Report warned Boston Marathon was vulnerable to terrorism

A regional intelligence agency told police days before the attack that extremists could potentially target the event. Police complain at a congressional hearing that federal officials didn't tell them more about the suspects.




Photos of the bombing victims and the officer shot to death at MIT are on display at a congressional hearing, during which local police complained that federal officials hadn't told them more about the suspects. (Michael Reynolds / European Pressphoto Agency / May 9, 2013)




By Brian Bennett and Richard A. Serrano, Washington Bureau

May 9, 2013, 8:46 p.m.



WASHINGTON — Five days before two bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon, an intelligence report identified the finish line as an "area of increased vulnerability" and warned Boston police that homegrown extremists could use "small-scale bombings" to attack spectators and runners at the event.

The 18-page report, similar to others sent to police and first responders before major events in the Boston area, was written by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which is funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security and helps disseminate intelligence information to local police and first responders.

The assessment noted that there was "no credible, specific information indicating an imminent threat" to the race.

"The FBI has not identified any specific lone offender or extremist group who pose a threat to the Boston Marathon," the report said.

In the aftermath of the bombing, who in law enforcement knew what and when have become significant points of contention.

Even as federal officials pointed to the warning as evidence they had done their jobs, Boston and Massachusetts state police officials complained at a congressional hearing Thursday that the FBI had not told them about an earlier investigation involving Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of two brothers accused of carrying out the April 15 attacks that left three dead and more than 260 injured.

Since the blasts, the FBI has acknowledged that agents interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 but determined that he did not pose a threat. Customs agents were aware that Tsarnaev, 26, had traveled to Russia in 2012, but decided that he didn't require additional questioning when he returned to the U.S. later that year.

Boston police officials and members of Congress expressed frustration during the hearing that the FBI and other agencies hadn't shared more widely what they knew about the Tsarnaevs.

"We would have liked to have known," Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis told the House Homeland Security Committee during the first of a series of hearings investigating the attacks. Davis testified that he did not learn about the Tsarnaevs until more than three days after the bombings, after Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been killed in a police shootout and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar, was on the run.

But Davis said he was uncertain what his intelligence officers would have made of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's 2012 trip to Dagestan, Russia, noting that the FBI had interviewed him but found nothing suspicious and that Russian officials did not tell the FBI why they were interested in him.

"We would certainly have looked at the information," Davis said. "We would certainly have talked to the individual." But he added: "I can't say I would have come to a different conclusion" than the FBI.

Federal officials defended their actions and suggested local law enforcement agencies had not fully followed up on possible threats.

The Homeland Security threat assessment was dated April 10 and included a map of the Boylston Street finish line area.

Two officials read parts of it to a Times reporter.

"The possibility exists that [homegrown violent extremists] could attempt an attack by using simple improvised explosive devices or small-arms tactics against easily accessible low-security targets," said the report by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, which comprises federal and local law enforcement authorities.

The finish line was the area targeted by the bombers. Both suspects were spotted on surveillance cameras.

Massachusetts authorities dismissed the center's warning as routine and lacking specifics.

"The assessment about start and finish lines being potential targets was considered and reflected in security plans for the event, as they have been every year," David Procopio, a spokesman for the Massachusetts State Police, said in a statement. The wording in the report is "standard language" and "based on common sense and accumulated expertise in event security" and not on any specific threat, Procopio said.

"It is akin to saying, in general terms, that airplanes are an attractive target to terrorists," he said.

Richard DesLauriers, special agent in charge of the FBI's Boston office, said local officials, as members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force there, had access to the information about the brothers, as did the FBI. They all had access to law enforcement's Guardian Threat Tracking System to review intelligence data, he said.

"Boston [terrorism task force] members, including representatives from the Boston Police Department , were provided instruction on using Guardian, including suggestions on methods for proactively reviewing and establishing customized searches, which would allow them to be fully informed of all [task force] activity that may affect Boston and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts," DesLauriers said.

He added that in 2011 alone, the Boston task force conducted "approximately 1,000 assessments, including the assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, which was documented in the Guardian database."

But Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said, "The idea that the feds have this information and it's not shared with the state and locals defies why we created the Homeland Security Department in the first place."

The 70 so-called fusion centers like the Boston Regional Intelligence Center were created after the Sept. 11 commission insisted in 2002 that federal, state and local law enforcement agencies needed to cooperate more in counter-terrorism and to analyze potential terrorist activity detected by police.

During a break in the hearing, Police Commissioner Davis was asked about the warning of a possible terrorism incident near the finish line.

He said investigators were conducting a thorough review of all they knew before the bombing and what occurred after.

"A lot has to play itself out yet," he said. "Everything has to be reviewed."

brian.bennett@latimes.com

richard.serrano@latimes.com

Source

.

America: Protect Our Civil Liberties, But Expand Surveillance Cameras And Chat Room Monitoring

by Noah Rothman | 5:50 pm, May 1st, 2013

In the wake of the April 15 Boston Marathon bombing, CNN/ORC has released a new poll showing conflicting conclusions about how Americans have internalized the lessons of that attack. Most surveyed said that the preservation of civil liberties should be American elected officials’ first priority and not passing new laws intended to make it easier to target potential terrorists. However, Most surveyed said that they support an expansion of law enforcement’s ability to monitor online conversations and favor an increase the number of cameras monitoring pedestrian traffic in public spaces.

The latest CNN/ORC poll could be broadly interpreted by civil libertarians as good news. A majority of those surveyed, 63 percent, say that terrorists will find a way to attack the U.S. no matter what. Only 32 percent say new laws and added vigilance could prevent every conceivable terrorist event. That number is remarkably stable among subgroups. 63 percent of both women and men sampled said that terrorists will find a way to execute an attack if they are so inclined.

CNN/ORC found similar results when they asked if they feared the government’s response to the Boston attack would be approving new counterterror policies or the preservation of Americans’ civil liberties. 61 percent said they fear new policies which will “excessively restrict the average person’s civil liberties.” Only 31 percent said they fear the government will not do enough to prevent a future attack. Again, 61 percent of both women and men said they are more concerned about civil liberties than new anti-terror policies.

Things get a little more confusing as the survey progresses. Only 49 percent said that they would not consider surrendering some of their liberty even if it could curb future incidences of terrorist violence. 40 percent said they would be “willing” to “give up some civil liberties” to ensure future security.

A vast majority – 81 percent to 18 percent – favor expanded camera surveillance on streets and in public places. This figure likely buoyed by the fact that both Boston bombers were first identified by footage from a surveillance camera outside a retail outlet.

While 59 percent oppose the expansion of government monitoring of cellular or email communication, 55 percent expressed support for an expansion of law enforcement monitoring electronic communications in chat rooms. Only 42 percent oppose the expansion of law enforcement’s ability to monitor chat room communications.

Self-identified Democrats and Republicans both strongly favor expanding the monitoring of online communications in chat rooms. Only self-identified independents were split; 48 to 46 percent favor such a move, well within that subgroup’s 6.0 percent margin of error.

CNN closes this schizophrenic survey with a note of optimism. 70 percent of Americans say they will not change their behavior patterns as a result of the attack in Boston and plan on attending large public events in the near future.

The CNN/ORC survey was conducted of 606 adults on April 30 and contains a margin of error of +/- 4.0 percent.

Source

.

Russia Assassinates 2 CIA-Linked Terrorists Tied To Boston Bombings

Monday, April 29, 2013 8:21



(Before It's News)

A Russian death squad killed two members of a CIA-backed Russian Jihad group operating in Dagestan in a raid earlier this morning that Russian intelligence has linked to Boston Bombings suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

The assassinations are just the latest in a trail of blood being used to cover up the tracks implicating CIA involvement in the Boston Bombings.



