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The Russians Warned Us – Why Didn’t We Listen?

How did the FBI fail to keep track of Tamerlan Tsarnaev after the Russians warned us about him?

This is a mystery our lawmakers are passionately interested in. The FBI blames the Russians for not providing more information after their own efforts failed to turn up anything they regarded as suspicious. Yet the Russians did indeed provide enough information to justify surveillance of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to NBC News, when they informed the FBI he had met with a known terrorist leader no less than six times during his visit to Dagestan. :

“A police official source in Makhachkala, Dagestan, told NBC News on Sunday that the Russian internal security service reached out to the FBI last November with some questions about Tamerlan, and handed over a copy of case file on him.

“Tsarnaev had first popped up on the local police radar in Dagestan last summer, the source said. During routine surveillance of an individual known to be involved in the militant Islamic underground movement, the police witnessed Tamerlan meet the latter at a Salafi mosque in Makhachkala, the police official said.

“It was one of six times in total that surveillance officials witnessed Tsarnaev meeting this militant at the same mosque, according to the police official. The militant contact later disappeared, the police official said, but so did Tsarnaev before investigators had a chance to speak with him. The FBI never responded, according to the Dagestani police official.”

What more did the FBI need to put Tamerlan under surveillance?

The problem is that the Chechen “freedom fighters” are US allies, along with their ideological compatriots in Libya and Syria. When the Chechen rebel “foreign minister,” Ilyas Akmadov,” applied for political asylum in the US, the Department of Homeland Security nixed the idea – but were overruled by a bipartisan coalition of political heavyweights, including Madeleine Albright, Alexander Haig, Frank Carlucci, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Ted Kennedy, and John McCain. In a letter of endorsement, Albright gushed that Akhmadov is “devoted to peace, not terrorism.” McCain wrote: “I have found him to be a proponent of peace and human rights in Chechnya.”

It’s a curious sort of peacenik who once fought beside Shamil Basaeyev, commander of the Chechen “rebel” forces, and perpetrator of the worst terrorist massacre in recent Russian history: the slaughter of 300 in Beslan, many of them schoolchildren. Yet the US government not only granted Akhmadov asylum, they also gave him a generous salary at the US Institute of Peace (an Orwellian name if ever there was one).

Although support for the Chechen independence movement is bipartisan, that troublesome little sect known as the neoconservatives has actively backed the Chechen cause from the get-go: an impressive list of prominent neocons, including Bill Kristol, sits on the board of the Chechens’ principal US propaganda outfit, the American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (formerly the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya). According to Glen Howard, head of the Jamestown Foundation, a neocon outfit focused on Central Asia, the Chechens aren’t Islamist terrorists, they’re just cuddly “nationalists” rebelling against a Russia that has gone “fascist.” “The Russians are trying to treat Chechen separatism through the prism of 9/11 and terror rather than as a nationalist movement that has been defying Kremlin rule for 200 years,” says Howard. This analytical premise, however, doesn’t seem to apply to, say, Afghanistan.

Neocon “national security analyst” Eli Lake reflects this anti-Russian bias writing in the Daily Beast:

“There were good reasons that the tip didn’t trigger a more aggressive American investigation, current and former intelligence and law-enforcement officials tell The Daily Beast.

“Those officials pointed to the FSB’s habit of treating much behavior by Chechens as suspicious, and nearly all such behavior as terror-related. The Tsarnaev request, they speculated, was likely triggered by the FSB’s concern that he would participate in or provide support to Chechen insurrectionists in Russia, rather that by any sense of a threat to American interests.”

So Tamerlan Tsarnaev met on six occasions with a well-known Chechen terrorist – probably Gadzhimurad Dolgatov, who called himself “Abu Dujana,” killed in December. So what? That’s no skin off our nose, right? Lake treats us to a quote from Michael Hayden, former CIA director:

“The FSB is mad at a lot of Chechens. Not all of them are terrorists, and even fewer of them are dangerous to the United States. When stuff like this happens, we did what we did we called the long pause. You get with your staff, you say it’s these two Chechen idiots, you see what’s in the database. You collect so much stuff, then you go and explain it eventually to Congress.”

