FBI agent kills man linked to Boston bombing suspects

[hiddenite]

http://en.ria.ru/crime/20130530/181428156/Point-Blank-Shot-Killed-Friend-of-Alleged-Boston-Bomber--Father.html

pretty much the same article as slad's but includes morgue pics

[8bitagent]

why isn't this guy in a room with a few FBI people?

Leader of Armed March On Washington Calls For ‘Revolutionary Army’ To Topple Government
By Ian Millhiser on May 29, 2013 at 5:05 pm



ok probably cause he's white?...and actually has a gun?...or two or three?....or 50?

Or cuz it's part of the plan to allow crazy right wingers ratchet up the tension?

Notice how Obama came out saying he would fully support gay marriage at a federal level. He's pressing gun control(which is good I think)
And now he's said even the drone program has to be scaled back, defense way cut back, gitmo closed and war isnt good.

He's being allowed to, even if its lip service, do and say all these things guaranteed to be red meat for the right wing.

How long til we see "Wanted For Treason" posters being hung up by wingers?

[seemslikeadream]

^^^^YES YES

see these threads
Bringing Back Birch
posting.php?mode=reply&f=8&t=36463#preview

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=36468


there's a reason I object to JBS links

Context of 'November 1963: Racist Anti-Communist Organization Distributes Posters Accusing President Kennedy of Treason'
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March 10, 1961: Time Magazine Profiles John Birch Society, Calls Organization ‘Tiresome’
A Time magazine profile lambasts the racist, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS—see December 2011), in what is many Americans’ first exposure to the group. It delineates the organization’s penchant for secrecy, its domination by its “dictatorial” leader, Robert Welch, and its hardline battle against almost every element of the federal government as “agents of Communism.” Forty to 60 percent of the federal government is controlled by Communism, the JBS believes. Time calls the organization “a tiresome, comic-opera joke” that nonetheless has cells in 35 states and an ever-widening influence. In Wichita, Kansas, JBS student members are trained to inform their cell leaders of “Communist” influences they may detect in their classroom lectures, and the offending teacher is berated by parents. A Wichita businessman who wanted to give a donation to the University of Wichita decided not to donate after being hounded by local JBS members, who wanted the university to fire professors and remove selected books from its library. “My business would be wrecked,” the businessman explains, “if those people got on the phone and kept on yelling that I am a Communist because I give money to the school.” Nashville, Tennessee, JBS members organize community members to verbally attack neighbors whom they suspect of Communist affiliations. JBS’s current priority, Time writes, is to bring about the impeachment of Chief Justice Earl Warren. Welch, who obtained his wealth from his brother’s candymaking business, believes that Social Security and the federal income tax are all part of the “creeping socialism” that is taking over the federal government. He retired from the business in 1957 and founded the JBS shortly thereafter, naming it for a US Navy captain killed by Chinese Communist guerrillas after the end of World War II. Welch’s seminal tract, “The Politician,” accuses President Eisenhower and his brother Milton Eisenhower of being Communist plants, and accuses both men of treason against the nation. [TIME, 3/10/1961]
Entity Tags: Milton Eisenhower, John Birch Society, Time magazine, Dwight Eisenhower, Robert Welch, Earl Warren
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda

November 1963: Racist Anti-Communist Organization Distributes Posters Accusing President Kennedy of Treason