Russian intelligence reports Shakrudin Askhabov, one of the two men assassinated by the hit squad, was an associate of the CIA-linked Abu Dujan terror cell.

The western corporate media is not reporting anything more than the talking points outlined in well-crafted government issued talking point memos.

But Russian intelligence and news agencies are telling an entirely different story reporting Askhabov was a key facilitator in recruiting and enlisting foreigners to take up against Russia.

The emerging narrative is Tamerlan was recruited into the organization by a William Plotnikov, a Jihadist known as the Canadian, which Tamerlan may have met through boxing circles.

Plotnikov in turn introduced Tamerlan to Shakrudin Askhabov, who is said to recruit Muslims into Jihad using Saudi Arabia’s relgious teaching and the through the CIA’s politcal propoaganda.

Abu Dujan, like Al Qaeda and numerous other Jihad groups, preach an extremist fundamentalist interpretation of Saudi Arabia’s Salafism which is propagated throughout the world through the nation’s vast oil wealth.

The Checnyan terrorist cell is uses by the CIA generated anti-Russian political propaganda and a direct result of overseas information operations funded by US foreign aid money to “promote democracy” in the region.

The CIA campaign by radicalize citizens in the region to take up the revolution through various means ranging from workshops encouraging citizens to develop, promot and assert their own independent national identity all the way to repeatedly leveraging Russian crimes committed against the locals decades ago while under communist rule such as the “mass deportation” and “genocide” committed during the World War II.

A quote from Russian President Vladmir Putin is very telling about the United States position on the terror cell:




MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin said the bombings prove that Boston is a Chechen separatist terrorist group. Two bombers Boston, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsaranev, indeed citizens of Chechen descent.

So far, Russia asked the United States (U.S.) to enter into the Chechen separatist terrorist group list. But the U.S. rejected it because he considered militant Chechen rebel group as usual.

“I feel insulted when a terrorist group called the West Country as a rebel group in Chechnya,” Putin said

[...]

Tamerlan was obsevered by by Russian intelligence in 2012 meeting up with several members of the CIA-backed terror cell to wage Jihad against the Russia.

This clearly explains why Tamerlan was allowed to fly overseas despite warnings from Russian intelligence and being listed in US terror database and to American’s no-fly list.

According to the Russian media, Boston Bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev met with Askhabov during his visit to Russia from January to July of 2012.

The National Post quotes the well respected Russian media news outlet Novaya Gazeta, which reported Tamerlan was also observed meeting with William Plotnikov, known as “The Canadian” and other Jihadists associated with the CIA-backed terror cell while in Russia.



It is unclear whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev, left, and William Plotnikov, right, met through boxing circles or only communicated online, but their life paths suggest such a meeting was possible.

The Post conjectures that Tamerlan was connected to Plotnikov placed in quarantine by the Jihadists waiting to be cleared to join the insurgency and after the Canadian and Tamerlan’s other contacts were killed he returned to America.

According to the Post, Tamerlan returned to America just two days after The Canadian was killed along with 6 other militants by Russian Security forces last July.

It is much more plausible that Tamerlan had already joined the CIA’s insurgency against the Russian’s and returned to America because his handlers had a much more sinister gunpowder treason plot they needed carried out.

It has also been revealed that Tamerlan’s Uncle was on the Feds payroll and linked to the CIA in his roles an oil comany executive involved in a mutli-billion dollar money laundering scheme involving offshore shell companies and Russian crime bosses.

Source

.

They're watching: why city-wide surveillance failed to stop the Boston bombing

"If everyone becomes a suspect, then nobody is a suspect."

By Matt Stroud on April 24, 2013 01:25 pm

All day Sunday, police directed traffic around a blocked-off section of Boylston Street in downtown Boston where bombs had gone off nearly a week earlier, killing three and wounding hundreds. A makeshift memorial had been set up to honor the dead with personal messages and flowers, and old running shoes hung from metal barricades. Similar makeshift memorials were set up in suburbs outside the city proper, at least one designed in the dried blood of a dead suspect.


About a mile northwest from Boston’s ground zero, across the Charles River in Cambridge, a small but notable memorial had been set up. This one lay on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s campus, on a concrete walkway beside MIT’s Ray and Maria Stata Center. Famous for its Frank Gehry-designed architecture, Stata is all kitty-cornered frames and weirdly metallic boxes, like something out of a futuristic claymation video or Pee-wee’s Playhouse. This memorial seemed out of place. It was set up to honor an MIT police officer, Sean Collier, who had been shot and killed here while on duty, allegedly by the brothers suspected of carrying out the bombings downtown days earlier.

Read more

.

Highlights from Malden's Interfaith Vigil

Check out multimedia from Patch as well as readers in attendance at Monday night's vigil.

By Chris Caesar

April 23, 2013

Scenes from Malden's Interfaith Peace Vigil. Speakers shown are Major Joy Labbe of the Malden branch of the Salvation Army and Mayor Gary Christenson. Credit Chris Caesar

An impressive crowd gathered outside of Malden City Hall for Monday night's Interfaith Vigil.

Speakers included:

• Major Joy Labbe of the Salvation Army
• Mayor Gary Christenson
• Abdelhamid Bourote of the Islamic Outreach Community and Reform Center
• Carol Weigert of the Malden Baha'i Community
• Rev. Joanne Giannino of the First Parish in Malden Universalist
• Rabbi David Kudan of Temple Tifreth Israel and Congregation Agudas Achim-Ezrath Israel
• Rev. Patrick McCorkle of the First Church in Malden
• Jeantilus Gedeus of the Grace Episcopal Chuch
• Rev. Rachel Manke of the First Lutheran Chuch
• Pastor Sem Omeler of Philadelphie Seventh Day Adventist
• Pastor Nizzi Digan of the Good Shepherd United Methodist Church.

Source

.

Mourn For America: Whenever A Tragedy Happens They Take Even More Freedom From Us

By Michael, on April 21st, 2013 

What in the world is happening to America? Over the past couple of decades, the federal government has used just about every major national tragedy as an excuse to take even more liberty and freedom away from us. And without a doubt, the Boston Marathon bombing was a great national tragedy. I don't think that any of us will forget the images that we have seen over the past week. All of those responsible for this attack should be exposed, hunted down, tried and punished. Unfortunately, what always seems to happen is that it is the American people that seem to get punished the most for these tragedies. Over the past couple of decades we have been told again and again that if we will just give up a little bit more freedom that the authorities will be able to keep us safe. But you know what? It is IMPOSSIBLE for them to keep us safe. There is no way in the world that the federal government can protect us from all of the bad guys in the world. We are a country that is absolutely teeming with "soft targets" - malls, churches, schools, concerts, sporting events, etc. No matter how much money we spend, there is no way that the federal government will ever be able to provide enough security for all of those soft targets. Even if our society morphed into something that resembled George Orwell's "1984", the government would still never be able to guarantee our safety. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of this attack there will inevitably be calls for "increased security" and "more anti-terror legislation". The answer always seems to be to expand the emerging police state. But it is getting to the point where all of this "security" is becoming absolutely suffocating, and yet it doesn't seem to be keeping us any safer. So where does all of this end? Are we going to completely throw out the entire U.S. Constitution in a desperate attempt to feel a little bit safer? Or are we going to choose to live our lives without fear no matter what others may try to do to us? (Read More....)

