April 16, 2013
The Guardian (UK)

The Boston Bombing Produces Familiar and Revealing Reactions

As usual, the limits of selective empathy, the rush to blame Muslims, and the exploitation of fear all instantly emerge

by Glenn Greenwald

There's not much to say about Monday's Boston Marathon attack because there is virtually no known evidence regarding who did it or why. There are, however, several points to be made about some of the widespread reactions to this incident. Much of that reaction is all-too-familiar and quite revealing in important ways:

There's not much to say about Monday's Boston Marathon attack because there is virtually no known evidence regarding who did it or why. There are, however, several points to be made about some of the widespread reactions to this incident. Much of that reaction is all-too-familiar and quite revealing in important ways:

(1) The widespread compassion for yesterday's victims and the intense anger over the attacks was obviously authentic and thus good to witness. But it was really hard not to find oneself wishing that just a fraction of that compassion and anger be devoted to attacks that the US perpetrates rather than suffers. . . .

(2) The rush, one might say the eagerness, to conclude that the attackers were Muslim was palpable and unseemly, even without any real evidence. The New York Post quickly claimed that the prime suspect was a Saudi national (while also inaccurately reporting that 12 people had been confirmed dead). . . .

(3) One continually encountered yesterday expressions of dread and fear from Arabs and Muslims around the world that the attacker would be either or both. That's because they know that all members of their religious or ethnic group will be blamed, or worse, if that turns out to be the case. . . .

(4) The reaction to the Boston attack underscored, yet again, the utter meaninglessness of the word "terrorism". . . .

(5) The history of these types of attacks over the last decade has been clear and consistent: they are exploited to obtain new government powers, increase state surveillance, and take away individual liberties. . . .

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What is Terrorism?

"American Patriots: Muslims Didn't Do It," The Wisdom Fund, September 11, 2011

"How the FBI's Network of Informants Actually Created Most of the Terrorist Plots 'Foiled' in the US Since 9/11," Mother Jones, October 9, 2011

Scott Shane, "Rights Groups, in Letter to Obama, Question Legality and Secrecy of Drone Killings," nytimes.com, April 12, 2013

Associated Press, April 15, 2013 -- false flag? need proof

Margaret Griffis, "Iraq's Bloody Monday: 75 Killed, 356 Wounded," antiwar.com, April 15, 2013 -- Iraq's population is roughly one tenth of the United States'

"As Boston mourns after race blasts, a look at violent attacks elsewhere around the world," Associated Press, April 16, 2013

"CAPTURED - Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Caught In Watertown," cbslocal.com, April 19, 2013

[The revelation that the family of the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings was from Chechnya prompted new speculation about the attack as Islamic terrorism. Less discussed was the history of U.S. neocons supporting Chechen terrorists as a strategy to weaken Russia.--Coleen Rowley, "Chechen Terrorists and the Neocons," consortiumnews.com, April 19, 2013]

Adam Serwer, "5 of the Worst Reactions to the Boston Manhunt," motherjones.com, April 19, 2013

Anthony Gregory, "What Is the Threshold for Martial Law," independent.org, April 19, 2013

Kevin Eckstrom, "Muslim leaders: We stand against terrorism," washingtonpost.com, April 19, 2013

Who is being escorted into the police car? Wasn't Tamerlan Tsarnaev reported killed? Wasn't Dzhokhar Tsarnaev badly wounded? Purportedly identified by his aunt, Maret Tsarnaeva, as Tamerlan.

[Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said: "I am really sure. I am 100% sure that this is a set-up.--James Legge, "Parents of Boston Marathon bombing suspects defend their sons, and father reveals FBI interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev two years ago," independent.co.uk, April 20, 2013]

"Boston Bombers' Tsarnaev brothers: Where the dots won't connect," rt.com, April 21, 2013

[If any old bomb can be called a WMD, then Saddam most definitely had WMDs before the United States invaded Iraq 10 years ago.--Timothy Noah, "Why the Justice Department's charge against the Boston bomber is ridiculous," foreignpolicy.com, April 22, 2013

"'In Boston, our bloated surveillance state didn't work," salon.com, April 22, 2013

"After Boston: Don't Get Fooled Again by the 'War on Terror' Hawks," theatlantic.com, April 22, 2013

Channel 4 News, April 23, 2013

C-SPAN, April 24, 2013 -- Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said to be leaving crime scene with his backpack

