Bombings at the Boston Marathon

Thank you, Hook.  It was a long day for us.  We went to the Red Sox game, and then thought we'd go see some of the finish line.  We were on Boylston Street, right between the two blasts, when they went off.  We were across the street, and 3-4 people deep back from the street.  They were loud and percussive but we were far enough away to be totally safe.  My car is stuck in Boston, but we walked to our friends in Brookline who later drove us home.

What a terrible ending to what started for so many as a celebration of Patriots' Day, baseball, the Marathon, and some early spring weather.

Holy crap -- I can't believe you were that close! 

Actually thought about putting an @Bart message in my post, but then I figured, ok, it's a huge metropolis...what are the odds that you would be anywhere near...? 

What a horrible day.  Really glad you and the Mrs. are safe at home.

Hook

Glad you are okay! I was in Boston last year, and saw much of the race.

It's hard to watch the news about this.

Glad you are unharmed Bart!  Let's hope the injured recover and that the culprits are apprehended and removed from society.

My deepest sympathies to the victims, their families.

Also some sympathy to those indirectly affected (which is all of us, when this inevitably results in a ratcheting up of ever more pointless "security" intrusions).

The view of the media seems to be "Thank god there is finally some news". The ongoing media saturation is all-encompassing and pointless. How many times can they just keep saying the same thing over and over. They will milk this one to death. In the meantime, far more important things continue to happen around the world and continue to go virtually unreported.

A very nasty thing to do, and planed to cause maximum casualties.

I just don’t understand the mentality of people who set out to terrorise.

I hope they catch whoever did this a.s.a.p. and deal with them very severely.

Debs

A sad event.

Thanks jamie for reminding us that people in certain parts of the world with less media coverage are being blown to bits on a daily basis by terrorists, extremists, freedom-fighters, mercenaries and national armies.

We should lament them all.

Bruce

A car bomb in the Bahraini capital on Sunday. See if F1 reacts?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22153567

And here we have the London Marathon and Margaret Thatchers funeral to come.

Hope nothing happens, but sadly i will not be at all surprised if something does happen. I really do hope nothing does happen.

David

+1 to that Debs. We don't always agree on other things, but I concur that swift and severe retribution would seem to be most appropriate in this instance

Since I started this thread, I am now very happy to take the opportunity to close it out with relatively positive news.

With one dead, and one in custody, we are all now hopeful that the immediate threat of additional violence from this terrorist cell has passed.  Hopefully the second suspect lives, but he is said to have suffered great blood loss as the result of a shootout with local police.  They found him hiding in a boat in the back yard of a home in the neighborhood they had been searching for the last 48 hours.  Of course, I am only hopeful that he lives so that he can be interrogated, and we can learn if any others are involved.

There seems to be growing evidence that these two young immigrants from Russia (Chechnya) were influenced by radical Islam.  Their aunt said that both started praying five times a day just a few years ago.  Nothing wrong with practicing a faith, but apparently there is a jihad element that has grown larger inside of Chechnya in the wake of their bloody wars with the Russians. From what I can tell, their official leadership today is more secular, but there is an extremist Islamic element within Chechnya that sees the Russians as "infidels."  The links to Al Qaeda seem pretty tenuous though, and this would explain why no Al Qaeda organization has claimed responsibility for the bombings (and they would have -- this week is being viewed worldwide as a great victory for radical Islam).  I guess all that can be said right now is that Al Qaeda "sympathizes" with the Chechnyan cause.

Again, hopefully the younger brother lives to tell all.  The justice department has already said that he will not be given Miranda rights.  He will be treated as an enemy combatant until such time as Homeland Security can determine if there are additional accomplices and/or threats.

Am very happy for the people of Boston (and for forum member Bart!).  It's been such a horrible week, with the entire Boston metro under martial law.  But the airport is now back open, and public transportation is up and running.  It was heartwarming to see people flooding back on to the streets, even breaking out in spontaneous applause for passing police vehicles. This was an amazing example of cooperation between police, FBI, ATF, National Guard, and so on.  So many of these plots have been stopped before they happen, but we've always known that it is impossible to stop them all.  If nothing else, this horrible incident should be a reminder to all future terrorists that even if they are lucky enough to do some harm, the end result for them is inevitable:  they will be caught or killed.