.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev charged with using ‘weapon of mass destruction’

Mon Apr 22 2013

Former C.I.A. Director R. James Woolsey says political correctness is getting in the way of properly addressing and preventing terrorism, particularly in light of the Boston Marathon bombings.

The Fold/ The Washington Post

By Jerry Markon, Sari Horwitz and Jenna Johnson, Published: April 22


Federal prosecutors announced terrorism charges against the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing on Monday, outlining a chilling plot in which the man and his brother allegedly used low-grade but deadly explosives timed to detonate a block apart.

As he lay seriously injured in a Boston area hospital, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property, counts that could bring him the death penalty. He made his first court appearance in an unusual, non-public proceeding in which a federal judge and several lawyers went to his hospital bed.



Gallery


Boston Marathon bombing suspects: Information is slowly emerging on the two brothers, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings.

The toll from the two blasts, according to court documents and interviews on Monday, could have been far higher. Tsarnaev and his brother, Tamerlan, 26, who was killed Friday after a firefight with police, had a homemade arsenal of explosives. Some law enforcement officials said they think the brothers were planning more attacks.

The pair also apparently had no escape plan. The FBI found in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college dorm room what appeared to be the same black jacket and white hat he wore on the day of the attack, court documents said.

As the legal machinery began moving, the rituals of recovery continued in Boston. Near the marathon finish line, where three people were killed and more than 200 injured, residents and office workers poured out of buildings on Monday for a moment of silence at the same time the blasts occurred one week ago.

When the clock reached 2:50 p.m., hundreds of people — standing on sidewalks, street corners and building steps — froze in place. Even some cars stopped moving, ignoring green lights until cabs honked for them to move. Some people wiped away tears; others hugged.

Within five minutes, the buzz of life again hit the streets. Yet earlier in the day, the atmosphere was equally solemn in a quiet Boston suburb as people came together to mourn Krystle Campbell, a 29-year-old restaurant manager, in the first funeral for a victim of the attack. Firefighters, members of the Guardian Angels and motorcyclists joined Campbell’s high school classmates and others, the mourners dressed mostly in black and standing quietly in a cold wind.

The criminal complaint against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, ended a debate over how one of the first successful terrorist attacks on the U.S. homeland since Sept. 11, 2001, should be handled. Some congressional Republicans had insisted that Tsarnaev be designated an “enemy combatant,’’ which would enable the government to charge him under the laws of war in a military commission or to hold him indefinitely.

White House press secretary Jay Carney rejected that approach on Monday, saying that the suspect cannot be tried in a military commission under federal law because he is a U.S. citizen. “We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice,’’ Carney said at a White House news briefing.

Massachusetts public defenders Miriam Conrad, William Fick and Timothy Watkins, who have been appointed to represent Tsarnaev, did not reply to requests for comment Monday.


Read more

. 

P.S.

On another note:

Remember the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Iraq 'supposedly'  had?
How these findings were utterly ridiculed?

)---(

Now they are charging the suspect of the Boston Marathon Bombing with using Weapons of Mass Destruction? And, to further perplex the matter and defy conventional wisdom, they will try this case as a criminal matter in a civil court.
The right left paradigm is in full effect here.
Now, the administration's opposing party can start the fireworks. Here comes more Hegelian Dialectics, folks!  Stay tuned...

Arsenio

 .

Something's Rotten in Boston

Who's investigating the FBI investigators?:

Mon, 04/22/2013 - 12:18
by: Dave Lindorff



I’m not a conspiracy-minded person, but something definitely stinks about this whole Boston Marathon bombing story.

From what we’re reading about the case, the FBI had for at least two and possibly as many as five years been investigating Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old older brother killed during a shootout between police and the two brothers, Tamerlan and 19-year-old Dzhokhar. They had interviewed Tamerlan in his home, warned him they were watching what he ate, what he looked at on his computer, etc. They knew he had gone to Russia, Dagestan and Chechnya.

Then there’s the money thing. We’re told that Tamerlan had dropped out of community college because of money problems, right? Community college? That costs almost nothing to attend. That’s the whole point of community colleges: everyone can afford them. And he was reportedly only going part-time! But then, the two brothers are driving around in a Mercedes and wearing fancy clothes?

We’re talking about two brothers, both in school, with a father who was ill and living in Dagestan, who had worked as a curbside mechanic while in the US, and a mother who had a home beauty salon business, and these lads somehow were stylish dressers and drove around in an expensive car -- expensive to buy even used, and terribly expensive to maintain, too.

Where did all that money come from? We don’t know. Tamerlan was reportedly working at things like delivering pizza during that period This while living with his wife and caring at home for their young daughter, now three. Tamerlan’s wife was said to be supporting the struggling family by working “60-80 hours a week” as a home health care aide, one of the lowest-paying jobs you can find, often paying less than minimum wage.

Why is all this troubling? Because time and time again, when purported terrorist plots are “disrupted” and alleged terrorists are arrested, it turns out they are inept dupes who have been led into their “plots” by FBI provocateurs.

A stylishly dressed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his Mercedes-Benz: hard-luck guy or someone with a government sugardaddy?


So was this horrific Boston Marathon bombing yet another in this long string of FBI sting operations that perhaps went wrong? Or worse, was this, as both the Tsarnaev parents, now divorced and living separately in Dagestan, are suggesting, actually a “false flag” set-up by US intelligence agencies?

There are other curiosities about this whole affair. It has been widely reported, even in the mainstream local media (at least early on), that there was an unusual amount of police presence at both the start and finish of the marathon this year -- activity that included police drug-sniffing dogs and also -- get this! -- private security personnel, reportedly from Craft International, wearing the same kind of black clothing and black backpacks as were seen being worn by the Tsarnaev brothers! What’s that about?

Craft International’s website describes the company as providing "the best security, defense and combat weapons training in the world to military, police, corporate and civilian clients."

Images of suspected Craft International security personnel before (l) and after (r) explosions at the marathon. Note similar attire between the clothes and backpacks of the Craft undercover security guys and what the two bombing suspects were wearing. (Ironically, the dark-complexioned guy second from the left in the "before" picture was early on wrongly singled out in news photos as a suspect!)


Surely, if the sniffer dogs were doing their job and weren’t all stuffed up in their sinuses, they would have detected two amateurs who had allegedly just packed two large kitchen pressure cookers with black powder and nails, and then placed them into backpacks, and who were walking around in the crowd at the finish line. Black powder has a strong recognizable odor, and would be very hard to work with in any kind of clean manner -- sort of like working with talcum powder and trying to keep it from getting all over the place (try it sometime).

For those who are dubious about the claim that Craft mercenaries were on the scene, check out this site, and the following photo image of the company's logo on the caps.

Craft mercenaries on the scene at the Boston Marathon, their hats bearing the company's logo (magnified here)


And then there’s a jarring interview on WEEI, a Boston-area radio call-in program called the Dennis & Callahan Morning Show, from a woman named “Linda,”who claims she witnessed the shootout between the two brothers and police in which Tamerlan was killed. The woman, who says she was staying over at her boyfriend’s house on Watertown’s Dexter Street, claims they “rushed to the front” of the house when they heard the sound of shooting and explosions and “saw the suspect get hit by a Police SUV, and then after he was hit, get shot multiple times.”

