dagblog - Comments for "Chaotic scene in Boston area after explosions, gunfire, fatal shooting of MIT officer [Update: 1 Marathon suspect killed, 1 at large]"

NCD, do I detect a hint of

erica20 — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 16:22:38 +0000

NCD, do I detect a hint of archness there? :^) I probably deserve it.

Anyhoo, I'll jump in on this one--I think the "it" is violence toward Americans, and no, it's not a valid defense of her nephews. But he's married to a Christian!" has the ring of "...but some of my best friends are Black/Gay/Hispanic!" It was a moral flail--an attempt to use an exception to pretend that a rule doesn't exist. I think she knew it was BS when she said it.

Boston Bombings FBI Chief

artappraiser — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:56:04 +0000

In reply to Chaotic scene in Boston area after explosions, gunfire, fatal shooting of MIT officer [Update: 1 Marathon suspect killed, 1 at large]

Boston Bombings FBI Chief Uses Media Flair That Got Bulger
Michael Riley, Andrew Zajac and Tom Schoenberg, Bloomberg News, April 19, 2013

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/bloomberg/article/Boston-Bombings-FBI-Chi...

We have seen Big Brother and he is us?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Boston

artappraiser — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 00:17:24 +0000

In reply to Chaotic scene in Boston area after explosions, gunfire, fatal shooting of MIT officer [Update: 1 Marathon suspect killed, 1 at large]

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Boston bombing suspect was 'a lovely, lovely kid'
By Matt Williams in New York and Miriam Elder in Moscow, guardian.co.uk, 19 April 2013 13.41 EDT

19-year-old attended school in Dagestan, near Chechnya, and gives world view as 'Islam' on Russian social network site

[.....] The 19-year-old, who is thought to have carried out the Boston marathon bomb with his older brother, was described by friends and family as very different to the 26-year-old Tamerlan. Where Tamerlan is reported to have told people that he didn't have a "single American friend", Dzhokhar was portrayed as a sociable member of his school community. [.....]

Bombing suspect attended UMass Dartmouth
By Sarah Coffey and Patricia Wen and staff, Boston Globe, April 19, 2013

[....] 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 [.....]

Brothers Seen as Good Students and Avid Athletes
By Erica Goode, Serge F. Kovaleski and Andrew E. Kramer, New York Times, April 19/20, 2013

One was a boxer who liked Russian rap videos and once said, “I don’t have a single American friend.”

The other, an all-star high school wrestler, listed “Islam” as his worldview on a Russian social media page and was described by a neighbor as a “very photogenic kid” who had “a heart of gold.”

As a picture has begun to emerge of the two brothers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who are suspected of carrying out the bombings at the Boston Marathon, it is difficult to distinguish them from the millions of young people who come to the United States to forge a future [....]

FBI interviewed dead Boston

artappraiser — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 23:07:11 +0000

In reply to Chaotic scene in Boston area after explosions, gunfire, fatal shooting of MIT officer [Update: 1 Marathon suspect killed, 1 at large]

FBI interviewed dead Boston bombing suspect years ago
CBS News/ April 19, 2013, 6:44 PM Updated 6:50 p.m. ET

The FBI admitted Friday they interviewed the now-deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years ago and failed to find any incriminating information about him.

As first reported by CBS News correspondent Bob Orr, the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev, the elder brother of at-large bombing suspect Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, at the request of a foreign government to see if he had any extremist ties, but failed to find any linkage.

Both Tsarnaev brothers were legal permanent residents of the U.S. There is no evidence so far that either brother received any tactical training.

CBS News correspondent John Miller reports it is likely Russia asked to have the elder Tsarnaev vetted because of suspected ties to Chechen extremists.

The FBI is likely to have run a background check [....]

Dad (now in Russia) suspects

artappraiser — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:40:33 +0000

In reply to Chaotic scene in Boston area after explosions, gunfire, fatal shooting of MIT officer [Update: 1 Marathon suspect killed, 1 at large]

Dad (now in Russia) suspects a frame job too:

5:18 P.M. The Lede/New York Times Interview With Suspects’ Father

Here is a transcript of a telephone interview with Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, conducted Friday by Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth of The New York Times’s Moscow bureau.

Q.

Anything strange when you last spoke to your sons?

A.

Nothing strange, nothing at all. Everything is normal, everything is well, nothing new. Everything was thought up there…. Something is wrong. They have been framed. I am watching TV and cannot believe it. What are they talking about Watertown? He didn’t live there…. How could he live there? This is where the lie begins, why are they saying this crap?

