Why Boston bombings is scarier than 9/11

Call it “terrorism” if a label helps you make sense of this madness. Find who did it and squash him—or them—with what President Obama called “the full weight of justice.” But in the broad scheme of things, such loose ends matter less than this: Life in America changed with the Boston Marathon bombings—again, and as with past attacks, for the much worse.

The Oklahoma City bombing in April 1995 and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were knee-buckling blows that led to an obsession over domestic security and foreign wars that will mark—and mar—our generation. The last mass terrorist assault on U.S. soil was carried out by Maj. Nidal M. Hassan, an Army psychiatrist with loose connections to al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, who fatally shot 13 people and wounded 30 more at Fort Hood, Texas, in November 2009.

There were attacks thwarted by the swelling ranks of federal police: The so-called shoe bomber, Richard Reid; an attempt to bomb the New York City subway system in 2009; and an unexploded car bomb in Times Square in 2010.

Boston is another bridge too far. The Boston Marathon and its competitors reflect the best of America—always striving, forever resilient, and, as measured by population and cultural significance, enormous.

You might say it’s unfair to compare Boston’s relatively low death toll to 9/11 and Oklahoma City, much less to the thousands of casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as the daily total of gun deaths on U.S. streets.

But the Boston attack is notable not for the number of deaths, but for its social significance. It’s one thing—a dastardly, evil thing—to strike symbols of economic and military power. It’s another to hit the heart of America. Death at the finish line in Boston makes every place (and everybody) less secure.

Malls.
Churches.
Schools.

Ask a mother or father who lived in Washington from 2001-02 what was more terrorizing to your family: The 9/11 attacks or the “Beltway sniper”? Many will say the sniper. Two men were later charged in the horrifyingly random killings of 10 people in several locations throughout the Washington area. The dead and injured included a 39-year-old man shot while cutting grass, a 54-year-old part-time taxi driver shot while pumping gas, a 34-year-old babysitter and housekeeper shot while reading a book on a bench, and a 13-year-old boy shot while entering his middle school.

Parents kept their kids home from school or formed human barricades at “drop-off” spots. Malls emptied. For three Sundays, I sat in a back pew with my family and looked for terrorists among my fellow parishioners.

From the nation's founding, America has had two sharply delineated lives: one public and one private. The latter is meant to be safe and sacrosanct, part of what Thomas Jefferson called "the pursuit of Happiness." The public life is rowdy and partisan, even violent as reflected in the Civil War. "What happened in Boston," said Meg Mott, professor of politics at Marlboro College in Vermont, "is that the private life got blown up and hit deep in the heart of our bifurcated American lives. The lines were blurred, and that's scary."
They targeted life. They targeted liberty. Now somebody has attacked pursuit of happiness.

In those ugly months after 9/11, we feared there would be a “new normal” for America – that no place and nobody would feel safe again, that our churches, schools, malls as well as arenas and other places of great gathering would be killing fields. Those fears were not realized, not right away. Does the nightmare begin with Boston?

Today, officials identified the 8-year-old boy killed at the finish line. His name was Martin Richard. He left a world unworthy of him.

Source: Yahoo News

Who's behind the Boston Marathon bombings? Four theories

More than half a day after the explosions in Boston, police still have few answers. That hasn't quieted the speculation. Law enforcement officials don't have any official suspects in Monday's twin bombings at the finish line of the Boston marathon. And President Obama specifically urged people not to speculate on who's behind the attack, which killed at least three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and wounded more than 100 others, including several amputations.

"We still don't know who did this or why," Obama said Monday night. "People should not jump to conclusions before we have all the facts. But make no mistake. We will get to the bottom of this. We will find out who did this. We will find out why they did this. Any individual or responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice."

SEE MORE: Where to find helpful information about the Boston Marathon explosions
Of course, plenty of people are speeding by the president's advice and jumping to conclusions, or at least jumping to theories. "We all wonder first who did this," says Michael Tomasky at The Daily Beast. And, Tomasky says, a little careful speculation isn't such a bad thing. Here are four groups that are the focus of early (and — let us be clear — sometimes baseless) finger-pointing in the Boston attack:
 
1. Islamist jihadists

This theory was inevitable in the worst attack on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, and it gained some initial credence from a New York Post report that a 20-year-old Saudi national had been picked up as a "person of interest." Police quickly threw cold water on that report, but then Boston TV station WABC reported that police are "searching for a darker skinned or black male with a black backpack and black sweatshirt, possibly foreign national from the accent of the individual."

SEE MORE: Boston is more than a marathon. It embodies the American spirit.
Another anonymous law enforcement official "notes that the manner of the attack suggests it may have been Al Qaeda inspired — if not Al Qaeda directed," says Christopher Dickey at The Daily Beast. That's because the construction of the bombs — gunpowder with ball-bearings and other shrapnel to maximize the damage — is similar to a bomb recipe shared by Al Qaeda "on its internet manuals for terrorist attacks."
Of course, not everyone is convinced. "Horrific as this obviously was, it doesn't seem big enough" for an attack by Arab terrorists, says The Daily Beast's Tomasky. "Everything we know about their m.o. — the 1993 WTC bombing, the 2000 LAX plot, and 9-11 — suggests that they aim bigger."