Clarifying, under questioning from the radio host, she says he was hit first by the police, and then adds, “from what we saw early this morning I’d be hard pressed to think he was actually pronounced dead at the hospital, I mean from the injuries that he incurred in the street I would say he was probably dead when he was put in the ambulance.” She goes on to suggest that Tamerlan may have been executed by police: “I just remember him get shot multiple times.” Of course, “Linda” and her story could be a complete fake, but her account, completely at odds with the official one that has a ruthless and uncaring Dzhokhar running over his own brother in the firefight, dragging him 30 feet down the road before miraculously escaping himself from a police cordon on foot (somehow the tracking dogs couldn't follow his bloody trail).

Dzhokhar himself, currently being held under tight security in Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital where he is in serious condition with two bullet wounds and is being reportedly questioned by the FBI, is lucky to be alive at all. When he was discovered, weakened from blood loss, hiding inside a trailer-mounted pleasure boat in a retired New England Telephone employee’s driveway, police called to the scene by the owner, David Henneberry, initially pumped bullets into the boat trying to kill him, until they were ordered to stop firing by a supervisor. It is not known whether the bullet that hit Dzhokhar’s neck, producing a wound which now reportedly prevents him from talking, was one of those fired by police at that time (police are claiming it was "probably" self-inflicted).

I don’t know what to make of all these oddities, but I know one thing for sure. Given the FBI’s long and nefarious record of orchestrating and financing terror plots since September 11, 2001, so that they can then bust them, the last organization that should be in charge of questioning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in the hospital, and of investigating the whole bombing, is the FBI. The agency has far too much explaining to do itself in this bizarre case.

Before the country marches further down the road towards becoming a police state, with martial law takeovers of cities becoming the new normal, we need to find out what the FBI -- and Craft International -- were up to in Boston, and where the Tsarnaev brothers were getting their money, their ideas and their supplies from. (And by the way, if you thought that Boston's city-wide "shelter in place" order was a voluntary protect-the-public thing, and not an example of martial law in action, watch this video of how it was actually being handled on the ground, with citizens being ordered out of their homes at gunpoint, and police yelling orders at frightened residents like stormtroopers.)

Source

.

Saudi National Questioned in Boston was on Terror Watch List

Apr 22, 2013


By Todd Starnes

The Saudi national who was initially detained and then ruled out as a suspect in the Boston Marathon terrorist attack had been flagged on a terror watch list and was granted a student visa without being properly vetted, sources have told me.


A source close to the investigation revealed that Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi had been deemed inadmissible under the section of the Immigration and Nationality Act which declares ineligible for a visa – any alien who is engaged in or is likely to engage after entry – in terrorist activity.

At least two additional sources have confirmed to me that Ali Alharbi is set to be deported as early as this week, contrary to statements made by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

The House Homeland Security Committee is now requesting a classified briefing with Napolitano to get to the bottom of the issue, according to an exclusive report from The Blaze.

Napolitano denied anyone was being deported in a heated exchange Thursday with Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) during a House hearing.

“I am unaware of anyone who is being deported for national security concerns at all related to Boston,” she said. “I don’t know where that rumor came from.”

The Homeland Security chief said the Saudi national was not “technically a person of interest or a suspect, that was a wash.”

But Duncan questioned the wisdom of deporting someone who was at the scene of a terrorist attack.

“Wouldn’t you agree with me that it is negligent for us, as an American administration, to deport someone who was reportedly at the scene of the bombing, and we are going to deport him, not to be able to question him anymore, is that not negligent,” Duncan asked.

Napolitano refused to answer the question.

“It is so full of misstatements and misapprehensions, that it is just not worthy of any answer,” she replied. “There has been so much reported on this that has been wrong. I can’t even begin to tell you, congressman.”

Last week Steven Emerson, of the Investigative Project on Terrorism, told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity that Alharbi had been set to be deported “on national security grounds.”

“You don’t arrest their citizens – you deport them,” Emerson said regarding the Saudis.

An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told me that it was a case a “Saudi being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The official, with knowledge of the case, said Alharbi’s status has changed – but as it now stands – he will be sent back home.

“They don’t like the negative press,” the official said of the Saudis. “The guess is he will probably be allowed to leave without a lot of hype in order to avoid political sensitivities with the Saudis.”

ICE sources told The Blaze that a separate Saudi national was in custody — and that individual was in no way affiliated with the Boston attacks.

Source

.

GRAHAM: Boston proves "homeland battlefield," Constitution obsolete

Photo: Google Images

Saturday, April 20, 2013 - Citizen Warrior by Tiffany Madison

Tiffany Madison

RELATED COLUMNS
No, Eric Holder, Obama can't murder us with drones
The Smith-Amash amendment and NDAA: A loss and a win for liberty



AUSTIN, April 20, 2013 - The always patriotic U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham says the Boston bombing “is Exhibit A of why the homeland is the battlefield.” In an interview with the Washington Post:

“It’s a battlefield because the terrorists think it is.” Referring to Boston, he observed, “Here is what we’re up against,” and added, “It sure would be nice to have a drone up there [to track the suspect.]” He also slammed the president’s policy of “leading from behind and criminalizing war.”

On Twitter, Graham suggested the Obama administration arbitrarily toss the court system and Constitution for “intelligence gathering purposes.” According to Graham, accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, should be held as an enemy combatant. This legal status has been mostly reserved for al Qaeda captured abroad or foreigners, such as those held without charge for the last decade in Guantanamo Bay’s military facility.

Senator Graham is a known proponent of military-style detention for American suspects merely accused of terrorism. During debates regarding indefinite detainment provisions in 2011, which effectively invalidated the Bill of Rights, he notoriously bellowed that Americans accused of a terrorist-related crime should be denied Due Process. “When they say I want a lawyer you say, “Shut up! You don’t get a lawyer”.

He was also a most vocal critic of Senator Rand Paul’s 13-hour filibuster designed to demand answers regarding the Obama administration’s domestic drone program. When the tide of public opinion turned against him, he stopped vocally defending the “homeland battlefield” ideology, but Graham never lets a crisis go to waste.

These statements are a lame attempt to justify the further militarization of the American justice system. While most Americans are content with disregarding this typical chickenhawk rhetoric, this narrative becomes increasingly more dangerous.

All Americans should be wary when congressional leaders like Graham attempt to justify 12th century-style military custody.

As journalist Tom Mullen rightly observed, “The Bill of Rights was already on life support before this tragedy. Before the dust settled after 9/11, the 4th Amendment had been nullified by the Patriot Act. The 5th and 6th Amendments were similarly abolished with the Military Commission Act of 2006 and the 2012 NDAA resolution, which contained a clause allowing the president to arrest and indefinitely detain American citizens on American soil without due process of law.”

How much further can we move to invalidate our entire legal process? If we are at war with radical individuals and America is a battlefield, then why pretend we have laws? Why didn’t we just call in a few Apaches and dispatch the suspects promptly, as we do in war? Why bother with arrest and detainment, evidence or trial?

Because the United States is not at “war” with its own citizens that commit acts of terror for an ideology any more than we were at war with the Columbine shooters and various other domestic terrorists. They should be captured or killed in accordance with law, tried and convicted if guilty. They should be exonerated if they are innocent. That is the American way.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is an American citizen accused of a terrible crime, and current evidence suggest he is likely guilty. While there are legitimate arguments regarding whether he should be Mirandized, he doesn’t lose his right to trial, evidence and appeal because he’s been accused of a crime, no matter how egregious. He should not be treated as an enemy combatant and released to military custody as Graham advocates.

Let’s remember the definition of freedom. Let’s remember that the United States has based its worldwide reputation on protecting freedom, which is rooted in respect for the rule of law. We have taken up the banner of liberty and protected human rights around the world, both by example and with blood.