Lake has surely performed a service in helping to “explain” to Congress and the American people why the Russians were ignored, a deed for which he will no doubt be amply rewarded: access is the coin of the realm in Washington, and Lake has plenty of that.

But Hayden is behind the times in averring that the Chechen terrorists are no threat to America: a recent split in Imarat Kavkaz (Caucasian Emirate) has opened up in the ranks, between those who are more nationalist and the strict Islamists who insist on the goal of establishing a regional Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus. The UN recently added Umarov to the sanctions list of individuals associated with Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Dolgatov was the leader of a tiny group allied with Doku Umarov, leader of the ultra-Islamist faction.

A video extolling Dolgatov’s martyrdom was posted on Tamerlan’s Youtube account – one of two labeled “terrorists” – when he got back from Dagestan, and later erased – we don’t know by whom. Tamerlan, like Dolgatov, died in a shootout with police, which is certainly what he intended.

Add to this the latest news from the interrogation of Dzhokar Tsarnaev: that he and his brother did it because of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – two battlefields on which US troops faced off with Osama bin Laden’s legions.

The “self-radicalization” theory being floated by numerous leaks from various law enforcement agencies is simple ass-covering, which “journalists” like Lake are happy to retail to the general public. To begin with, every jihadist is “self-radicalized” in the sense that they begin an ideological journey that starts within themselves: the phrase is purest malarkey. The line from Tamerlan’s plunge into religiosity, reportedly encouraged by his mother, to his journey to Dolgatov’s lair in Dagestan, and on to the Boston marathon finish line is straight and clear.

Dzhokhar is denying any involvement of groups in his native land (which is actually Krygyzstan, but clearly he sees Chechnya as his true homeland): according to him, he and big brother thought this up all on their very own. But he would say that, now wouldn’t he? After all, an admission of overseas involvement might provoke retaliation against his friends at home.

This, of course, is the answer the authorities want to hear: it gives them some cover to say they couldn’t have known, in spite of the Russian warning. Dhzokhar, having failed to kill himself, is a witness willing to be led: he is, after all, facing a potential death penalty. The whole cover story will be unveiled at his trial, where we’ll have endure his lawyers telling us how he was “brainwashed” by his domineering older brother, and squish-head liberals on Twitter arguing that he was “alienated” by our irredeemably “racist” and Islamophobic society – no wonder he cracked up!

How did two Chechen punks – one a thuggish loser, the other a dreamy 19-year-old pothead – manage to kill three and injure over 250 people, inflict the bloodiest wound on the country since 9/11, and bring the entire city of Boston to a standstill? How did they manage to evade the multi-billion dollar “security” apparatus, which was set up with so much fanfare after 9/11? The answer is to be found in the manipulations and odorous alliances dictated by our interventionist foreign policy, a throwback to the cold war era, which has deemed Russia an enemy and the Chechens the Good Guys. After Boston, they are going to have a lot harder time selling that line.

American foreign policy is concerned with everything but what ought to be its central purpose: the protection of the American people. If our policymakers were focused on that rather than on extending US domination far and wide, the Boston marathon bombing would never have happened.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

I’m having great fun on Twitter these days, and I urge you to join me on this wonderfully interactive site: you can do so by going here.

I’ve written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey, a Forward by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon (ISI Books, 2008).

You can buy my biography of the great libertarian thinker, An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), here.

Read more by Justin Raimondo

arrow58 Responses

  1. RickR30
    2 days, 19 hrs ago

    It's downright comical. So the Russians warn the FBI about some some guy who meets with Islamist terrorists, er, freedom fighters. But since the Russians have some incomprehensible beef with Chechens (a well-justified one), the FBI couldn't care less. After all, the enemy of our "enemy" is our dear friend, Al Qaeda or not. It didn't interest them in the least that this Chechen lives in America, is an American/wants to be an American, and is cozying up to violent Islamists?