Part of a poster distributed by the John Birch Society in Dallas in the days before President Kennedy’s motorcade travels through that city. Kennedy will be assassinated while in the motorcade. [Source: Spartacus Schoolnet (.com)]
The John Birch Society (JBS—see March 10, 1961 and December 2011), an anti-Communist organization that embraces racist and white supremacist ideologies, distrubutes posters throughout Dallas accusing President Kennedy of committing treason against the United States. The poster distribution is timed to coincide with Kennedy’s visit to Dallas, where he is scheduled to drive through the city in a motorcade on November 22. Kennedy will be assassinated during that motorcade. The poster, designed to appear as a “Wanted” notice, enumerates the following “charges” against Kennedy:
“Betraying the Constitution (which he swore to uphold). He is turning the sovereignty of the US over to the Communist controlled United Nations. He is betraying our friends (Cuba, Katanga, Portugal) and befriending our enemies (Russia, Yugoslavia, Poland).”
“He has been WRONG on innumerable issues affecting the security of the US (United Nations, Berlin Wall, Missile Removal, Cuba, Wheat deals, Test Ban Treaty, etc.).”
“He has been lax in enforcing the Communist Registration laws.”
“He has given support and encouragement to the Communist-inspired racial riots.”
“He has illegally invaded a sovereign State with federal troops.”
“He has consistently appointed Anti-Christians to Federal office. Upholds the Supreme Court in Anti-Christian rulings. Aliens and known Communists abound in Federal offices.”
“He has been caught in fantastic LIES to the American people (including personal ones like his previous marriage and divorce).” [SPARTACUS SCHOOLNET, 2008]
Entity Tags: John F. Kennedy, United Nations, John Birch Society
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda
December 6, 2009: Reporter Compares Koch-Funded Opposition to Health Care Reform, Other Obama Initiatives to Anti-Communist Efforts of John Birch Society
Reporter Lee Fang of the liberal Center for American Progress writes an op-ed for the Boston Globe comparing the current political attacks against Democratic efforts to reform health care being coordinated by the Koch brothers (see 1977-Present, 1979-1980, 1981-2010, 1984 and After, May 6, 2006, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, and November 2009) with the efforts of their father, Fred Koch (see 1940 and After), to label former President John F. Kennedy a traitor and a Communist tool. David Koch recently helped coordinate, from behind the scenes, a protest that compared health care reform to the Holocaust, and other protests that have turned violent. More systematically, he and his reclusive brother Charles have funded such conservative organizations as Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see Late 2004) and other front groups, none of which bear the Koch name. Fang writes: “Americans for Prosperity’s tactics are not new. Just as Koch inherited his oil business from his father, Americans for Prosperity borrows from the ultra-right group also founded in part by his dad, the John Birch Society” (see 1945 and After, March 10, 1961, 1963, August 4, 2008, and April 26, 2010). Fred Koch helped conceive the far-right, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS), which, Fang writes, “cloaked its pro-business, anti-civil rights agenda in the rhetoric of the Cold War.” The JBS labeled Kennedy a Communist-inspired traitor and advocated his impeachment (see November 1963), stood against taxation as another aspect of “creeping Communism” inside the federal government, and claimed that the civil rights movement was being directed by the Soviet Union (see April 13, 2009 and December 11, 2009). The JBS helped promote the 1964 presidential candidacy of Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) and helped Republicans win key Congressional seats in 1966. AFP and the JBS are alike, Fang notes, in that they rarely acknowledge their funding from wealthy corporate magnates. Both portray themselves as grassroots organizations that are dedicated to promoting freedom. For a time, the JBS succeeded in aligning the interests of the very rich with the idea of anti-Communist patriotism. Similarly, AFP promotes the interests of the extremely wealthy, including the Koch brothers, as synonymous with patriotic opposition to health care reform, financial regulation, net neutrality, and the estate tax. All are labeled as “socialist,” a favorite JBS epithet. Fang concludes that “[w]ith his millions,” David Koch will have “contributed greatly to the obstruction of universal health care, the denial of climate change, and the derailment of much of President Obama’s domestic agenda. His dad would be pleased.” [BOSTON GLOBE, 12/6/2009]
Entity Tags: Barry Goldwater, Americans for Prosperity, Barack Obama, Charles Koch, David Koch, John Birch Society, John F. Kennedy, Lee Fang, Fred Koch
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda
August 28, 2010: New York Times Columnist Jabs at Billionaire Oil Magnates behind Tea Party Movement
Liberal New York Times columnist Frank Rich writes an op-ed focusing on the billionaire Koch brothers (see 1977-Present, 1979-1980, 1981-2010, 1984 and After, 1997, Late 2004, August 5, 2009, November 2009, July 3-4, 2010, August 30, 2010, and October 4, 2011), the oil magnates who are the driving force behind the tea party movement. Rich writes that “even those carrying the Kochs’ banner may not know who these brothers are.” Rich, using information from historian Kim Phillips-Fein’s book Invisible Hands, notes that the Kochs are the latest in a long line of behind-the-scenes corporate manipulators “who have financed the far right (see September 2010 and August 17, 2011) ever since the du Pont brothers spawned the American Liberty League in 1934 to bring down” the Roosevelt administration (see August 23, 1934 and After). “You can draw a straight line from the Liberty League’s crusade against the New Deal ‘socialism’ of Social Security, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and child labor laws to the John Birch Society-Barry Goldwater assault on [the Kennedy administration] and Medicare (see 1962 and November 1963) to the Koch-Murdoch-backed juggernaut against our ‘socialist’ president,” Rich writes. “Only the fat cats change—not their methods and not their pet bugaboos (taxes, corporate regulation, organized labor, and government ‘handouts’ to the poor, unemployed, ill, and elderly). Even the sources of their fortunes remain fairly constant. Koch Industries began with oil in the 1930s and now also spews an array of industrial products, from Dixie cups to Lycra, not unlike DuPont’s portfolio of paint and plastics. Sometimes the biological DNA persists as well. The Koch brothers’ father, Fred (see 1940 and After), was among the select group chosen to serve on the Birch Society’s top governing body. In a recorded 1963 speech that survives in a University of Michigan archive, he can be heard warning of ‘a takeover’ of America in which Communists would ‘infiltrate the highest offices of government in the US until the president is a Communist, unknown to the rest of us.’ That rant could be delivered as is at any tea party rally today.” Rich also focuses on FreedomWorks (see 1984 and After, May 16, 2008, February 16-17, 2009, February 19, 2009 and After, February 27, 2009, March 13, 2009 and After, April 2009 and After, April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, June 26, 2009, Late July, 2009, August 5, 2009, August 6, 2009, August 6-7, 2009, August 10, 2009, August 14, 2009, August 19, 2009, August 24, 2010, September 2010, September 12, 2010 and August 17, 2011), one of the two “major sponsor[s]” of the tea party movement, along with Americans for Prosperity (AFP—see Late 2004, October 2008, January 2009 and After, February 16, 2009, February 16-17, 2009, February 17, 2009, February 19, 2009 and After, April 2009 and After, April 8, 2009, May 29, 2009, July 23, 2009, July 27, 2009, August 5, 2009, August 6, 2009, August 6, 2009, August 10, 2009, August 14, 2009, October 2, 2009, November 2009, February 15, 2010, April 15, 2010, July 3-4, 2010, August 24, 2010, August 30, 2010, September 20, 2010 and August 17, 2011). Both FreedomWorks and AFP are heavily funded by the Koch brothers. Rich writes: “Tea partiers may share the Kochs’ detestation of taxes, big government, and [President] Obama. But there’s a difference between mainstream conservatism and a fringe agenda that tilts completely toward big business, whether on Wall Street or in the Gulf of Mexico, while dismantling fundamental government safety nets designed to protect the unemployed, public health, workplace safety, and the subsistence of the elderly.” Rich writes that the Koch brothers’ agenda is “inexorably… morphing into the GOP agenda,” and points to Republican luminaries such as incoming House Speaker John Boehner (R-MO) and tea party candidates such as Rand Paul (see March 27, 2010, May 17, 2010, October 25, 2010 and After, October 26, 2010 and November 10, 2010), Sharron Angle (see January 2010, Mid-May, 2010, Mid-June 2010, June 16, 2010 and September 18, 2010), and Joe Miller (see July 19, 2010, July 23, 2010, October 17, 2010, October 17, 2010 and October 18, 2010). “The Koch brothers must be laughing all the way to the bank knowing that working Americans are aiding and abetting their selfish interests,” Rich concludes. [NEW YORK TIMES, 8/28/2010]
Entity Tags: Rand Paul, Koch Industries, Sharron Angle, Joseph Wayne (“Joe”) Miller, Kim Phillips-Fein, John Birch Society, Barack Obama, Americans for Prosperity, American Liberty League, Charles Koch, John Boehner, David Koch, Fred Koch, FreedomWorks, Frank Rich