Did our nation’s warriors sacrifice their lives so that politicians could undermine liberty by declaring the “homeland” a “battlefield”? Can the United States government be at war with its own people? If the “War on Terror” cannot be won without destroying the Constitution, then have we not already lost?

Perhaps Senator Lindsey Graham speaks so loosely of “war” at every turn because he’s never seen “war” from his lush digs in corporate royalty land. Without due process, there is nothing protecting the innocent from mistakes made by bureaucrats. When the law is manipulated for one suspect, it is much easier to bend it for us all. If you disagree with him, perhaps he should hear from you.

Source: http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/citizen-warrior/2013/apr/20/boston-graham-says-bombing-proves-homeland-battlef/#ixzz2R86Mfsfw

.

Sunday brings faith and healing in Boston

By David Ariosto and Moni Basu CNN


UPDATED 3:08 PM EDT Apr 21, 2013


BOSTON (CNN) —On this brisk April morning in Boston's South End, worshipers filled New England's largest Roman Catholic church. It was a time to pray -- and reflect on the torrent of violence this city has seen.

Last Sunday, a special blessing was said here for the runners in the Boston Marathon. Now, there were people sitting on the wooden pews who might have witnessed the tragedy. They were all scarred inside.

Almost a week has passed since bombs made from pressure cookers blew up near the finish line of the race. Three people died, and more than 170 were wounded. Many remain in hospitals.

Cardinal Sean O'Malley knew his role was to help heal.

He greeted people ahead of Sunday Mass at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross. It was in this sprawling 19th-century stone building that President Barack Obama quoted scripture Thursday to bring comfort and resolve for those still reeling from the Boston Marathon bombings. It was time again to seek solace.

Maria Fernandez attended the service with her friends.

"This is the best place to be right now if you're from here and want to support Boston," she said.

Inside the church, all eyes fell on four large photos of the victims, candles flickering in front of them.

Some prayed. Others whispered.

O'Malley, Boston's archbishop, hoped the service reinforced Boston's communal ties after the tragedy.



Read more:http://www.wptz.com/news/national/Sunday-brings-faith-and-healing-in-Boston/-/8869978/19834996/-/aj71sf/-/index.html#ixzz2R84SQ200

.

Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, ‘Person Of Interest’ In Boston Bombing, Still Set To Be Deported On Tuesday

Published On: Sat, Apr 20th, 2013

US Headlines | By Brandon Jones



An expert on terrorism says the Saudi national who was the original “person of interest” in connection with Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing is going to be deported from the U.S. on Tuesday.

The foreign student from Revere, Mass., is identified as 20-year-old Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi.

“I just learned from my own sources that he is now going to be deported on national security grounds next Tuesday, which is very unusual,” Steve Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism told Sean Hannity of Fox News Wednesday night.

Emerson echoed more details Friday on The Glenn Beck Radio Show, who says there are many more details to this situation and would be revealed on Monday.

The Reuters news agency reported President Barack Obama met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal on Wednesday, noting “the meeting was not on Obama’s public schedule.”

After that meeting was mentioned, Emerson told Hannity, “That’s very interesting because this is the way things are done with Saudi Arabia. You don’t arrest their citizens. You deport them, because they don’t want them to be embarrassed and that’s the way we appease them.”

Tuesday morning, a meeting Secretary of State John Kerry held with the Saudi foreign minister was abruptly closed to press coverage.

“The State Department initially provided no reason for the change, which was announced just 15 minutes before the scheduled 10 a.m. session,” reported Politico.

    

(Actual picture)

Congressman Jeff Duncan asked DHS chief Janet Napolitano about the Saudi linked to the Boston bombings being deported for “national security” reasons.

Napolitano denied any knowledge of the man being deported. (MORE HERE)

Two Saudi nationals were reportedly injured in the bombings in Boston, with one, Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, initially put under armed guard at a hospital. Alharbi is reportedly studying in the U.S. on a student visa.

A large group of federal and state law enforcement agents reportedly raided Alharbi’s apartment in Revere, Mass.

CNN reported the search took place by consent, according to a federal law-enforcement source, meaning no search warrant was needed

Now the Saudi embassy in Washington has said Alharbi was no longer under detention and is not a suspect in the bomb blasts.

More from The Blaze which is currently the best coverage

Source

.

Related:

Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, Bombing ‘Person Of Interest’ Has 6 Saudi ‘Terrorists’ In Family,5 More Are In Gitmo


Confirmation that Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi, the Saudi national and initial “person of interest,” is indeed being deported this week now is spreading across the Internet. More details are emerging this weekend as Arabic sources and Saudi papers themselves are confirming “rumors” swirling in the US. (more at bottom)

Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi in the hospital.

Moreover, the Saudi papers are detailing the visit by the Obamas, especially Michelle to the hospital and this man. The “rumors” of the President meeting with Saudi officials in the hospital just prior to his “approved deportation” is abragging right in their press.

More notable is the assertions that Abdul Rahman Ali Al-Harbi is free an clear of terrorist ties, when in fact over 10 names from his clan are already linked to Al-Qaeda.

Many from Al-Harbi’s clan are entrenched in terrorism and are members of Al-Qaeda as identified by the Islamic governements.

Read more

.

.

.

Boston remains under siege amid manhunt

By Andrew Ryan, Casey Ross, Jenn Abelson, Erin Ailworth, Meghan E. Irons and Michael B. Farrell | GLOBE STAFF

APRIL 19, 2013



JONATHAN WIGGS/GLOBE STAFF
A lone bicyclist made his way across the Lonfellow Bridge on Friday amid the lockdown.


Almost 1 million people in metropolitan Boston remained under siege Friday as police conducted a massive manhunt for one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings.

The region felt as if it had been gripped by martial law: Police armed with rifles patrolled deserted streets in Boston, Watertown, Cambridge, Waltham, Newton, Belmont, and Brookline, and residents hunkered inside, under authorities’ unprecedented order.

“It is important that folks remain indoors,” Governor Deval Patrick said this afternoon at a press conference. “Keep the doors locked and [do not] open the door unless there is a uniformed, identified law enforcement officer on the other side of it requesting to come inside.”

Authorities shut down all MBTA service, halting subways, trains, and buses. City and town halls were closed. Public works canceled trash pickup, keeping garbage trucks off streets. Courthouses kept their doors closed.



Related
MBTA shut down during hunt
Closings in Boston area today
Businesses close amid manhunt


From Dudley Square to the Seaport, Cambridge to Kenmore Square, businesses shuttered. Streets remained empty, sidewalks abandoned, entire office blocks uninhabited.

The quiet overwhelmed Kendall Square, where mayhem reignited Thursday night when an MIT police officer was shot and killed, apparently in a confrontation with the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. By this morning, there were few cars, no honking horns, and no clatter of construction trucks. The sprawling Massachusetts Institute of Technology remained closed.

“It’s a ghost town,” cab driver Jimmy Carbone said. “It’s kind of scary.”

Along Massachusetts Avenue in Boston, armed law enforcement officers in neon vests guarded almost every intersection from Back Bay to Roxbury. The eerie stillness hung over Kenmore Square, where normally clogged streets were clear and parking lots were virtually empty. Tourists walked aimlessly, unable to board trains or buses.

“What is this world coming to? ’’asked Guy Dixon, a maintenance and security worker at a rooming house for women on Charlesgate Avenue. “This is too close to home.”

The uncomfortable silence blanketed the region. In Boston’s Seaport district, gleaming office towers sat almost empty as the manhunt continued.

