Bharat Rakshak

The burned Saudi student, 20, originally considered a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, is being ruled out by police — he’s “more a witness than anything else,” the Saudi Embassy says they were told by federal authorities.

“UPCOMING: Saudi Embassy spokesman Jail Aljubeir says the Revere man is ‘more a witness than anything else,’” The Boston Globe tweeted on April 16.

“He’s been fully cooperating with authorities. We were informed by US authorities that no Saudi is a suspect,” said Nail Aljubeir, spokesman for the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Washington. “We want to know about it [the investigation] as much as everybody else. We’re working very closely with US authorities on this. As of yesterday, we were informed that there were no Saudi suspects. He’s more a witness than anything else.”

The Saudi student said he had been at dinner with friends the night before, April 14, and was at the marathon simply because he “wanted to see the end of the race.”

Police Raid Saudi Student’s Home After Questioning

Earlier today, April 16, it was reported that detectives raided the Boston home of a Saudi student, 20. FBI agents and bomb disposal officers swept his apartment in the suburbs of Boston, after he was arrested at the scene of the explosions. The alleged suspect was reportedly under police guard in a local hospital, where he was being treated for burns and various wounds, after he was allegedly tackled to the ground by a bystander who believed he was acting suspiciously.

However, with the Embassy’s statement, it appears as though the Saudi Arabian man is more of “a witness.”

On April 15, Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said authorities do not have a suspect in the bombing.

The explosions on April 15 claimed the lives of three people. At least 176 were also injured. Sadly, the number continues to grow.

Similar pressure-cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 intelligence report by the FBI and Homeland Security. Also, one of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the report said.

Boston Updates: Second Bombing Victim Identified, No Link to Al-Qaeda

The number of injured has risen to 183, according to CNN.

A circuit board had been found earlier, and a source had told Murphy they believed it might have have been used to detonate the devices.

Most of the injuries were to the lower extremities, suggesting the bombs were low to the ground. They also announced that they pulled "pellets and nails" from patients

There are also many first-hand accounts from the survivors and witnesses emerging today. Here is one from a Saudi man was near the bombs when they went off. (He is not the same man who was questioned as a witness.) Another Saudi man???

The FBI has taken the lead in the investigation of the bombings and last night they executed a search warrant on an apartment in Revere, Massachusetts.

Gov. Patrick confirmed that "two and only two" explosive devices were found and any reports of other devices were not true. Also, there are no suspects in custody at this time.

Commissioner Ed Davis also confirmed that there were 176 confirmed casualties that presented at local hospitals, and three deaths. In India terrorists have detonated bombs in crowded places, But the casualties seem way too high.

CNN is quoting a "U.S. official" as saying there is no indication of involvement from al-Qaeda or other foreign terror groups based on intelligence reports that have been gathered so far

Tonight's home game for the Boston Celtics has been canceled and will not be re-scheduled since the regular season ends Wednesday and it will not affect playoff seedings. It will be the first time since the 82-game season began in 1967, that an NBA team will not play the full schedule of games.

President Obama has ordered U.S. flags across the nation to be blown at half-staff until Saturday.

Around 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, a full ground stop was ordered at Boston's Logan Airport have a U.S. Airways flight that had just landed was on its way to Philadelphia Chicago was stopped on the tarmac and passengers evacuated. It's not known at the moment if the incident is related to the Marathon investigation, but police have surrounded the jet on the runway and reportedly ordered two male passengers off, apparently because they were speaking Arabic

SaiK wrote:^then in that case, it is easy to verify purchase and use.. 'cause of such sale is always based on ID.