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda
September 2010: Columnist Says ‘Tea Party’ Movement Latest in Long Line of Organizations Opposing Democratic Presidencies
Mother Jones columnist Kevin Drum compares the “tea party” movement to earlier organizations, each formed, he writes, to oppose Democratic presidencies. “[T]oo many observers mistakenly react to the tea party as if it’s brand new, an organic and spontaneous response to something unique in the current political climate,” he writes. “But it’s not. It’s not a response to the recession or to health care reform or to some kind of spectacular new liberal overreach. It’s what happens whenever a Democrat takes over the White House. When FDR was in office in the 1930s, conservative zealotry coalesced in the Liberty League (see August 23, 1934 and After). When JFK won the presidency in the ‘60s, the John Birch Society flourished (see November 1963). When Bill Clinton ended the Reagan Revolution in the ‘90s, talk radio erupted with the conspiracy theories of the Arkansas Project. And today, with Barack Obama in the Oval Office, it’s the tea party’s turn.” While differences between the various groups are substantive, Drum writes, the similarities are overwhelming. Drum notes that industrialist Fred Koch, an early backer of the Birchers (see 1940 and After), gave way to his sons, David and Charles Koch, who helped launch the organization that would become FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity, both of which are major funders and organizers of the tea party movement (see 1979-1980 and 1984 and After). Tea partiers rely on a 50-year-old radical reinterpretation of the Constitution, W. Cleon Skousen’s The 5000 Year Leap; Skousen’s anti-Communist polemics were popular with the Birchers. And Robert Welch, the founder of the John Birch Society (JBS—see March 10, 1961 and December 2011), believed that the 17th Amendment, which affirms the direct election of US senators, was what Drum calls “a poisonous concentration of power in the federal government.” Tea partiers and Fox News hosts hawk this same theory today (see October 16, 2009, April 8, 2010, and June 11, 2010). Drum writes that, far from being motivated by personal economic hardship (tea party supporters tend to be more affluent and less affected by the economic downturn than the average American—see April 14, 2010) or even because of a dislike of President Obama because of his race, the tea party exists because “[e]ver since the 1930s, something very much like the tea party movement has fluoresced every time a Democrat wins the presidency, and the nature of the fluorescence always follows many of the same broad contours: a reverence for the Constitution, a supposedly spontaneous uprising of formerly nonpolitical middle-class activists, a preoccupation with socialism and the expanding tyranny of big government, a bitterness toward an underclass viewed as unwilling to work, and a weakness for outlandish conspiracy theories.”
Constitutional 'Purity' - One similarity is the focus of each group on what they term the “purity” or “sanctity” of the US Constitution, even as they apply their sometimes-radical reinterpretations of constitutional mandates. “The Liberty Leaguers… spoke of it with ‘worshipful intensity,’” Drum writes. “The John Birch Society—which is enjoying a renaissance of sorts today (see July 22, 2007, August 4, 2008, October 10, 2008, April 13, 2009, April 19, 2010, and August 24, 2010)—says of itself, ‘From its earliest days the John Birch Society has emphasized the importance of the Constitution for securing our freedom.’ And… study groups dedicated to the Constitution have mushroomed among tea partiers” (see May 2010).
Fear of 'Creeping Socialism' and Tyranny - Drum writes: “Other shared tropes include a fear of ‘losing the country we grew up in,’ an obsession with ‘parasites’ who are leeching off of hardworking Americans, and—even though they’ve always received copious assistance from business interests and political operatives—a myth that the movement is composed entirely of fed-up grassroots amateurs” (see 1984 and After, Late 2004, January 2009 and After, February 17, 2009, February 19, 2009 and After, March 13, 2009 and After, April 14, 2009, April 15, 2009, May 29, 2009, July 27, 2009, August 4, 2009, August 5, 2009, July 3-4, 2010, and August 30, 2010). Above all, though, is the recurring theme of “creeping socialism and a federal government that’s destroying our freedoms.” The American Liberty League fought to stop the Roosevelt administration from establishing Social Security, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), and what Drum calls an “alphabet soup of new regulatory agencies.” In the 1960s, the John Birch Society (JBS) felt the government was being overrun by Communism and “collectivism.” Drum notes that JBS founder Robert Welch’s mantra, “Less government and more responsibility,” echoes central tenets of tea party beliefs. In the 1990s, then-Representative Newt Gingrich (R-GA) became House Speaker in large part because of his opposition to the Clinton administration and his leadership in the right’s battle to defund federal social-net programs. Today, tea partiers echo the JBS in their insistence that Obama is a closet Marxist or socialist, and echo fears from earlier groups that Obama, the Democrat, intends to turn American democracy into a tyranny.
Conspiracy Theories - Drum echoes conservative writer Jonathan Kay by noting the tea partiers’ “insatiable appetite for conspiracy theories” (see February 4-8, 2010). Welch argued that the federal government was bowing to Communist manipulation by fluoridating the water supply (see 1945 and After), but more importantly, promoted the idea that a mysterious group of “insiders” had been running the world since at least 1776, when the Illuminati took over most European governments. The “insiders” continued their influence, Welch avowed, through the years, taking over France after the French Revolution, Russia and other nations after the advent of Communism, and continued to exercise control through such organs as the United Nations, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Trilateral Commission. The same groups are at the center of many conspiracy theories embraced by numerous tea partiers. Drum points out the fondness of the “anti-Clinton zealots” for their “colorful and ever-growing bestiary of shadowy plots,” most surrounding their belief that Clinton was a rapist, a murderer, and a drug peddler. Similar conspiracy theories were promulgated by the JBS about John Kennedy. “Today’s conspiracy theories are different in detail but no less wacky—and no less widespread,” Drum writes. The “birther” conspiracy theory, which holds that Obama is not a natural-born citizen, is quite popular with tea party supporters, and many more believe that Obama intends to place conservatives such as themselves in internment camps, a theory peddled by the JBS in the early 1960s. And many believe that ACORN (the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), the now-defunct community service organization, somehow took control of the Democratic Party, destroyed banks by forcing them to make loans to indigent minorities, crashed the economy, and installed Obama into power.
Effectiveness Improving over Time - Drum writes that each iteration of this right-wing phenomenon is more successful than the last. The Liberty League made no impact whatsoever on President Roosevelt’s 1936 re-election attempt. In 1964, the JBS succeeded in helping right-wing libertarian candidate Barry Goldwater (R-AZ) win the Republican presidential nomination. In the 1990s, Gingrich rode the wave of far-right activism to become speaker of the House, and the activism culminated in the impeachment of President Clinton and the election of President George W. Bush. Drum predicts that the latest wave, the tea party movement, will for all intents and purposes take over the Republican Party. In each iteration, moderate Republicans resisted the wave of right-wing change, but, Drum believes, not enough moderate Republicans exist in any position of power to resist the tea party transformation. The GOP has been shifting ever rightward since the 1970s, Drum notes, and the tea party movement has profited from a transformed media environment, where it can present its ideology almost nonstop on Fox News and rely on social media such as Facebook to connect with new recruits. Drum calls the paradigm shift “the mainstreaming of extremism.” In 1961, Time magazine disparaged the JBS as “tiresome” (see March 10, 1961); in 2009, it hailed Fox News personality Glenn Beck as “gifted.” Moderates have virtually no chance in today’s environment of pushing back against the tea party’s rightward surge. “Unlike the Birchers, or even the Clinton conspiracy theorists, the tea partiers aren’t a fringe part of the conservative movement,” Drum writes. “They are the conservative movement.” Drum believes that even with all the tea party’s current success, it will eventually burn itself out, “while its broader identity becomes subsumed by a Republican Party that’s been headed down the path of ever less-tolerant conservatism for decades. In that sense, the tea party movement is merely an unusually flamboyant symptom of an illness that’s been breeding for a long time.” [MOTHER JONES, 9/2010]
Entity Tags: Robert Welch, Newt Gingrich, W. Cleon Skousen, Kevin Drum, Charles Koch, Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, Jonathan Kay, American Liberty League, Fred Koch, John Birch Society, Fox News, David Koch
Timeline Tags: Domestic Propaganda
December 2011: John Birch Society Attempts to Reframe Itself as a Patriotic Organization with No Racist, Anti-Semitic Ideology