“It’s like Planet of the Apes down here,” said Michael Vaughan, who runs a public relations firm. “The town is just dead.”

At South Station, clusters of people stood on sidewalks, some with luggage, presumably stranded travelers. Heavily armed law-enforcement officers surrounded the transit hub and the nearby Federal Reserve building. The lobby of high-rise officer towers remained deserted.

“Buildings’ are all shut down,” a security guard in a black suit and glasses yelled as a financial analyst in blue pants tried to push his way through the locked revolving doors of 75-101 Federal Street.

The financial analyst, Harris Bradley, 25, had biked to work from the Fenway despite the manhunt.

“Financial markets don’t close just because there’s a crazy guy out there,” Bradley said, gesturing at the building before adding, “I would have been sheltered in there.”

Nearby, Digitas had closed its doors.

“No employees,” said Steve Martell, who was helping staff the lobby desk. “We’re really keeping this place buttoned down.”

So was City Hall Plaza. Dunkin’ Donuts there opened, but there were few customers. Neighborhoods remain still and almost frozen, like an emergency snow day with snow.

“It’s been almost eerily quiet the last couple of hours,” City Councilor Matt O’Malley said from his living room in Jamaica Plain. “I live on the Jamaicaway, which is usually crawling with traffic.

In Brookline, it was “Quiet. Very quiet,” said Betsy DeWitt, chairwoman of the Board of Selectmen. “People who have been asked to stay in are staying in.

Armed law enforcement officers guarded the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The digital marquee outside displayed the marathon symbol and the words “Boston, You’re My Home,” a song lyric President Obama quoted Thursday at an interfaith prayer service for victims of the bombings.

“Be patient,” Mayor Thomas M. Menino said at the afternoon press conference. “But I want to say as mayor of the city of Boston, we are one city . . . a city we will not let the terrorists win over.”

Equity Office Properties, the region’s largest commercial landlord with millions of square feet of office space, shuttered most of its properties. Across from City Hall at Center Plaza, tenants already inside the curved building on Cambridge Street were not permitted to leave, according to a posting on Equity Office Properties’ website. The local FBI office is in Center Plaza.

Other buildings normally teeming with thousands of employees also closed.

Steve Steinberg, a spokesman for the real estate firm Jones Lang LaSalle, said he received an e-mail about 8 a.m. saying his building at One Post Office Square was shut.

“I was on my way in to the office, and I just turned around when I got the e-mail,” said Steinberg, who was commuting into the city on Route 1. “It was eerie. The highway was virtually empty.”

New Balance chief executive Rob DeMartini said a few people made it into the Brighton headquarters of the sneaker-maker before security sent out a robocall telling workers to stay home.

“It’s been a trying week and today is going to make it even more trying because the better part of the city on lockdown,” DeMartini said.

The company, which had employees and runners spread across the Boston Marathon, offered counseling and held town hall meetings “to acknowledge and process as people realized the city was impacted in a significant way,” DeMartini said.

He said most employees have the ability to work from home until further notice.

Matthew Kiefer, an attorney with the Boston law firm Goulston & Storrs, said his 150-attorney firm on Atlantic Avenue was shut down at 8:14 a.m. A couple of hours earlier, he said, he got an automated call from a state-operated emergency line warning him of the manhunt.

“There’s almost nobody out on the street,” Kiefer said of his Jamaica Plain neighborhood. He said he spoke to a client this morning who was at a Starbucks on Newbury Street. “I guess he was in line and they closed the door behind him and said, ‘Please get your coffee and leave.’ ”


Andrew Ryan can be reached at acryan@globe.com Follow him on Twitter @globeandrewryan.

Source

.

Marathon runner (Joe Berti) witnesses double disasters

Marathon runner witnesses double disasters

By AMY FORLITI | Associated Press – 9 hrs ago




Associated Press/Eric Gay - Marathon runner Joe Berti poses for a photo in Austin, Texas, Thursday, April 18, 2013. Berti had just finished the Boston Marathon seconds before two bombs exploded at the finish line. Two days later, he was in his home state of Texas when he saw a fertilizer plant explode near Waco. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

RELATED CONTENT

View Photo

Marathon runner Joe Berti, rear …

View Photo
This combination photos shows, …

People keep asking Joe Berti if he feels unlucky.

A bomb exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon moments after Berti finished the race. Two days later, he was in his home state of Texas when he saw a fertilizer plant explode near Waco.

"I was just like, 'I can't believe this!'" said Berti, who said he had never witnessed an explosion before. Then he thought: "I just want to get out of here and get away from all these explosions."

But Berti, as it turns out, is far from unlucky. Instead, he feels fortunate. He left both tragedies unscathed, while members of his running group and his wife — who was closer to the Boston explosion than he was — were also unhurt.

"It's a miracle," he said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. "People keep saying, 'Don't you feel unlucky?' and I was actually the opposite — saying not only do I not feel unlucky, but I feel blessed that my wife could be 10 yards from the explosion and not have a scratch."

The bombings in Boston, which happened about 10 seconds apart at the finish line of Monday's marathon, killed three people and left more than 180 wounded. In West, Texas, which is near Waco, a fertilizer plant exploded Wednesday, killing at least five people, injuring more than 160, and leveling homes, apartments and a school.

"We're grateful that God has been merciful to us," said Berti's wife, Amy. "We are just praying for the people who were so much less fortunate than we were."

Berti's road to the Boston marathon started just a couple months ago, when he decided to run with Champions4Children, a charity that helps kids with rare or undiagnosed disorders and their families. He was one of eight Austin-area runners who ran the marathon with that group. Each ran for a sick child or "training partner," who tracked his or her runner's marathon progress from home.

During the last four miles, the 43-year-old Berti, who wore bib number 25472, felt his body shutting down, and his pace slowed. But he was running for his partner Drew, and he vowed to finish.

"I had just run to the finish line and... (moments) later I heard the first explosion, and then turned around and saw the smoke," he said. "I knew immediately that it was a bomb. ... Then the second explosion occurred and I saw a wave of people running."

At that point, he said, he was so exhausted he couldn't run anymore. He worried about getting caught in a stampede. He was concerned about members of his running group who were behind him. He also thought about his wife, whom he was unable to reach and was probably wondering where he was. He told himself she was fine, because she was supposed to be at a restaurant.

"But then, I was like, 'She never listens to me, and she may have been at the finish line,'" a thought he quickly tried to remove from his mind.

As it turns out, Amy Berti and a friend were just yards from the first explosion. She had just taken a picture of Joe, and was heading to the finish line to find him when the bomb went off. She and her friend were both hit by shrapnel. Amy was uninjured, her friend was bruised.

But a woman right next to Amy had her leg torn off from the knee down, and lost all the fingers in her left hand. Amy Berti went to get help, and once that woman was being cared for, Amy's frantic search for her husband began.

His cellphone battery died. He wasn't on the bus. He wasn't in the medical tents.

"I had just watched him cross where that bomb was, so I didn't know if he made it through and I couldn't find him," she said. "I started to freak out a little bit."

After about an hour, the couple reunited at their hotel, both of them OK. They left Boston Tuesday morning and returned to Austin, with every hope of getting back to life as normal with their two girls, ages 8 and 11.

Joe Berti went back to work. On Wednesday, he had a daylong meeting in Dallas, followed by a museum tour. He was heading home on Interstate 35 and nearing Waco Wednesday night when he saw black smoke up ahead to his left. As he drove closer, he saw — and felt — his second explosion in two days.