SEE MORE: The Boston Marathon explosions: 7 heartwrenching images
 
2. Right-wing militia types

This theory, too, was inevitable. And most proponents point to the date — Patriots' Day — as a clue. Residents of Massachusetts and Maine celebrate Patriots' Day by taking the day off of work and re-enacting the first battles of the American Revolution, says Sommer Mathis at The Atlantic Cities. "But in recent years, Second Amendment activists and anti-government modern-day militia members have tried to co-opt the holiday, which also roughly marks the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing."
It's also "wise in these cases to remember that the 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City and the bombing at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 were carried out by Americans who espoused extreme right-wing causes," says The Daily Beast's Dickey.

SEE MORE: What the Boston Marathon means to a Bostonian

There's also the fact that the Boston Marathon fell on tax day this year, and the last mile of the race "was dedicated to Newtown victims," says Tomasky. "But man you would have to be a really 100 percent out-there sicko to think that this was how you wanted to make a political statement about gun rights. I think there are dangerous extremists among that group, but I don't think even they would do or approve of doing something like this." [Daily Beast]

3. The government

"False flag" attack proponents wasted no time blaming the government for staging the Boston explosions to achieve their own ends, says Alex Seitz-Wald at Salon. First out of the gate was Alex Jones, who tweeted: "Our hearts go out to those that are hurt or killed #Boston marathon – but this thing stinks to high heaven #falseflag."

SEE MORE: The Boston bombing: fact and fiction

Then "Dan Bidondi, a 'reporter/analyist' (sic) for Alex Jones's InfoWars, managed to ask Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick the very first question in a nationally televised press conference," notes Slate's David Weigel:

Why were the loud speakers telling people in the audience to be calm moments before the bombs went off? Is this another false flag staged attack to take our civil liberties and promote homeland security while sticking their hands down our pants on the streets? [Via Slate]

"Patrick, looking on with a mixture of rage and pity, said 'no,' surely aware that he couldn't halt this guy's incipient Internet fame," says Weigel. But the inevitable Boston marathon "truthers" will have a hard time with this conspiracy theory. There were too many cameras and witnesses to "concoct a really compelling conspiracy theory," and the real-time fact-checking on Twitter has decimated the bad information that conspiracies need to thrive. For example, those "loud speakers" urging calm never happened.

SEE MORE: Will Marco Rubio save immigration reform — or kill it?
 
4. A criminally insane lone wolf

There's also the possibility that this attack was perpetrated by some "local nutcase," says Tomasky at The Daily Beast. "I guess I am right now leaning in that least conspiratorial direction." Unfortunately, in our "open and free society," people can cause massive destruction with a few well-placed bombs. There's a decent chance the Boston marathon attackers were "motivated by simple revenge of some kind, or by nothing but the disease in someone's brain."

Source: Yahoo News

The Turnstile Pride and the will to run again: A Boston marathoner reflects on Monday’s events

On Monday, I was one of the lucky ones.

As the world has now fully taken in, the 117th running of the Boston Marathon, the great American endurance road race, was halted by two explosions. The blasts ripped apart two stores on Boylston Street, the downtown Boston thoroughfare which stands as one of New England's busiest streets, with cars 364 days and people one day each year.

The blasts killed three people, and may still claim the lives of others. They injured numerous spectators and some runners, a total of more than 170 people, leaving a at least 10 who had cheerfully watched the race facing gruesome amputations. They left all in the Boston-area shaken, including those who had finished the race.

I was one of those runners. While I had crossed the finish line before the plumes of smoke and shrapnel erupted on Boylston, I could have easily been one of those devastated by the attack. The only thing that kept me and my loved ones from being directly in the blast zone was a lucky knack for endurance sports and my own selfishness. In fact, roughly an hour before the bombs went off, my wife, sister-in-law, brother-in-law and two close friends were watching the race from within a block of one of the blasts. If I had been running an hour later, they likely would have been struck by debris.

The latter factor is a significant one in this case. I run for my own selfish pursuits, even if they could be considered moderately wholesome in their own right. I run for the memory of my adoptive grandfather, who always pushed me, and the uncle of my oldest, closest friend, who broadened my horizons. I also run to connect with my ancestors (I'm Greek-American) and for the general health benefits that come from it.

 

Boston Firefighter James Plourde carries an injured girl away from the scene. (AP)Yet, at its heart, I run because I can. I run to push myself to my physical limits and occasionally beyond, testing my mental strength in the process.

While my proclivity for endurance events may make me faster than some who finish behind me (though there are MANY who finish far before myself), those who cross the finish line later are by far my superior. They are the ones who run for a greater purpose, raising millions of dollars for worthwhile charities in Boston, America and the world. They train for months to test themselves physically and mentally for a single day, all the while connecting with the struggle of the less fortunate who their exploits benefit. What they achieve is deeply inspiring on both a personal and social level.

