At 2:49 pm on April 15th, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly detonated a bomb at the Boston Marathon. By 8:14 pm, he was on Twitter, ostensibly offering his solidarity as a Bostonian, “Ain’t no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people.” At 11:13, he had two conversations with a user named @mellochamp who has a protected account. The second exchange includes this cryptic comment from Tsarnaev: “and they what “god hates dead people?” Or victims of tragedies? Lol those people are cooked.” Since we can’t read the other side of this conversation, it’s hard to understand the context. But it seems to be saying that people who think God hates the victims of tragedies are going to burn in hell. At 12:34 in the morning, he had another Tweet: “There are people that know the truth but stay silent & there are people that speak the truth but we don’t hear them cuz they’re the minority.” This tweet was to no one in particular, but it is a bit creepy under the circumstances.
He may have gone to sleep at this point because the next Tweet doesn’t come until 1:14 that afternoon. This one is addressed to another protected account: “<a href="https://twitter.com/J_tsar/status/324209310936752129"@therealAbdul_ you need to get Claritin clear.” Evidently, “The Real Abdul” was having allergy problems. At 1:18 pm, he wrote to Abdul again: “#heavy I’ve been looking for those, there is a shortage on the black market if you wanna make a quick buck, nuff said..” We have no idea what “those” are, but it’s not clear that they have anything to do with the bombing. A few minutes later, he Tweets (to no one in particular): “So then I says to him, I says, relax bro my beard is not loaded.” This is probably a common joke told by Muslims who know that they are viewed with suspicion in this country. The problem is, the joke doesn’t work if you just set off a bomb in a public place.
At 5:09 pm, he responded to a friend of his who had posted a picture of victims. It was about a woman who had supposedly died in the blast. Her boyfriend had been planning to propose to her. Tsarnaev correctly noted that it was “A Fake Story.” His last tweet on Tuesday said, “Nowadays everybody wanna talk like they got somethin to say but nothin comes out when they move their lips; just a bunch of gibberish.”
The next day, Tsarnaev tweeted at 1:43 pm that “I’m a stress free kind of guy.” His last tweet was actually a retweet of Mufti Ismail Menk, a Muslim scholar who studied in Medina, Saudi Arabia: “Attitude can take away your beauty no matter how good looking you are or it could enhance your beauty, making you adorable.” I don’t know much about this Mufti other than he seems to live in Zimbabwe.
Either before or after these two tweets, he traveled more than an hour south of Cambridge to the campus of the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth where he is enrolled as a student.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had passed an apparently normal day at the school Wednesday, according to a UMass official, working out at the gym, then sleeping in his single-unit room at the Pine Dale Hall dorm that night, while law enforcement officials were frantically scanning photos and video trying to identify him and his brother.
School officials know he was there Wednesday because of card swipes, but it was not clear if he had been there earlier. He was described as good, typical student who played intramural soccer.
A student, who didn’t want to be identified, said she saw Dzhokhar Tsarnaev at a party Wednesday night that was attended by some of his friends with whom he played intramural soccer.
“He was just relaxed,” she said.
So, on Monday this guy blew a bunch of innocent people’s legs off and killed at least two people and gravely wounded scores more, and on Wednesday he is still just going about his business, like nothing happened. On Wednesday night he goes to a party with his college friends and is “totally relaxed.”
He slept in his dorm room on Wednesday night and woke up there on Thursday morning. We don’t hear from him again until 10:48 in the evening when a police officer is shot near the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In the meantime, at 5:20 pm, the FBI releases video footage of Dzhokhar and his brother with their backpacks.
What followed was a violent odyssey through the streets of Cambridge and Watertown with reports of gun battles and hand grenades and pressure-cooker bombs thrown at the cops and suicide vests. It was an odyssey that left Tamerlan shot dead in the street, run over by his own younger brother. Meanwhile, Dzhokhar escaped and stowed himself away in a boat in the backyard of some random family where he successfully evaded the biggest dragnet in history for almost an entire day.
Does any of this make sense to you?
WSJ:
Of course they will defend their sons, but what about making up a story about the FBI interviewing the older one about his religiosity?
Of course they will defend their sons, but what about making up a story about the FBI interviewing the older one about his religiosity?