Hook

Thank you Hook! Finally a positive end to a truly horrible week.  As I wrote earlier, my wife and I experienced the highs and lows way too first-hand.

I will not write a history of our week, but suffice it to say that tears of joy were finally shed last night.  To add to the emotional stress of having been across the street from the bombings on Monday, the scenes that unfolded on Thursday night and all-day Friday were all in "our" neighborhoods.  The MIT policeman was killed in the heart of Kendall Square in Cambridge.  My company is headquartered there, Marie has worked there, and we both are there a lot. It is the worlds' hub of biotechnology and we are both in that field. 

Then, the chase of the suspects led them to Watertown, Mass., to a location less than 2 miles from our home.  Our town was one of the "locked-down" towns and we were in our house all day yesterday except to let the dog pee!  We were glued to the TV from 6 am on, and the helicopters were flying overhead.  The shopping mall where the forces were assembled was where I get our Friday night pizza, and I drive home through the Watertown neighborhood of the shootings and manhunt.  Indeed, if the two had turned one way instead of the other while being chased on Thursday night, they would have driven into our town.  And, had the sole surviving terrorist wandered north instead of west after alluding police, he would have been in our town.  So while we had a pretty good feeling that he would not make it THIS far on foot, being under lockdown and watching the events live in the next town over put stress on top of stress.

The emotions that arose when it appeared that the forces were 'giving up,' and the lockdown was ended, were pure anger.  How could "they" leave us "unprotected?" (I knew that it wasn't like all forces were leaving, but it felt that way!)  Then, only minutes later, they had him in the boat . . . and two hours later it was over.  But the roller-coaster of the week, and of the day, was just a lot.

So what are we doing today, Saturday?  We are going to the Red Sox game!  Where the week began for us.  It will be the first game that the Sox are home since Monday, and the first game played this  season for Boston's baseball hero "Big Papi" David Ortiz.  The scalped tickets were a little pricey, but I felt it important to close out this emotional week celebrating with 37,000 other Bostonians in the way the week started for us. Back at Fenway, back in Boston.  I think that it will be therapeutic

Thank you to all of you for thinking of us and praying for Boston this week. 

Unfortunately, in most cases, the possibility of being caught or killed is not deterring these people from commiting acts of terrorism. 

Where I see terrorism winning in a big way is not by its killings but by the way it changes our lives, sinking us into a complete paranoia, bankrupting us in the process of trying to secure every building and event on the planet.

The TV coverage of the Boston bombing went from one extreme to another, from failing to report the explosions for quite sometime (30 minutes late?) to endlessly dissecting images of security forces roaming the streets when they had nothing new to inform.

The obvious outcome (of the whole world chasing the nineteen years old kid) was welcomed.

Haim, I agree, and in this case terrorism did not and will not "win" in Boston this week.  There were thousands of people out in Boston Common last night (ok, mostly college kids finally released from their student housing) and today there will be sold-out crowds at sporting events.  We'll be out and about just to thumb our noses at the notion that terrorism can win here.  The people of the Boston area are very proud of this area and it's in their blood to 'come out swinging' like this.  Cheers!

Amen brother.  Your town set a strong example for how to deal with something like this:  care for the injured, hunker down and let the pros do their job, and then...for as many as humanly possible, it is back to normal in record time!

These two warped young men took some innocent lives, maimed many others, and psychologically devastated the surviving family members.  And they stole five days of television coverage.  But that is all.  They did not advance any cause.  They are not heroes, and they are not martyrs.  They are pathetic, small excuses for human beings -- simple pawns used by someone else to cause harm and gain attention. The chase will not end here. It may take months, or even years, but this chase will end in some foreign land.  It will either be a helicopter carrying Seals, or an unmanned drone, but in the end, justice will be done.

Have a great time at Fenway tonight.  No doubt there will first be a remembrance, and no doubt it will very emotional.  And then life will go on.

ATB.

Hook

Seems like a swift efficient end, with one brother dead and the other captured.

