Two explosions reported at the Boston Marathon (Updated: 6:50PM EST April 16 2013)

[Kopikatsu]

Heard about this on the radio. If this is a terrorist attack, I'm just worried that it's not even over yet. Hopefully those two explosions were the end of it.

My heart goes out to all those affected by the blasts. Damn...

Seems pretty tame to be a terrorist attack . And by tame i don't mean that it's insignificant, i just mean that i would expect an terrorist attack to be bigger and badder .

OT: well shit, who'd have thunkit . Completly random . Well it could be worst , good thing more people wasn't hurt.

It only seems that way because 9/11 was so massive. This is more in line with the scale of terrorist attacks throughout history.

Edit: CNN is also officially calling it a terrorist attack, although they're not speculating on who did it. Other sources are speculating that it might be home grown and right wing, but it's still just speculation at this point. Nobody has claimed responsibility.

Suggesting that it was a home grown right winger made me think of an interesting scenario.

Reportedly, the explosions happened near where some of the parents of the Newtown shooting's victims were. [http://now.msn.com/boston-marathon-bombing-might-have-caught-newtown-families] Wouldn't it be strange if a very anti-gun control proponent tried to 'finish the job' using explosives, as a means of protesting the (many) proposed new gun control regulations by showing that explosives made with commonplace materials can be just as bad (or worse) than a firearm?

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Heard about this on the radio. If this is a terrorist attack, I'm just worried that it's not even over yet. Hopefully those two explosions were the end of it.

My heart goes out to all those affected by the blasts. Damn...

Seems pretty tame to be a terrorist attack . And by tame i don't mean that it's insignificant, i just mean that i would expect an terrorist attack to be bigger and badder .

OT: well shit, who'd have thunkit . Completly random . Well it could be worst , good thing more people wasn't hurt.

It only seems that way because 9/11 was so massive. This is more in line with the scale of terrorist attacks throughout history.

Edit: CNN is also officially calling it a terrorist attack, although they're not speculating on who did it. Other sources are speculating that it might be home grown and right wing, but it's still just speculation at this point. Nobody has claimed responsibility.

Suggesting that it was a home grown right winger made me think of an interesting scenario.

Reportedly, the explosions happened near where some of the parents of the Newtown shooting's victims were. [http://now.msn.com/boston-marathon-bombing-might-have-caught-newtown-families] Wouldn't it be strange if a very anti-gun control proponent tried to 'finish the job' using explosives, as a means of protesting the (many) proposed new gun control regulations by showing that explosives made with commonplace materials can be just as bad (or worse) than a firearm?

It's more than just that. Today is tax day in the US, and apparently in Boston it's also Patriot day, a local holiday. The race was dedicated to the Sandy hook victims, and had parents of the survivors victims in attendance. If you know anything about our fringe right wingers (and I mean way out there, not your garden variety republicans), that sounds like the kind of symbolism they'd go for.

Edit: scratched out typo. Not sure if their kids got out alive, all I know is it's Sandy Hook parents. Some of them were also running in the marathon, I heard an interview with one of them on the radio on the way in to work this morning.

 

[xDarc]

It's more than just that. Today is tax day in the US, and apparently in Boston it's also Patriot day, a local holiday.

Tax day in Boston, home of the Boston Tea Party, Tea party, right wing, Newtown, anti-2nd amendment chess piece. It's no surprise all the speculation, but last I heard that I had a Saudi under guard at a hospital. Like most stories, he may disappear from the reports and we may never hear about a Saudi anymore... then again- he may be the guy. Too early to tell.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It's more than just that. Today is tax day in the US, and apparently in Boston it's also Patriot day, a local holiday.

Tax day in Boston, home of the Boston Tea Party, Tea party, right wing, Newtown, anti-2nd amendment chess piece. It's no surprise all the speculation, but last I heard that I had a Saudi under guard at a hospital. Like most stories, he may disappear from the reports and we may never hear about a Saudi anymore... then again- he may be the guy. Too early to tell.

Those reports all go back to the New York Post, one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids. The police chief is on record saying they don't currently have any suspects.

