Boston explosions: Choice of cities recalls 9/11 events, says Tod Robberson
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John Tlumacki/NYT
A man tries to comfort a victim near the scene of the first explosion near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.
No one knows who was behind the explosions in Boston
today. But it’s worth noting that Boston was the location where the two
planes took off on 9/11 that brought down the World Trade Center in New
York.
A trademark of al-Qaeda and its affiliates is
to launch attacks in ways that are highly photogenic, guaranteed to
inflict maximum casualties and, most important, generate maximum
television coverage. Something like 27,000 people run in the Boston
Marathon, and thousands more gather along the route, with heavy
concentrations at the finish line. The fact that multiple explosives
have been found near the Boston Marathon site suggests another trademark
of al-Qaeda, which has a preference for attacks in multiple stages, or
multiple bombs set to go off all at once in a big blast.
Al-Qaeda
also patiently looks for openings and areas of vulnerability. The New
York Marathon, for example, would have had such tight security it would
have been almost impossible to infiltrate a bomb without the perpetrator
being caught. Boston probably wasn’t on anyone’s radar for a big
attack. How the bomber was able to plant these explosives is something
that investigators will no doubt spend many weeks trying to uncover.
There
are so many weirdos out there right now. The 26th mile marker, not far
from the finish line in Boston, was devoted to the 26 people killed in
the Newtown, Connecticut, massacre in December. Since those killings,
all the talk of gun control has led to some pretty extremist
rhetoric. CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen suggested this
could be the work of “right-wing extremists,” similar to the Oklahoma
City bombing.
Today is tax day, and a lot of people
have a visceral hatred of what this day represents. April 15 also is the
day President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to join the Union
Army following the Confederate shelling of Fort Sumter, South Carolina.
The Civil War thus began, and lots of people in this country have
ongoing feelings of bitterness about what that represented, especially
for the South.
But who knows?
As
we know with the investigation of the killings in Kaufman County,
appearances often are deceiving. It looked like the instigators of the
Kaufman County killings was the work of the Aryan Brotherhood or Mexican
drug cartels. Now, all indications are that a disgruntled former
justice of the peace might have been behind the killings.
There’s nothing pithy to be said. We live in a sick world.
end quote from:
http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/columnists/tod-robberson/20130415-boston-explosions-choice-of-cities-recalls-911-events-says-tod-robberson.ece
I think his thinking that the first flights of 9-11 originated from Boston Logan Airport might be important for investigators to consider. However, like my wife I think this appears (at first) more to me like home grown terrorism if it weren't for the fact that Boston was the origination of the flights of 9-11. So, I worry that more might come if it is Al Qaeda again. Especially with Al Qaeda now growing stronger in Syria and Iraq and finding people to support them in the overthrow of Assad is extremely problematic if this is them once again. However, it is important that the U.S. lick it's wounds after Iraq and Afghanistan and become more efficient at all this because it is now too expensive for us to approach all this they way we once did. Though drones are one way to address the situation rather than soldiers, this also tends to create more Al Qaeda sympathizers in the short and long term of siblings to and children of and husbands and fathers to those killed by drones who were bystanders and innocent of any wrong doing in foreign countries when Al Qaeda operatives and others are targeted. So, if the U.S. wants to succeed in the long run a better less expensive strategy than Invading Iraq was needs to be thought of for now and into the future.
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