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

[Dwarfman]

I was driving to work this morning (Queensland time) when the news broke on the radio. Terrible business. My thoughts and prayers go to those affected.

 

[Saulkar]

Family members were in a bar only three blocks away yet they did not hear anything. One of them, my older brother, tried to get to the scene to help out but he was turned away by police and was separated from my other relative for several hours. They immediately high-tailed it back to Canada, I will not know if they are back in Canada/able to cross the border for several more hours.

Fuck me.

 

[Xanex]

Well it seems that the person of intrest being held in the bombing is a Saudi national. Looks like it's going to be another muslim terror act.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well it seems that the person of intrest being held in the bombing is a Saudi national. Looks like it's going to be another muslim terror act.

Or someone spotted someone that looked foreign and grabbed him. Would you want to be a Saudi national in Boston at this time?

Sure, maybe he was guilty, but it's jumping the gun, even if it's certain people will blame muslims to some extent.

 

[IndomitableSam]

Just hoping all Escapists and their loved ones are alright. Days like yesterday make me so bone-tired that I just could sleep for days.

 

[tangoprime]

I love how everyone on this site says, "Oh, yeah, it's totally a white right-winger. They're known for using bombs in public places in this country. Taxes and guns have totally been the motivation for attacks like this one in the past, and there is no other group who has shown this pattern."

Tomorrow is Israeli Independence Day.

Are you guys serious?

Eh, if the right wing gets to blame left-wingers (they are/will and you know it) I don't see why it can't be the other way around.

Though this website is a little too quick to say it was a pro-white/Tea Party/2nd Amendment person.

I don't know if I'd call Radical Islamic Fundamentalists "left wing". They're against pretty much everything the American left wing is for.

I think the people on this website just want to prove that they're good non-racist global citizens by making a nonsense connection to a group that has yet to display this type of behavior.

In the process, they'll ignore the anniversary of the most contentious event in modern Middle Eastern history. Also, they'll ignore group that's still super pissed off about it, because suggesting this group might be engaging in a behavior that they've been guilty of, all around the world, especially on or around important dates on their calendar, for a hundred years, especially over the last 13, would be "racist", because apparently "radical islamic fundamentalist" is an ethnic group.

Exactly. Nothing about this fits any history or rationale for domestic right-wing terrorism. Terrorism is all about disrupting the status quo through fear, and though this target doesn't fit the more recent mold of hitting high-density targets like transit for maximum body count, this sure as hell looks like the Middle Eastern / Eastern European style of terrorism of a few decades ago- rather than maximum body count and disruption of daily living, they tended to go towards big statements with mass media attention (this in days prior to the 24 hour news cycle), big hostage situations, hitting events with national/international media attention already there, y'know, big signature stuff.

"Right-wing" / Anti-government / Anarchist groups have a different motivation. They want to take the fight to the oppressors and wake up the population and show them that they can stand up too, by targeting government buildings/events. It would be completely against their goals to strike "civilians" since rather than scaring them into changing their patterns, they're attempting to rally them.

So, lone-wolf terrorist then? That would be corroborated by the lack of intelligence (not sure how many are aware, but the US has been stopping several of these kind of things a year for the last decade, intelligence/LE have been on the ball domestically) and lack of chatter in usual channels following the attack. The problem is, this attack seems to be decently sophisticated, and just in my opinion, unlikely that it was a single "crazy guy" trying to make a statement.

So my opinion, based on the facts we have so far, historical patterns and motivations- Radical middle eastern cell that has been dormant within the United States, or at least North America, for a long period of time. The attack fits the pattern of a slightly older style of terrorism, and like the cell that was recently busted in Texas (attempting to use Mexican cartel for assassinations of Saudi diplomats in DC) they could've been in the US for a very long time (supposed leader of that cell was an Iranian American business owner from Corpus Christi, TX that had been in the US for over a decade) without direct communications or oversight by an overseas organization, hence the lack of prior intelligence.

Anyway... I guess we'll see.

EDIT: New reports say the bombs, or at least one of them, were likely pressure cookers filled with explosives and shrapnel, carried in nylon bags. This type of bomb fits the profile of one of the explosives in the attempted Times Square, and more importantly, fits the design of the bombs used in the 2006 transit attacks in Mumbai, India.