Making up what story? Supposedly the FBI interviewed the older brother at the behest of a foreign government two years ago, and they found nothing.
The mother’s story about being contacted by the FBI may be true. NPR reports that Tamerlan was investigated by the FBI in 2011 “at the request of a foreign government”.
Short answer?
No.
It does not make sense.
So far.
We shall see.
Soon enough.
Or…as has been the case with any number of incidents over the past 50+ years…we will not see.
We will not be allowed to see.
So it goes.
Business as usual.
Bet on it.
And the beat goes on.
And on and on and on and on and on…
So it goes.
Later…
AG
I suspect as more evidence comes out. (We are going to have evidence going to trial, aren’t we? Carmen Ortiz is not going to extort a plea bargain out of him, is she?) As more evidence comes out, it is likely to get stranger. Especially now that there are reports of the FBI taking 3 New Bedford college-age kids into custody.
Some of the reports indicate that these guys might have been engaged in more everyday sketchy activities.
Was it the biggest dragnet in history? The LAPD and related agencies conducted a huge dragnet looking for former LAPD Officer Dorner.
Apparently the 3 from New Bedford were released after questioning.
Sounds reasonable to me. I wouldn’t be shocked if the exchange with Abdul is drug-related.
A couple of readings.
I read “cooked” as “crazy” rather than deserving of hellfire.
He apparently believed that 9/11 was a frame-up, yet by all appearances proceeded to plan and execute his own horrific attack against the public. I find this kind of disconnect in between what people want to believe about themselves and what they actually do to be all too human.
Not really. Then again immediately after the bombs exploded there were no real “dots,” and lots of noise that looked like “dots.”
Get that they would have gone on the run yesterday when their pictures were flashed around the world. But why go to MIT?
Probably best not too think too much about it because sometimes there are no answers that make sense.
MIT isn’t an isolated campus you have to go to, like some college in the woods. It’s right in Cambridge, along some main streets. If you’re going somewhere in that area, it’s very easy to through MIT.
I don’t know. Something went very wrong with the brothers. I hope we will find out what happened so we know what the warning signs are.
It was an incredibly vicious thing they did. They didn’t drop the bombs off earlier in the day. They saw the people they harmed–up close. The injured runner who identified them said one of them looked right at him.
It will be interesting to see whether or not there were others involved.
My facebook feed is depressing though. Right away people started calling for waterboarding and torture.
Adam Lanza saw the six adults and twenty young children that he murdered. And the CT authorities have remained so tight-lipped that we still know no more than we did in the first hours after the massacre.
Adam Lanza was batshit insane, a crazy-eyed hearer of voices. You’d cross the street if he was coming towards you.
This kid went to a party and seemed normal, relaxed.
The description of the younger brother by many of his friends and classmates makes him seem to be like a lot of kids I know. Stoner, compassionate, got a sense of humor, likeable. His older brother must have steered him into this. That part really I really don’t understand.
The (should be) obvious warning sign is the older brother traveled to Russia in 2011.
Correct, it’s not a crime to travel to Russia, but there are additional profile markers with Tamerlan which the FBI/CIA should have been picked up on:
His age, numerous rampage killings/terrorist acts are carried out by young people.
Second, the websites the brothers were visiting, particularly Tamerlan. Safe to assume he was visiting jihad, radical, anti- U.S. websites.
The FBI is not doing their job. They were tipped off regarding Tamerlan’s activities, they checked him out once (as far as we know) then let him slip off their radar.
They should have been surveilling him since 2011.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/20/us-usa-explosions-boston-fbi-idUSBRE93J05Q20130420
In the interview to ABC, Anzor Tsarnaev confessed he talked with his son about the bombing earlier this week.
The father of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Anzor Tsarnaev, says his son, who still remains at large, is “accomplished medical student” and “a true angel”. He spoke from the city of Makhachkala, capital of the Russian republic of Dagestan, shortly after police said his other son, 26-year-old Tamerlan, had been killed in a shootout.
“We talked about the bombing. I was worried about them,” he said.
Anzor Tsarnaev called on his son to give up peacefully. At the same time he warned that if the US kills his son, “all hell will break loose”.
Nice article by Richard Silverstein.
Right. Notice he didn’t mention his older son. Perhaps because he’s not such an “angel” and led his younger brother astray.
