Explosion at the Boston Marathon.

So no official suspects confirmed in the attack. I think everyone has their suspicions. But then again, the police are trying to tread lightly in this situation.
 
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gerdbonk said:
Heraldnet.com

If you've seen the video, you've seen the old runner who fell down. He's interviewed at the above link.
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Thanks for posting that. Knowing that many others have been gravely injured I feel silly worrying about one particular victim, just because I saw him on TV, but I'm very glad to learn he's OK. I imagined he'd been hit by shrapnel.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
Absolutely. Another "fortunate" circumstance is that the bombs appear to have been at ground level, so there were fewer torso wounds and more lower extremity wounds, as the blast and shrapnel appear to have been primarily near the ground. These types of wounds are less life threatening. In the photos it appears that very few people have torso or head wounds.
That's probably why the poor 8 year old was killed, because a child is so much closer to the ground.
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Thanks for that...it was bad enough when I knew a child had died. Somehow the logical explanation for it just makes it worse.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
... I found a quote from a law enforcement officer addressing that issue (reported on the CNN web site):

"But the fact that the blasts took place near the end of the race "seems to indicate this was not geared toward maximum damage," said a former federal law enforcement official who now works in the intelligence community.
"It may speak volumes about the (level of) planning that went into this," the source said. "It raises questions ... why didn't the bombs go off when the crowd was packed in like sardines when the winners were crossing the finish line? It could mean the people behind it couldn't get access to the area when they originally intended."
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That doesn't sound right to me. I'd expect a huge number of runners to aim for 4 hours and, with the inevitable delays in getting vast numbers across a marathon start line, this looks to me as if it was timed with intent to target the maximum concentration of runners.

OK that's speculative, but if it's right it implies the bomber(s) intended their bombs to be deadly over a significantly wider range than they actually were. The further implication is they were less able bomb makers than they imagined, which is some small comfort.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
As a runner, I don't think this is true at all. Running has a long history in the U.S. and is a traditional sport. It used to be extremely popular.
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Trust me it can be true depending on where you are. I often try to get funding for more hiking and biking trails only for these whackos to show up at the meetings complaining that communists run and use bicycles and real Americans use ATV's or dirtbikes. For whatever reason they almost always seem to be wearing denim vests and have dirty ballcaps usually with a beer logo on it.

Now what political persuasion they are is not known to me. Whichever one it is that thinks only commies run and use bicycles.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
OK that's speculative, but if it's right it implies the bomber(s) intended their bombs to be deadly over a significantly wider range than they actually were. The further implication is they were less able bomb makers than they imagined, which is some small comfort.
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Or it could imply, if they are not apprehended soon, that they will go back to the drawing board to make for better explosions next time.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
That doesn't sound right to me. I'd expect a huge number of runners to aim for 4 hours and, with the inevitable delays in getting vast numbers across a marathon start line, this looks to me as if it was timed with intent to target the maximum concentration of runners.

OK that's speculative, but if it's right it implies the bomber(s) intended their bombs to be deadly over a significantly wider range than they actually were. The further implication is they were less able bomb makers than they imagined, which is some small comfort.
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Well, except it doesn't appear that the runners were actually the ones targeted....it seems as though there haven't even been any reports of runners being injured on the course (maybe some who had joined the viewing audience after finishing, though). It was the viewers who were targeted, and it's likely that far more would have been injured had the bombs been detonated earlier, when, as he said, the audience would have been "packed like sardines" to watch the elites come in.
 
I'm not sure if anyone else has already mentioned this. One of the witnesses interviewed by the BBC said the bomb he saw was in a litter bin (trash can), in the UK we strongly associate this with the IRA bombings of the eighties, one of the most notorious of which, the Warrington Bombing, was exactly twenty years ago last month and was famously a litter bin bomb. Boston has strong associations with Irish heritage and there was a perception (I don't know how true) that many there supported and raised funds for the IRA.

I hope it's coincidence, rubbish bins are a convenient location location to hide a bomb, but as a UKer old enough to remember the mainland bombing campaigns it raised a few old associations.

My deepest sympathies to the bereaved and my best wishes to the wounded. I hope they catch the scum responsible quickly.
 
Travis said:
Trust me it can be true depending on where you are. I often try to get funding for more hiking and biking trails only for these whackos to show up at the meetings complaining that communists run and use bicycles and real Americans use ATV's or dirtbikes. For whatever reason they almost always seem to be wearing denim vests and have dirty ballcaps usually with a beer logo on it.