    Quite convenient that little brother shoots himself, what, in the vocal cords trying to commit suicide (?) and can't talk. So during the hail of bullets that rained on him by any and all bureaucrats with a gun, as heard on videos, not a single bullet hit him?

    The final version of events is going to be hilarious. Little brother was self-radicalized by older brother, who was self-radicalized by freedom-loving radicals trying to overthrow Putin with the use of weapons of mass destruction (or does that only apply when used against Americans?). And then little brother saw the light and drove over older brother and killed him. Even though he was being followed, he vanished for hours before the entire US security apparatus from University cops to guys on Humvees descend upon him thanks to a call from a civilian.

    Can't wait for the grand congressional committee report, or better yet Justice system jester Holder's report.

  2. tinkersailor
    2 days, 18 hrs ago

    or clown

  3. Brian
    2 days, 18 hrs ago

    Ridiculous! United states everyone who kills Russians is a friend of America who would never inflict terrorism on America!! What would a Chechen terrorist be talking to an American for? Obviously just about how terrible it is there and never Attacking America because all the Chechens are attacking Russia because their all victims!! Nevermind what Russians say about al Qaeda! Nevermind the facts! Nevermind anything that is not anti-Russian.

  4. mojo
    2 days, 17 hrs ago

    Wake up people.., no matter who warned the us government.., they love for these bombs to go off so they can prepare for SS to come and knock your door., the us is at war with every nation in this world and within itself…, in such situation the good advise are given.., the warnings are out there.., but the question remains…, why they don't look and refuse to listen. Any wise government would have changed direction many years ago.., but for us being at war for last 60 years.., and categorically refusing to change…, tells a lot.

    The bad part of it all is.., that us telling others how to behave, critiquing other nations, wanting for them to change and respect humans right.., among other…,

  5. james
    2 days, 16 hrs ago

    No matter how you apply lipstick to the pig, its a pig Justin. All the discussions now are irrelevant, just empty talk. What is happening now is called BLOWBACK. Americans kill people at will in foreign lands and they will pay a price, this is just the beginning.

  6. liberranter
    2 days, 16 hrs ago

    Exactly. This is getting ridiculous. I want to say that I can't believe that Justin is really going down this rabbit hole. OTOH, it certainly ain't the first time, so why am I surprised?

  7. Oswaldwasalefty
    2 days, 14 hrs ago

    Well, all the more reason for the conspiracy nuts to spin this is as an inside job "false flag" operation. They just can't accept the simplest answer to why they didn't follow up the leads they had on the perps. The simplest being politically motivated bumbling by a less-than-all-powerful government.

    When I first heard of the Chechen connection I began scratching my head, because I thought they only tried to do these kinds of attacks within Russia. You know, "good guys" doing God's work destabilizing a country the U.S. doesn't have good relations with. So it would only make sense the accused bomber would bring up the U.S. in Afghanistan and Iraq.

  8. MichaelKenny
    2 days, 13 hrs ago

    The problem, I think, is that believing that the cold war isn't "really" over, that those dastardly reds are still lurking under the beds, waiting to pounce as soon as America lets down its guard, is part of the hubris of empire which still animates a part of the US elite. Thus, the Russian democracy is dismissed as a fake and its enemies are automatically deemed to be America's friends.

  9. everafter
    2 days, 13 hrs ago

    Yeah, check out those weird conspiracy nuts like Lew Rockwell, Gary North, Bob Wenzel …
    http://lewrockwell.com/orig14/bowser1.1.1.html
    http://teapartyeconomist.com/2013/04/19/this-is-a
    http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/04/a-tr

  10. Andrewp111
    2 days, 13 hrs ago

    The other Islamic group coddled by the US for geopolitical reasons in the Chinese Uiguhrs. If you recall, the US refused to return Uiguhr prisoners at Gitmo to China because they are considered to be "oppressed" people. I wouldn't be surprised if Uiguhrs do the next big terrorist outrage in the US.

