himself in front of Henneberry’s house, looking straight up the driveway at the boat. He saw the suspect poking at the tarp. Everyone at the scene began yelling. Police thought he might be trying to get a gun through. “We didn’t know what he had,” Evans said. “But given what he did at the scene of the Marathon, given what he did during the shootout, and given what he did to the MIT officer, we knew we were dealing with a serious terrorist here who had weapons to the max.”

Dzhokhar’s movements prompted someone to begin firing at the boat. Other officers immediately joined in, the shots ringing out through the quiet neighborhood. “Hold your fire!” Evans yelled. He believed they had the guy, that things were under control. And he wanted to take Dzhokhar alive. The bullets stopped. Evans didn’t need guns. What he needed were SWAT officers who could get the suspect out.

Rich Correale, Mike Powell, and Nick Cox had spent all day searching homes and properties in Watertown. The SWAT team officers from the city of Malden had just finished scouring an apartment complex. Then the supervisor got a call over the radio: A resident had seen blood on his boat. Police called for SWAT units. A Boston squad was heading to the house and asked the Malden team to join. The Malden guys heard “Shots fired!” over the radio and raced to the scene. With the shelter request now lifted, the streets leading to Franklin were lined with people — “like a parade,” Cox said. The Malden team dumped its van and ran the last quarter mile or so, in full SWAT gear.

Everyone’s attention turned to getting Dzhokhar out of the Slipaway II. Police were on edge, not knowing what his intentions were, what weapons he had, or how hurt he was. They tried tear gas, to flush him out, but he didn’t budge. Instead the gas drifted down the driveway, where the Malden team was set up. “We got smoked,” Correale said. “The whole place cleared out.”

Around this time, an FBI tactical unit arrived and took command of the scene behind a leader from the bureau’s Virginia-based Hostage Rescue Team (the FBI would later request the leader not be identified by name). The FBI unit was composed of 14 operatives, including three specialists in crisis negotiation. There were also two “breachers,” who had responsibility for preparing the scene for the operation; a K9 specialist, who coordinated all the responding K9 teams; three “assaulters,” who helped run the show on the ground; two communications specialists, one near the boat and another in a vehicle a few blocks away; and two snipers, who got up on a building and provided cover for everyone else. The team leader quickly won the trust and respect of local police, taking their guidance into account, keeping them informed on next steps, and leading with firmness and unexpected humility.

Hovering in a helicopter, State Police outfitted with thermal-imaging equipment reported that Dzhokhar looked as if he might be trying to start a fire in the boat; dozens of gallons of fuel could be on board. The FBI team leader calmly told everyone to back away. If the boat exploded, he said, the flash would come right down the driveway. “I know this is your party,” the leader told Correale. “But we’re going to want you to back up.”

The Malden SWAT officers were prepared for the worst. They’d been told that Dzhokhar had a weapon and had exchanged gunfire with police. Indeed, throughout the two-hour standoff, all kinds of reports were coming over the transom about Dzhokhar’s purported arsenal — that he had a rifle, that he was armed with an AK-47, that he wore a suicide vest. “I was under the impression these people had no regard for human life,” Powell said. “So I’m thinking this guy’s going to go out with the last hurrah, and he’s probably going to try to take as many out with him [as he can].”

At one point, around nightfall, Correale’s cellphone had rung. It was his wife.

“Hey,” she said, “you know they have him in a boat?”

“Yep, I know,” he said.

“Where are you?”

“I’m in the driveway.”

“You gotta be shittin’ me! You said you were just watching sidewalks!”

The FBI breachers launched at least four or five diversionary devices into the boat, which produced loud, bright explosions meant to stun and disorient Dzhokhar. The idea was to buy police and federal agents time to move in safely. State troopers had also positioned a BearCat — an armored military-style vehicle with chunky tires — in Henneberry’s backyard. They tried to tip the boat over using the BearCat, but the trailer made that difficult. They punctured the tarp instead. As the standstill continued, the FBI team leader came over to where Correale’s team had assembled alongside a group of SWAT officers from the MBTA Transit Police and officers from a regional unit called North Metro SWAT. If Dzhokhar wouldn’t leave the boat of his own accord, there remained one option for taking him alive: They’d have to go get him.

The FBI leader put his hand on Correale’s shoulder. “We need to move fast,” he said. “Get your team. Get a plan together.”

***

THE CALL CAME while Patrick was waiting to pay for his takeout order at the Thai restaurant. On the phone was Tim Alben, the State Police colonel. Alben told the governor the news: “We think we have the suspect.”

Patrick called his wife and told her he couldn’t come home. They arranged a quick transfer of the food on his way back north. Diane pulled up outside St. Agatha Parish, in their hometown of Milton, and the governor’s car did, too. Patrick hopped out, handed over the takeout, and gave his wife a kiss. “Be careful,” she said, and he was gone. They raced downtown, picked up Patrick’s chief of staff, and booked it to Watertown, blue lights flashing.

The principals gathered in a trailer at the Watertown command post — Patrick, Alben, Rick DesLauriers of the FBI, and other top officials, including an FBI tactical supervisor who, with chewing tobacco in his mouth and a Gatorade bottle as a spit cup, kept in constant communication with the leader of the Hostage Rescue Team at the boat. A flat-screen on the wall showed the live feed from a thermal-imaging camera on the State Police helicopter above Henneberry’s property.

For a time, Dzhokhar appeared to be still. They didn’t know whether he was alive or dead. The color of the image on the screen seemed to be fading. Then everyone stirred: He’s moving! He’s moving! Menino couldn’t get into the trailer because of a broken leg, so he sat in the front seat of his sport utility vehicle listening to the police radio, fervently hoping that this was really it. Let’s get this over with, he thought.

As the drama unfolded, the second-guessing began: How had the teams not found Dzhokhar’s hiding place? Was Henneberry’s house within the perimeter that police had spent the entire day searching? A clear answer would prove elusive in the days ahead, as different police officials provided different accounts. What was clear was that no one had searched Henneberry’s house — or his garage or his boat or his backyard — even though he lived just two-tenths of a mile from where Dzhokhar had ditched the Mercedes. One neighbor had his barn searched, but not his house. Another had her barn searched, but had to ask the officers to check the structure’s cellar.

The searches may have covered hundreds of homes and saturated whole blocks with SWAT officers, but the manhunt had hardly proved to be airtight. They had not, despite the promises, knocked on every door. And so it had been left to David Henneberry to discover Dzhokhar on his own. The chance encounter in a Watertown backyard could easily have ended with another victim.

***

GRABBING a kevlar ballistic shield from a federal agent, Rich Correale began to assemble a team to approach the boat. He, Powell, and Cox would lead, followed by the Transit Police officers and members of North Metro SWAT. Two FBI assaulters would provide cover. The SWAT unit lined up in Henneberry’s driveway, Correale in front with the shield, the others in a column behind him. The FBI leader returned and briefed them on what he knew. Negotiators were having some luck getting Dzhokhar to cooperate, in part by citing a public plea by his high school wrestling coach, Peter Payack, to give himself up. Dzhokhar had lifted up his shirt at one point to show that he wasn’t wearing a vest. Correale ran through their plan, how they would go at the boat, try to get Dzhokhar to surrender, and grab him if he didn’t. The FBI leader went down the line to each member of the SWAT team. Flashing a thumbs up, he asked them all: “You good with that?” The leader told them that if they didn’t like what they saw, they should pull back.

As they reached the boat, a couple of the SWAT officers fanned out from the line. They now had a clear view of Dzhokhar, whom negotiators had coaxed onto the side of the boat. “I’m saying: ‘Holy shit, this is the kid on TV. This is him,’ ” Correale said. The same mop of dark hair, the hoodie with blue and orange lettering, the college-boy look that seemed so incongruous with his alleged violent acts. Mike Trovato, a SWAT officer from the city of Revere, remembered his thoughts flashing to his wife and his daughter, who was just a few months old.

Dzhokhar, illuminated like a stage actor by lights police had trained on him, was draped along the edge of the boat’s port side, blood trickling down. His left leg hung over the side, and he was slumped over. He raised his shirt as SWAT officers approached, seeming to offer himself in surrender. But he kept rocking left to right, his right hand dipping out of view inside the boat. He seemed to be falling in and out of consciousness. He was a mess, a bullet round having left a wound on his head, his ear all ripped up, a gash on his neck.

“Show me your hands! Show me your hands!” Correale yelled at him.

“All right, all right,” Dzhokhar said back, his voice woozy, lethargic.

“Get off the boat,” Correale said. “Get off the boat.”

“But it’s gonna hurt,” Dzhokhar replied. The side of the boat was maybe 7 feet off the ground. It wouldn’t be an easy fall.

This was the tensest moment for the SWAT team. They couldn’t see Dzhokhar’s right hand and right leg. They feared what he might be holding, what he might be reaching for. Maybe the groggy voice was a ruse. Maybe he was just pretending to be out of it. Maybe this was all part of the plot. As he began to bring up his right hand, Correale thought, Here it comes. Here it comes. Powell was thinking the same thing as he watched the hand slowly rise: Pay attention to his hand. Pay attention to his hand. Finally Dzhokhar’s hand came into sight. He had nothing. They kept telling him to get off the boat, but he didn’t. The time had come to pull him down.

In a flash, the SWAT officers and others reached up and flung Dzhokhar down. He landed on the ground, and not gently. The officers swarmed, immediately frisking him for explosives and weapons. They pulled up his shirt. They patted down his legs. Trovato put his knees on Dzhokhar’s arm and checked his hands for triggers or cellphones that could detonate a remote bomb. A transit cop snapped handcuffs on his wrists. Around 8:45 p.m., the radio crackled with the words everyone had been waiting for: “He’s in custody! He’s in custody!” A cheer went up in the command trailer back at the mall. Amid the police radio traffic, Menino’s voice cut in: “People of Boston are proud of you.”

In Henneberry’s yard, the officers’ priorities shifted to a new urgency: saving the life of a man suspected of killing and maiming so many. “It was a real possibility that he could die without medical aid,” Trovato said. “I very much wanted him to live.” Like many other cops, he wanted to see Dzhokhar stand trial.

Two medics from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives came running over and began working on him. Two Boston paramedics jumped in, too, and provided oxygen. Dzhokhar was in rough shape: fractured skull, multiple gunshot wounds, including one from a bullet that went through the left side of his face, and injuries to his mouth, pharynx, and middle ear. He was battered and bloody, but he was alive.

***

AT 8:45 P.M., the Boston Police Department tweeted the three words the city badly wanted to hear: “Suspect in custody.” Within minutes, Anderson Cooper and Diane Sawyer were repeating it on CNN and ABC. Greater Boston erupted in euphoria. All the pressure that had been building since the bombing, all that anxiety and uncertainty, evaporated. Revelers streamed into the streets near Fenway Park. They flooded Boston Common. They ran out onto the sidewalks. They waved American flags and shouted teary thank yous to police. They belted out “God Bless America.” In Watertown, they cheered as Dzhokhar’s ambulance sped toward Beth Israel Deaconess hospital. In the center of town, a crowd gathered outside the H&R Block and hollered attaboys at the cops, whose blue lights swirled in the darkness.

Correale, Powell, and Cox stayed at the scene for a few minutes, then started the unhurried walk back to their van. It didn’t take long before the gravity of it all began to sink in. That’s probably going to be a piece of history right there, Powell thought. “The drive back, we’re like we can’t believe we were involved in that,” Correale said. “What are the odds?”

At 10:05 p.m., Obama spoke at the White House. He promised a thorough examination of the Tsarnaev brothers’ backgrounds, possible motivations, and associates. He paid homage to the fallen. And he praised Boston’s spirit for carrying the city through one of the most trying weeks imaginable. “Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they’ve already failed,” the president said of the terrorists. “They failed because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated.” Back in his temporary quarters at the Parkman House on Beacon Hill, Menino cracked his bedroom window and heard the party on the Common. He felt proud of the city and happy as hell.

The sense of liberation Friday night was real, and in many ways deserved. Since 2:50 p.m. on Monday, Boston had been in terror’s grip. The sense of release could hardly have been more welcome. It was easy, though, for most of the celebrants to shout and to sing and to broadcast their civic pride in the “Boston Strong” T-shirts that were suddenly everywhere. It was easy to go to bed knowing that they could wake once again to a peaceful city, restored to its rightful sense of order. It was easy to look forward to the next morning’s Starbucks ritual, thankful that your son’s baseball game was back on.

But for all the wounded and the grieving families still reeling from Monday’s attack, there would be no such unburdening. There would be no luxury of exhalation. The week had ended for everyone else. Not for them. In many ways, it never would. As the brother of bombing victim Krystle Campbell put it: “I’m happy that nobody else is going to get hurt by these guys. But it’s not going to bring her back.” The only thing to do was to move forward, one day at a time, in hopes that tomorrow would be better than yesterday.

Scott Helman is a Globe Magazine staff writer and Jenna Russell is a Globe reporter. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby fruhmenschen » Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:14 am

two stories

1st story

see link for full story
March 31 2014

Official report: Todashev shot 3 times in the back, once to head

es attorney has concluded that Ibragim Todashev, a friend of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was shot three times in the back and once to the top of the head out of a total of seven shots fired.
The State of Florida's official investigation into the shooting by an FBI special agent, at the same time, accepted the scenario put forth by the FBI, that the agent was responding to a frontal charge with a metal pole by Todashev, during which the agent and a Massachusetts state trooper were in fear for their lives. (FULL FLORIDA STATES ATTORNEY REPORT HERE)
Todashev was a professional mixed martial arts fighter, although his father has told the media that as a result of a knee injury and surgery, Todashev could not move on his feet very quickly.


Read more: http://digitaljournal.com/news/world/re ... z2xcKAt5Pl

2nd story
see link for full story



Sarasota 9/11 terrorist connection mystery continues
BY DAN CHRISTENSEN AND ANTHONY SUMMERS
browardbulldog.orgApril 1, 2014


Two Florida newspapers have asked a Fort Lauderdale federal judge to deny the Justice Department's effort to shut down a Freedom of Information lawsuit seeking records from an FBI investigation into apparent terrorist activity in Sarasota shortly before 9/11.

