Explosion at the Boston Marathon.

[GWCarver]

I'm with you. So he was shown in a photo on the front page of one of the ten most popular newspapers in the US, together with a headline insinuating that he had intentionally killed several innocent people, including an eight-year-old boy. Where's the harm in that? I'd just laugh it off.

Ha ha! I'd laugh. Ha ha.

The headline says the Feds were trying to identify them. They also couldn't identify the real terrorist number 1 even though they had interviewed him in 2011, and ended up having to ask the public to identify him, along with terrorist number 2.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...en-police-are-looking-for-in-boston-bombings/

 

[Professor Yaffle]

Just popping into this thread occasionally, so I might have missed if this has already been posted:

The surviving Boston bombings suspect is so seriously injured that investigators may struggle to interrogate him effectively, it was suggested on Sunday, as further questions were raised about the FBI's previous contacts with his dead brother.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old accused of planting the pressure-cooker bombs with his older brother Tamerlan, was being treated in hospital for a reported bullet wound to the throat and was unable to speak. He was captured on Friday night, a day after a violent gun battle with police that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, dead.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/21/boston-marathon-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-injuries?CMP=twt_fd

 

[A'isha]

The headline says the Feds were trying to identify them.

And that turned out to be completely untrue.

 

[applecorped]

12 man sleeper cell?

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-...unting-12-strong-1844844#.UXM54Yqm6hA.twitter


"The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers.
Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack.
More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday.
A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google."

​

 

[zeggman]

A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google."

​

So the devices themselves were crude, but the detonators were sophisticated.

Maybe since they were allegedly using radio-controlled car batteries, that bit of circuit board is also some kind of radio-controlled detonator? That would be consistent with the pressure cooker bomb they are said to have thrown at police.

 

[phiwum]

The headline says the Feds were trying to identify them. They also couldn't identify the real terrorist number 1 even though they had interviewed him in 2011, and ended up having to ask the public to identify him, along with terrorist number 2.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/201...en-police-are-looking-for-in-boston-bombings/

Just to be clear, I don't know where the Post got its information and the Post is certainly more culpable than the internet crowd, in my mind.

But to the extent that the whole debacle was caused by internet speculation, online sleuths ought to be ashamed.

 

[davefoc]

I'm with you. So he was shown in a photo on the front page of one of the ten most popular newspapers in the US, together with a headline insinuating that he had intentionally killed several innocent people, including an eight-year-old boy. Where's the harm in that? I'd just laugh it off.

Ha ha! I'd laugh. Ha ha.

If this happened and I guess it did, the blame certainly is not with the actions of internet sleuths. The entire blame falls on the media group that published the picture. Amateur internet sleuths have very little credibility and their conclusions would carry very little weight in the public's mind if the general public would even be aware of them. A large part of the success of a newspaper is based on its credibility and the public has a reasonable expectation that the editors take reasonable precautions to vet their work. I don't expect to publish some great analysis on the JREF forum and have it show up in the LA Times because davefoc happened to write it. If the LA Times published davefoc speculation I'd expect them to take responsibility for determining that davefoc speculation had merit.

 

[NoahFence]

If you would like to allege some other harm instead of attempting to insult me, please do so.

His fear is harm, is it not?

He hasn't been beaten up. He hasn't lost his job. He hasn't been kicked out of school. One assumes his friends have not shunned him.

Yet. I've already proven that people can be irrational, and that his life is legitimately in danger because people can be psychotic, too. Irrational psychotics are out there, too. And they've done harm in this exact same scenario already.

 

[WildCat]

The Posts articles about the Saudi student and the two high schoolers? The right-wing echo chamber and especially Glenn Beck doing crap like this?

So you're backpedaling from your claim about the NY Post running incorrect information?

No, they called people suspects when they weren't, and pretty much flat-out stated that the people whose photographs they ran were the culprits. Defending them by saying they didn't name the people whose pictures they ran and identified as the bombers is pretty weak.

Weasel words hilited. At least they didn't force any innocent people to strip naked in public before hauling them off in handcuffs.

And this time, they didn't even have the justification that the FBI released that information first. They just made it all up on their own.

What did they make up? Please be specific.

 

[zeggman]

His fear is harm, is it not?

No, it is not.

His fear (assuming he is really fearful) is irrational and overblown.

Yet. I've already proven that people can be irrational, and that his life is legitimately in danger because people can be psychotic, too. Irrational psychotics are out there, too. And they've done harm in this exact same scenario already.

Islamic fundamentalists who are irrational psychotics have done harm in the exact scenario of killing people in office buildings, crashing airplanes, and planting bombs at public events. Plenty of people are afraid of them too, and their fear is also irrational, at least until instances of actual harm become a lot more common than they are now.

More people get hit by lightning every year than are killed (or threatened) because they look like someone who allegedly did something bad. Maybe it's just as well that he's staying inside (again, assuming he actually is). That lightning can be deadly.

 

[phiwum]

A large part of the success of a newspaper is based on its credibility ....

Er, this is the Post.

 

[WildCat]

If you honestly see no difference between a bunch of guys speculating about suspects in their spare time on a public and widely read forum and the police being extraordinarily but reasonably cautious in apprehending an apparently suspicious person at the site of a significant firefight, I guess we have nothing really to discuss.

This is really the most bizarre comparison I can recall here at JREF from a non-CTer.

So stripping a man in public in front of cameras based on speculation is "reasonably cautious", but discussing a current event on social media based on FBI descriptions is irresponsible. Got it.

Why don't we go to Revere high school and ask the track star who was fingered in this bombing if there are any similarities.

No, wait. You can't. He's too scared to death to leave his house.

He is?

And it was the the police who put him under suspicion in the first place, not the NY Post or Reddit.

 

[Shiner]

Another of his bro's announced this an hour ago: http://www.freejahar.com

#FreeJahar is trending. Apparently mostly thanks to people who tell the FBI to investigate users who use the tag for terrorist sympathizers.

I get the feeling you disagree. The tag #FreeJahar is terrorist sympathy itself.

Using it to hilite a message of support for a terrorist is ........? Please fill in the blanks.

 

[WildCat]

Internet sleuthing is 100% dead on after the fact I see. Nice to see folks can view hindsight in 20/20.

Kind of like the police who arrested several people, even stripping one naked in public while onlookers gawked and took pictures. Oops, sorry about that! But it's OK, we're professionals!

 

[davefoc]

Er, this is the Post.

I see your point and that is an interesting situation in itself. Obviously some publications rely less on a perception of credibility than others. Still, I think the Post would be just as legally responsible as the NY Times for publication of accusations without a reasonable good faith basis to believe they were true. I haven't seen exactly what was published in the Post but if the good faith basis for publishing the accusation was too low, I think the student should be compensated. If the accusation was not published with significant and clear cut information that the basis for the accusation was sketchy and not confirmed by the authorities I would hope that the student would be very significantly compensated.

I wouldn't even mind seeing whoever did the speculating on the internet being held responsible if the accusations weren't characterized as speculation that could easily be wrong.

 

[WildCat]

And that turned out to be completely untrue.

You mean completely true.

"Federal law enforcement sources told ABC News they are no longer seeking information about Barhoun or the other man in the photo published in the Post."

Which means they were looking at him as a possible bomber.

 

[WildCat]

Just to be clear, I don't know where the Post got its information and the Post is certainly more culpable than the internet crowd, in my mind.

But to the extent that the whole debacle was caused by internet speculation, online sleuths ought to be ashamed.

The Post got their information from law enforcement officials, who have admitted they were passing around Barhoun's picture and seeking information about him.

 

[A'isha]

So you're backpedaling from your claim about the NY Post running incorrect information?

No, I'm saying it was more than the Post that has been doing that.

Weasel words hilited. At least they didn't force any innocent people to strip naked in public before hauling them off in handcuffs.

Did you read the Post's coverage at all?

And if you can't understand the difference between what the police did as a precaution to someone at the scene in the immediate aftermath of a violent shootout where one suspect was killed and another escaped, and the ******** the Post did, then this is not going to be a very productive conversation.

What did they make up? Please be specific.

That the hospitalized Saudi student was a suspect and that the Feds were seeking the two kids whose picture they ran on their front page.

 

[A'isha]

You mean completely true.

"Federal law enforcement sources told ABC News they are no longer seeking information about Barhoun or the other man in the photo published in the Post."

Which means they were looking at him as a possible bomber.

Anonymous "Federal law enforcement sources" quoted by the media have had a rather poor track record of accuracy this week.

 

[Morrigan]

Ignorance knows no bounds, nor does a person's ability to prove that ignorance.

What or who are you referring to here? I'm confused.

That's nice. I guess it pays to lose your legs in a high profile event. Now my cousin lost his leg when a drunk driver clipped him and he went bankrupt, losing his house and everything because of the medical expenses. No surgeon waived those fees for him.

That's awful.

If I ever get cancer I'm robbing a bank. I'd rather be in prison getting chemo than free and dying because I can't afford chemo.

I know you're (probably?) not serious but holy hell that's a depressing thing to read.

Total win-win. If they don't catch you, you have the money to afford chemo, if they do, free chemo!

I loled. I shouldn't have, because it's a horrible situation, but that was too clever. Well played.