While the tragedy of the twin blasts at the Boston Marathon sinks in, there are still some lessons that can be learnt from the way the attack has been handled this far. Here are three immediate observations following the blasts:

1. Perhaps the most important lesson, from an Indian point of view, is to learn from what Boston got right. Focus, when watching live video-footage of the bombings, on how emergency-service providers respond. Local police and national guards present on the site calmly rip away barriers to ease access to the victims. Emergency service sirens can be heard within seconds No crowds of gawpers—who can trample over critical forensic evidence—gather. Bomb-squads began searching the marathon route immediately; .... In stark contrast, chaos prevailed at Dilsukh Nagar in Hyderabad earlier this year—as it has in every other terrorist attack in recent years. We’ve learned nothing: when was the last time you were asked to participate in a disaster-response drill?

The take away: preparedness saves lives. The difference is that first-responders in the United States, whether police or ambulance services, rehearse well laid-down drills regularly. In India, under-staffed, under-trained and under-paid first-response services don’t. The difference shows.


2.It is far to early to make any assumptions about who the perpetrator might be. Beware jumping to conclusions on the basis of reports, for example, that a Saudi national was detained running away from a bomb-site—that’s exactly what everyone, Saudi or otherwise, tends to do. The Congressional Research Service says there have been 63 attempted attacks in the United States since 9/11 by home-grown jihadists. It is possible this was the first successful. There is no shortage, though, of other kinds of violent extremists wanting harm their fellow citizens. Early this year, the Combatting Terrorism Centre at West Point flagged the growing threat of white supremacist and neo-Nazi terrorism. It reminds us that the most lethal attack in the United States before 9/11, the bombing of the Federal Plaza in Oklahoma, was carried out by Timothy McVeigh—a crazed white-supremacist.

The take away: a closed mind is a guaranteed route to reaching the wrong conclusions. Investigation involves slow, patient work.In hours and days to come, the US authorities will question dozens, perhaps hundreds, of suspects, but most if not all of them will be proved innocent. Leads will be checked—and most dropped.

3.From early reports, it seems likely that the perpetrator had some degree of expertise. There are some intriguing similarities between the Boston attacks and the kinds of attacks carried out by the Indian Mujahideen networks in India. For example, 11 of 12 IM strikes between February 23, 2005 and September 13, 2008, involved multiple Improvised Explosive Devices, or IEDs, in 10 cases timed for synchronous explosion with nothing more sophisticated than a mechanical quartz alarm clock. Like in Boston, the Indian Mujahideen bombings—including more recent strikes, like those at Pune’s Germany Bakery or the Zaveri Bazaar in Mumbai—involved simple IEDs, fabricated from an ammonium nitrate base and packed with ball-bearings for lethal effect.

The take away: no country can be completely immune from terrorism, because bombs are easy to make. The same materials that kill also have commercial applications and are therefore easily available. In the United States, the bombers will likely have left a trail—for example, credit cards used in purchases or closed-circuit television in stores. In India, such track-back is almost impossible

Simon Jenkins
The Guardian, Tuesday 16 April 2013 18.45 BST
J
I know who the real terrorists are. Some of them set off a bomb during the Boston marathon, killing three people and injuring 176. Such things happen regularly round the world. For those in the wrong place at the wrong time it is a personal catastrophe.

Such deeds are senseless murders, but they are not terrorism as such. What makes them terrorist is the outside world rushing to hand their perpetrators a megaphone. Murder is magnified a thousandfold, replayed over and again, described and analysed, sent into every home. A blast becomes a mass psychosis, impelling a terror of repetition and demands for drastic countermeasures. An act of violence that deserves no meaning is given it.

Today in Britain Margaret Thatcher's memorial service was being "reviewed in the light of the intelligence and security environment", as if Boston had suddenly rendered London insecure. Sunday's London Marathon was likewise "under discussion", as officials had to deny that it might be cancelled. David Cameron had to speak. Boris Johnson had to speak. Could the Boston bomber have been awarded any greater accolade?

I heard a radio reporter intone that it was "incredibly difficult to make sporting events safe and security". It is not incredibly difficult, it is impossible. But who dares say so, when the great god terror stalks the land, hand-in-hand with the BBC's World at One?