John Birch Society logo. [Source: John Birch Society]
John F. McManus, the head of the far-right, anti-Communist John Birch Society (JBS), releases a booklet through the organization entitled “Reality vs. Myth” that attempts to, in the words of the JBS, “set the record straight” about what the organization is and is not. According to McManus, the JBS has never held anti-Semitic or racist views, or tolerated such within its organization. All such assertions come from “enemies” of the organization, often from persons or organizations with Communist affiliations (see March 10, 1961 and 1963), he writes. [JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, 2011]
History of Anti-Communism - The organization was founded in 1958 by candy magnate Robert Welch, a former Massachusetts Republican Party official who began railing about what he considered the “pervasive” influence of Communism in all aspects of American society, particularly in the federal government. Liberals are inherently opposed to freedom and democracy, Welch argued, because liberals are in favor of collectivism/socialism, and therefore are witting or unwitting traitors to the individualist tenets that underlie the US Constitution. The JBS became a vocal opponent of the United Nations, alleging as early as 1959 that the UN intended to establish a “New World Order” (NWO) or “one-world government” (see September 11, 1990). The JBS has also portrayed itself as a fundamentally Christian organization, and views Communism and other non-American forms of government as inherently “godless.” Since the end of World War II, the organization has asserted, the US government has been actively attempting to implement “godless Communism” in place of a Constitutional democracy, including a 1958 claim by Welch that then-President Eisenhower was “a dedicated conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.” Some “Bircher” officials have touted the NWO as being rooted in the alleged Illuminati Freemason conspiracy. In 1964, the JBS enthusiastically supported the presidential candidacy of Senator Barry Goldwater (R-AZ), though a large number of members supported Eisenhower’s vice-president, Richard Nixon (R-CA) over Goldwater. The organization opposed John F. Kennedy (D-MA), accusing him of being a traitor and a Communist dupe (see November 1963), accusations it had also leveled against Eisenhower. After Goldwater’s defeat, Welch attempted to land the segregationist governor of Alabama, George Wallace (D-AL), as a standardbearer for the JBS. [POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, 2010] McManus insists that the JBS’s overarching loyalty is to the Christian Bible, the US Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. ” Our organization was created to uphold the truths in the Declaration and the limitations upon government in the Constitution,” he writes. “Not alone in such an endeavor, we welcome all who treasure what our nation’s Founders produced.” [JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, 2011]
Less Overt Racist, Anti-Semitic Stances - During the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, the JBS painted the civil rights movement as a Communist conspiracy, accusing “ignorant” and “uneducated” African-Americans of either being witting or unwitting dupes of a Communist conspiracy against America. It launched a powerful and well-organized assault on the civil rights movement, calling it a “fraud” and labeling it the “Negro Revolutionary Movement.” Some JBS publications and officials also asserted that the nation’s financial system was controlled largely by Jews with little if any loyalty to the US, and in some instances actively working to undermine and destabilize America’s economy. Such assertions led many to characterize the JBS as a racist and anti-Semitic organization, characterizations that the organization has always disputed. It has touted its very small number of African-American and Jewish members as proof of its claims not to be institutionally racist or anti-Semitic. In 2010, the liberal Political Research Associates (PRA) wrote: “The JBS… discouraged overt displays of racism, while it promoted policies that had the effect of racist oppression by its opposition to the Civil Rights movement. The degree of political racism expressed by the JBS was not ‘extremist’ but similar to that of many mainstream Republican and Democratic elected officials at the time. This level of mainstream racism should not be dismissed lightly, as it was often crude and sometimes violent, treating Black people in particular as second-class citizens, most of whom had limited intelligence and little ambition. In [one JBS publication], Martin Luther King, Jr. is portrayed as an agent of a massive communist conspiracy to agitate among otherwise happy Negroes to foment revolution, or at least promote demands for more collectivist federal government intrusion.” PRA also went on to note that one of its founders, Revilo P. Oliver, was forced to resign from the JBS after making anti-Semitic and racist comments at a 1996 JBS rally. And, the PRA wrote, “When crude antisemitism was detected in JBS members, their membership was revoked[,]” though the organization still held that anti-American Jews were attempting to do damage to the nation’s economy. “At its core, however, the Birch view of the conspiracy does not reveal it to be controlled or significantly influenced by Jews in general, or a secret group of conniving Jews, nor is their evidence of a hidden agenda within the Society to promote suspicion of Jews. The Society always struggled against what it saw as objectionable forms of prejudice against Jews, but it can still be criticized for having continuously promoted mild antisemitic stereotyping. Nevertheless, the JBS was closer to mainstream stereotyping and bigotry than the naked race hate and genocidal antisemitism of neonazi or KKK groups. In a sense, the Birch society pioneered the encoding of implicit cultural forms of ethnocentric White racism and Christian nationalist antisemitism rather than relying on the White supremacist biological determinism and open loathing of Jews that had typified the old right prior to WWII. Throughout its existence, however, the Society has promoted open homophobia and sexism. The Society’s anti-communism and states rights libertarianism was based on sincere principles, but it clearly served as a cover for organizing by segregationists and White supremacists. How much of this was conscious, and how much unconscious, is difficult to determine.” [POLITICAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATES, 2010] McManus calls attempts to point out the JBS’s history of implicit racism and anti-Semitism as deliberate, dishonest attempts to “stigmatize” the group, usually by persons and organizations who are working to implement a one-world government and see the JBS as a roadblock to that goal. “There was no evidence that the Society was racist, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, or subversive of good order,” McManus claims. “But that didn’t stop many from making such charges.… There were some attempts to defend JBS against the flood of vicious characterizations but these were overwhelmed by widespread and undeserved nastiness. No private organization in our nation’s history had ever been treated so unfairly.” He calls efforts to show the JBS as racist “vicious” and false. “If truth were told,” he writes, “the John Birch Society should be congratulated nationally for its important work in diffusing racial animosities.” [JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY, 2011] Many prominent white supremacist leaders used their membership in the JBS to help promote their more overtly racist organizations (see 1970-1974 and 1973). Former Ku Klux Klan leader Johnny Lee Clary has said the JBS “is just a political version of the KKK, without the name of the KKK. They center on the political ideas of the Klan and are not as vocal in public on the ideas of the racial superiority, but they attract the same people and say the same things behind closed doors.… They are racist, and full of hate and are officially listed as a hate group with several civil rights organizations throughout the USA” (see April 13, 2009). Among other non-white leaders, the JBS has labeled South Africa’s Nelson Mandela as a “Communist tyrant” (see December 11, 2009).
Reframing Itself - In the late 1970s, the JBS saw its influence waning as more modern organizations comprising what some have called the “New Right” came to the fore. In the 1980s, the JBS lost even more influence after attacking Reagan administration policies. It managed to revive itself by toning down its anti-Communist rhetoric and emphasizing its warnings about the New World Order and positioning itself as a long-time advocate of right-wing, muscularly patriotic popularism. Author and journalist Andrew Reinbach notes that the JBS provided an ideological “seed bank” for many of the tenets currently embraced by the various “tea party” organizations on the right (see February 4-8, 2010 and February 15, 2010), an assertion echoed by conservative journalist Matthew Boyle. [HUFFINGTON POST, 9/12/2011; DAILY CALLER, 11/29/2011] McManus credits the JBS with helping bring about the impeachment of then-President Clinton, stopping the establishment of a free-trade entity in the Western Hemisphere, and putting an end to what it calls “the drive to a sovereignty-compromising North American Union.” McManus says JBS efforts to “educate” the world about the UN has prevented that organization “from becoming the tyrannical world government intended by its founders.” He writes that the JBS successfully thwarted the federal government’s alleged plans to federalize all American law enforcement, and credits the JBS’s black membership with preventing wholesale rioting and insurrection during the Civil Rights Era. He touts the JBS as being one of the primary organizations that blocked the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment. And he credits the JBS with being among the first organizations to warn about what it calls the dangers of illegal immigration. He touts the support of, among others, presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-TX—see 1978-1996 and July 22, 2007) and conservative commentator Pat Buchanan (see June 12, 2009, June 20, 2009, July 16, 2009, and October 18, 2011 and After) as validating the organization’s ideology and positions, and notes that in recent years, the JBS was an official sponsor of the Conservative Political Action Conference (see April 19, 2010 and February 9-11, 2012). And he claims that attempts to paint tea party organizations as far-right, racist, or homophobic are similar to the efforts by Communists and NWO conspiratists to destroy the Society. He concludes by writing to prospective members: “Don’t allow yourself to be influenced by the false image created by the Society’s enemies. Our country is under attack and The John Birch Society offers a workable plan to combat it.” [JOHN BIRCH SOCIETY,
http://www.historycommons.org/context.j ... 1163jbsjfk