Now what political persuasion they are is not known to me. Whichever one it is that thinks only commies run and use bicycles.
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You could be right...I actually do agree with you that it seems bicyclists are viewed as "leftists" by many. So perhaps they are looking at runners this way, too. I think, though, that bicyclists are perceived as more of a threat, since there are more of them on the roads trying to claim territory that "should" belong to cars. Maybe they are lumping them together.
 
Doghouse Reilly said:
You could be right...I actually do agree with you that it seems bicyclists are viewed as "leftists" by many. So perhaps they are looking at runners this way, too. I think, though, that bicyclists are perceived as more of a threat, since there are more of them on the roads trying to claim territory that "should" belong to cars. Maybe they are lumping them together.
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I think it goes with the mindset that only the left cares about health while "real Americans" just drink beer and don't care about their expanding waistline. See all the attacks on Michelle Obama every time she talked about healthy eating.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
I'm not sure if anyone else has already mentioned this. One of the witnesses interviewed by the BBC said the bomb he saw was in a litter bin (trash can), in the UK we strongly associate this with the IRA bombings of the eighties, one of the most notorious of which, the Warrington Bombing, was exactly twenty years ago last month and was famously a litter bin bomb. Boston has strong associations with Irish heritage and there was a perception (I don't know how true) that many there supported and raised funds for the IRA.

I hope it's coincidence, rubbish bins are a convenient location location to hide a bomb, but as a UKer old enough to remember the mainland bombing campaigns it raised a few old associations.

My deepest sympathies to the bereaved and my best wishes to the wounded. I hope they catch the scum responsible quickly.
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So it could be a Brit who is upset over the support the IRA got from Boston?

That would be an unexpected turn if it turns out to be true.
 
P.J. Denyer said:
I'm not sure if anyone else has already mentioned this. One of the witnesses interviewed by the BBC said the bomb he saw was in a litter bin (trash can), in the UK we strongly associate this with the IRA bombings of the eighties, one of the most notorious of which, the Warrington Bombing, was exactly twenty years ago last month and was famously a litter bin bomb. Boston has strong associations with Irish heritage and there was a perception (I don't know how true) that many there supported and raised funds for the IRA.

I hope it's coincidence, rubbish bins are a convenient location location to hide a bomb, but as a UKer old enough to remember the mainland bombing campaigns it raised a few old associations.

My deepest sympathies to the bereaved and my best wishes to the wounded. I hope they catch the scum responsible quickly.
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Well certainly it made me think of that whenever I heard someone say that they'd never look at a litter bin or an ownerless bag the same way again, since obviously I grew up in the UK in the seventies and eighties, and have therefore never looked at those things other than suspiciously. Nonetheless, I'm assuming that you don't actually mean to suggest that this is the work of Irish republicans. That would just be weird.
 
Rat said:
Well certainly it made me think of that whenever I heard someone say that they'd never look at a litter bin or an ownerless bag the same way again, since obviously I grew up in the UK in the seventies and eighties, and have therefore never looked at those things other than suspiciously. Nonetheless, I'm assuming that you don't actually mean to suggest that this is the work of Irish republicans. That would just be weird.
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I read it as being a suggestion that it could be the work of loyalist terrorists, using IRA tactics in a city which provided a lot of financial support for the IRA.
 
If you're faced with the problem of terrorists dropping bombs into litter bins, you can make them 'bombproof'. A plastic tub with plenty of tough woven fabric reinforcement moulded into it can deflect an explosion harmlessly upwards. (OK, less harmfully upwards.) Not much use in confined spaces of course, so you'll find there's nowhere to put litter on the London Underground.
 
smartcooky said:
Nope. If he IS a terrorist, involved with a terror organisation, making him a prisoner will just make him leverage for a future hostage situation.

Just set up a good old-fashioned gallows in Copley Square... for a public hanging!! ;)
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What if, after the hanging, you find new evidence that exonerates the guys you just killed ?
 
Sam.I.Am said:
That's him. Not the most stable of people but I'd buy him a beer, he has experienced/endured more than a normal person should ever have to.
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Not having lost a child to war, I am in no position to judge. He's 1000x more stable than the "patriots" that beat him for flying the flag upside down.

Daredelvis
 
On the Underground and Train Stations in the UK we get regular warning broadcasts to look out for unattended luggage.
Every now and then the Bomb Squad blow someone's briefcase or rucksack up as it has been reported.

Better to be safe when you know it's a fave method of attack and has been used regularly over the last 30 or so years.
 
The Don said:
I read it as being a suggestion that it could be the work of loyalist terrorists, using IRA tactics in a city which provided a lot of financial support for the IRA.
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That is how I intended it, not as a suggestion that it was done by the IRA themselves. I think it's very, very unlikely to be the case but the method, timing and location all seemed consistent with creating a link to the IRA's activities in the eighties although it could easily be coincidence.
 
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