Explosions at Boston Marathon

[Razgovory]

Would it be fair to blame Strix's teachers and parents for the dumbshit stuff he says or was a he a lost cause to begin with?  Discuss.

[11B4V]

My partner in all things Languish, DGerkut speaks the truth.

Stuff like that made me think for a long time that you were trolling, or somehow trying to be ironic. But now I realize that it is really how you actually think.

Which makes your love of unions all the more hilarious.

You have my sympathies. I didn't realize you and Habbaku had a divorce. Or, was he finally surgically removed from your ass?

Not the broomstick thing again.

[Neil]

And, I haven't even addressed the fact the media is doing their best to avoid any connection to Islam that the brothers might have had.

Are you actually paying attention to what the news sources have to say about anything?  That's probably a mistake on your part.

[Strix]

And, I haven't even addressed the fact the media is doing their best to avoid any connection to Islam that the brothers might have had.

Are you actually paying attention to what the news sources have to say about anything?  That's probably a mistake on your part.

Yes, I have been paying attention. They admit that the brothers believed in Islam but they are downplaying it's involvement. They seem to be stuck on testimonials by friends, relatives, and others saying what wonderful guys they were prior to their attempts at mass murder. I love all the articles about people interviewed overseas which state what a great guy Tamerlan was and how shocked they are about the accusations. I especially love the parts where the people say the U.S. should suck it up because that's how life is where they live and, oh yeah, the people interviewed mention they are Muslim.

[Neil]

Isn't that what they usually do?  Interview a bunch of people who say that the mass murderer was just a regular guy and they never saw it coming.  In a few weeks, we'll start hearing made-up 'chilling' tales about how somebody thought these people were cold-blooded killers from day one, but that's the society we've built.

[Sheilbh]

Something that just occurred to me:  The two cities in the US struck by Muslim terrorism are the two areas which were most supportive of the IRA.  Is it possible that karma works?

Obvious CdM troll is obvious.

It is always galling to see Peter King (R-IRA) talking about counter-terrorism.

However, it sounds like the younger brother lead a normal life, went to school, had friends, had a job, and so forth, and could have easily called law enforcement at anytime to stop the attack. He didn't, he made a conscious choice to commit mass murder.

And the process that lead him to go from a normal life to planting bombs is called 'radicalisation' seems worth studying to me.

I'm struck by a number of similarities with the 7/7 bombers.

[CountDeMoney]

It is always galling to see Peter King (R-IRA) talking about counter-terrorism.

I saw that.

[Admiral Yi]

And the process that lead him to go from a normal life to planting bombs is called 'radicalisation' seems worth studying to me.

My (minor) objection to the term is that it, being rooted in a passive verb, implies factors outside the principle's control.

"My eyes are possessed, I can't tear them away from this jihadist website!"

[PDH]

And the process that lead him to go from a normal life to planting bombs is called 'radicalisation' seems worth studying to me.

My (minor) objection to the term is that it, being rooted in a passive verb, implies factors outside the principle's control.

"My eyes are possessed, I can't tear them away from this jihadist website!"

Everything is outside of our own agency.  Either genes or the overwhelming historical narrative seems to force people to do things these days.

[Viking]

And the process that lead him to go from a normal life to planting bombs is called 'radicalisation' seems worth studying to me.

My (minor) objection to the term is that it, being rooted in a passive verb, implies factors outside the principle's control.

"My eyes are possessed, I can't tear them away from this jihadist website!"

I have the same attitude to the use of "provoked". Applying provocation or radicalization to an object does not make it provoked or radicalized. It is, however, a necessary but not sufficient condition. There are people out there who are pre-disposed and motivated to be provoked and radicalized, they are few but they do live in societies where the provokedness and radicalization are legitimized.

[Sheilbh]

My (minor) objection to the term is that it, being rooted in a passive verb, implies factors outside the principle's control.

Well someone who is radicalised isn't necessarily going to become a terrorist and becoming radical or a terrorist isn't innate, it's a social process.

They may just become a radical and I think there can be positive uses of the verb. The issue is that I think it's far more difficult to predict, study or stop the shift from a radical ideologue to a bomber. Whereas the way someone is radicalised into being, in the case we're talking about, an extremist Islamist is something that can be studied and predicted which is useful for the security services and the community around them.

It isn't out of their control but it seems to me that it is an emotional, social and intellectual process, so that sort of verb works.. My understanding is the normal view, at least of homegrown Islamist extremists, is that they feel alienated in their society. They find a writer or a preacher of some sort who is able to explain the world to them - and to explain why it's not their fault but society's. In turn that gives them a role, sometimes leads to a rejection of society around them and a sort of intellectual spiral were they only engage and think about what they're already being told. And, of course, the reverse can happen.