"You've got to be kidding!" he remembers thinking. He described the giant fireball as a massive force that shook his car. He said it looked like pictures of nuclear explosions that he has seen on television.

He didn't know what he had just witnessed — but he pulled over and took a picture.

"My next reaction was to get out of there because something fell on the top of my car — some debris or something fell from the sky," he said.

As black smoke billowed over the highway in front of him, Berti held his breath and drove through it. After a few attempts, he was able to reach his wife — sparing her another round of worry.

"I'm like, 'Honey, what is with your luck? Why are you in all of these places?" Amy Berti said. When a reporter suggested that Joe should stay home for a while, she joked, "We need to keep him moving. Maybe he just needs to stand in an open field."

___

Follow Amy Forliti on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/amyforliti

___

Associated Press photo editor Karly Domb Sadof and Susan James at The Associated Press News and Information Research Center contributed to this report.

.

.

Source

.

.

.

Related:

Joe Berti, Marathon Runner, Witnessed Both Boston Bombings And Texas Explosion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/18/joe-berti-marathon-runner_n_3113489.html

.

..

Update: Boston bomb suspects from Russia region near Chechnya, lived in US at least 1 year

TIME


AP sources: Boston bomb suspects from Russia region near Chechnya, lived in US at least 1 year

Houston Chronicle ‎- by Nick Anderson ‎- 1 hour ago

WASHINGTON (AP) — AP sources: Boston bomb suspects from Russia region near Chechnya, lived in US at least 1 year.



Update:

Details emerge on suspected Boston bombers

Law enforcement officials identified the suspect still on the loose as Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. His brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, was identified as the man killed during an encounter with police after an armed carjacking of a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge. Tsarnaev was believed to be in his mid-20s. 

...

Read more
.

.

Boston interfaith prayer service

WashingtonPost


Streamed live on Apr 18, 2013


Live video of the interfaith prayer service at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Boston. President Obama is expected to speak at 11 a.m.

.

Boston interfaith service stresses city’s grace and strength in tragedy

Catholic News Service | April 18, 2013

Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley joins other faith leaders during the “Healing Our City” interfaith memorial service April 18 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. The April 15 bombing claimed the lives of at least three people and injured more than 170. (CNS photo/Gregory L. Tracy, The Pilot)



BOSTON (CNS) — In an April 18 interfaith prayer service, religious and political leaders emphasized the enduring strength of the people of Boston and urged them to find consolation and healing in their continued support of one another.

U.S. President Barack Obama pauses as he speaks during the “Healing Our City” interfaith memorial service April 18 at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross for the victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. The April 15 bombing claimed the lives of at least three people and injured more than 170. (CNS photo/Kevin Lamarque, Reuters )



Boston Cardinal Sean P. O’Malley welcomed the congregation that packed the cathedral and told them the service was offered in solidarity with those who lost their lives or were injured in the bombings at the Boston Marathon April 15.

“We must overcome the culture of death and promote a culture of life,” he said, stressing that the blueprint for doing so was found in the passage on the beatitudes read during the prayer service.

The only way for people to “repair our broken world” is not as individuals but as a community and as a family, he said, noting that the tragedy provides “a challenge and an opportunity for us to work together with a renewed spirit of determination and solidarity and with the firm conviction that love is stronger than death.”

The cardinal, who returned to Boston April 16 after a retreat in the Holy Land, said the tragic event “shakes us out of our complacency and indifference and calls us to focus on the task of building a civilization that is based on love, justice, truth and service.”

Other religious leaders from Boston who spoke at the prayer service were: the Rev. Liz Walker from Roxbury Presbyterian Church; Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios; Rabbi Ronne Friedman of Temple Israel; the Rev. Nancy Taylor, minister at Old South Church; Nasser Weddady, chair of the New England Interfaith Council and director of the American Islamic Congress; Bishop John Borders III, pastor of Morning Star Baptist Church in Mattapan; and the Rev. Roberto Miranda, pastor of Lion of Judah Congregation in Roxbury.
“God’s love will have last word. God has not forsaken Boston,” said Rev. Miranda.

Many of the religious leaders spoke of the goodness of humanity shown immediately after the bombs exploded not only in the actions of first responders, but with people helping each other and runners even going directly to hospital to give blood.

Rev. Taylor said those who helped others that day “made their own bodies sacraments of blessing.”

The leaders also spoke of the presence of evil but did not focus on it. Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios said “evil reared its ugly head” the day the bombs exploded in Boston. Rev. Walker stressed that the city has always “faced darkness head on” and would use similar resolve to find healing from this tragedy.

She noted that when people ask “where was God?” amid such devastation, she does not have the answer but she does know “God is here in Boston now.”

Political leaders who addressed the congregation were Boston Mayor Thomas Menino, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and President Barack Obama.

Menino said Boston is a city with courage, compassion and strength that “knows no bounds” and emphasized that nothing could defeat the “heart of the city” or “tear down the city’s resilience.”

The city’s longest-serving mayor who has been in office since 1993, said the support Boston has received gives it the courage to say goodbye to those who were killed in the marathon bombings. He thanked everyone for prayers and wishes, New Yorkers in particular.

Gov. Patrick said that even though his faith tradition urges believers to always give thanks, he said he “wasn’t feeling it” the afternoon of April 15. In retrospect, he said he is thankful for the response of so many people from first responders to government leaders,

He said he is most thankful for those in Boston who “in the aftermath of such senseless violence, let their first instinct be kindness.”

“So, we will recover and repair,” the governor said. “We will grieve our losses and heal. We will rise and we will endure. We will have accountability without vengeance; vigilance without fear. And we will remember, I hope and pray, long after the buzz of Boylston Street is back and the media has turned its attention elsewhere, that the grace this tragedy exposed is the best of who we are.”

Obama said the marathon’s beauty was shattered by violence and noted that the prayer service was an opportunity to “come together to pray, and mourn, and measure our loss.”

“But we also come together today to reclaim that state of grace — to reaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted, and the spirit of this country shall remain undimmed.”

The president offered prayers and support for those killed in the tragedy and offered words of encouragement for the wounded telling them: “As you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you… We will all be with you as you learn to stand and walk and, yes, run again. Of that I have no doubt. You will run again.”

He said the perpetrators of senseless violence fail to see that Americans find strength and power in their faith in each other and love for each other and for their country.

“That’s why a bomb can’t beat us. That’s why we don’t hunker down. That’s why we don’t cower in fear. We carry on. We race. We strive. We build, and we work, and we love,” he said.

“And this time next year, on the third Monday in April,” he added, “the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever, and to cheer even louder, for the 118th Boston Marathon.”

- – -

Contributing to this story was Carol Zimmermann in Washington.

Source

.

One Boston Marathon suspect killed; second suspect, his brother, on loose after firefight

FBI.gov
The two marathon bombing suspects. The man in the white hat is still believed to be at large.


By Pete Williams, Richard Esposito, Michael Isikoff and Erin McClam, NBC News

With a bomb strapped to his chest, one of the Boston Marathon suspects was killed early Friday after he and his accomplice robbed a 7-Eleven, shot a police officer to death, carjacked an SUV and hurled explosives out the window in an extraordinary firefight with law enforcement, authorities told NBC News.

Read more

.

/

Transcript: Obama at Boston interfaith service

1:41 p.m. EDT April 18, 2013



(Photo: Charles Krupa, AP)


Hello, Boston. Scripture tells us to run with endurance the race that is set before us. Run with endurance the race that is set before us.