[8bitagent]

Given the iconic and direct link between that JBS treason poster and Dallas, I wouldnt be surprised if there isn't some sort of direct link between people involved at some level in JBS and the JFK Assassination.

[seemslikeadream]

GRAPHIC PHOTOS BELOW

INTERVIEW

The father of a Chechen man who was killed by FBI agents last week says his son was unarmed when he was shot seven times. Abdul-Baki Todashev says his son, Ibragim Todashev, was executed.

Abdul- Baki Todashev holds his son's autopsy photo which he claims shows his son was executed.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Speaking at a press conference in Moscow, Abdul-Baki Todashev, father of the recently deceased Ibragim Todashev, said his son was shot seven times in an execution by FBI officials.

The FBI says the officers acted in self defense.

Ibragim Todashev was sought out for questioning regarding his relationship with Boston Marathon bomber, Tamerlan Tsarnev. The two were known associates, although Abdul-Baki said they were not particularly close and only knew one another since meeting in 2011.

The FBI says the pair were linked by phone records.

Agents sent to question Ibragim Todashev say they found him in his home and spoke to him at length in his kitchen. During their questioning, Todashev allegedly confessed to his involvement in an unsolved triple homicide from September 2011. He said that Tamerlain Tsarnev actually committed the murders, and that the crime was a drug heist gone bad, and the victims were killed so they could not tell authorities who was stealing from them.

The victims had their throats slit and their bodies sprinkled with marijuana. Police recovered large amounts of cash on the scene.

During the questioning, Todashev allegedly became violent and attacked one of the FBI agents with a knife. That prompted other agents to shoot and kill Todashev.

Todashev was known for being a martial arts fighter.

One of the FBI agents did sustain non-life threatening cuts during the incident.

According to his father, Todashev was interrogated by five agents in his Florida home on May 22, when the shooting took place, and at least twice before. Although he was planning a trip back to Russia to visit his father, Todashev was told not to leave the country.

No charges were ever filed against Todashev and he was never arrested.

His father told reporters that the shot to the head confirms his suspicion that Todashev was executed.

"I'd only seen and heard things like that in the movies, they shoot somebody and then a shot in the head to make sure," Todashev told reporters. "These just aren't FBI agents, they're bandits," he concluded.

Father of shot man linked to Boston suspects wants FBI tried

Thursday, May 30, 2013 11:12 a.m. EDT
Abdulbaki Todashev, the father of Ibragim Todashev, shows photographs of his son's body at a mortuary during a news conference in Moscow May
By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The father of a Chechen immigrant shot dead during FBI questioning over his links with the Boston bombing suspects said on Thursday that the U.S. agents responsible should face trial.

The FBI has said that Ibragim Todashev, 27, was being interrogated at his apartment in Florida on May 22 when he suddenly attacked an agent and was shot and killed.

Abdulbaki Todashev questioned that account at a news conference in Moscow, saying his son was unarmed when he was shot seven times.

"I want justice and I want there to be an investigation, so that these people are tried under American law," said Todashev. "These are not FBI agents but bandits - I cannot call them anything else and they must be tried."

Todashev showed reporters photographs of his son's shirtless corpse on a medical table with several stitched-up wounds on his torso and arm and one on his head. He said his son had been shot after eight hours of questioning.

He dismissed U.S. media reports following his son's death suggesting his son may have grabbed a kitchen knife or tried to wrest a gun from an agent as "absurd", saying there was no reason a handful trained officers could not subdue a lone young man without killing him.