Obviously people make choices along that route and then a minority, even of extremists, make the further choice of blowing people up. Radicalisation doesn't end in a bomb. But to discount all that talk as weak, or making the terrorist a suspect seems macho nonsense to me. We should condemn our security services to ignorance rather than try to understand the way a seemingly normal kid, or a social worker from Yorkshire ends up killing people.

Having said all that a lot of the stuff about motive in this case still seems to be light on facts and heavy on speculation and talking about radicalisation at least fills some airtime. In this case I think we need to wait.

So the question isn't whether their eyes are possessed but why are they looking to extremism? What's the signs that can be noticed by family members or people in the Mosque? How does what we know about this process then fit with, say, a trip abroad?

I imagine many of the people moaning about the victim-talk of 'radicalisation' will also moan about the FBI not picking up on them after the trip to Russia.

[11B4V]

Count down to political shenanigans. 5-4-3-2-1-

(Newser) – As the Boston Marathon bombing investigation continues, the FBI is really zeroing in on dead suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's six-month trip to Russia last year, the New York Times reports. The elder of the Tsarnaev brothers visited two predominantly Muslim republics in the country's north Caucasus region—Chechnya and Dagestan—both of which are home to strong militant separatist movements. Russia had warned the FBI that Tsarnaev was a "follower of radical Islam" back in 2011, but law enforcement officials did not deem him a security risk; now some members of Congress are unhappy at the way the tip was handled in advance of Tsarnaev's overseas trip, considering he may have had connections to extremist groups in the area. It was after that trip that he started posting jihadist videos.

http://www.newser.com/story/166572/key-thread-in-boston-bombing-trip-to-russia.html?utm_source=part&utm_medium=united

[11B4V]

0

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/21/house-committee-wants-answers-about-bombing-suspect/

A Republican-led House committee is asking the Obama administration for all information on the Boston bombing suspect once suspected of engaging in terrorist activities, saying the tragedy marks another intelligence failure and raises "serious questions about the efficacy of the federal counter-terrorism efforts."

The letter was sent Saturday by the House Committee on Homeland Security to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, National Intelligence Director James Clapper and FBI Director Robert Mueller.

In the letter, Committee Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul says bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev appears to be the fifth person since 9/11 to participate in a terror attack, despite being under FBI investigation.

McCaul, R-Texas, said the incidents "raise the most serious questions about the efficacy of the federal counter terrorism efforts."

Tsarnaev, 26, was killed early Friday morning in a police shootout. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was captured by police that night and remains in the hospital.

The older Tsarnaev was interviewed by the FBI in 2011 before a six-month overseas trip, including time in Russia. In addition, he posted jihadist material on his social media site.

On Saturday, two U.S. law enforcement officials said the FBI was acting on information from the Russian intelligence security service that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam.

"Yet Tsarnaev remained at liberty in this country to conduct the Boston attack, and it took days to publicly identify him as a suspect," wrote McCaul, who wants the information by Friday.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., a committee member who also signed the letter, asked on "Fox News Sunday": "Why didn't the FBI go back and look at this?"

Still, the agency got some bipartisan support Sunday for its intelligence work and finding the bombing suspects.

"The FBI did its due diligence" Rep. Mike Rogers said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Rogers, R-Mich., a former FBI agent, also suggested Tsarnaev could have made overseas trips under an alias.

Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin told NBC the FBI and related agencies need more resources.

"We need to invest in the resources necessary for law enforcement," said Durbin, who acknowledges the Boston attacks might be a call for a review of U.S. intelligence efforts.

Two bombs place Monday near the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and injured more than 180 others.

McCaul identified the others in the terrorist category as Anwar al Awlaki, David Headley, Carlos Bledsoe and Nidal Hasan.

He said Faruq Abdulmutallab also attempted a terror attack despite being identified to the Central Intelligence Agency as a potential terrorist. The so-called "underwear bomber" attempted to blow up a U.S. airliner on Dec. 25, 2009.

Al Awlaki was an American-born Al Qaeda member killed in a 2011 U.S. drone attack in Yemen.  Headley is a Pakistani-American who pleaded guilty in 2010 to participating in terror attacks including the 2008 Mumbai, India, attacks that killed 164 people.

Bledsoe was born in Tennessee and converted to radical Islam before a 2009 attack on a military recruiting station in which he fatally shot an Army private.

Hasan, born in Virginia, is the Army officer accused of fatally shooting 13 people in 2009 at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/21/house-committee-wants-answers-about-bombing-suspect/#ixzz2RAYiIkD8

I will have to tune into the Foxs News frothers for the comedy show.

[Razgovory]

Gee wiz who could have fucking predicting this?  Oh, I did.

[Eddie Teach]

Your psychic powers are amazing.