Joseph Conrad's secret agent declared that the bomber's aim was not to kill but to create fear of killing. That is why the terrorist and the policeman "both come from the same basket". The terrorist's achievement would be to generate such fear that the police would be reduced to "shooting us down in broad daylight with the approval of the public". Half his battle would be won "with the disintegration of the old morality" – by which Conrad meant liberal tolerance.

At present terrorism draws strength from the west's adoption of extra-legal violence as a countermeasure. A democracy acting in what it regards as self-defence may differ from the mindless rage of the jihadist. But America is now taking the "war on terror" away from any specific theatre into a realm of "out of area" assassination, rendition and drone killing. As such it is easily seen as giving itself a license for random violence.

To Waziri or Yemeni villagers obliterated by a drone, the fact that they were not the "intended" victims is immaterial. They are as dead as the Boston victims. Such cruel, arm's-length "crime prevention" is precisely what Conrad's special agent sought to provoke. If America claims legitimacy in sowing terror from the air, Islamists claim likewise on the ground.

This heightened sensitivity to terror is ubiquitous. Back in Britain there is not 10 minutes' peace on a Virgin train without a voice intoning that we should "look out for any suspicious objects or persons and report to the police". This is pure Big Brother, the mutualisation of suspicion. A quiet walk round Westminster or Kensington is jarred by wandering policemen toting machine guns. They may be just showing off, but showing off to what purpose? We have even come to regard it as normal.

Domestic security has become "national security" and left to account only to public fear. It employs millions of Americans, in a country under no existential threat. I asked a British civil servant if, at planning meetings, anyone ever suggested a particular counter-terror measure might be over the top, such as surface-to-air missiles at the Olympics. The answer was no one would dare. Richard Branson lacks the guts to stand down his scaremongerers. The Met's Bernard Hogan-Howe lacks the guts to call off his Westminster Tonton Macoute.

Nothing will stop people setting off bombs. Anarchists, republicans, jihadists and fanatics have done so since the invention of dynamite. They are best countered by quiet espionage within dissident communities. Otherwise we must accept that living and moving in a free community involves risk, especially in nations such as Britain and the US, claiming the right to tell the world how it should be run.

The Chinese proverb bids us always to ask what the enemy most wants us to do. The terrorist craves us to give him publicity, reaction and retaliation. The media is his megaphone. There is a world of difference between reporting a bombing and giving it blanket coverage. This week's media has shown no inclination to deny terror the oxygen of publicity. Asked what the significance of the Boston bomb was, the US terrorism expert Rick Nelson told the BBC: "The fact that here we are talking about it."

The most sensible remark yesterday came from the White House, where President Obama refused even to use the word terrorism. Much good it did. The world cried 9/11 and that was that. After the bomb, mass hysteria is terrorism's second-best weapon. It was loaded, cocked and fired. We now wait only for some deranged idiot to bless us with his message, which we will of course broadcast to the world.

On the day before Margaret Thatcher's funeral, I recall the most courageous thing I ever saw a politician do. Within hours of escaping an assassination attempt in 1984, and with friends dying round her, she refused to let security be her master. She changed her clothes, stalked into her conference hall and made a speech that barely mentioned what had happened. Terror was in its proper place. Thatcher set an example to the pusillanimous, cowering, overprotected, risk-averse politicians of today.

Coalition and Afghan special operations forces captured a senior leader from the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba during a raid today in the southeastern Afghan province of Ghazni. Additionally, special operations forces killed an "insurgent leader" who supported foreign fighters during an operation yesterday in the northeastern province of Kunar.The "senior Lashkar-e-Taiba leader" and "a number of other insurgents" were captured in the district of Andar in Ghazni, the International Security Assistance Force stated in a press release. ISAF did not identify the nationality of the leader or the "other insurgents" captured during the raid.The Lashkar-e-Taiba leader "planned and participated in multiple attacks against Afghan and Coalition forces throughout Kunar, Kandahar and Ghazni provinces" and "was actively planning a high-profile attack at the time of his arrest."He also "is known to have links to multiple foreign fighters." commander of "a cell of approximately 50 foreign fighters" which consisted of "Arab and Pakistani al Qaeda operatives, possibly members from Lashkar-e-Taiba, as [/b]well as members of the Haqqani Network from North Waziristan."And in June 2012, ISAF killed two senior Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders in an airstrike in Kunar. One of them was Khatab Shafiq, the Lashkar-e-Taiba senior leader in the province who "established multiple insurgent training camps in eastern Afghanistan." The other was Ammar, who led an attack network in Kunar. Both Lashkar-e-Taiba commanders were linked to al Qaeda.

