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     Telugu_times Moderator Username: Telugu_times Post Number: 38252 Registered: 02-2008 Rating: N/A |
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/19/opinion/bergen-questions-bombe rs/index.html?iid=article_sidebar Washington (CNN) -- We don't yet know how or why the Tsarnaev brothers, the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, decided to carry out their attacks, but a look at how their stories correlate with those of some other terrorists living in the West could provide some answers to the questions that many are now asking about them. 1. How could someone who grew up in the United States become a terrorist? Major Nidal Malik Hasan, who killed 13 people at Fort Hood Army Base in Texas in 2009, was born and raised in Virginia. He self-radicalized, in part, over the Internet, which he used to reach out to the Yemen-based preacher Anwar al-Awlaki for advice about whether it is permissible for Muslim soldiers in the U.S. military to kill their comrades in the name of jihad. Awlaki, a leader of al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen, was somewhat noncommittal in his responses but did not discourage the act. Investigators will surely be combing through the e-mail traffic of the Tsarnaev brothers to see if they either reached out to militant Islamist clerics or downloaded lectures by such clerics. They will also examine the brothers' Internet usage to see if they visited jihadist forums or downloaded propaganda from al Qaeda or other allied groups. And of course, it's possible their decision to carry out the attacks was reached without any outside influence. 2. How do you square the multiple descriptions of the brothers as "good guys" with the fact that they plotted mass murder? It's worth recalling that Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the suicide attackers who bombed the London transit system in 2005 killing 52 commuters, was a beloved teacher at a primary school in the northern city of Leeds who taught children with developmental problems, and the happily married 30-year-old father of a baby daughter. Colleagues and acquaintances described Khan as a gentle, kind man. No surprise then that we are hearing some similar positive characterizations of the brothers Tsarnaev. 3. Did the brothers have any training or practice on explosives? It seems quite unlikely that the perpetrators would have been able to successfully set off two deadly bombs within seconds of each other without some sort of training or practice. Bomb-making recipes certainly exist on the Internet, but actually building effective bombs is generally a skill that requires some training or practice, and even then a successful detonation is not guaranteed. Faizal Shahzad, for instance, received bomb-making training from the Pakistani Taliban before he constructed a bomb in an SUV that fizzled out rather than blowing up as he intended in Times Square on May 1, 2010. The older Tsarnaev brother, Tamerlan, spent six months in Russia last year. What precisely he did there will surely be of intense interest to investigators. Could he have received some kind of bomb-training from Chechen militants who are experienced in making explosives? Also, might the brothers have done some kind of test runs of their explosive devices in the United States? 4. If the brothers' motivation had something to do with their Chechen heritage, how might that have played out in this case? In the years after 9/11, dozens of young Somali-American men traveled to fight in the civil war in Somalia. Just as the Tsarnaev brothers, these Somali-Americans were first-generation Americans. For these new Americans, the politics of their homeland can sometimes become more meaningful and important than it was for their parents who fled the chaos of their native countries for the safety of the United States, and who now want to put those conflicts behind them. What exactly prompted the FBI to interview Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, following a tip from an unidentified foreign government that he was "a follower of radical Islam" and was contemplating leaving the United States to join a clandestine organization? And was this tip provided by the Russian government, which has been at war in Chechnya on and off since the 19th century? 5. Did the brothers intend to die during the attacks or their aftermath? It seems shocking to many that the Tsarnaev brothers might have been wearing suicide vests during their gun battle with police on Thursday night, but in reality several U.S. citizens and residents have intended to die in terrorist attacks. Three of the young Somali-American men who traveled from Minnesota to fight in civil war in Somalia later carried out suicide attacks there. Major Hasan undoubtedly went into his attack on a military base full of armed U.S. soldiers believing that it would be the last thing he did before he died. (That prediction did not come true. He was wounded in the attack but not killed). Al Qaeda recruit Najibullah Zazi, who plotted to bomb the Manhattan subway in the summer of 2009, planned to die in this attack but was arrested before he could pull it off. 6. Were the brothers really "lone wolves"? Given all the mayhem the two brothers are allegedly responsible for: Two bombings that caused three deaths and some two hundred injuries at the Boston Marathon as well as the subsequent murder of a policeman at MIT, did they have some kind of additional help? According to Boston law enforcement officials, there is no evidence of such help and it's worth recalling that Hasan was entirely a lone wolf who nonetheless managed to kill 13 on a U.S. military base with heavy security. 7. How unusual is it for brothers to carry out terrorist attacks together? More frequent than you might think. The deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history on 9/11 involved three pairs of brothers among the 19 hijackers: brothers Waleed and Wail al-Sheri, Hamza and Ahmed al-Ghamdi and Nawaf and Salem al-Hazmi | ||
| Telugu_times Moderator Username: Telugu_times Post Number: 38251 Registered: 02-2008 Rating: |