  11. JohnDowser
    2 days, 11 hrs ago

    "How did two Chechen punks manage to kill three and injure over 250 people, inflict the bloodiest wound on the country since 9/11, and bring the entire city of Boston to a standstill? "

    The simplest answer is that, shockingly, because it's not that difficult when there's determination,

    But how does it differ with sociopath killers (which I'd still doubt if we won't end up with that simply being the case, wrapped up with some "cause" and family-cult dynamics)? The main reasons is FEAR of something bigger to occur. The Boston shutdown was not just because of two killers on the loose but on what they might represent: more bombs, more plans, bigger ammunitions, more members. Only in hindsight one could argue if it was too "much" or not, as response. But at decision "crunch" time I think it's quite reasonable to react to the worst of the worst possible within reasonable parameters. And then 9/11 looms suddenly as tragic benchmark of what constitutes maximum impact.

  12. A. G. Phillbin
    2 days, 11 hrs ago

    Why is it that conspiracy nuts and paranoids take any fact (or pseudo fact) that is unexplained and spin it into proof of a shadowy conspiracy? Reality is messy; initial reports are confusing; it takes focus and patience to get at the truth, not seizing upon small details to tell the story one wishes to hear. The messiness of reality is not an excuse to create order out of chaos by resorting to religious methodologies, using "government" as a substitute for "God."

    Justin's take may be right or wrong, but he is at least working carefully, using the facts as they are known to him. Give the "alternative theorizing" a rest until the dust has settled. And quit saying that Justin, antiwar.com, and anyone else who refuses to buy your "false flag" hobby horse is part of the plot.

  13. A. G. Phillbin
    2 days, 11 hrs ago

    "However hard I try, I just cannot imagine a straight line trajectory of a bullet with the mouth as point of entry that causes just a neck injury."

    Are you a doctor, or simply a layman with no training, and little imagination? If you point the gun in the mouth downwards instead of upwards (the right way for suicide), you will hit the larynx, and may or may not hit the spinal column. Or do you imagine that they surgically altered him to make it look like he shot himself in the mouth?

    Right now, the "official story" is "holding more water" than all this "false flag" hobby horse posturing. Why is it conspiricists have no patience?

  14. JohnDowser
    2 days, 10 hrs ago

    The only reason I keep open the possibility of any "conspiracy" angle would be the near simultaneous events of the poison letters and the recent Canadian plot, linking to Iran in some forced convoluted way. All three together might then be seen as a pattern of psychological warfare to open up the doors wider for some summertime bombing campaigns over Iran and Syria. This all might work at the visceral, emotional level like any good old perception management campaign. Push a little bit further the people and they won't resist when confronted with a new "fact on the ground". Hell, they even might applaud it now!

    It does seem like a familiar script. But I prefer evidence based thinking as so many things can go wrong with covert operations like this. No way I'd believe that "shadowy people" walk away from cases like this again and again. That would require too many supernatural abilities. Still it's an angle not to dismiss entirely. Especially the Canadian case seems forced beyond belief.

  15. everafter
    2 days, 9 hrs ago

    Again, instead of beating straw men, how about responding to the facts provided …
    http://lewrockwell.com/orig14/bowser1.1.1.html
    http://teapartyeconomist.com/2013/04/19/this-is-a
    http://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2013/04/a-tr

    … there were drills running in Boston. Scenario: Well, see actual bombing.

    Same pattern as on 9/11 and 7/7, by the way.
    http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeli
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJUVqcNDZlk

    Now, use the facts please.

  16. tinkersailor
    2 days, 9 hrs ago

    Judas??? WHO, Who, who………………. ?????????????????

  17. musings
    2 days, 9 hrs ago

    C'est une bonne question. Notice footage of the small number of people behind the fence at the finish line – or is it the Finnish line? – (boy, I worry about getting all evidence-based because one tiny clue may not be right) – well the small number of injured is not faked except in reports of hundreds. By hour four of the Marathon, almost everyone has spread out very thin, and near the finish line, what with the Newtown parents in the stands across the street, you can certainly limit who comes into specific barrier areas. There is after all expensive media equipment. Initially, the same area was mobbed with people who look like African fans of the probable winners, people standing behind the flags who probably received a special pass to be there. Then they all leave, and the crowd becomes a small group – no more than 20 – of all but one white people. It's a silent movie, a ballet, so no one speaks. You don't even know if they would have accents if they did or not be able to form an English word. That isn't why they are there. A standing man on the right has a seemingly running fan T-shirt, Team Kerto. Now what's Team Kerto? At last search Kerto is movie set designer in Finland. Maybe he has morphed into a running fan by now. Maybe he had an amputation by now. You can do things with the internet.