The type of the explosives have yet to be identified, or at least released to the public, but has been mentioned that it was a low-explosive, thank God, meaning the blasts (as evident in the video and aftermath pictures showing surrounding buildings) weren't sufficient to produce a lethal pressure wave, which tends to cause damage a fair distance away (think- windows knocked out blocks away, etc.), all the damage done to people was by burns and shrapnel in the immediate vicinity.

 

[distortedreality]

Well it seems that the person of intrest being held in the bombing is a Saudi national. Looks like it's going to be another muslim terror act.

Sigh.

Thinking like this is why we can't have nice things.

Ever.

edit- not just talking about the quote btw.

 

[R.Nevermore]

Well it seems that the person of intrest being held in the bombing is a Saudi national. Looks like it's going to be another muslim terror act.

Or someone spotted someone that looked foreign and grabbed him. Would you want to be a Saudi national in Boston at this time?

Sure, maybe he was guilty, but it's jumping the gun, even if it's certain people will blame muslims to some extent.

Far more likely they grabbed him to protect him. After a bombing in America the least safe people are people who look 'Muslim'. Last thing anyone needs is some would be vigilante attacking the tur'rists

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well it seems that the person of intrest being held in the bombing is a Saudi national. Looks like it's going to be another muslim terror act.

Or someone spotted someone that looked foreign and grabbed him. Would you want to be a Saudi national in Boston at this time?

Sure, maybe he was guilty, but it's jumping the gun, even if it's certain people will blame muslims to some extent.

Far more likely they grabbed him to protect him. After a bombing in America the least safe people are people who look 'Muslim'. Last thing anyone needs is some would be vigilante attacking the tur'rists

As I understand it, though that's if you believe the news, which isn't wise, he was grabbed by randoms, and then the police got involved.

 

[AyaReiko]

Well it seems that the person of intrest being held in the bombing is a Saudi national. Looks like it's going to be another muslim terror act.

This part of the story has already been discredited. Nothing but unsubstantiated racebaiting by the New York Post.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Apparently this is the first case of terrorism in the US since 911.

According to people who think attacking MLK parades, Sikh temples or abortion clinics doesn't count, presumably.

 

[Euskalduna]

My deepest sympathies to those involved, and to those wounded I wish for a speedy recovery.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Apparently this is the first case of terrorism in the US since 911.

According to people who think attacking MLK parades, Sikh temples or abortion clinics doesn't count, presumably.

Well hell, the murderers in the abortion clinics were just getting what they deserved.

^Sarcasm font in full effect here. Point being, it's only terrorism if you disagree with it, and a disturbing percentage of Americans kind of silently cheer on that sort of terror.

 

[Guffe]

Shit...
This is bad
At least 3 dead and several (over 20) injured
Hope no other bombs go off

My consolations to anyone involved and their families!
Hope the injured ones will be fine.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

When I turned on my TV on 9/11/01 before my shift at work, I said the sunuvabitch finally did it, referring of course to Osama bin Laden. It wasn't because of racism, it was because the media was conditioning those who paid attention to have this guy on their radar. Back then no one paid attention. My 60 year old neighbor thought the soviets were firing missiles at us and I had to remind her the cold war had been over for some time. But

I paid attention, checked the news on reuters over the web every day. You'd hear all kinds of crazy things, like Al Qaeda growing marijuana fields in Sudan using kidnapped children traded for AK-47s and chickens to fund their operation. You'd hear of bin Laden calling Saddam Hussein an infidel after Hussein denied him refuge back in 98.

Then after 9/11. everything I had been reading for years was cut down, edited, packaged by editors at a TV news room and fed to you the way you were meant to see it. Two days later they found the passports of the hijackers in the rubble which was essentially atomized, but the passports must have floated in the breeze and landed neatly on top of the pile... in something as conceivable as the Kennedy magic bullet theory. It was never questioned. bin Laden also came out denying involvement, something he had never done.

And yet it was used as a pretext to invade Iraq through vague correlation. I remember thinking as the events unfolded that this was playing out all wrong, that this was no way to win a war on terror, this was something else.

The same pattern played out after Waco, Americans were upset about it and then we saw the OKC bombing and any sympathies we had for Waco quickly vanished. First you are conditioned, then an attack happens, then they take the initiative and just roll right over the American people to do whatever they want. I've literally watched this play out a few times in my lifetime so far.

So when they're having trouble taking away our 2nd amendment rights, which is their ultimate goal, and all of a sudden there is a bombing in Boston using black powder and ball bearings, on Patriot's day, you'll have to forgive me if I expect them to blame right wing extremists so they can achieve their objectives. Then they'll make the connections to the Liberty movement, the NRA, Alex Jones, whoever opposes them will somehow be mentioned in the same breath as the bomber.

That's what I see happening. It's also been too damn quiet. No statement. No one has claimed responsibility. I understand they keep mentioning a Saudi national who was wounded, and tomorrow may be a big day for Israel, but from where I sit it doesn't point to a middle east connection at all. We'll just have to wait and see.

I'm sorry, but who are they?

No really, the government? Would the government be so corrupt and insane that they'd bomb their own people in order to change what, amendments about gun rights? You do know that most people who doesn't like the right to carry a gun in public usually are, well, not pacifists but a lot less warhungry for the most part. I'm sorry, but without any sort of sources what so ever on basically anything in your whole post, I'm quite close to actually just shrug at it and disregard it to the pile of (in lack of kinder words) cospiratorial weirdness.

That's a very intresting thing I've noticed with a lot of Americans (obviously not all Americans, in case I have to make that clear) you seem to have an unhealthy fear of your own government. Believing they're committing acts of terrorism in order to change the ammendment, lying about most things, killing their own civilians and so forth. I don't really get it.

I'm sorry if I came off as rude, but I do find it really weird to speculate that this is all one bit conspiracy from "them" to change the precious second ammendment (that was written about 240 years ago mind you, why is it still relevant? That's another thing I wonder.).

You have to understand something about the American psyche. We are a nation born of a violent revolution against an (arguably not all that) oppressive government, and we glorify the people involved in that revolution. The whole notion of "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" rings very, very true over here, because which one our founding fathers were depends on whether you ask them, or the British. You raise enough generations of people on stories about why you can't trust your government and how great it is to rebel against it once it gets oppressive, and you get a lot of paranoia about the government. A certain level of which is probably healthy, but a lot of people take it to the extreme.

 

[Thaluikhain]

That's a very intresting thing I've noticed with a lot of Americans (obviously not all Americans, in case I have to make that clear) you seem to have an unhealthy fear of your own government. Believing they're committing acts of terrorism in order to change the ammendment, lying about most things, killing their own civilians and so forth. I don't really get it.

I'd slightly modify that, there seems to be a misplaced fear. That is, people are afraid of the wrong things. IMHO, it's not a matter of the US government/whomever actively being able to people as a rule, it's that the system fails large numbers of people and the people it doesn't fail have little incentive to care.

The Occupy movement comes to mind. While I don't totally disagree with them, it seems a bit selfish to suddenly care about the failures of the system when it affects you. Poverty is bad even before you personally became poor. While it's fair enough to be unhappy, persuading other people to care about things you didn't care about until they happened to you without acknowledging it...yeah.

Likewise, when the police got rough if was a surprise and a shock, because police are "supposed" to do that to people that aren't them.

 

[xDarc]

I'm sorry, but who are they?

"They" are the same group of people who destroyed evidence, killed witnesses, changed security, and hand picked the people on the Warren Commission on the Kennedy assassination. "They" are the military industrial complex that people like Dwight Eisenhower warned about. A recent example would include people like Dick Cheney and defense contractors like Haliburton.

Most Americans believe in a conspiracy to kill Kennedy, and pretty much every president we've had since has been a puppet- yet I've noticed younger people these days either don't know/care or just figure it was so long ago all that corruption must have just died out and sorted itself on it's own... it ain't so.

 

[Zombie_Fish]

So Landover Baptist Church have gone and done this: http://www.landoverbaptist.net/showthread.php?t=89233

I know that it's a joke, but I was wondering what people's thoughts are about it, especially how soon it has been since the event itself.