..deeply shocked and saddened by the outrageous terrorist attack. This senseless and cowardly act of violence has struck a city that has long stood as the symbol of openness, learning, innovation and enterprise.... people of India condemn the attack in the strongest terms and stand in solidarity and sympathy with the bereaved families, the injured and the people of the United States.

.. serves as a tragic reminder of the evil of terrorism that still threatens our nations and lurks in our cities. ..

“At the same time, it redoubles our resolve to remain unrelenting in our efforts to defeat terrorism and to defend and uphold the values that define our nations.”

“Mr. President, in keeping with the excellent cooperation between India and the United States to combat terrorism, we offer you our full support for the investigations into the attack...

Austin wrote:

Sanku wrote:I am somewhat bemused, in India, we would have ID'ed the exact explosive used, its provenance, the sleeper cells involved etc. by now and also shared the same.

I remember an incident in multiple train blast in Mumbai that occured in 1st class compartment and many were killed , the police commisioner in few days claimed they cracked the incident and caught the culprit , the HM was not amused and called the commisioner to Delhi , what they caught was some poor migrant and the real culprit fled to POK and later claimed from there they did it.

Amber G. wrote:
One polite request to posters here. Please keep off-topic posts away from this thread. If you think Obama is a fraud, or US is evil, or have a academic thesis about war and peace.. there are many threads in brf -- where those thoughts can go. So unless these are related to the subject matter, keep those posts in other threads. Please!

kish wrote:
Gov. Patrick confirmed that "two and only two" explosive devices were found and any reports of other devices were not true. Also, there are no suspects in custody at this time.

rgsrini wrote:^^saar. If it is the regular gunpowder used in ammunitions, it is easily available in the local gunshops. Most hardcore hunters buy gun powders (by weight), casings, bullets etc separately and make their own ammunitions in their home labs in the US. You should be able to pick up gunpowder in pounds (lbs) from the gun shops.

Rangudu wrote:http://www1.whdh.com/images/news/specia ... After2.jpg

Amber G. wrote:Ramana and Rudra - Thanks.

From firstpost.com -- (It has some valid points)
What India can learn from the Boston marathon blasts

The take away: no country can be completely immune from terrorism, because bombs are easy to make. The same materials that kill also have commercial applications and are therefore easily available. In the United States, the bombers will likely have left a trail—for example, credit cards used in purchases or closed-circuit television in stores. In India, such track-back is almost impossible

ramana wrote:One big fallout will be security at large public events in the world will become more strict.

shiv wrote:The dustbin net to the circled device was not damaged? That is unlikely.

Rangudu wrote:

shiv wrote:The dustbin net to the circled device was not damaged? That is unlikely.

That just might suggest that this was not a powerful bomb. Some of the non-hysterical analysts here are saying exactly this thing. The bombs were an order of magnitude less 'explosive' as compared to the jihadi IEDs used in TSP/Afghanistan or the ones used by pigLeTs/ISI in India. Gunpowder in the same size cooker cannot come anywhere near the power of an Ammonium Nitrate or plastic explosives. The number of injuries is because people were packed around the bombs and this was at leg level. It doesn't take much explosive force, combined with ball bearings and nails to shear off skin and muscle. Tragically, kids were most vulnerable because of their height.

Rangudu wrote: