Boston Marathon Bombing: Sauntering Through the News

Maybe I'd get more attention if I picked some position, and harangued endlessly about it.

Rattling on About Rosicrucians

Maybe I should post daily, warning anyone who reads this blog that the Boston Marathon bombing was engineered by the same cabal of Illuminati, Rosicrucians, and space-alien lizard men who really run the CIA and NBC, control our brains with radio waves from cell phone towers, and are responsible for annoying television commercials.

Somebody might believe that tripe, though, and I don't want to be responsible for increasing the world's nuttiness.

On the other hand, maybe I'm really a shape-shifting lizard man: and have hypnotized myself into believing that I'm human.

No, I don't think so.

News and Routine

There's been something in the news more-or-less daily since the Boston Marathon bombing: mostly the routine sort of stuff that news services do when there isn't a significant change to report.

That's about what I expected, since American law enforcement usually takes investigations of serious crimes in a frustratingly methodical, rational way.

There are exceptions, of course, like the infamous Steven Hatfill and Richard Jewel fiascoes. (February 15, 2011)

Students and Life Lessons

It's likely that at least one of the three college students arrested this week got a terrible shock:

"Boston bombings: Suspect's classmates appear in court"
BBC News (May 1, 2013)

"Three college classmates of the Boston bombings suspect have appeared in court, accused of hindering the police investigation into the attacks.

"Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev - both from Kazakhstan - threw away Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's laptop and backpack, police say.

"Robel Phillipos is accused of lying to investigators. None of the three are implicated in plotting the attacks...."

Maybe all three knew that they were helping terrorists. Maybe not. The young men from Kazakhstan are 19. That's 'old enough to know better,' but young enough to lack the common sense some of us eventually acquire.

I've never attended college in a foreign country, but can imagine that if had, and a buddy of mine asked me to throw a backpack and laptop away I might agree. Maybe not after I saw what was inside the backpack: but I'm nowhere near as nice and trusting a chap as some.

I won't rant about how America should drive all 'foreigners' out and not let anyone in. That, in my considered opinion, would be silly, wrong, and downright self-destructive. I'll grant that I'm a bit biased. All my ancestors were 'foreigners' here not too long ago.

Russia and Secrets

Maybe Russian security officials had a good reason for not telling their American counterparts about a potential terrorist.

Maybe they were simply being the sort of bureaucratic nitwits that add fuel, knowingly or not, to weird conspiracy theories.

Or maybe the FBI is on the verge of uncovering a conspiracy of space aliens and immortal brush salesmen, disguised as Russian officials. No, I don't think so.

"No evidence Boston bomber radicalized before first FBI interview, sources say"
Catherine Herridge, FoxNews.com (April 30, 2013)

"Investigators have found no evidence -- so far -- that Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was radicalized before the FBI interviewed him in spring 2011, two sources tell Fox News.

"The FBI investigation ran from March through June 2011 after the bureau was contacted by the Russian Security Services, which said Tsarnaev and his mother were followers of radical Islam.

"The two sources, one within the intelligence community and the other a congressional source, both of whom would not discuss the investigation on the record, emphasized that the U.S. went back to the Russian authorities three times seeking more detail on the elder Tsarnaev brother, but it was only within the last week that Russia's wiretap evidence was presented to U.S. authorities.

"When Tsarnaev from his six months in Russia, in July 2012, the following month he established his own YouTube channel with links to known Islamist groups, including the Caucasus Emirate. According to the two sources, no evidence has been found that Tsarnaev 'created his own media, including video recordings,' which is seen by the intelligence community as an indicator or marker of radicalization...."

What this news item seems to indicate is that American law enforcement is acting the way they usually do: and so, sadly, are their Russian counterparts. (February 19, 2010)

In the news:

• "Boston bombings: Suspect's classmates appear in court"
  BBC News (May 1, 2013)
• "No evidence Boston bomber radicalized before first FBI interview, sources say"
  Catherine Herridge, FoxNews.com (April 30, 2013)

Related posts:

• Judgment: good and otherwise
  • "Snap Judgment and Ricin"
    (April 23, 2013)
  • "Boston Marathon Bombing: Sincerity isn't Truth "
    (April 20, 2013)
  • "Boston Marathon Bombs"
    (April 15, 2013)
  • "Who Needs Facts? Cultural Assumptions and Politics"
    (July 24, 2009)
  • "Anthrax Letters: Dotting the 'I's, Crossing the 'T's"
    (September 17, 2008)
  • "Cool Heads, Lukewarm Brains, And Dr. Haneef"
    (July 30, 2007)
• Living in a big world
  • "Still Coming to America"
    A Catholic Citizen in America (April 28, 2013)
  • "Egypt, America: Change, Freedom, and Other Threats to the Status Quo"
    (November 23, 2012)
  • "Remembering September 11, 2001; and Looking Ahead"
    (September 11, 2012)
  • "Guinea, Military Rule, and Terrorism: Beware Hasty Judgment"
    (December 29, 2008)
  • "Two Cultures: Two Responses"
    (October 21, 2007)

Students Demonstrating Against the President: in Iran

Tehran University kicked off the academic year with a something different this year.

About a hundred students demonstrated against the president Monday, October 8. That's hardly noteworthy, except for this detail: it was President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran who they called 'dictator.'

What's even more remarkable is that the students seem to still be alive.

Maybe it isn't so surprising: I've never thought Ahmadinejad was particularly stupid or foolish: and this isn't the time to emulate Burma/Myanmar's direct approach to opposing opinions. Not if Ahmadinejad wants to maintain an image of innocent victim of western oppression, at least.

The non-Ahmadinejad fans chanted "death to the dictator" (in Persian, I assume) while the Iranian president talked about how good science is, and how risky Western-style democracy is.

More conventionally loyal Iranian students chanted "thank you president," while the police stayed safely on the other side of the university gates.

I don't think this is the start of an Iranian "sixties," with student radicals taking over the colleges and universities. For starters, Iran seems to be much too well run for that sort of thing to happen. Besides that, pro-government student groups have more support, and the reform newspapers that haven't been shut down are being discretely muted in their criticism of official Iranian policies.

What's going on in Iran?

I think it's fair to say that not everyone is satisfied with how the ayatollahs are running the place. Which is something to remember, when thinking about what can, and should, be done about the very real danger of Islamic fanatics building nuclear weapons with Iran's "peaceful" nuclear program.

Related posts, on Individuals and the War on Terror.