BrowardBulldog.org filed the suit in September 2012 alleging the government was improperly withholding records on the matter. The government, after unexpectedly releasing 31 highly censored pages last spring, argued the court should end the case because of national security considerations and asserted a "reasonable search" had determined "there are no agency records being improperly withheld."

Court papers filed Tuesday by attorneys for The Miami Herald and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune say they were intervening "to stress that the outcome of this case is a matter of intense interest to the media and the public generally." The newspapers also argued "government officials charged with investigating terrorist connections in our state must also be held fully accountable."

"The Broward Bulldog has provided this court with ample evidence establishing

that the FBI could not have possibly conducted adequate searches in response to its federal Freedom of Information Act request," said the joint brief filed by Tampa attorneys Carol LoCicero and Rachel Fugate. "The stakes are simply too great to accept as a matter of law the government's vague, often second-hand conclusions as to the adequacy of its document searches."

The newspapers' friend-of-the-court brief asks U.S. District Judge William Zloch not to be "too quick" to accept an agency's claim it conducted "an appropriate search," citing examples where records that should have been produced were not.

One cited case involves the conservative watchdog group, Judicial Watch, which sued in 2012 seeking records about the Obama administration's alleged coordination with the producers of "Zero Dark Thirty," the motion picture about the hunt for Osama bin Laden. Allegations had been made the White House provided the filmmakers with access to highly sensitive national security records to burnish President Obama's reputation prior to the 2012 election.

A judge ordered the CIA to produce records about the matter, "but it was only months later that additional 'overlooked' documents were produced that included illuminating correspondence among the White House, the Department of Defense and the CIA suggesting a coordinated effort to provide a heightened level of access to the filmmakers and a desire that the administration be portrayed positively."

Broward Bulldog.org, represented in the suit by Miami attorney Thomas Julin, disclosed the existence of the FBI's Sarasota investigation in September 2011.

The story reported how, a decade earlier, the FBI found direct ties between 9/11 hijackers and a young Saudi couple, Abdulaziz and Anoud al Hijji, who appeared to have hurriedly departed their upscale home in a gated community in the weeks before 9/11 -- leaving behind cars, furniture, clothing, a refrigerator full of food and an open safe in the master bedroom.

Anoud al Hijji is the daughter of the homeowner, Esam Ghazzawi, a longtime adviser to a senior Saudi prince. Ghazzawi was also a focus of FBI interest after 9/11 when agents sought to lure him back to the United States from Saudi Arabia to close the transaction when the home was sold, according to a lawyer for the homeowner's association.

Agents searched gatehouse logbooks and license plate snapshots and found evidence vehicles used by the hijackers, including ringleader Mohamed Atta, had visited the home, according to a counterterrorism agent who spoke on condition of anonymity. A sophisticated analysis of incoming and outgoing phone calls to the home also established links to Atta and other terrorists, including Adman Shukrijumah, the agent said.

Shukrijumah, a former Miramar resident, is on the FBI's "most wanted" list and the State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture.

The FBI publicly acknowledged its investigation but said it had found nothing connecting the Hijjis to 9/11.

Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham, who chaired a congresisonal joint inquiry into the attacks, has said the FBI never informed Congress or the subsequent 9/11 Commission about its Sarasota investigation.

The story has taken several twists since news of the investigation first broke.

In February 2012, Florida Department of Law Enforcement documents obtained using state public records law showed in April 2004, Wissam Hammoud, a now-imprisoned "international terrorist associate" then under arrest in Hillsborough County, told the FBI that Hijji considered Osama bin Laden a "hero" and may have known some of the hijackers who trained at a flight school in Venice, about 10 miles from the Hijji residence. Hammoud also told the FBI that Hijji introduced him to Shukrijumah at a soccer game at a local mosque prior to 9/11. Hammoud confirmed making those statements in an interview.

Hijji was reached in London in 2012 where he worked for Aramco Overseas, the European subsidiary of Saudi Aramco, the state oil company. He told The Telegraph he knew Hamalmoud, but denied any involvement with terrorists. He called 9/11 "an awful crime."

One year ago, six months after the lawsuit was filed, the FBI suddenly made public 31 redacted pages about its Sarasota investigation. The records flatly contradicted earlier FBI public statements it found no evidence connecting the Hijjis to the hijackers. Instead, the FBI records said the family had "many connections" to "individuals associated with the terrorist attacks on 9/1 1/2001."

The declassified documents tied three individuals, with names blanked out, to the Venice flight school where Atta and fellow hijacker Marwan al Shehhi trained. One of those individuals was described as a relative of the Hijjis, whose names were also redacted.

Last June, the Justice Department moved to end the lawsuit, citing national security. A senior FBI official told the judge disclosure of certain classified information about the Sarasota Saudis "would reveal current specific targets of the FBI's national security investigations."

The FBI did not explain how an investigation it previously said had no connection between those Saudis and the 9/11 attacks involved information so secret that its disclosure "could be expected to cause serious damage to national security."