Lindsay Graham and John McCain are expected to say stupid stuff about this.
But POTUS is not immune from lame statements:
And it sure seemed that a cast of 9000 law enforcement officers and several dozen nitwit media personalities helped amp up the terror. The security theater aspects of the response were overdone. And the GOP successfully pressured the President into pre-judging the case as terrorism; that labeling tilts the trial from the git-go.
And it is not helpful that Carmen Ortiz is already out making public statements about why the suspect did not deserve the normal treatment of Mirandaization. Due process has to do with procedures–process–no short cuts–innocent until proven guilty. That was a big deal for the folks who held out for a Bill of Rights.
Give up these rights in a high-profile case like this one and pretty soon due process not longer exists.
Pete Williams says there is a National Safety exception that the courts back up after the underwear bomber but it only lasts a limited amount of time and then they have to Mirandize him.
IANAL, but if I had to guess, an intention to use the public safety Miranda exception would suggest to me that they intend to question him about either additional bombs that they believe he may have placed or about an imminent danger they believe is posed by a third person involved in the bombing.
That would be the case if they use it legitimately. Hopefully they will.
I heard Ortiz say that not administering Miranda is an option but she actually didn’t confirm a decision not to do so. Then she said that he was being taken to a hospital for treatment.
“Due process” already no longer exists in the U.S.
Ask Bradley Manning.
Ask the prisoners in Guantanamo; ask the extraordinarily renditioned CIA prisoners worldwide.
Ask Barack Obama, the signer of The National Defense Authorization Act.
Ask the literally thousands of marijuana-busted users now awaiting the end their jail sentences.
We need to wake the fuck up.
Soon.
Before it’s too fucking late!!!
Bet on it.
AG
Miranda, as I understand it, is about admissibility of evidence that the defendant provides through statements in custody.
Given a video of Tsarnaev planting the bomb, the prosecution may feel sufficiently secure in their case. Even if the public safety exception identified by the Supreme Court is not deemed applicable and statements Tsarnaev makes ruled inadmissible, they may have enough other evidence to convict.
I’m no Carmen Ortiz fan, but I don’t think we can pin this on her. This decision makes her job harder. It seems to me that the decision not to mirandize indicates a judgment that in interviewing Tsarnaev, it is more important to gather intelligence than to build a case.
Yeah, you know what, tuff guy who’s a thousand miles away? We’re talking about running gun battles involving explosives being thrown around. I’m sure you walk right through police tape all the time when the gunshots are still going off.
Misses the part about quartering soldiers.
And the part about the “martial law” consisting of a recommendation.
Just wait until she hears about the Department of Health’s advisories to stay indoors in the evening during mosquito season, or the evacuations of seaside towns during hurricanes.
Some people make themselves feel big and tough by pretending they’re Luke Skywalker, and everything a cop says is an infringement on their god-given rights.
Can we start treating these people like the black-helicopter enthusiasts they’ve become?
Just because someone has a twitter account, doesn’t mean they are the one’s actually doing the tweeting. As we know, lotsa politicians have interns and staff run the twitter account, and alot of celebrities and PR people run twitter account that are manned by others.
Case in point, my stepsister created a facebook page for my dad with his name and photo, and I swear my dad barely has an 8th grade education, so the most he does on the internet is search for stuff.
In this case, it may be a front account?
In a related vein, the last week also marks another chapter in the story of Glenn Beck’s progressive descent into irrelevance.
In between making excuses for Michele Bachmann’s ethical lapses and waxing incredulous about the deflating gold bubble, he’s been touting a “the Saudi did it” narrative to explain the marathon bombings. He promises an impeachment-grade exposé on Monday.
In the two years since he left Fox, he seems to have completed a transition from ultra-right ideologue to … well, whatever he is now.
I’m getting a real strong sense of appreciation for what it takes for the various terrorism task forces to mind meld with these guys to track them. And to get out in front of them, seemingly impossible!
“Does any of this make sense to you?”
No, nor to you. They are nuts, yer not.
When did it ever make sense to kill people at random?
And look, out come the conspiracy loons! No shortage of nutters in the world.