On Monday morning, the sun rose over Boston. The sunlight glistened off the State House Dome. In the commons, in the public garden, spring was in bloom. On this Patriot's Day, like so many before, fans jumped onto the T to see the Sox at Fenway. In Hopkinton, runners laced up their shoes and set out on a 26.2-mile test of dedication and grit and the human spirit.

And across this city, hundreds of thousands Bostonians lined the streets to hand the runners cups of water, to cheer them on. It was a beautiful day to be in Boston, a day that explains why a poet once wrote that this town is not just a capital, not just a place. Boston, he said, is the perfect state of grace. (Applause.)

And then, in an instant, the day's beauty was shattered. A celebration became a tragedy. And so we come together to pray and mourn and measure our loss. But we also come together today to reclaim that state of grace, to reaffirm that the spirit of this city is undaunted and the spirit of the country shall remained undimmed.

To Governor Patrick, Mayor Menino, Cardinal O'Malley and all the faith leaders who are here, governors Romney, Swift, Weld and Dukakis, members of Congress, and most of all, the people of Boston and the families who've lost a piece of your heart, we thank you for your leadership. We thank you for your courage. We thank you for your grace.

I'm here today on behalf of the American people with a simple message. Every one of us has been touched by this attack on your beloved city. Every one of us stands with you. Because, after all, it's our beloved city, too. Boston may be your hometown but we claim it, too. It's one of America's iconic cities. It's one of the world's great cities. And one of the reason(s), the world knows Boston so well is that Boston opens its heart to the world.

Over successive generations, you've welcomed again and again new arrivals to our shores; immigrants who constantly reinvigorated this city and this commonwealth and our nation. Every fall, you welcome students from all across America and all across the globe. And every spring, you graduate them back into the world -- a Boston diaspora that excels in every field of human endeavor.

Year after year, you welcome the greatest talents in the arts, in science, research. You welcome them to your concert halls and your hospitals and your laboratories to exchange ideas and insights that draw this world together.

And every third Monday in April, you welcome people from all around the world to the hub for friendship and fellowship and healthy competition -- a gathering of men and women of every race and every religion, every shape and every size -- a multitude represented by all those flags that flew over the finish line.

So whether folks come here to Boston for just a day, or they stay here for years, they leave with a piece of this town tucked firmly into their hearts. So Boston's your home town, but we claim it a little bit too. I know this -- (applause) -- I know this because there's a piece of Boston in me. You welcomed me as a young law student across the river -- welcomed Michelle too. You welcomed me -- (applause) -- you welcomed me during a convention when I was still a state senator and very few people could pronounce my name right. (Laughter.)

Like you, Michelle and I have walked these streets. Like you, we know these neighborhoods. And like you, in this moment of grief, we join you in saying: Boston, you're my home. For millions of us, what happened in Monday is personal. It's personal.

Today our prayers are with the Campbell family of Medford. They're here today. Their daughter Krystle was always smiling. Those who knew her said that with her red hair and her freckles and her ever-eager willingness to speak her mind, she was beautiful, sometimes she could be a little noisy, and everybody loved her for it. She would have turned 30 next month. As her mother said, through her tears, this doesn't make any sense.

Our prayers are with the Lu family of China, who sent their daughter Lingzi to BU so that she could experience all that this city has to offer. She was a 23-year-old student, far from home. And in the heartache of her family and friends on both sides of the great ocean, we're reminded of the humanity that we all share.

Our prayers are with the Richard family of Dorchester, to Denise and the young daughter Jane, as they fight to recover.

And our hearts are broken for 8-year-old Martin, with his big smile and bright eyes. His last hours were as perfect as an 8-year-old boy could hope for, with his family, eating ice cream at a sporting event. And we're left with two enduring images of this little boy, forever smiling for his beloved Bruins and forever expressing a wish he made on a blue poster board: No more hurting people. Peace. No more hurting people. Peace.

Our prayers are with the injured, so many wounded, some gravely. From their beds, some are surely watching us gather here today. And if you are, know this: As you begin this long journey of recovery, your city is with you. Your commonwealth is with you. Your country is with you. We will all be with you as you learn to stand and walk and, yes, run again. Of that I have no doubt. You will run again. (Applause.) You will run again because that's what the people of Boston are made of.

Your resolve is the greatest rebuke to whoever committed this heinous act. If they sought to intimidate us, to terrorize us, to shake us from those values that Deval described, the values that make us who we are as Americans, well, it should be pretty clear by now that they picked the wrong city to do it. (Cheers, applause.) Not here in Boston. Not here in Boston. (Cheers and applause continue.)

You showed us, Boston, that in the face of evil, Americans will lift up what's good. In the face of cruelty, we will choose compassion. In the face of those who would visit death upon innocents, we will choose to save and to comfort and to heal. We'll choose friendship. We'll choose love. Because Scripture teaches us God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.

And that's the spirit you've displayed in recent days. When doctors and nurses, police and firefighters and EMTs and guardsmen run towards explosions to treat the wounded, that's discipline. When exhausted runners, including our troops and veterans, who never expected to see such carnage on the streets back home, become first responders themselves, tending to the injured, that's real power. When Bostonians carry victims in their arms, deliver water and blankets, line up to give blood, open their homes to total strangers, give them rides back to reunite with their families, that's love.

That's the message we send to those who carried this out and anyone who would do harm to our people. Yes, we will find you. And yes, you will face justice. (Applause.) We will find you. We will hold you accountable. But more than that, our fidelity to our way of life, for a free and open society, will only grow stronger, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of power and love and self-discipline.

Like Bill Ifrig, 78 years old -- the runner in the orange tank top who we all saw get knocked down by the blast, we may be momentarily knocked off our feet -- (scattered laughter) -- but we'll pick ourselves up. We'll keep going. We will finish the face. (Applause.)

In the words of Dick Hoyt, who has pushed his disabled son Rick in 31 Boston marathons, we can't let something like this stop us. (Applause.) This doesn't stop us. (Applause.) And that's what you've taught us, Boston. That's what you've reminded us, to push on, to persevere, to not grow weary, to not get faint even when it hurts.

Even when our heart aches, we summon the strength that maybe we didn't even know we had, and we carry on; we finish the race. (Applause.) We finish the race, and we do that because of who we are, and we do that because we know that somewhere around the bend, a stranger has a cup of water. Around the bend, somebody's there to boost our spirits. On that toughest mile, just when we think that we've hit a wall, someone will be there to cheer us on and pick us up if we fall. We know that.

(Sustained applause.)

And that's what the perpetrators of such senseless violence, these small, stunted individuals who would destroy instead of build and think somehow that makes them important -- that's what they don't understand.

Our faith in each other, our love for each other, our love for country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences there may be, that is our power. That's our strength. That's why a bomb can't beat us. That's why we don't hunker down. That's why we don't cower in fear.

We carry on. We race. We strive. We build and we work and we love and we raise our kids to do the same. And we come together to celebrate life and to walk our cities and to cheer for our teams when the Sox, then Celtics, then Patriots or Bruins are champions again, to the chagrin of New York and Chicago fans. The crowds will gather and watch a parade go down Boylston Street. And this time next year on the third Monday in April, the world will return to this great American city to run harder than ever and to cheer even louder for the 118th Boston Marathon.

(Sustained applause.)

Bet on it. (Sustained cheers, applause.)

Tomorrow the sun will rise over Boston. Tomorrow the sun will rise over the --- this country that we love, this special place, this state of grace. Scripture tells us to run with endurance the race that is set before us. As we do, may God hold close those who've been taken from us too soon, may he comfort their families and may he continue to watch over these United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)

Source

.