Anthony Summers is co-author with Robbyn Swan of The Eleventh Day, an account of 9/11 that was a finalist for the 2012 Pulitzer Prize for History. Broward Bulldog is a not-for-profit online newspaper created to provide local reporting in the public interest, browardbulldog.org, 954-603-1351.

Read more here: http://www.bradenton.com/2014/04/01/507 ... rylink=cpy
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby elfismiles » Tue Apr 08, 2014 9:16 am

From Peter Dale Scott via FB:

This story in Boston's Christian Science Monitor shows that the mainstream media are beginning to report the possibility that the FBI pressured Tamerlan Tsarnaev to become an informant, which might make Tamerlan one in quite a long list of informants-turned-assassins.
https://www.facebook.com/peter.d.scott. ... 2884438794


Defense lawyers: Did FBI pressure push Boston bomber over the edge? (+video)
Lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, say contact with...
By The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/20 ... edge-video
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby redsock » Thu Apr 17, 2014 4:35 pm

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/image-sho ... d=23335984

Image Shows Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s Last Message Before Arrest
April 17, 2014
By MICHELE McPHEE

A new image shows the bullet-riddled anti-American rant allegedly scrawled by suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the inside wall of a boat as he hid from a police manhunt last year.

“The U.S. government is killing our innocent civilians, but most of you already know that… I can’t stand to see such [bullet hole] go unpunished,” says the handwriting captured in the image obtained by ABC News from a law enforcement official in Massachusetts. “We Muslims are one body. You kill one of us, you hurt [bullet hole] us all.”

Two state and two federal law enforcement officials confirmed the authenticity of the image.

Along with bullet holes that interrupt Tsarnaev’s message, the image shows drips of red liquid on the wall, which could be paint or, officials said, blood. Dzhokhar had been injured in a firefight with police hours before – the same firefight that took the life of his older brother and alleged co-conspirator Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

ABC News has previously reported Tsarnaev wrote an anti-American message on the boat, called the Slip Away II, in which he hid during the massive manhunt last April. Law enforcement sources previously said that the message also included the phrase “F*** America”. That portion of the message was not included in the image obtained by ABC News. This week law enforcement sources said Dzhokhar also lamented elsewhere in the note that his brother was able to meet Allah first.

David Bruck, a member of Tsarnaev’s defense team, had no comment when he was shown the photograph Wednesday. In a pre-trial hearing Wednesday he repeated arguments made in court filings that Tamerlan was ultimately responsible for last year’s terror attacks. Previous filings indicated the defense may argue in Dzhokhar’s November trial that the 19-year-old was only doing his older brothers’ bidding.

“If the government’s indictment is true, this [case] is about a family,'' Bruck said, adding, "a story of this family and the relationships between the people in."

Dzhokhar has pleaded not guilty to 30 counts related to the dual explosions at the Boston Marathon finish line last year. The blasts killed three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and injured some 260 others.

The bombings also kicked off an enormous investigation in and around Boston during which, three days after the bombing, the FBI released surveillance images of the Tsarnaev brothers, who had not yet been identified, as suspects numbers one and two in the case.

Hours after the photos were released the Tsarnaev brothers allegedly ambushed and killed MIT Police Officer Sean Collier and then carjacked a man. A high-speed chase escalated into a firefight where the suspects hurtled bombs at the police on the streets of nearby Watertown.

Authorities say Dzhokhar at least partially contributed to Tamerlan’s death during the firefight when Dzhokhar hit his brother with a vehicle during his getaway. Dzhokhar temporarily disappeared, only to be discovered in a boat sitting on land in a local resident’s back yard.

While injured, authorities say Dzhokhar had taken the time to write on the walls of the boat in black pen. When authorities arrived, a bloodied Dzhokhar surrendered.

Based on the image obtained by ABC News, he begins the message with the Muslim statement of faith, saying that there is but one god, Allah, and Muhammad is his messenger.

Aside from the aforementioned legible messages, much of the rest of the note in the image is unintelligible due to the red liquid, bullet holes and fading ink.

Michele McPhee is a freelance reporter and frequent ABC News contributor based in Boston. ABC News’ Lee Ferran contributed to this report.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby redsock » Sat Apr 19, 2014 12:39 pm

Man carjacked by Boston bombing suspects recalls his ordeal
By CHIP REID CBS NEWS April 15, 2014, 7:28 PM
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-carjack ... is-ordeal/

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - As the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were trying to get out of town, they hijacked a driver.

The man, who asked to be identified only as Danny, told his story to CBS News.

Three days after the bombing, Danny, a 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur, had pulled over in his new Mercedes to text a friend when a man forced his way into the car at gunpoint.

"He asked me, 'Do you know the Boston Marathon bombing?' I said yes, I know. He asked then, 'Do you know who did this?' No. He said: 'I did that.'

"I couldn't believe it," Danny said.