The Russian Empire incorporated many Muslim peoples, giving them full religious freedom and avoiding any Christian proselytizing; the Chechens were the ones who gave the Russians the most trouble. And then all that repeated itself after the breakup off the Soviet Union, with Chechens rebelling, with no difference apparent between nationalistic impulses and sheer criminality.
The only puzzling thing here is that the Tsarnaev family were allowed entrance into the United States and granted asylum.
The foreign country on whose “behest” the FBI interviewed the older brother was Russia, by the way, but for some reason, the U.S. news media doesn’t like to mention that.
Of all the Muslim peoples in Russia/the USSR, the ones that have caused the most trouble are the Chechens. So it should not be surprising that the first American Muslims to commit an act of terrorism in the United States were Chechens as well. Theirs is a very tribal, proud culture. Russians have endured countless acts of Chechen terrorism. Now, because their government did not take Russian warnings seriously, Americans have had to endure Chechen terrorism as well.
Juan Cole in Fathers and Sons and Chechnya points out the indications in family members statements that the father was likely a Chechen law enforcement official who fought against the politicized Muslim extremists. Issues about Muslim identity seem to be a hot-button for young Muslim men from secularized families in the West.
Sure, why not. Real life Niko Bellic and his cousin Roman should have just gone bowling instead of blowing up crowds and robbing convenience stores and lobbing pipebombs at police, but once you activate six police stars you can’t wait those out. They don’t wear off. The military gets activated and your only hope is a pay-n-spray.
We’re just lucky Dzhokhar didn’t spawn in an infinite heat-seeking RPG and really went to town. That was always my go-to move.
In between making excuses for Michele Bachmann’s ethical lapses and waxing incredulous about the deflating gold bubble, he’s been touting a “the Saudi did it” narrative to explain the marathon bombings. He promises an impeachment-grade exposé on Monday.
In between making excuses for Michele Bachmann’s ethical lapses and waxing incredulous about the deflating gold bubble, he’s been touting a “the Saudi did it” narrative to explain the marathon bombings. He promises an impeachment-grade exposé on Monday.
spybubble gratis
“I would like to very strongly condemn the bombings in the US and express
condolences to the families. The perpetrators must face justice.”
Mufti Ismail Menk
Viewing the surveillance video, the older brother is wearing shades, cap pulled low. The younger one doesn’t appear to make any attempt to hide his features, almost as though he isn’t aware there’s any reason to hide. I can’t imagine that anyone in this day and age is unaware of the ubiquitous surveillance cameras everywhere. His brother appears to have thought it through.
I can’t make sense of my own behavior as a 19-year-old, let alone anyone else’s. Thank goodness I didn’t have twitter.
What I don’t understand is the desire to wallow in frenzy and chaos.
Obviously we have too many talking heads with nothing to say, too many “special weapons” people with nothing to do, too many vengeful people.
What’s the sense of shutting down an entire city so fear can run rampant?
What’s the sense of shutting down an entire city so fear can run rampant?
Getting people out of the way so the police can do their job.
Not providing crowds for the fleeing suspect to hide in. Remember how this all started?
Not providing crowds for the mad bombers to target. Again, remember how this all started?
What I found amazing was the degree to which the citizens of Watertown and surrounding areas followed the request to stay in their homes throughout the day on Friday. Plenty of media visual coverage illustrates this. What I wonder about involves other parts of the metro area. Did all of Boston comply to this degree? If so, this is an unprecidented event, at least in my memory.
The pictures for most of the day were of almost empty streets. The civilians clearly trusted the opinion of the law enforcement, and did as they were asked.
The local news had spectacular coverage, so everyone in Boston knew exactly what was going on throughout the day. They saw their first responders behaving in a competent and courageous manner. Even those of us who normally have concerns about the militarization and authority of the police have to admit that they were doing their best.
I think the lesson of the day is that if the authorities are doing the right thing, the citizens will follow and support them.
Interesting that there hasn’t been, yet, any terrorist group claim these men as their own. No group took claim for the initial Marathon bombs.
The older generation in this family seems to have just stepped out of their lives. Father goes back to his homeland, which is strange if he initially came here and sought asylum, hard to imagine the threat to his life just melted away? The uncle claims he hasn’t spoken to the boys in years. Same with the sister.
It’s beginning to look like the boys may have raised themselves and the older brother developed into life’s interpreter for the younger.