Edit: The post was also reporting that 12 people were killed outright, which is patently false.

 

[xDarc]

It's more than just that. Today is tax day in the US, and apparently in Boston it's also Patriot day, a local holiday.

Tax day in Boston, home of the Boston Tea Party, Tea party, right wing, Newtown, anti-2nd amendment chess piece. It's no surprise all the speculation, but last I heard that I had a Saudi under guard at a hospital. Like most stories, he may disappear from the reports and we may never hear about a Saudi anymore... then again- he may be the guy. Too early to tell.

Those reports all go back to the New York Post, one of Rupert Murdoch's tabloids. The police chief is on record saying they don't currently have any suspects.

Yeah, I figured he might not be the bomber. I don't have cable, cut the cord.

 

[R.Nevermore]

Dear god you'd think those sandy hook kids had suffered through enough... Their lives have become a war zone.

 

[Darks63]

Heard about this on the radio. If this is a terrorist attack, I'm just worried that it's not even over yet. Hopefully those two explosions were the end of it.

My heart goes out to all those affected by the blasts. Damn...

Seems pretty tame to be a terrorist attack . And by tame i don't mean that it's insignificant, i just mean that i would expect an terrorist attack to be bigger and badder .

OT: well shit, who'd have thunkit . Completely random . Well it could be worst , good thing more people wasn't hurt.

I thought so as well at first I wondered if it was gonna be like in The Kingdom where the bomb goes off and all the first responders show up and then a bigger bomb goes off killing whole bunch of cops and firemen.

 

[capper42]

From the BBC "Officials with mobile telephone carriers Verizon and Sprint said they had received no requests from authorities to shut down service in the Boston area, contradicting earlier reports.

"Minus some mild call blocking on our Boston network due to increased traffic, our service is operating normally," Sprint spokeswoman Crystal Davis told the Associated Press."

It's so hard to know what's going on, it's just so chaotic and so many rumours being batted around.

 

[xDarc]

Found a video link of the actual explosion off reddit:

 

[capper42]

Found a video link of the actual explosion off reddit:

This has already been posted. It's a horrible video though, especially the guy who collapses whilst running, probably hit by something.

 

[krazykidd]

Heard about this on the radio. If this is a terrorist attack, I'm just worried that it's not even over yet. Hopefully those two explosions were the end of it.

My heart goes out to all those affected by the blasts. Damn...

Seems pretty tame to be a terrorist attack . And by tame i don't mean that it's insignificant, i just mean that i would expect an terrorist attack to be bigger and badder .

OT: well shit, who'd have thunkit . Completly random . Well it could be worst , good thing more people wasn't hurt.

It only seems that way because 9/11 was so massive. This is more in line with the scale of terrorist attacks throughout history.

Edit: CNN is also officially calling it a terrorist attack, although they're not speculating on who did it. Other sources are speculating that it might be home grown and right wing, but it's still just speculation at this point. Nobody has claimed responsibility.

Huh ... You know what ? You're right. Tis a sad day when you realise that you think terrorist attacks have to be huge and smaller things seem so tame . I feel bad now for thinking that.

 

[scorptatious]

According to my dad, his boss was actually in the marathon when this happened. He was about half a mile away from the finish line when the explosions happened.

I hope the guys who did this get caught and sent to justice for what they did.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Cell phones access shut down across Boston to prevent "remotely detonated devices going off" apparently.

Yeah, that's covered in the updates Spoiler tab.

Why would you spoiler the updates? Who does that help?

I don't know what to say. This is horrible. I hope there aren't more hidden devices.

I think the cops found a third one.

I did it in an attempt to make the post smaller. Thanks for your criticism, I'll remove the spoiler tags.

Spoiler old content. Not the new stuff. That will clean up your post.

 

[Raesvelg]

It's more than just that. Today is tax day in the US, and apparently in Boston it's also Patriot day, a local holiday. The race was dedicated to the Sandy hook victims, and had parents of the survivors victims in attendance. If you know anything about our fringe right wingers (and I mean way out there, not your garden variety republicans), that sounds like the kind of symbolism they'd go for.

