[Keith_McClary]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ennui2', 'T')his is the true initiation of the US into the club of countries who have suffered these pinpoint-style attacks in public places. I knew it was bound to happen eventually. I just didn't know if it would be in my own backyard. Whoever did it, I have no sympathy for their cause and they are NOT freedom fighters. They are douchebags.

[steam_cannon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '[')s]There has been an arrest[/s], a 20 year old Saudi national on a student visa.

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', 'H')as Al Qaeda written all over it.

[evilgenius]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', 'P')reston's comment is a waste of space.

What happened to vigilance? If it's true that there were multiple devices left in plain sight, in such an obvious location, and these were ignored, this suggests complacency. Whether this even leads to more civil rights erosion, it will lead to a more vigilant security force; which shouldn't be a bad thing.

BTW Mos Ennui, not every '9/11 Truther' is a Muslim apologist.

[SeaGypsy]

Maybe Preston wasn't wrong after all. Anyway the site I found with the Saudi youth story has since pulled it, so it appears we have to wait.

[steam_cannon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('SeaGypsy', '.')..it appears we have to wait.

[jupiters_release]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', 'H')as Al Qaeda written all over it.

[Plantagenet]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('steam_cannon', '
')
When President Obama delivered a statement about the bombings at the finish line of the Boston Marathon earlier today, he notably did not use any form of the word “terrorism.” .... President Obama made the right call by holding back on that characterization until we know who was behind the attack and why they committed it.

[SeaGypsy]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('jupiters_release', '
')
Exactly. Nothing short of routine stop and frisks, checkpoints, and cctv cameras on every street in the country will suffice to stamp out terrorism foreign or domestic. .

[jupiters_release]

SeaGypsy,

I know my humor is sometimes so dry as to be invisible but I was being sarcastic! I also understand fascism is now hip, in style, popular among generation W, X, Y, and Z, but 'k-nell man! Next time I'll be more obvious, like recommending random anal probes at airports and train stations? How about hi-tech remote mini-drones in public parks to prevent littering? Immediate fine of three taser shots via automated mini-drone sound deterrent enough? For cultural sensibilities, the Saudi's can maybe load drones with stones, so when a computer logs a woman without her burkha on via empirical cctv monitor, the closest drone can be dispatched for immediate stoning?

[Cloud9]

You cannot stop this kind of thing. You can turn this country into a prison but you still will not be safe. Explosives are easily manufactured from common place items. You can write all the laws you want, put all the security you can imagine in place and a determined person will find a way to defeat it. The best way to treat this is like a traffic accident and go on with the rest of your life.

The odds of this kind of thing happening to you are remote. Nevertheless, the have to do something crowd will build another arm of the police state that will become the tool of some future dictator.

[Beery1]

Cloud9 is absolutely right. As a Briton who saw news reports of numerous IRA bombings in the 1970s and 80s, the one thing that defeats terrorism is, believe it or not, media and public apathy. All the news reports about this being awful, terrible and sick play into the terrorists' hands - they love that reaction - it fuels future attacks. When the press and public start saying 'Yawn, another terrorist attack', that's when the terrorists begin to lose.

This could be anything - could be a group of ultra right wing nutcases, could be Islamist nuts, could be ultra left wing nuts.

Two things stand out:

1. The attacks took place on Patriots Day in predominantly liberal Boston at an event that is seen as liberal - points to right wing nuts.
2. The attacks mirror the plot of the British movie 'Four Lions' - points to Islamic nuts who are (ironically) fans of the film.

But of course both of these are pure speculation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqCPYlJYAJg

[rockdoc123]

A couple of observations that I find interesting. Having been in Boston when 911 hit I am quite familiar with the area where the hotel some of the terrorists were staying in is located (close to where I was staying and that area went under lock down) and it is only about 8 blocks from the finish line for the marathon...coincidence no doubt.
Also I note that the bombs went off just after 4 hours into the marathon. What was the rationale for that timing? If the bombs were set for say 2:30 a host of elite athletes and media personnel could have been injured....if 3 hours the more athletic types. At 4 hours you are either targeting someone specifically or targeting the everyday casual marathoner. Perhaps the idea here was that by 4 hours you would hit the middle of the pack and have the most chance of getting more people in the blast radius?
seems like a wierd statement being made in any event.