Dzhokhar has not been in Russia since 2001. Tamerlan did come. He came to renew his passport. He stayed here and left, but did not want to go. He wanted to stay here because it was hard for him to work there.

Q.

Did he want to stay in Russia? [......continued @ link]

Reading the whole thing highly recommended. And note this link there after the end of the transcript:

As CNN reported, Anzor Tsarnaev made similar charges, that his sons had been framed, in an interview with Russian state television on Friday. Mr. Tsarnaev also said that he had been questioned by the Russian security services.

Aunt Maret Tsarnaeva

NCD — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:26:57 +0000

In reply to CNN's website has a video

Aunt Maret Tsarnaeva interview, CBS:

Tamerlan married and had a 3-year-old daughter in the U.S., she said.

"He has a wife in Boston and from a Christian family, so you can't tie it to religion," she said.

But she said Tamerlan "seemingly did not find himself yet in America, because it's not easy."

Tamerlan wasn't a devout practicing Muslim, "but just recently, maybe two years ago, he started praying five times a day," she said....

I'll refer interpretation of the bold type to our resident Dag psychologists, AA/Erica.

Specifically what is 'it' and what can't you tie to 'it'? What does the wife being from a Christian family have to do with 'it'? Is this a valid defense of her nephews?

Yes. In this context, "set

erica20 — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:17:14 +0000

In reply to And I didn't necessarily get

Yes. In this context, "set up" may mean something different from what we'd think it means.

And I didn't necessarily get

artappraiser — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 22:08:08 +0000

In reply to I think this is a good point

And I didn't necessarily get the feeling she was accusing the U.S. government of doing this, I should have made that more clear but it was a quickie comment before an appointment.

I took what she was saying more along the lines of "the F.B.I. hasn't a clue how nefarious the powers-that-be from where we come from can be." (And one does have to admit that if you're talking just about Chechnya vs. Russia, as a general statement, that would be an understatement.)

The reason I found it interesting is she implied she called the hotline and was sort of brushed off, maybe after a polite interview. If you look at this from U.S. law enforcement p.o.v., they're in the middle of an open crisis, and they hear from this aunt who says something like "listen, no chance my nephews are the real perps here, they were probably picked out as good dupes for a scheme by the **** gang, it's looks nearly exactly like the operation they did in Dagestan..." etc. And that's the last thing they want to deal with right now, they just want to get her remaining nephew off the street.

I suspect it's going to be very interesting what she says in the future, whether crazy in denail or not. She struck me as the type not to shy away from tussling with the KGB in the old days...the kind they would lock up in a mental institution because they couldn't handle her any other way.

CNN's website has a video

artappraiser — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 21:44:32 +0000

In reply to The aunt who sponsored the

CNN's website has a video clip from her statements up now, it's just a snippet, but gives an idea: of where she's at:

Suspects' aunt: Where is the evidence?

CNN|Added on April 19, 2013

Maret Tsarnaev, aunt of the Boston bombing suspects, says she is suspicious the pictures of her nephews were staged.

It's more complex than that.

erica20 — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:31:49 +0000

In reply to Of course, 'others' are

It's more complex than that. She's from a very tribal place with bad, intrusive govt. Now she lives in Canada, where people tend (correctly perhaps) to have a less gung-ho view of the US govt than many Americans. Plus, if it's somebody in your family, you're bound to be thinking "There has to be an explanation for this."

And then, there's just the stereotype, perhaps somewhat culturally valid, that Russians are cranky and suspicious...especially about anything to do with govt.

As a not-very-good analogy, think about the computer guy who recently committed suicide (sorry, forget the name.) Depending on how you saw the situation, he was a hero, a danger to society, a misunderstood genius, or just a much-loved relative. I don't think you can expect relatives, especially at this point in the game, to have much by way of useful analysis.

dagblog - Comments for "Chaotic scene in Boston area after explosions, gunfire, fatal shooting of MIT officer [Update: 1 Marathon suspect killed, 1 at large]"

NCD, do I detect a hint of

Boston Bombings FBI Chief

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev: Boston

FBI interviewed dead Boston

Dad (now in Russia) suspects

5:18 P.M. The Lede/New York Times Interview With Suspects’ Father

Aunt Maret Tsarnaeva

Yes. In this context, "set

And I didn't necessarily get

CNN's website has a video

Suspects' aunt: Where is the evidence?

It's more complex than that.