    So, the Judas could be anyone shooting from the west to east. It could be someone shooting for a future publicity for the company – not realizing the Wag the Dog implications. In the end, it could be someone demanding a pay-off from the so far $20 million Boston 1 fund (have you contributed yet?). Or it could just be something nobody will ever have to worry about because most people do not let themselves drop the revenge lust once it comes on them, until some psychosexual climax usually involving a war zone.

    The truth is safe in a bodyguard of lies. It sits there to be probed by future historians, stirring over the ashes of history. We "paranoids" have nothing to fear. We are marginalized now and forever. We are the geeks who do not make the team. We must feel satisfied only in our skill at solving puzzles. But the herd has moved on to the next watering hole.

  18. Generalissimo X
    2 days, 9 hrs ago

    oh and put this on the pile…as reported on this site 111 people blown to bits and killed in iraq…YESTERDAY. this has been ongoing for over a decade. we cry and convulse, whine and moan like fear filled vacuous vermin over 3 murdered in boston but i'm sure those people don't mourn the loss of their dead. no, they're not trying to make sense of over a decade of murder, mayhem and death. the sanctimonious of americans, the usa chants, the faux bravery as they cower in their home like frightened sheep as their police gods force them from their homes at gun point is the most loathesome thing of all. a nation of cowards. to fearful to confront the truth that is the gov't perpetrating these crimes on us. we do noting.

  19. John V. Walsh
    2 days, 7 hrs ago

    Congratulations to Justin for a superb column, well researched and judiciously written.
    It is very enlightening, much needed and makes good sense.

    Russia and China remain enemies of the U.S., because whatever the Rusdian and Chinese revolutions accomplished or did not, those revolutions took two major powers outside the control and orbit of the West – permanently, it seems. The ties are broken and the Western colonizing powers cannot accept that. It means the end of their global dominance. In due time D.C. will be one among many capitals, perhaps with great influence in the world, perhaps with little – unless th US resorts to a nuclear war to stave off the end of its dream of world hegemon.
    Jw.
    P.s. Yesterday I heard Allan Dershowitz here in Boston calling for trading the death penalty with Dzokhar (sp?) for his testimony. With Justin's column before me, I begin to wonder whether Dershowitz wants to make sure the "correct" narrative emerges.
    Pps. I am also impressed by the number of comments that try to take down Justin's superb piece. Some one out there sure does not like it. Cass Sunstein's minions at work? Perhaps that goes too far or gives Sunstein's buddies too much credit, but there are obviously folks very upset by Justin's well conceived take. A nerve has been touched in the body politic.

  20. Bianca
    2 days, 7 hrs ago

    Well, not interested a bit in conspiracies, I would like to know how is it that media all over the world managed to have access to surveillance videos? And why is it that on many of them there are several groups of Craft people, all dressed in Craft-style "uniform", same colored pants, and baseball caps with Craft logo. And most of them with backpacks. Considering that Blackwater/Xe and Craft are fierce competitors — and that the head of Craft was recently assasinated, isn't it a delicious theory that the two losers were actually hired by Blackwater — to mess up Craft's big federal contract. Part of which was the drill that involves a make-believe bombing threat at Boston Marathon!