The man was Tamerlan Tsarnaev. He and his brother, Dzhokhar, took Danny on a terrifying 90-minute ride.

"I think about family, friends, dreams. I thought, 'I cannot die tonight,'" said Danny.

They stopped at a Shell gas station to fill up for what was going to be a long drive to New York to set off more bombs. Danny believed the brothers were going to kill him somewhere along the way.

"I was asking myself, 'Should I put my life in the hands of the terrorists or should I put my life in the hands of my own self?'"

Danny decided he had to save himself.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev briefly tucked his gun into the pocket of his door while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was paying for the gas. Danny silently counted to four, then made his move. He quickly unbuckled his seat belt and was gone in a flash.

He ran to a convenience store across the street and yelled to the cashier for help.

"I begged him to call 911, please," Danny said. "I think he thought I'm crazy."

Still, the attendant did call the police to report the carjacking.

When the police arrived, Danny said they could track the Tsarnaevs with his car's satellite technology.

It was the turning point in a three-day manhunt, leading to a shootout with police that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev dead and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wounded and soon to be captured.

"I don't feel like a hero," Danny said. "Because from my opinion, I was just trying to save myself."

Whatever motivated him, Danny's quick thinking almost surely prevented more bloodshed and terror.

*********

Man carjacked by Boston Marathon bombers can’t forget ordeal, didn't tell mom
‘Danny’ spent 75 harrowing minutes being held at gunpoint by Tamerlan Tsarnaev. ‘I’m still the same person,’ he says.

BY DEBORAH HASTINGS NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Saturday, April 19, 2014, 12:01 PM

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nationa ... z2zLoH27fb

Life has mostly returned to normal for the Chinese man held hostage by the Boston Marathon bombers.

Known only as “Danny,” the entrepreneur no longer has reporters camped out in front of his home.

But he will not soon forget the terrifying ordeal that occurred one year ago.

“I’m still the same person,” he told the Boston Globe. “Even though this happened to me, it doesn’t change anything. Sometimes when I look back, I feel it’s not my story, it’s somebody else’s story.”

It’s a story he doesn’t like to tell. He didn’t even tell his own mother right away.

Rather, he waited a month before talking to his mom in China about the kidnapping, fearing she would be so worried, she’d pressure him to move home.

When he finally did tell her, he made sure to emphasize that he was completely fine.

“I told her, ‘Mom, it’s OK, I’m safe now, don’t be worried, because they have those two guys. One is dead and one is (in) custody, so they’re not able to hurt me again. And people here are so nice, so helpful.’’’

He had pulled his car over to send a text message one year ago and then someone started banging on his window.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, holding a gun, forced his way into Danny’s car, accompanied by his brother, Dzhokhar.

The Boston bombers took him on a wild ride, saying they were headed to New York, where they planned to ignite more bombs.

"I was asking myself, 'Should I put my life in the hands of the terrorists or should I put my life in the hands of my own self?'" Danny said in an interview this week with CBS.

At a gas station, when Tamerlan briefly lowered his gun while Dzhokhar was paying for fuel, Danny bolted.

“I don’t feel like a hero,” Danny said. “Because from my opinion, I was just trying to save myself.”

Tamerlan was later killed in a shootout with police. Dzhokhar, who was seriously wounded, was arrested after hiding in a residential backyard.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby elfismiles » Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:43 pm

Has something happened in Boston today?
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby elfismiles » Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:01 pm

elfismiles » 22 Apr 2014 18:43 wrote:Has something happened in Boston today?


Nevermind - think I misunderstood a news report
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby elfismiles » Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:25 am

MIT police officer's statement suggests FBI was watching Tsarnaevs the night Sean Collier was killed
Submitted by sosadmin on Tue, 04/22/2014 - 15:11

Image

Those of us here in Boston are intimately familiar with the details. We were glued to our television sets, radios, and computers, watching as our city turned into a temporary war zone. At first the events were confusing—conflicting reports and a story line that didn’t make sense. But in the days following the chaotic scene that unfolded in Cambridge and Watertown on the evening of April 18, 2013, just days after the Boston Marathon bombings, a coherent narrative was put forward in local media, largely based on anonymous and government sources.

But new reporting, quoting an MIT police officer, undermines a core FBI claim about what happened that fateful night. Only one of these stories—the FBI’s or the MIT officer’s—can be true.

On the evening of April 18, 2013, the FBI released photographs of the Tsarnaev brothers to the public for the first time. According to the bureau, agents had been sitting on the images for about 36 hours. Even though the Boston FBI office had previously interviewed and monitored Tamerlan Tsarnaev—a two-time New England Golden Gloves boxing champion relatively well known in the area—agents apparently couldn’t remember his name. The bureau's face recognition software failed. So, the narrative goes, having run out of options, the FBI called on the public to help.

About five hours after the photographs were released, MIT police officer Sean Collier was shot multiple times at the intersection of Vassar and Main streets in Cambridge. He died that night.