"They were tormenting him for eight hours. There was no lawyer, no witnesses, nobody," he said. "We can only guess what was going on there."

U.S. media reports on Thursday citing law enforcement officials said Todashev was unarmed.

Reuters was not able to independently confirm the accounts.

A Muslim civil liberties group in Florida, the Tampa-based branch of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, has also called for a review of the shooting. A special FBI team began reviewing the case last week.

TRIPLE KILLING

Todashev said his son, a mixed martial arts fighter, knew the late Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because they had gone to the same gym in Massachusetts before his son moved to Orlando, Florida, but that they were "not close friends".

Tsarnaev and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, are suspected of planting bombs that exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15, killing three people and wounding 264.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was 26, died in an April 19 shootout with police in Massachusetts. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is being held at a Massachusetts prison hospital awaiting trial on charges that can carry the death penalty.

Todashev, who had been in the United States since 2008, was under investigation for alleged ties to a triple homicide in Massachusetts in 2011, according to media reports. Investigators believe Tamerlan Tsarnaev may also have been involved.

Todashev said U.S. agents had asked his son about the triple killing but said his son could not have killed anyone.

"I have 12 children including Ibragim: raising children has been my whole life," he said. "I know my son so well ... my son could not have done this."

Todashev said he has applied for a U.S. visa to travel to the United States to collect the body of his son - his oldest child - and bring him home for burial.

He said his son had been planning to visit and had bought a plane ticket for May 24, two days after he was shot. He had received a U.S. green card earlier this year.

The Boston bombings came at a tense time in U.S.-Russia relations, with Moscow accusing Washington of double standards on human rights and counterterrorism.

U.S. congressmen are in Moscow this week in an effort to find out whether the FBI could have done more with Russian intelligence on the bombing suspects to prevent the attack.

[/quote]

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/world/e ... 7a7c2.html

Abdul-Baki Todashev holds a photo he claims is of his dead son Ibragim Todashev, during a news conference in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, May 30, 2013. The father of a Chechen immigrant killed in Florida while being interrogated by the FBI about his ties to a Boston Marathon bombings suspect says agents killed his son “execution style.” Abdul-Baki Todashev showed journalists 16 photographs on Thursday of his son, Ibragim, in the morgue with what he said were six gunshot wounds to his torso and one to the back of the head. He said the pictures were taken by his son’s friend Khusen Taramov. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)

All the autopsy photos are here

Rachel Maddow did some good reporting of this story tonight on MSNBC

[The Consul]

Several here have mentioned how this was only going to get weirder and weirder. The FBI has become a surrealist version of a direct to video CT movie. How much weirder will it get?

[Crow]

From the article stick dog posted:

Todashev’s father said after the shooting that he didn’t believe the FBI’s account of why they killed his son. “My son could never commit a crime, I know my son too well,” Abdul-Baki Todashev, who lives in Chechnya, told the Daily Beast Web site. “He worked helping disabled people in America and did sports, coached other sportsmen. The FBI made up their accusations.”

"My son could never commit a crime"?! He apparently committed several just in the past few years. (Parking lot assault, road rage incident, etc.)

This reminds me of the weird blanket denials from the Tsarnaev parents. When I heard them say that it was all a setup and there was no way their sons could possibly have done this, I thought, "Okay, apparently the parents are weird and scary, too." They just seemed too certain of it, despite being in Russia when all this occurred. But now the father of this other guy is doing the same thing.

I wonder if there's some norm in Chechen culture that you defend your family members no matter what, well past the point of absurdity.

I'm glad that someone leaked Todashev's autopsy photos. This case deserves more attention.

[stickdog99]

From the article stick dog posted:

Todashev’s father said after the shooting that he didn’t believe the FBI’s account of why they killed his son. “My son could never commit a crime, I know my son too well,” Abdul-Baki Todashev, who lives in Chechnya, told the Daily Beast Web site. “He worked helping disabled people in America and did sports, coached other sportsmen. The FBI made up their accusations.”

"My son could never commit a crime"?! He apparently committed several just in the past few years. (Parking lot assault, road rage incident, etc.)

This reminds me of the weird blanket denials from the Tsarnaev parents. When I heard them say that it was all a setup and there was no way their sons could possibly have done this, I thought, "Okay, apparently the parents are weird and scary, too." They just seemed too certain of it, despite being in Russia when all this occurred. But now the father of this other guy is doing the same thing.

I wonder if there's some norm in Chechen culture that you defend your family members no matter what, well past the point of absurdity..

LOL. How certain would you be that your kids were not terrorists or mass murderers?

I'm actually 100% certain that no one among my closest friends or family is a terrorist or mass murderer. If you are not as certain about your own closest friends and family, might I suggest that you resolve to get to know them better? Contrary to what cable TV would have us believe, there is not a Dexter in every woodpile.

[IanEye]

“My son could never commit a crime, I know my son too well”

"My son could never commit a crime"?! He apparently committed several just in the past few years. (Parking lot assault, road rage incident, etc.)

LOL.

I wonder if there's some norm in Chechen culture that you defend your family members no matter what, well past the point of absurdity.

I'm actually 100% certain that no one among my closest friends or family is a terrorist or mass murderer. If you are not as certain about your own closest friends and family, might I suggest that you resolve to get to know them better?

Basically, I like to read threads like this for information rather than for the back and forth of point by point (personal or at least semi-personal) dialog.

The dog's tongue lolled out as it lay sleeping.

[The Consul]

Simple questions:
How many police/FBI in apartment at time of shooting?
Why was he not brought in to a controlled environment for questioning?
Why did they question him at his apartment three time?
Why was he not detained, charged or arrested?
If what is now being said about Todashev is true - that he was a dangerous maniac - shouldn't the FBI/police have known?
Shouldn't they have treated him accordingly - as a dangerous criminal?
Was he Mirandized?
Who was guy that got morgue photos? How did he gain access?
Can the FBI reasonably argue that they did not shoot him in the back of the head?
Are we to assume that the entire Todashev and Tsarnaev clans are terrorist cells?
Is RI changing to now promote the piquant substantiation of the Official Story?

[stickdog99]

Eviscerating analysis. The fact that these parents are so certain of their children's innocence demonstrates that they are all, parents and children, in fact guilty. Or short of that, it certainly indicts their ethnic culture or something, I now see the light and apologize for my outrageously inappropriate laughter at the suggestion. And, yes, my unconscionable laughing certainly proves that I am a terrible liar. Thanks for calling me out on all of my lies and returning this thread to its rightful focus on reflexive references to the personalities and etiquette of its participants.

But enough about me, IanEye. Let's talk about you.