[AgentR11]

Seems like a pretty clear, vile message to me... When I saw the image with the time clock in the frame, it rang loud and clear: "Soccer moms... you are not safe, and we are coming for you and your family."

[Plantagenet]

More info about the Saudi youth who either is or isn't a "person of interest" in the attack, depending on which media account you read.

It was his room that was searched by the police and FBI last night---that would suggest he is a "person of interest"

His roommate says he is a "good boy" and wouldn't do such a thing---that would support various media reports and statements from government officials that no one has yet been identified as a "person of interest.

Saudi youth being held in hospital has been described as "person of interest" (but maybe he isn't)

[Pops]

Patriots day, tax day, couple days from Waco and Ruby Ridge?

Americans think of dates, islamic terrorists think about symbols, not that this isn't big for those involved but the boston marathon has no international significance. Not like the trade center x2, Times Sq, IMF/NYSE, UN HQ in '92 ... and except for the LAX plot for new years 1999 none were on a date of any note.

international terrorists pick symbols, not dates, I'm thinking homegrown.

[Plantagenet]

"....a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Writing in the online magazine of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Inspire, the terrorist known as Abu Musab al-Suri listed what he called “the most important enemy targets.”

Al-Suri contended that civilians should be targeted “when responding to a brutal practice carried out by America and her allied forces.”

“This is done by targeting human crowds in order to inflict maximum human losses,” he wrote. “This is very easy since there are numerous such targets such as crowded sports arenas, annual social events, large international exhibitions, crowded market-places, skyscrapers, crowded buildings … etc.”

“It is possible for ordinary Resistance fighters among the Muslims residing in America and the allied Western countries to target them, in order to participate in the jihad and the Resistance, and to stretch out a helping hand to the mujahidun [Islamic warriors].”

---CNS news

[Oneaboveall]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('evilgenius', '.')..you pay millions in tax money to prevent this sort of thing, and some lazy S.O.B can't stop thinking about pizza long enough to do his job... what a world...

[Pops]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')nvestigators believe that the bombs at the Boston Marathon were shrapnel-studded pressure cookers, hidden in backpacks and probably detonated by timers, law enforcement officials told NBC News on Tuesday.
The disclosure came as authorities pleaded with spectators from the race to send photos and video that may shed light on who set off the blasts, killing three people and injuring at least 176.
The top FBI official in Boston vowed to go “to the ends of the earth” to find those responsible. But a day after the explosions, President Barack Obama said that authorities did not know whether the attack was foreign or domestic, the work of a group or an individual, or what the motive might be.
Law enforcement officials told NBC News that the explosives were classified as low — meaning that they traveled at under 3,300 feet per second. That is not enough to create a blast wave, which can kill people from air compression and blow out faraway windows, but it is enough to propel shrapnel a great distance.
A pressure cooker, in its everyday use, speeds cooking by creating a tight seal and building pressure inside the pot. Converting it to a bomb sheaths the explosives in a metal casing, which blows apart when the bomb is detonated and adds to the shrapnel already packed inside.
One of the three devices that was to be used in an attempted bomb attack in Times Square in 2010 was a pressure cooker. Earlier that year, terrorists used a pressure cooker bomb in an attack in Pakistan. And in 2006, more than 130 people were killed on the transit system of Mumbai, India, when pressure cookers loaded with explosives were placed on trains.

[WildRose]

This type of thing could happen anywhere that there's a crowd of people. Any public celebration or sporting event, parade, what have you. When you think about it, imagine how difficult it would be to spot anything suspicious in that kind of situation - anyone can walk through a crowd with a backpack on their back, take it off, put it on the ground or on the stands and maybe 10 minutes later walk off and leave it there, who's going to notice?

I was watching coverage of this and apparently the people injured were mostly spectators - so the bombs weren't placed where the runners would be the majority of the victims. My guess is that the person (or persons, at most 2) who did this are angry, screwed up people who did this to see what kind of damage they could do.