Tax Day, Patriot Day, yeah, those are the kind of things I could see our extreme right wing fringe staging an attack during.

An attack on the Boston Marathon, however, not so much.

If it were a federal building, or a major international event (yes, the marathon has an international element, but it's still the Boston Marathon) then I'd consider it a lot more likely.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

It's more than just that. Today is tax day in the US, and apparently in Boston it's also Patriot day, a local holiday. The race was dedicated to the Sandy hook victims, and had parents of the survivors victims in attendance. If you know anything about our fringe right wingers (and I mean way out there, not your garden variety republicans), that sounds like the kind of symbolism they'd go for.

Tax Day, Patriot Day, yeah, those are the kind of things I could see our extreme right wing fringe staging an attack during.

An attack on the Boston Marathon, however, not so much.

If it were a federal building, or a major international event (yes, the marathon has an international element, but it's still the Boston Marathon) then I'd consider it a lot more likely.

The Boston marathon... which was dedicated to Sandy hook victims, and had parents of victims running to raise awareness for gun control. So actually it does tie in.

Edit: And we still don't know for sure why it happened, that's just the possibility that makes the most sense to me, and a possibility that has been floated around by the media. Even Fox mentioned that that might be the case, and this is the "news" network that tends to be talking about anything but the most important current story during mass shootings. Seriously, Sandy Hook, the Batman shooting, Aurora, they spent a lot of the time while all of them were breaking stories talking about absolutely anything but the fact that someone had just killed a bunch of people with a gun. If /they're/ speculating that this could be why, you know there's something to it.

 

[Raesvelg]

The Boston marathon... which was dedicated to Sandy hook victims, and had parents of victims running to raise awareness for gun control. So actually it does tie in.

It does, but it still doesn't fit all that well with what limited pattern we have for such groups. You've got planned attacks on government facilities and an international event or two, and random acts of violence against specific minorities, but nothing quite like this before.

There's no history of something until it happens, of course.

 

[Frezzato]

Not to sound callous, but a lot can be extrapolated by observation. This looks suspiciously like gunpowder. Large fireball, lots of white smoke. The one thing nobody's described so far is if there was a strange smell, which makes me wonder as the smell of burnt cordite/black powder is very distinct.

There were a lot of lower-body injuries unfortunately, but that tells me these were devices that were left behind on the ground. It doesn't sound like it could be the garbage can theory because of a couple of certainties:

Both devices were planted on the northern side of the finish line, which would have been cordoned off at a certain time, possibly when the marathon started, so nobody would have been allowed to cross the street. By that time, anyone placing a large item in a can would have looked suspicious, not to mention that it would have been at the top of a pile, which contradicts the evidence with the lower leg injuries. It had to be in a bag of some sort, left on the ground.

In the 60's and 70's terrorists didn't always take responsibilities for their actions, but this is the future. With any luck they'll have video footage on record. The 'T' is a popular subway system and full of cameras, and while you can walk to Boston from Harvard Square*, I'd say whoever did this took the subway. Driving would have been out of the question, and walking would have been hazardous.

Bring these cowards to justice!

*I'm not trying to sound creepy. It's just that I used to live in Boston a lifetime ago. You really can walk everywhere. It's very convenient.

 

[HoneyVision]

They're officially calling it a terrorist attack now. It's quite tragic. What I find even scarier is the fact that nowadays it's so hard to really know the truth behind these attacks. So many possibilities and so many conspiracies.

 

[Shadows Risen]

Not to sound callous, but a lot can be extrapolated by observation. This looks suspiciously like gunpowder. Large fireball, lots of white smoke. The one thing nobody's described so far is if there was a strange smell, which makes me wonder as the smell of burnt cordite/black powder is very distinct.

I don't have a source to back this up but I had one ear on the BBC live feed of this and they had a couple of interviews (is that even the right word to use here?) with people on the ground, one of whom was an army vet and he said he smelled cordite so that agrees with your theory.