[stillrobertpaulsen]

Damn, even Rachel Maddow is reporting on the strangeness of it all:

Maddow: ‘Something weird is going on’ in FBI shooting of Ibragim Todashev

By David Ferguson
Friday, May 31, 2013 9:32 EDT



On Thursday night’s edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow discussed the swirl of questions around the shooting of Ibragim Todashev, an associate of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two men charged with the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

FBI officials have given conflicting accounts of the questioning and killing of Todashev, who knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev through Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Todashev, who, like the Tsarnaevs, was Chechen, lived in Boston for a time before moving to Florida. Agents from the FBI traveled to Florida to question Todashev repeatedly about the bombing.

“Last week while being questioned again in Florida,” said Maddow, “something went very, very wrong and he ended up dead.”

Law enforcement officials were interviewing Todashev in his apartment in Orlando on Wednesday, May 22, when something occurred that resulted in the young man being shot multiple times.

On Thursday, Todashev’s family held a press conference in Moscow, where they showed autopsie photos of their slain son. Ibragim Todashev was shot six times in the torso and once in the back of the head.

“We have not been able to authenticate these photos,” said Maddow. “No one has.”

But, she said, if they are genuine, “something weird is going on.”

“How does that comport with the FBI’s story that he was killed during questioning by armed agents who were only acting in self defense?” she asked. “Shot seven times, including in the back of the head?”

Todashev was questioned because of a possible connection to a bizarre 2011 murder in Waltham, Massachusetts in which three men were found with their throats cut, covered in marijuana, with $5,000 in cash untouched nearby. Law enforcement officials theorize now that Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have murdered the men with the help of some other person or persons.

“That cold case got hot again” after the marathon bombing, Maddow said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was close friends with one of the victims, but, after his murder, Tsarnaev declined to attend his friend’s funeral.

After Todashev was shot during questioning, Maddow said, law enforcement officials “leaked an elaborate story” that purported to justify the killing. The officials also claimed that Todashev had implicated himself in the Waltham murders prior to being shot. They said that just before the man was about to sign a confession, he snapped, and “lunged at the interrogator with a blade.”

“That initial story has fallen apart,” Maddow said. Within 12 hours of the shooting, two of the three law enforcement officials who were talking to the media about the case changed their story, saying they were no longer sure whether Todashev had a knife.

Now, multiple sources have come forward to papers like the Washington Post to say that, in fact, Todashev was unarmed. NBC News reported on Thursday that Todashev may have been brandishing some kind of “metal rod.”

“So they shot him seven times?” Maddow asked, “Including in the back of the head?” She added that no one actually knows right now if that was the actual number of gunshot wounds on Todashev’s body since officials will neither confirm nor deny that the post-autopsy photos are accurate.

“What we’re left with here is a baffling mess and a story that does not make sense,” she said.

Watch the video, embedded below via MSNBC:

[barracuda]

I'm actually 100% certain that no one among my closest friends or family is a terrorist or mass murderer. If you are not as certain about your own closest friends and family, might I suggest that you resolve to get to know them better? Contrary to what cable TV would have us believe, there is not a Dexter in every woodpile.

I've had several friends who turned out to be mass murderers, i.e., once I got to know them better, they admitted killings to me. It happens. But I don't consider Todashev as being guilty of the murders in Waltham. A theory by the police in that regard is no more than that.

My theory is that the FBI was performing their standard entrapment routine: tricking a "suspect" into incriminating himself via a biased interpretation of an interview. Maybe they were looking to puppet Todashev to turn state's evidence against the Tsarnaevs? Why not? A fellow Chechen, a friend of the bombing suspects, conveniently over a barrel - what could be neater?

However, I don't see the head shot as necessarily indicative of an execution-type slaying. I can come up with a variety of ways it may have occurred without requiring that I believe that. I don't disqualify it, but neither do I believe it. My main problem here is discerning motive for the killing on the part of LE. Why did they kill Todashev in such a manner?

[stickdog99]

I'm actually 100% certain that no one among my closest friends or family is a terrorist or mass murderer. If you are not as certain about your own closest friends and family, might I suggest that you resolve to get to know them better? Contrary to what cable TV would have us believe, there is not a Dexter in every woodpile.

I've had several friends who turned out to be mass murderers, i.e., once I got to know them better, they admitted killings to me. It happens. But I don't consider Todashev as being guilty of the murders in Waltham. A theory by the police in that regard is no more than that.

My theory is that the FBI was performing their standard entrapment routine: tricking a "suspect" into incriminating himself via a biased interpretation of an interview. Maybe they were looking to puppet Todashev to turn state's evidence against the Tsarnaevs? Why not? A fellow Chechen, a friend of the bombing suspects, conveniently over a barrel - what could be neater?

However, I don't see the head shot as necessarily indicative of an execution-type slaying. I can come up with a variety of ways it may have occurred without requiring that I believe that. I don't disqualify it, but neither do I believe it. My main problem here is discerning motive for the killing on the part of LE. Why did they kill Todashev in such a manner?

OK, I'm not trying to say that it is impossible to know someone well who has somehow managed to hide his or her mass murderousness from you. What I was trying to say (admittedly in a condescending manner that I now regret) is that if one assumes the accused are 100% innocent, then the accused's parents declaring they are certain that their kids are not mass murderers is perfectly normal.

To claim otherwise reminds me of Burnt Hill's suggestion that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's behavior after the Boston bombing was damning because he behaved exactly as if he had nothing whatsoever to do with it.

Turning to Todashev, I don't know how or why he was killed or even how or why the FBI was pressuring him. But I do agree with Rachel Maddow that “What we’re left with here is a baffling mess and a story that does not make sense.”

[stickdog99]

Atlantic Wire: Why Did the FBI Kill an Unarmed Man and Clam Up?

Law enforcement can't get its story straight in the worrisome case of Ibragim Todashev.

What led an FBI agent, or some other law enforcement official, to shoot and kill an unarmed man in Orlando, Florida? The man, Ibragim Todashev, was being questioned about the Boston bombing, as well as an unsolved 2011 triple murder that he may or may not have confessed to committing. Does that sound sketchy? Don't blame me. Once he died, law enforcement started releasing anonymous, conflicting explanations so dubious that they warrant an inquiry all by themselves.

Did the dead man have a knife? A gun? A sword? None of those? Let's run through a timeline of what we've been told, and then assess all the information that the FBI hasn't released about the killing.

