Open Thread on the Marathon Attack.

My current guess is that this was the work of one or two people who had no external contacts.  If they did, the FBI would have been onto their communications.  pl

Comments

[Clifford Kiracofe]

From a journalist who has some first hand experience and is realistic:

"....We have been discovering that the Tsarnaevs had a profound attachment to Chechnya and that Islam had become a big part of their lives in recent years. This was not always the case with Chechens. When I covered the First Chechen War, which broke out late in 1994, religion was not much of a motivating factor. By the time I came back at the onset of the Second Chechen War five years later, many Chechens had embraced a radical version of their faith. There were far more mosques and beards, some Chechen women had taken to covering themselves from head to toe in black robes and Shariah courts meted out a particularly brutal form of justice.

As the Russians increasingly got the upper hand in the Caucasus, Chechen fighters went on killing sprees in northern Russia, attacking soft targets such as the Moscow Metro. In their most audacious attack, about 40 Chechens took 700 Muscovites hostage at a theatre in 2002. All of the terrorists and at least 130 hostages died when Russian special forces released some kind of chemical agent.

Other Chechens later joined al-Qaida’s fight against the U.S.-lead coalition in Afghanistan. I remember being with Canadian troops in Kandahar, Afghanistan, who were shocked to intercept radio communications in Chechen and in Russian — the lingua franca of jihadis from there and former Soviet republics such as Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan and where, as it turns out, the Tsarnaev boys spent their early years."
....

Read more: http://www.canada.com/Boston+attacks+finally+reveal+global+nature+radical+Islam/8273748/story.html#ixzz2R8dRsZPU

[confusedponderer]

Something hilarious and bitter on the Boston bombing:

# The Czech ambassador had to explain to Americans that Czechs and Chechens aren’t the same thing at all.

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/czech-ambassador-were-not-chechen-90368.html

# Netanyahu aide Ron Dermer stresses the good in the bombing, seeing it as a “big boost” that is going to make the average American “identify more with Israel and its struggle against terrorism”. Well, congratulations for your good fortune then, Ron. Hope and pray for more of it, to improve US-Israeli relations?

http://tinyurl.com/c6xza7q

[Clifford Kiracofe]

More data:

"Speculation is growing that one of the Boston bombers met a known Jihadist terrorist in 2011 - as it emerged the FBI failed to follow up on a Russian tip that he was seen with an Islamic militant six times.

...
The 26-year-old Chechen, who was living in the U.S. after being granted refugee status in 2002, first caught the eye of authorities after he was spotted meeting with a person involved in the militant Islamic underground movement in Dagestan. They met at a mosque on six occasions, the source said.

...Gadzhimurad Dolgatov - a Dagestani jihadist who died in 2012 after a vicious stand-off with Russian security services "

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2312496/Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-Did-Boston-bomber-meet-known-jihadist-terrorist-Speculation-grows-emerges-Russia-asked-FBI-investigate-Boston-bomber-just-SIX-MONTHS-ago-trip-Dagestan.html#ixzz2RBX08C9C

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2312496/Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-Did-Boston-bomber-meet-known-jihadist-terrorist-Speculation-grows-emerges-Russia-asked-FBI-investigate-Boston-bomber-just-SIX-MONTHS-ago-trip-Dagestan.html#ixzz2RBWDd6f8

Also note the old "American Committee for Peace in Chechnya" with its Neocon core. This was back when certain US circles supported the Chechen "freedom fighters" against the bad old Rooskies. The strategic idea being the Caucasus were a soft strategic underbelly of the evil bear. The Brits helped recruit such freedom fighters with the Saudis playing their usual Wahhabi role. Sounds familar?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Committee_for_Peace_in_Chechnya

[Kerim]

yes absolutely. And that is also why, the Arab masses were supporting Saddam during the 2 gulf wars. They had no illusions about the brutality and ruthlessness of Saddam and his regime, but as soon as he was attacked, they all felt attacked. The same goes for Chechens, Bosnians, Rohingya and obviously Palestinians. And this cuts across all socia/educational classes.
And I believe the same would be true if Iran were attacked by the West.

[Babak Makkinejad]

Arabs supported Iraq against Iran; the lesson of that is that Arabs did not consider Shia Iran part of the Ummah.

Ummah is a fine idea, don't get me wrong.

But it does not exist - at least among Arabs - just go Dubai and watch how Muslims from Pakistan, India, Bengladesh are treated by the local Arabs.

[William R. Cumming]

Some MSM linking older brother to three unsolved murders in Boston area several years ago!