After the FBI released the photographs of their suspects, people who knew the Tsarnaevs called the FBI’s tip line to identify the brothers. And yet, according to the FBI’s narrative, the bureau and the local police did not know the brothers’ names until after Collier’s murder, an alleged carjacking, and a gun battle with police in a quiet, residential neighborhood of the Boston suburb Watertown. More than seven hours passed between the time the FBI released the photographs to the public and the time Tamerlan’s corpse was fingerprinted in the hospital at approximately one am on Friday morning. The FBI claims it only then discovered Tamerlan’s identity.

On its face, that story has never made much sense. Why didn’t agents who interviewed Tamerlan in 2011 remember him in 2013? Why didn’t the FBI put together the information it was receiving through the tip line? Why would the FBI bother releasing the photographs to the public if it didn’t intend to seriously check up on leads it received from Boston area residents? And why, if the FBI says it didn’t know who the brothers were until Tamerlan was dead the following morning, was there a massive FBI surveillance operation happening just blocks from where Officer Sean Collier was killed, on the night of his murder?

Newly reported comments from an MIT police officer suggest the FBI was in fact watching the Tsarnaevs that night in Cambridge.

In an interview excerpted by the local NPR station WBUR, MIT police officer Sergeant Clarence Henniger says that the FBI knew who the Tsarnaevs were before Collier was shot. Describing the mood in Cambridge on the evening of April 18, before his colleague was killed, Henniger says [emphasis mine]:

"The word was out, regarding the suspects. We know how they looked like, and we knew that they lived in the city of Cambridge at one point…We knew that his house was under surveillance, and the Feds were all over the city of Cambridge…knowing that he, they lived there. So we were aware of that."

The first public hint about this surveillance operation came in an October 15, 2013 letter from Senator Chuck Grassley, ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee, to FBI director James Comey. The Republican Senator asked disturbing questions about the FBI’s knowledge of the Tsarnaevs, including whether the FBI attempted "to use the tactic of ‘recruitment’or a sting operation with Tamerlan Tsarnaev". Grassley also wrote:

In the hours leading up to the shooting of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Police Officer Sean Collier and the death of the older suspect involved in the bombing, sources revealed that uniformed Cambridge Police Department officers encountered multiple teams of FBI employees conducting surveillance in the area of Central Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Senator asked director Comey to explain what was going on that night in Cambridge.

"Was the FBI conducting surveillance in the area of Central Square in the City of Cambridge on the night MIT Officer Sean Collier was shot dead?

"Was the surveillance being conducted in Cambridge on either of the Tsarnaev brothers, their associates or people later confirmed to be their acquaintances?"

On Friday, October 18, 2013, three days after the Grassley letter was made public, the FBI’s Boston field office issued a joint statement with the heads of the Massachusetts State Police and the Boston Police Department, denying outright that the FBI was watching the Tsarnaevs on the night of April 18. That statement reads in full:Previously, members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force have responded to similar questions relating to whether or not the FBI, Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police or other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force knew the identities of the bombers before the shootout.Members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force did not know their identities until shortly after Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s death when they fingerprinted his corpse. Nor did the Joint Terrorism Task Force have the Tsarnaevs under surveillance at any time after the Assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev was closed in 2011. The Joint Terrorism Task Force was at M.I.T., located in Cambridge, MA, on April 18, 2013, on a matter unrelated to the Tsarnaev brothers. Additionally, the Tsarnaev brothers were never sources for the FBI nor did the FBI attempt to recruit them as sources.There has been recent reporting relating to whether or not the FBI, Boston Police, Massachusetts State Police or other members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force knew the identities of the bombers before the shootout with the alleged marathon bombing suspects, and were conducting physical surveillance of them on April 18, 2013. These claims have been repeatedly refuted by the FBI, Boston Police, and Massachusetts State Police.To be absolutely clear: No one was surveilling the Tsarnaevs and they were not identified until after the shootout. Any claims to the contrary are false. [Emphasis theirs.]

The FBI states unequivocally that its agents were not surveiling the Tsarnaev brothers on the night of the 18th, and that its agents were in Cambridge that night "on a matter unrelated to the Tsarnaev brothers." But this statement doesn’t only contradict MIT officer Henniger’s comments to WBUR. It also contradicts what the FBI told 60 Minutes about bureau operations after the Boston Marathon attacks. According to CBS reporter Scott Pelley, then-FBI director Bob Mueller "ordered every single FBI office in the world"—not just those in Boston, Massachusetts, or the United States—to back up the Boston office’s investigation.

If that’s true, how could the FBI have been running a massive surveillance operation in Cambridge—the home of the alleged Boston bombers, of all places—just days after the bombings if it were related to a completely separate investigation, as the FBI claims? The Boston Marathon attacks were the most devastating terrorist attack to hit the United States since 9/11. Are we to believe that only days later, with the suspects still on the run, the FBI would send agents to Cambridge, Massachusetts to conduct surveillance on a different investigation?