May 22, 2013

Ibragim Todashev is shot in the early morning hours. At least three law enforcement personnel, including at least one FBI agent, were reportedly present. Later that day, The New York Times quotes "officials" from either the Massachusetts State Police or the FBI. They say that after two hours of questioning in his apartment, Todashev "exploded and leapt at" an FBI agent. A second "law enforcement official" told the Times that "the shooting occurred after Mr. Todashev had admitted his role in the killings" -- the 2011 triple murder -- "and had also implicated Mr. Tsarnaev. The official said he had begun writing out a statement when he asked to take a break."

The quote from the second official:

They got him to confess to the homicides, and they say, 'Let's write it down,' and he starts writing it down. He goes to get a cigarette or something and then he goes off the deep end. I don't know what triggered him, and he goes after the agent.
The same day, the Orlando Sentinel reports, "Federal officials said he lunged at the agent with a knife during questioning, and the agent opened fire."

The Associated Press also reported that "law enforcement officials say a man was shot while he was being questioned in the Boston Marathon bombing case after he lunged at an FBI agent with a knife," adding, "The FBI initially said the agent fired the fatal shot, but later in the day the bureau left open the question of who was responsible." And Dave Couvertier, "a special agent and spokesman for the FBI's Tampa field office," told Yahoo News that an FBI team would be dispatched from D.C. to investigate the shooting, and that the FBI agent "sustained non-life-threatening injuries."

The FBI also put out a statement on May 22:

The FBI is currently reviewing a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent. Based on preliminary information, the incident occurred in Orlando, Florida during the early morning hours of May 22, 2013. The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual. During the confrontation, the individual was killed and the agent sustained non-life threatening injuries. As this incident is under review, we have no further details at this time.

A friend of the dead man, Khusen Taramov, told a TV station, "They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they're going to bring him back. They never brought him back."

That brings us to the last story of that day, time-stamped after 8pm by the Associated Press, which reported: "Three law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Todashev had lunged at the FBI agent with a knife. However, two of those officials said later in the day it was no longer clear what had happened. The third official had not received any new information."

May 23

The Orlando Sentinel reports that "an FBI review team from Washington was in Orlando on Thursday investigating the death of Ibragim Todashev," and that they'd be questioning "witnesses who were at the Orlando condo when the shooting occurred early Wednesday morning, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers and other law-enforcement officials."

The story ads that "the FBI agent who fired the lethal shot, who has not been publicly identified, is from the agency's Boston division," and "an autopsy was expected to be completed Thursday, but the report will not be made public for several weeks -- if not months -- because the case is under criminal investigation." The FBI team investigating the killing is reported to be 13 agents strong.

May 24

The dead man's father, Abdul-Baki Todashev, speaks from Chechnya:

My son was in full cooperation with the F.B.I. but they just murdered him after an almost 8-hour-long questioning. Before this trouble I thought America was a free democratic country, where unlike in Russia, laws worked. I was deeply mistaken--now I think Russia is a golden place compared to the United States. My attitude for America flipped 180 degrees in one minute.

May 25

Citing "officials briefed on the investigation," The Boston Globe reports that the dead man "was shot in the kitchen of his apartment after overturning a table and attacking the agent with a blade," adding, "two law enforcement officials said that the Boston FBI agent felt he was in grave danger when Todashev attacked him and that he fired in self-defense." The "regional medical examiner" who had the body wouldn't reveal how many times Todashev was shot, saying "we can't release any information on that case." That same friend, Khusen Taramov, is quoted saying that the dead man had a serious knee injury and that "agents had kept tight control over him at prior interviews."

May 29

Remember that knife? Forget about it. "FBI sources say Ibragim Todashev, a friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamarlen Tsarnaev, was unarmed when he was shot and killed by an FBI agent during questioning at an Orlando apartment last week," says an Orlando television station.

The story goes on:

Officials said Todashev pushed a table and possibly threw a chair.

Sources said a sword was inside the apartment, but the weapon was moved to the corner of the room before questioning began. Law enforcement said when Todashev lunged, the FBI agent believed he could have possibly been going for his gun or the sword in the room, and that's when the agent opened fire.

ABC News has a similar account:

Ibragim Todashev, an Orlando, Fla., associate of one of the Boston bombing suspects, was not armed when he was involved an alleged violent confrontation with an FBI agent that resulted in Todashev being shot to death in his apartment, law enforcement sources told ABC News...Officials initially told ABC News and other news outlets that a knife was involved in the confrontation... A samurai sword was in the room, which may have accounted for some of the initial confusion over whether a weapon was involved, sources added.

The Washington Post added a detail:

One law enforcement official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Wednesday that Todashev lunged at the agent and overturned a table. But the official said Todashev did not have a gun or a knife. A second official also said Todashev was unarmed.

An official said that according to one account of the shooting, the other law enforcement officials had just stepped out of the room, leaving the FBI agent alone with Todashev, when the confrontation occurred.The shooting followed hours of questioning by the law enforcement officials that had begun the night before.

May 30

The Orlando Sentinel is one of several outlets to note that a Florida chapter of CAIR is calling for the Civil Rights division of the Justice Department to investigate the shooting. CAIR-Tampa Executive Director Hassan Shibly says the dead man was hit by bullets seven times, including once in the head.

The article continues:

Though early accounts from unnamed federal law-enforcement sources claimed Todashev might have been armed with a knife, the latest version, released by a Fox affiliate in Boston, reported that Todashev lunged with a sword at the agent.

Shibly said there was a sword at the apartment, but it was mounted on the wall, ornamental and had a dull blade and a broken handle.

Tentative Conclusions

It is difficult to understand how, having shot the man dead, the multiple law enforcement personnel on scene could've gotten the details wrong. Discrepancies can creep into an account of a stressful situation. But how can there possibly be confusion about whether the suspect was a) wielding a knife, per the original story; b) unarmed, per subsequent versions; c) or lunging with or toward a samurai sword? We're supposed to believe that multiple law enforcement personnel went to a man's apartment, confirmed via his own confession that he participated in a triple murder with an alleged terrorist, and still left him within reach of a samurai sword? And that, after he lunged toward one agent with the sword, or else lunged toward the sword, or an officer's gun, or something, there was so much confusion that it was reported for days that the suspect attacked with a knife? Come on. Law enforcement couldn't get its story straight.

At best, an incompetently handled suspect was given access to a weapon so dangerous it justified using deadly force in response. Perhaps that's all this is. Or perhaps it will turn out that Todashev was wrongfully killed. The facts known to the public are worrisome enough that an independent inquiry is justified. In addition, this case illustrates why the FBI ought to be required to record all of its interrogations, using video when possible and at least audio in all circumstances.