On Monday, they and their families and friends were attacked. Senselessly. For having the temerity to achieve personally while also leaving a legacy on society as a whole. That is despicable. There is no other word for it. Despicable probably isn't strong enough, but at least it's a start.

Say nothing of the fact that Monday in Boston should have been one of the city's truly great days; it was a picturesque, sunny and brisk spring morning and afternoon, the Red Sox won on a walk-off hit and the entire Boston area felt captivated by a collective case of runner's high. It was the kind of day that can lift a community for days or even weeks.

Instead, all of that came crashing down thanks to the actions of some lunatic or, perhaps, lunatics. While we don't yet know who is responsible for these horrific explosions, someone or some group is. Some sociopathic freak targeted a group of the most committed human beings in the U.S. and attacked them and their families, likely just because they would yield a higher casualty number due to the density of people on the course and in attendance.

Of course, like all attacks, this is a deeply cowardly strike. Rather than make a coherent case, a weak, pitiful person decided to physically harm others, undermining whatever political point they hoped to make rather than enhancing it. Besides the obvious idiocy and repulsive, sanctimonious selfishness incumbent in any civic attack, there is also this bit which may have been overlooked: they attacked precisely the wrong people. Just as New York bounced back with more strength and fortitude after 9/11, the Boston Marathon and its annual phalanx of inspiring runners will not go quietly into that good night.

Think about it: These are Americans and select international friends who are so steel-willed that they not only run, but choose to run 26.2 MILES for the fun of it, up and down a constant procession of steep hills, mostly with a smile on their faces.

There will be a 118th Boston Marathon, just as there have been 117 before it. And when it happens, there will be 27,000 runners fighting to finish, pushing themselves and their causes. I will be among them, and to hell with anyone who thinks they can scare us away from one of America's great civic and sporting traditions.

Source: Yahoo News

Boston Marathon bombs contained ball bearings

BOSTON—Rep. Stephen Lynch, a Massachusetts Democrat who sits on a national security subcommittee in the house, has told Yahoo News that many of the injured at Monday's Boston Marathon were hit by ball bearings apparently embedded within the devices.

The Associated Press, citing anonymous law enforcement sources, reported that the bombs were made from pressure cookers stuffed with metal ball bearings. CBS News reported that police have found pieces of an electronic circuit board that they believe could have been used to detonate the pressure cookers. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis said at Tuesday morning's press conference that law enforcement swept the marathon area for bombs twice before the explosions went off.

For their part, state and federal investigators have declined to say much about the devices that were detonated, sending 176 people to the hospital and killing three, or who they suspect might be behind them.
Meanwhile, Chief of Emergency Medicine at Brigham Women's Hospital Dr. Ron Walls said in a press conference Tuesday morning that one patient had a carpenter nail embedded in him, while two others had numerous pieces of round, shiny debris in their legs that did not appear to come from the street.

Lynch said the ball bearings led him to believe the whoever launched the attack knew what they were doing.
“I have done post-attack analyses on attacks around the world, trying to learn lessons. ... The timing here, the devices themselves, the ball bearings used—you know, that’s not some kid in his garage putting something together,” Lynch said.

Though he repeatedly said he didn’t want to get ahead of investigators, Lynch disputed speculation that the devices strongly indicated domestic, rather than international terrorism.

“I don’t think the trappings are … hokey or homegrown,” Lynch said. “Having two explosions, 11 seconds apart, that points to someone who has more competence at this and has training.”

Danny Defenbaugh, the retired special agent who led the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing investigation, told Yahoo News that investigators will try to reconstruct the devices to see if they can identify a "signature" that points to a specific group or individual. Pressure cookers were used in both foreign and domestic terror incidents in the past few years, including the attempted Times Square bombing in 2010.

“It was undoubtedly a terrorist attack, however I’d be very careful in trying to subcategorize it as international or domestic,” Defenbaugh said. “History has proven that’s just not wise.”

Source: Yahoo News

Breaking News: Explosions hit Boston Marathon

Source: BBC

Two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon race have left an unknown number of people injured. Video and photographs from Boston show a scene of confusion, with emergency services descending on the scene and bloodied spectators being taken to a medical tent, reports the BBC.

"There are a lot of people down," said one runner quoted by AP news agency. The incident reportedly came about three hours after the winners crossed the line. "There was an explosion, police, fire and EMS are on the scene. We have no indication of how many people are injured," spokeswoman for the Boston Police Department said.

AP said there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the bridge that marks the finish line. Another loud explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

Mike Mitchell of Vancouver, Canada, a runner who had finished the race said he was looking back at the finish line and saw a "massive explosion."

Smoke rose 50ft (15m) in the air, he told Reuters news agency, and people began running away and screaming after hearing the noise.

"Everybody freaked out," he said.

Stragglers heading for the finish line were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts as the scene was locked down. The Eastern Massachusetts branch of the Red Cross has set up a disaster response centre in the area.