so sad for the families of police officers (CNN) -- Handguns, a rifle and at least six bombs -- three of which exploded -- were found at the scene early Friday after officers first confronted the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects in the darkness of a residential street, the Watertown, Massachusetts, police chief said Saturday in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer. A single officer was the first to encounter the two cars that Tamerlan and Dzhokar Tsarnaev were driving, just before 1 a.m. Friday, Chief Edward Deveau said. One of the vehicles was a Mercedes sport utility vehicle the brothers carjacked earlier that night, he said. Before the officer could get backup, the two cars stopped, and the brothers got out. "They jump out of the car and unload on our police officer," Deveau said "They both came out shooting -- shooting guns, handguns. He's under direct fire, very close by. He has to jam it in reverse and try to get himself a little distance." Tracing the suspected bombers' roots Five other police officers, including two who had just finished their shifts, then arrived at what Deveau called a "very tight area" in the middle of an intense shootout. "We estimate there was over 200 shots fired in a five- to 10-minute period," Deveau said. One of the brothers threw an explosive at the officers. They later discovered it was a pressure cooker bomb, similar to the ones used at the marathon Monday, the chief said. Suspect could face charges in hospital "We find the pressure cooker embedded in the car down the street, so there's a major explosion during this gunfight (with) my officers -- six of my officers that I'm extremely proud of," Deveau said. The brothers also allegedly threw other explosives at the officers. "They were lighting them and throwing them," Deveau said, adding they were "very rough devices." Two exploded and two did not. Police later found a sixth explosive in one of the cars. At one point, the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, came directly toward police, Deveau said. "He all of a sudden comes out from under cover and just starts walking down the street, shooting at our police officers, trying to get closer," Deveau said. "Now, my closest officer is five to 10 feet away, and they're exchanging gunfire between them. And he runs out of ammunition -- the bad guy -- and so one of my police officers comes off the side and tackles him in the street. "We're trying to get him handcuffed. There's two or three police officers handcuffing him in the street -- the older brother. At the same time, at the last minute -- they obviously have tunnel vision, it's a very, very stressful situation -- one of them yells out, 'Look out!' and here comes the black SUV, the carjacked car, directly at them. They dive out of the way, and he (the younger brother) drives over his brother and drags him a short distance down the street." Tamerlan Tsarnaev was later pronounced dead at the hospital. Officers then saw that a transit police officer who arrived after the first five was shot in the groin during the firefight. The younger brother drove off amid more gunfire, Deveau said. He got two or three streets away, with officers in pursuit, then dumped the car and ran into the darkness, he said. Two police officers tended to their wounded colleague, who had serious bleeding. "They just deserve all kinds of credit for saving that gentleman's life up until this point," said Deveau, who didn't name the wounded officer. "Our prayers are still with him and the family, because he's still in a tough way. He lost a lot of blood at the scene there, but we hope he can make a recovery." It was the fatal shooting of another officer that kicked off the series of events late Thursday night. Sean Collier, a campus police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was responding to a loud disturbance call when one of the brothers shot him in his cruiser, Deveau said. From there, the brothers allegedly carjacked the Mercedes, forcing the driver to withdraw money from an ATM. They eventually let the victim go, but not before telling him they were responsible for both the marathon bombings and the police officer's death, Deveau said. Luckily for law enforcement, the victim's cell phone remained in the SUV, allowing police to determine the vehicle was in Watertown and eventually catch up to it. The manhunt for Dzhokar Tsarnaev lasted all day Friday and brought much of Boston to a standstill. Then, in the evening, authorities finally got a tip: A Watertown man told police someone was hiding in his boat in the backyard, bleeding. It turned out to be their suspect, Deveau said. "At that point, we had a couple of thousand police officers on the scene. The turnout was just incredible," he said. Officers could see Tsarnaev poking through the tarp covering the boat, and then a gunfire erupted, Deveau said. Police used "flash-bangs," devices meant to stun people with a loud noise, and started 20 to 30 minutes of negotiation with Tsarnaev. Police had no idea whether he had weapons or explosives with him, so they repeatedly told him to stand up and lift his shirt to show he wasn't wearing a device, Deveau said. An FBI negotiator was on the second floor of the house looking down at the boat, but he couldn't see Tsarnaev under the tarp. A state police helicopter overhead used a heat sensor to determine that Tsarnaev was alive and moving, Deveau said. Eventually Tsarnaev stood up and lifted his shirt for the officers. "At that point, once we saw that, we felt comfortable enough to send some officer tactical equipment to grab him and pull him away from the boat," Deveau said. "He needed first aid, so he was transported by ambulance into a Boston hospital." Investigators are still combing through all the crime scenes, including the boat, so Deveau said he didn't have details yet on what items Tsarnaev may have had with him when he was captured. And they still don't know where the brothers allegedly got the weapons, explosives and know-how. Police are confident, however, that there are no other suspects, Deveau said. "From what I know right now, these two acted together and alone," he said. "As far as this little cell and this little group, I think we got our guys." |
