UPDATE #5 Patterico has another story. The man who lost both legs and was shown in a graphic photo linked at Patterico, saw the bomber drop the backpack and look him in the eyes. A few minutes later, the bomb went of and blew off both legs of the witness.
UPDATE #4 Here is another photo of the white hat suspect taken by a runner who had finished the marathon and who heard the blast of the bombs. The photo was taken AFTER the bombs went off. Does this fellow have a backpack ? I can’t see it.
The NY Times has enlargements but has blocked uploads of them. He is walking by the corner of the building to the left of the photo. The man who took it has turned it over to the FBI.
Here is an enlargement I made and I don’t see the backpack. This is the suspect the FBI says dropped his backpack by the Forum Restaurant, the site of bomb #2.
UPDATE #3: Here are the FBI website photos of suspects. These photos are not the same as shown on the NY Post’s front page or on other sites.
Here is one I’ll call “black hat.” The other, called “white hat” is behind him.
And the other, “white hat” , is shown in close up. He fits a description of a guy with a hat on backwards and I have not seen his photo elsewhere. Neither is more than “a person of interest.”
Note that the other sites linked to below have deleted photos or changed to the above photos which now seem to be official.
UPDATE #2: A suspect is now being sought based on the video which shows him dropping off a backpack at the site of the second bomb. He was then seen leaving the area.
UPDATE: Aside from all the confusion by the media, there does seem to be video footage of suspects. In stills linked by Grurray below, two appear possibly middle eastern but it is way too early to say anything more.
The Boston Marathon bombs have focused attention on a subject not popular with this administration. It would really be inconvenient if it was an act of an Islamic extremist, even a homegrown one. The bombs appear now to be based on black powder placed in metal pressure cookers which were also filled with shrapnel-like objects such as nails and ball bearings.
This photo shows the remains of a blasted pressure cooker found at the scene.
These are not like the bombs used in the 2005 London bombings, which used organic peroxides, described by an alleged “terrorism expert” on CNN as “hydrogen peroxide.”
The London bombings were also suicide bombings and were followed by public claims of responsibility including video taped statements by the bombers made before the event. The Boston bombing did have some similarities in that backpacks were used and the bombs were placed to inflict maximum civilian casualties.
Pressure cookers were used as the containers and are well known for this use.
“A technique commonly taught in Afghan terrorist training camps is the use/conversion of pressure cookers into [improvised explosive devices],” the bulletin warned.
That [DHS] bulletin cited several plots from 2002 to 2004 to use pressure-cooker bombs in France, India and Nepal. But more recently there have been at least three other instances of would-be terrorists in the West, all of them Islamic radicals, in possession of pressure cookers for reasons that seemed not to involve having friends over for dinner.
So far they have been Islamic radicals.
One was an Army private linked to the 2009 Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan, who had reportedly been taking bombmaking tips from al-Qaeda’s short-lived (literally) online magazine Inspire and had various weapons and explosives along with his cooking pot. (The magazine reportedly recommended pressure cookers as explosive devices.) A 2010 suicide bomber in Stockholm had rigged a pressure-cooker bomb that failed to detonate. And as a newer DHS warning about the kitchen devices noted, the failed 2010 SUV bomb in New York’s Times Square was a pressure-cooker device containing 120 firecrackers. The same DHS memo refers to a March 2010 bombing with a pressure cooker at a Western Christian aid agency in Pakistan that killed six people.
Certainly the army private associated with Hassan is a home grown terrorist, as was Hassan himself. Although described by the Obama folks as “workplace violence,” the Fort Hood shootings were a domestic terror incident.
What are other possibilities ? The news media seems focused on “white right wingers.” The effort to divert attention to the left’s enemies is pitiful but not surprising.
However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings — even though most come at the hands of white dudes.
Likewise, in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as “lone wolf” threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters.
The fact that there is a world-wide Islamic movement that uses terrorism and bombs might be a useful information if this writer were not so determined to deflect attention from it.
The Long Island Railroad shooting in 1993 was inconveniently committed by a black man but that fact has disappeared from the conversation about “gun violence” just as has the horrendous carnage in Chicago, all committed by young black men, been ignored. The fact that Ferguson, the LIRR shooter had racism as a motive has also disappeared. Notes in his pocket explained his reasons.
One of the notes referred to “racism by Caucasians and Uncle Tom Negroes”.
Timothy McVeigh was a “lone wolf” with the exception of his partner Terry Nichols and his motivation was the government misbehavior at Waco. For this reason he attacked a government building, even the one where offices used by federal officials linked to Waco were located.
An attack on the Texas IRS offices in 2010 raised hopes on the left that it could be blamed on angry white Tea Party members but the suicidal pilot was a lefty. His suicide note ended: The communist creed: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.
The capitalist creed: From each according to his gullibility, to each according to his greed.
Joe Stack (1956-2010), 02/18/2010 He was also very critical of George W Bush.
The carnage created by the Boston bombs is a bit unusual as the effects seem to have been maximal near the ground. I have taken a counter-terrorism course and the course emphasized that shooting incidents can best be dealt with by lying flat on the ground as bullets tend to ricochet upward. Bombs and grenade incidents should be avoided by crouching behind some shelter as the shrapnel tends to fly parallel to the ground. Lying flat is less effective in avoiding injury. Early reports note a large number of leg amputations and some graphic photos from the scene emphasize this.
The source of this act is not yet clear and it may take a while unless the perpetrator makes a mistake like Timothy McVeigh made with his missing license plate on the getaway car. It may be a domestic terrorist but is unlikely to be anything to do with “Tax Day” or other theories of left wingers trying to implicate the Tea Party or the political right. It could be a mental case like the Tucson shooter or the Newtown shooter but these cases are more likely to involve direct action, like shooting.
Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber obviously was disturbed but not psychotic. His bombings were committed for a clear purpose and he was able to continue undiscovered for years.
From 1978 to 1995, Kaczynski sent 16 bombs to targets including universities and airlines, killing three people and injuring 23.
He was finally caught only because his brother recognized the rhetoric in a letter published by the New York Times. Kaczynski’s victims followed a pattern of technology and industry including an airliner, that fortunately involved a failed detonation. This Boston bomb seems to be more a random attack and the motive may be more difficult to identify unless the bomber is caught. I wonder if security cameras were located near that area.
“…just as has the horrendous carnage in Chicago, all committed by young black men, been ignored.” Indeed – talk about the elephant in the room.
If they keep on like this, someone is going to start talking about the elephant.
Guess we should be greatful that the perp/perps omitted adding rat poison to the ball bearings in the infernal device. I understand that was what the Palestinian terror-bormbers began doing, to maximize injury to victims. (Mike K can confirm this – but it apparently inhibits blood coagulating. Which makes it very much more difficult to save the life of someone injured by shrapnel from the bomb.)
Sorry, Sgt Mom, this is a myth. A previous comment was eaten by the browser. The story is about coumadin or dicoumarol, which was discovered in 1948 after an angry farmer brought a dead calf and a pail of unclotted blood to the U of Wisconsin Vet school. The professor, Karl Paul Link, has provided the story. He set students to work on what was happening and they discovered the chemical compounds, which they named WARFARIN for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, that supported his work. It has to be ingested and is counteracted by Vitamin K. It inhibits clotting factors made in the liver and takes days to work. It was the first oral anticoagulant as Heparin has to be injected.
A very effective compound to put in a bomb would be ricin, which kills very effectively. I don’t know if it would survive the bomb blast, though.
Pictures of the suspect(s)
http://imgur.com/a/sUrnA
Thanks, Mike – I had read this on some otherwise reliable sites!
The only elephant the media likes to talk about (or, more accurately, berate) is the GOP’s symbol.
http://www.reddit.com/r/findbostonbombers/
Those pictures were from a crowdsourcing effort on Reddit.
This is an example of the wisdom of crowds. This may all be just people wasting time, but latest reports are that the authorities are pursuing the same leads.
To clarify one thing about warfarin: this belief is commonly held, so it’s not at all unreasonable to presume that some folks building bombs actually do use it in the mistake belief that it will increase the effectiveness of the shrapnel.
Young single Amerikan men sure have a proper axe to grind. They are chosen to die in our wars of aggression, pay higher taxes and insurance rates, and will support the old, the married and the breeders through Obamacare. They are screwed when it comes to Social Security, medicaid, FMLA, inheritance, hospital visitation, immigration and a host of other benefits accorded the rich, white, old, married and breeding.
They are worse off, of course, if they are black or gay. Amerikans who want to avoid disasters like the Boston Marathon might do well to change the policies of aggression, human rights abuses and perverse discrimination here and abroad.
Shorter Jimbino: Why do they hate us.
Since all recent terrorism has been driven by either personal revenge, religious or political radicalism or untreated mental illness, do you really think it’s likely that the Boston bombers were motivated by the grievances you list?
Young Americans that I know aren’t grinding axes or gnashing their teeth over what society owes them. They’re too busy working together immersed in a complex world creating a future.
They were born and grew up in a decentralized networked world,
so they aren’t interested in top down failed paradigms
like middle class welfare or pining for handouts.
http://goo.gl/y00Dj
There are a huge number of Americans now entering adulthood.
Anyone expecting them to sit around wallowing in some
collective misfortune is just plain wrong. New systems and paradigms will emerge from them, not bestowed on them.
They were raised and educated and will grow up and navigate through life just as every generation has and will create and shape the nation as previous generations.
Jimbino, you might spend some time, as I do, with recruits to the military. They are an interesting bunch. Many are Hispanic and constitute the group I most favor for amnesty if they are illegal. Another group are pretty bright Caucasian kids with the thought that maybe the economy will be better in four years and a time in the military is a good way to spend that time. Some are foreign born; last week I had a kid born in Africa who is thinking about medical school and last month I had a kid born in Afghanistan.
I haven’t seen any of the losers John Kerry thinks our military is filled with.
Well, I’m Hispanic, and I spent 7 years of my life fighting to stay out of the illicit Vietnam War. Those who served, lost body parts and their lives were fools. I cannot begin to honor them or the ones who fought GWBush’s illicit war in Iraq. I mourn the great ones who conscientiously objected and were sentenced to rot in Amerikas’s prisons.
Save your argument for the Hitler youth.
Jimbino, they were all pardoned by Carter. I hope you will go back to the country you came from, or are most comfortable with, and leave this terrible place you hate so much. Most Hispanics I know are patriotic and serve in the military at higher rates than their share in the population. You are certainly no argument for amnesty.
Wrong, Michael Kennedy, for several reasons:
Those who, like Mennonites and many others, refused to participate in the illicit Vietnam War effort in any capacity were often imprisoned. They had largely served their sentences by the time of the Carter Amnesty, and were not pardoned. A pardon would have been a pyrrhic victory for them anyway, since they had already spent many years in their young 20s in prison. You can get yourself some education in this over at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Days-Decision-Conscientious-Objectors-Military/dp/0962002402
Furthermore, deserters and the violent conscientious objectors were denied amnesty. Since then, a UN resolution specifically includes deserters in the ranks of those entitled to conscientious objector status and future amnesties.
The country I came from lost 90% of its males in a single war. It learned its lesson. I will indeed leave this country and renounce my Amerikan citizenship, as soon as I become a citizen of a peaceful country like Ecuador or Costa Rica. In any case, my skills as a nuclear physicist and missile engineer are prized in other countries.
Hey there just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the images aren’t loading correctly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different web browsers and both show the same results.
Rhiannon, some of the images have been removed from the linked sites. It loads OK on Firefox and Safari.
Jimbino, I think the Chicoms are interested in your skills. The Norks are also in the market for angry traitors, like Dennis Rodman. Good luck.
Yo, Michael Kennedy,
A person who renounces his Amerikan citizenship cannot be a traitor to Amerika. Are you cruising for a libel suit?
I will indeed leave this country and renounce my Amerikan citizenship, as soon as I become a citizen of…
So you haven’t renounced your US citizenship yet.
…a peaceful country like Ecuador or Costa Rica. In any case, my skills as a nuclear physicist and missile engineer are prized in other countries.
I wasn’t aware that Costa Rica or Ecuador had a nuclear weapons program. Good luck with that lawsuit.
Maybe you’ll stop grinding your own anti-American axe for long enough to acknowledge that your theory of the Boston bombing was wrong.
Yo Jonathan,
Every country has a need for self-defense, particularly those Latin countries, such Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Paraguay and Chile, Nicaragua and El Salvador, and Mexico, that have suffered greatly in Amerikan wars of aggression, both overt and covert. Henry Kissinger is considered a war criminal because of his participation in Operation Condor. That’s why he prefers attending funerals in Britain to visiting South Amerika.
An Amerikan citizen who works overseas in places like North Korea, Iran and Venezuela is liable to pay taxes and even payroll taxes for Medicare and Obamacare, which aren’t available to him. A citizen of Ecuador can work in designing weapons for any country’s self-defense without owing taxes to either Amerika or Ecuador. Wake up!
Can anyone explain the purpose behind the habit of replacing the C with a K in “America” and its cognates? I’m sure there’s a tremendously powerful political point being made. Is C just too damn imperialist? Was there a meeting of the finest minds where it was agreed that K was ideologically preferable for some wildly esoteric reason that only the truly enlightened can grasp? Perhaps it’s my false consciousness that keeps me from seeing the evil and repression symbolised by the C. But I’ve noticed it before. It usually marks the point at which a discussion goes downhill rapidly, but I’m sure that’s just my blinkered ignorance.
The use of “K” in the word American is to signify that you are an angry leftist who supports terrorists like Bill Ayres and other notable college faculty members. If you use Two Ks, you are Really angry.
Jimbo is near hysteria. He doesn’t like “war criminals” or taxes.
Novus, I think it’s supposed to put us in mind of German language/spelling, which in turn is supposed to remind one Nazism. Just a dated 1960’s artifact of the knee-jerk left.
Hey Hey, Hoo Hoo the immature mind has got to go!
Thanks for the replies, both, but I should cop to the fact that I was just feigning ignorance in order to take the piss out of Jimbino. :)
MK, surprised you haven’t observed the zenith of this practice, where it achieves the maximum of condemnatory power and the highest of moral high grounds: the triple-K substitution.
Well, Novus, Jimbino was getting pretty overheated. He may be in an ER somewhere with cold packs in his armpits.
I thought Jimbino was just forgetting his ‘sarc’ tags … ;-)
Jimbino:
I mourn the great ones who conscientiously objected and were sentenced to rot in Amerikas’s prisons.
I was drafted during the Vietnam War, and applied for 1-O [Conscientious Objector] status. If I was not granted it, I was prepared to go to jail. However, the draft board granted me 1-O/C.O. status. Moreover, I did not present a religious argument.
I changed my mind on pacifism after the slaughter in Cambodia. When there are murderous thugs roaming the earth, no one has clean hands.
The country I came from lost 90% of its males in a single war. It learned its lesson.
That would be Paraguay, which lost the Triple Alliance War.[1864-1870]. BTW, Paraguay didn’t completely learn its lesson, as it initiated the Chaco War against Bolivia in the 1930s, which Paraguay won. As a primary reason for the war was the belief that the Chaco had a lot of oil or gas, and the part of the Chaco which Paraguay won in the war has had very little oil or gas discovered in it, the war was a waste. [Bolivia has very productive gas fields in its part of the Chaco, whose production gets exported to Argentina and Brazil.]
Regarding your claims that you are 1) of Paraguayan origin and 2) you were of draft age in the US during the Vietnam War, my response is that people of Paraguayan origin in the US in the 1960s were few and far between. One source of immigrants from Paraguay to the US during this time came from the Bruderhof, a religious community from Europe which moved to Paraguay and later to the US.
I suspect that I know more about Paraguay than you do. Ditto physics.
The Bruderhof are pacifists.
“The use of “K” in the word American is to signify that you are an angry leftist who supports terrorists like Bill Ayres and other notable college faculty members. If you use Two Ks, you are Really angry.”
And if you used 3 Ks, you were saying that the USA and the Klu Klux Klan are one and the same.
Y’all are close!
Spelling Amerika with a ‘k’ is a common rhetorical device, as Wikipedia points out in their thorough explanation. Austin, for example, is part of the USSA, while the rest of Texas is part of Amerika.
I was indeed born an Amerikan citizen in Paraguay, whose president had extolled the Nazis at the beginning of WWII. My father was working for Naval Intelligence, which was there to monitor the German influence in the Southern Cone, which leaned toward support of the Nazis until Brazil declared war against the Axis at the very end, most likely to lay claim to the property of their Germans whom they had robbed and persecuted throughout the war.
Of course, Amerika wasn’t serious about de-nazification, and even helped ex-Nazis return to positions of power in Germany and to emigrate to the Southern Cone. Indeed, Amerika hired one of the worst to head its missile program.
You Gringo, you must be a very smart dude. Do you also speak Guarani, Spanish, Portuguese and German? I do.
You Gringo, you must be a very smart dude. Do you also speak Guarani, Spanish, Portuguese and German? I do.
I speak Spanish, can understand and make myself understood ma’ o meno’ in Brazilian Portuguese, do not speak Guarani, and my knowledge of German- “ein klein.” I am bright enough, and knowledgeable enough, to detect some BS. Your claim to be an immigrant from Paraguay, given that there were so few of them from the 1960s or before, didn’t ring true. And the implication from the below statement is that you were an immigrant from Paraguay.
Let’s go onto some more BS.
I doubt that you have substantially changed your political points of view since the 1960s: your use of “Amerika” shows that . If you are currently disgusted with Werner Von Braun, the odds are that you were disgusted with him back in the 1960s. As the song points out, it was no secret what Werner von Braun had been doing during the war. If you were disgusted with Von Braun back in the 1960s, I doubt very much that you went into missile engineering. Perhaps you had the academic training and the skills to work in missile engineering, but given what you have said, I doubt that your political beliefs would have let you work in missile engineering. “Skills” or not. It just seems odd to advertise “skills” in something, which given your political beliefs, you probably never worked in. Pretty rusty skills, at best.
Another point : by 1971, the draft was pretty much over. Certainly by 1971 there were much fewer drafted than in 1968. Which would put your entry into the draft at around 1964-65 at the latest. Someone in his mid to late 60’s is not likely to be going to work “as a nuclear physicist and missile engineer.” More likely retirement.
Ciao, vivo.
Jimbino
More BS.Brazil declared war against Germany and Italy in 1942, which is far from being the very end.On 22 August 1942… the nation of Brazil declared war on the Axis powers of Germany and Italy.