"Just after 10.30pm on Thursday Boston time (12.30pm Friday Sydney time), the two men walked up to a parked police car at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where Sean Collier, a 26-year-old campus officer, was nearing the end of his shift. Abruptly, one of the men was seen pulling a gun and shooting Collier multiple times, including once in the head. Some officers concluded the shooting was an effort to provoke a larger confrontation with police."

"At 12.50pm, the SUV stopped in a residential neighbourhood in Watertown. The brothers opened fire, igniting a gun battle witnessed by neighbours peering from houses.

After more than 200 rounds were traded over several minutes, some officers were out of ammunition and charged the brothers' position with their police car. A witness saw one of the shooters toss a metallic object - possibly a pressure-cooker bomb similar to the ones used in the marathon attack - in the direction of the police line. It detonated harmlessly.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, now out of his car, tried to lob a pipe bomb at police, but the device exploded in his hand. Police tackled and tried to subdue the amateur boxer while he was firing a pistol with the other hand.

In an apparent attempt to help his brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev tried to ram the officers. Instead, the officers lunged out of the vehicle's path and he ran over his brother and dragged him along the street before speeding off."

And their imbecilic idiot mother is still publicly defending these two incredibly stupid, useless packs of cowardly $h!t.... The apples didn't fall far from the tree.

Hook:  Well said, my friend, all around.  Somehow I had missed this thread and I thank you for starting it.  Well said indeed. Also, I have to say that as a frequent critic of the President when I disagree with him--on this occasion, I have to say that I am pleased the Fed is using the Public Safety exception to the Miranda ruling that will, for a time at least, allow questioning this vicious beast without his lawyering up.  Clearly since he is a U.S. citizen on U.S. soil, he cannot be treated as a foreign combatant, but I do hope we keep him from the swarm of fame-seeking lawyers until we find something out.

Bart: I too am glad that you and yours are all OK.  My good wishes to all the citizens of Boston and to the people who were killed and dismembered by this monster in the name of what he calls God.

Russ

She is their mum; coming to terms with the hideous crimes of her own flesh and blood will not be easy. She'll bear that burden for the rest of her life. 

Hook. 

I think you're correct. Unfortunately.

When a dozen or so innocent pashtun women and children get blown to bits by a drone, I expect you'll be out on the streets chanting U S A. U S A. U S A.

Thank you for correcting my post.

Hook,

As it turns out, I was only partly correct in what I stated--and I realize in saying "enemy combatant" you most likely meant it in generic lay person's terms.  However, I was just talking with a former Constitutional Law professor of mine--to whom I made the same statement--and he reminded me, in his usual rude way that I was dead wrong.  It is correct that we are not yet using the Enemy Combatant theory--but rather the Public Safety exception which has been carved out of the Miranda ruling.  On the other hand, the mere fact that he is a citizen--on American soil (as opposed to say, the so-called "American Taliban" character--who I believe is now rotting in the Federal pen in Colorado)--does not exempt him from being classified as an enemy combatant.  The precedent setting case came during World War II, when German saboteurs, at least one of whom was an American citizen, infiltrated New York City.  President Roosevelt convened a secret military tribunal which sentenced them all to death.  Roosevelt did commute the sentences of a couple of the men who cooperated and turned in their partners in crime, however, the rest were executed.  The Supreme Court upheld the convictions.

I would hope that the President and Attorney General, who are doing the absolutely correct thing in invoking the Public Safety exemption will, after the brief time they can keep that theory afloat, declare both men to be enemy combatants and allow intelligence agents the opportunity to interrogate him without an attorney present.  This should not be difficult for an attorney general (and I am not being sarcastic here, but deadly serious) who has declared that President Obama has the right even to kill American citizens without trial, using drones.  It would be a catastrophe, in my opinion not to learn everything possible from this individual to hopefully prevent other men, women and little children from being killed and maimed.

Best regards,

Russ

Winky, you are absolutely correct about the media milking the event to death, trying to entice us with a cheap suspense story after completely failing to report on the explosion in real time in the first place. Despite having a daughter who couldn't leave her place for 36 hours (since they were searching for the young Chechnyan brother in her immediate vicinity) I made a point of not watching any of it. Two phone calls to her were suffice.