[Edmonds explained that multiple warnings by Russian investigators to the FBI were likely ignored because the CIA was in all probability using Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an asset to travel to Russia's Caucasus region and make contact with US-backed terrorists.--Tony Cartalucci, "Both FBI & CIA Watched Boston Bombing Suspects for Years," globalresearch.ca, April 26, 2013]

"The Naked Man, Watertown, and Conspiracy Theories," newyorker.com, April 27, 2013

[The United States perpetually remains in the awkward position of claiming something just shy of a monopoly on the legitimate use of violence over the entire globe, while ceding its monopoly on gun violence within its borders.--Marissa Brostoff, "Mass murder vs. terrorism," salon.com, April 28, 2013]

Craig McKee, "False flag theater: Boston bombing involves clearly staged carnage," newyorker.com, May 8, 2013

[Yet, virtually no one in the U.S. political/media hierarchy has dared to discuss, in a candid way, the issue of motivation.--Ray McGovern, "Boston Suspect's Writing on the Wall," antiwar.com, May 18, 2013]

Boston Bombing: Naomi Wolf Exposes Fake News/False Flags, Jan 15, 2015

[It seems that law enforcement; the media; and especially Tsarnaev's own lawyer, Judy Clarke; were focused on suppressing any evidence that could have undermined the official story of the bombing.--Craig McKee, "JUSTICE DENIED: TSARNAEV'S OWN LAWYER IGNORES EVIDENCE HE IS INNOCENT OF BOSTON BOMBING," truthandshadows.wordpress.com, April 10, 2015]

"58 Admitted False Flag Attacks," washingtonsblog.com, February 2, 2016

[the FBI's own evidence proved beyond any doubt that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was innocent, which means so was the older brother.--Paul Craig Roberts, "Murdering the Innocent in Order to Support the Lie," paulcraigroberts.org, January 5, 2017

[The FBI crime lab determined from fragments at the scene of the explosions by no later than April 16, 2013, that the culprits were carrying heavy-laden black backpacks on Boyleston Street just before the explosions. This was not an evaporating investigation theory, but was incorporated into the indictment, was part of the government's case-in-chief, and was never disavowed by anyone involved in the trial. On April 18, 2013, the FBI determined that the culprits were portrayed in a street video maintained by the Whiskey Steak House on Boyleston Street. Two still frames were used to identify the brothers Tamerlan, who was shot dead by police, and Dzhokhar, who survived, and was charged, convicted, and sentenced to death. A third still-frame from the same street video shows Dzhokhar, carrying not a heavy-laden black backpack, but a light-weight white backpack over his right shoulder. The very evidence used by the FBI, and described in the indictment to identify Dzhokhar eliminates him as certainly as white is distinguished from black. The FBI evidence of an exploded backpack is black and the FBI's identification of Dzhokhar at the scene of the crime shows him with a white backpack. This exculpatory evidence was kept out of the trial.

What of the confessions attributed to Dzhokhar? The law has always known that, contrary to popular belief, confessions are highly unreliable, often contrived or staged by artifice, or otherwise false, which is why the law has long used safeguards to assure that alleged confessions are received only cautiously under proper circumstances. The alleged confession by Dzhokhar written in the dark on the side of a boat under which the boy injured from gunshot woulds was hiding is highly suspect. Moreover, if Dzhokhar was willing to confess, why was he hiding? The confession at sentencing was plainly enough scripted for him, and is not corroborated by what the law calls the "corpus delicti."

But more troubling evidence exists. Dr. Lorraine Day was the chief of orthopedic surgery at San Francisco General Hospital for some twenty-five years. She treated many grave injuries, and is an impeccable medical expert. She prepared a decisive report, dated May 4, 2015, on the Boston bombing case, which she concluded was a hoax. She observed, for example, that photos of the scene after the explosions revealed no blood when it should have been visible everywhere, and that, when blood did appear, it was of a bright orange red Hollywood color, not maroon as real blood appears in real life.

. . . Newsweek on October 23, 2017, reported . . . that evidence might exist of Dzhokhar's innocence.--John Remington Graham, "A Case of Judicial Murder?," paulcraigroberts.org, October 26, 2017]

Paul Craig Roberts, "The False Prosecution of Dzhokhkar Tsarnaev," paulcraigroberts.org, July 20, 2018