That FBI agents would have been conducting surveillance related to anything other than the Marathon investigation—in Cambridge, just days after the bombing—doesn’t make sense on its face. MIT officer Henniger’s statement suggests the reason it doesn’t make sense is because it’s not true.

Is it possible that Sergeant Clarence Henniger of the MIT police department—the man who found Sean Collier after he had been shot—misremembered what happened that night? Yes. Is it possible that the FBI has been misleading the public about what it knew about the Tsarnaevs, and when? Absolutely.

In the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing and the chaotic chase to find the suspects, the FBI has essentially refused to provide detailed information to Congress and its own Department of Justice Inspector General. The bureau says that it mustn’t disclose information that could compromise the Tsarnaev prosecution. But when asked to testify in a closed-door session to the House Homeland Security committee, the FBI also refused. At the same time, its deputy director and the former Special Agent in Charge of the Boston office are perfectly comfortable speaking on national television about the investigation. Apparently the bureau’s concern with shaping public perceptions takes precedence over providing an accurate accounting of events to officials tasked with providing oversight of FBI operations.

In part because the bureau refuses this necessary oversight, we are still waiting for detailed answers to Senator Grassley's questions. If the FBI was conducting a surveillance operation in Cambridge that night related to another matter, what investigation rose to this supreme level of importance? If the FBI has been misleading the public, and its agents were in Cambridge conducting surveillance of the Tsarnaevs on Thursday night, as the MIT officer suggests, where is the accountability for what transpired that night and the next day?

The national security state promises that if we give up our liberty, we will at least enjoy security. In Boston, we got neither. The events that transpired in the Boston metropolitan region on Thursday and Friday April 18-19, 2013 cost hundreds of millions of dollars to the local economy. Our neighborhoods were plunged into a state resembling martial law. A police officer lost his life. The homes of Watertown residents were riddled with bullets—almost exclusively from law enforcement weapons. Many more people could have been killed.

How long will we have to wait for answers?


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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby chump » Wed Apr 23, 2014 12:27 pm

TOO THUMBS UP!!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1air7b7AlAA

Guaranteed to piss everyone off!!
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby stickdog99 » Fri Apr 25, 2014 9:00 pm

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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby stillrobertpaulsen » Thu May 22, 2014 4:08 pm

What Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote on the boat
By International Business Times
Thursday, May 22, 2014 8:44 EDT

Image

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev wrote that he was envious of his brother and alleged co-conspirator, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, for getting into the Islamic version of paradise before he did and warned the U.S. to “stop killing our innocent people” in a note, as he hid from a massive manhunt following the 2013 marathon attack, according to new court documents.

The full text of the letter was submitted as part of Boston federal court documents filed by prosecutors to fight a motion by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s lawyers to suppress statements the suspect made to FBI agents. He made the statements at a local hospital where he was taken after the manhunt ended when authorities found him hiding in a boat kept in the backyard of a home in the Boston suburb of Watertown, Mass.

While in the boat, Dzokhar Tsarnaev wrote the following note, according to court documents released Wednesday:

“I’m jealous of my brother who ha[s] [re]ceived the reward of jannutul Firdaus (inshallah) before me. I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive. God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions. I ask Allah to make me a shahied (iA) to allow me to return to him and be among all the righteous people in the highest levels of heaven...The US Government is killing our innocent civilians but most of you already know that.

"As a [UI] I can’t stand to see such evil go unpunished, we Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all. Well at least that’s how muhhammad (pbuh) wanted it to be [for]ever, the ummah is beginning to rise/[UI] has awoken the mujahideen, know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven, now how can you compete with that. We are promised victory and we will surely get it. Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [UI] it is allowed. All credit goes [UI]. Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop.”

Prosecutors claimed the writing contained “hallmarks of al-Q’aeda-inspired rhetoric,” which, they say, suggested Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have received instructions on how to conduct the bombings from a terrorist group. They also said his repeated use of “we” indicates “that others might be poised to commit similar attacks and that Tsarnaev was urging them on.”


Looks like they found the magic words where bullet holes used to be in the story redsock linked to from ABC News on April 17. Didn't the owner of the boat say he didn't see a damn word?
"Huey Long once said, “Fascism will come to America in the name of anti-fascism.” I'm afraid, based on my own experience, that fascism will come to America in the name of national security."
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby 8bitagent » Sat May 24, 2014 6:32 am

Can't believe it's been over a year. This is pretty much the last time anything important seemed to happen in the American news cycle, capping off the Batman massacre and Sandy Hook tragedy. Been kind of quiet since, CNN's Malaysia 370 notwithstanding. Funny how the new prosecution team is asserting the notion that older Tsarnaev had to have had help. Gee, really?
"Do you know who I am? I am the arm, and I sound like this..."-man from another place, twin peaks fire walk with me
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