  21. Bianca
    2 days, 6 hrs ago

    I am afraid that we are constantly missing the forest for the trees. The key piece of the puzzle is that he has converted to SALAFISM. There are two tightly related Sunni moslem movements — Vahhabi and Salafi. Wahhabi is official Saudi Arabian religion, after the founder signed a deal with Saudi family. Wahhabis are known for their hatred of "shizmatics", that is, Shiia branch of Islam. Salafism is an old fundamentalist definition, but after they became a front-runners for Wahhabis — they have turned from fundamentalism to mindless cruelty. Their goal? Califate and obedience to Mecca, no nation states. And THEY ARE PROTECTED BY US. Salafist are the cause of mayham in Egypt and kill Christians, while our press put in on Moslem Brotherhood. The two cannot be more oposite, as one is for the nation, another for religion and whatever Mecca orders. Or more often then not — Mecca says what US wants. So we STILL support them in Bosnia, Kosovo, Russia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Syria, Libya, etc. etc. BAN SALAFISM AND WAHHABISM and the world will be rid of terrorist.

  22. liberranter
    2 days, 6 hrs ago

    I keep reading other peoples' take on the story because it is easy to get caught up in the official narrative at some point in the fiction. Of course real cops would never have let the younger brother drive off without pursuit. They live to chase people. They know how to cut someone off and isolate them. It's really hilarious that they expect us to believe they just sat there. But the lockdown of 6 towns being the goal, he had to be on the loose.

    But since the two brothers were actors in a carefully scripted drama, as were the "cops" who pursued them, there is no reason to believe that logic and real-world behavior were mandatory components of the production. They are no such thing in a Hollywood-produced drama (even the shoddiest of which are products far superior to the Boston farce), so why would they be in a Washington-produced version?

  23. Bianca
    2 days, 6 hrs ago

    Salafism is BANNED in Jordan — but US now is forcing Jordan to allow Salafists from Iraq, Libya, Kosovo, Caucases, and elsewhere — to enter their territory to be trained and infiltrated to Syria.

    Our press has COVERED UP ALL THE GRUESOME CRIMES COMMITTED AGAINST CIVILIANS BY THESE GROUPS. Not only that there are many witnesses, these groups PUBLISH THEIR DISGUISTING acts freely on internet — and our press is still very shy about telling us the plain truth. Because they are OUR foot soldiers in remaking the middle east, Balkans, Caucases, Afghanistan, Pakistan Libya, etc. We also ACTIVELY support them in Egypt AGAINST Moslem Brotherhood.

    In US, we have been allowed to think that these are "moslems'. That is done on purpose — to throw our own dissatisfied masses a bone. Salafi centers are RECRUITMENT centers for our clandestine support for "rebels", "freedom fighters" and what ever cute name we find for them.
    Germany has recently banned two Salafi groups. But we will not. They are recrutiment centers. If the two brothers volunteered instead for Syria, they will have all expense paid trip, including training and monthly salary.

  24. Wolfgang9
    2 days, 6 hrs ago

    Now, couldn't there be a very simple and very logical explanation that the FBI didn't react?
    Which person (even somebody who came from there) living in the US and wanted to get US citizenship would possibly go to Tschetschenia without the approval of the FBI? I'm very sure that this person had an approval to see those people and he was reporting HIS VERSION later to the FBI after his return. But, definitely, he wouldn't have told the FBI that he was turned over againts them. And naturally the FBI was trusting him and didn't recheck.
    I think I know from my own past how those people are ticking.

  25. graham crackers
    2 days, 6 hrs ago

    The drill was announced at the beginning the bombs didn't go off till later, so the bombers showed up after the drill?

  26. graham crackers
    2 days, 5 hrs ago

    I myself can't blame the FBI, they were probably busy surveilling Ron Paul supports, Oath Keepers, Justin and antiwar.com, Alex Jones and anyone who reads his sight, drudge and all those readers, libertarians… That's a lot of work for one organization. What they really need is for the SPLC to write another stupid report. :)

  27. 2 days, 4 hrs ago

    1) Antiwar.com isn't a state. It doesn't have the power to "censor." You're free to say anything you like. However, we are not obligated to provide you with a microphone to say it.

    2) Your comment was moderated because you said you "smelled a conspiracy." People say that all the time here without it being moderated. If you want to know why your comment was moderated, go back and look at it for the actual nastiness. Hint: Anti-Israel is OK. Anti-semitic is not OK. You don't have to like it. That's how it is whether you like it or not.

  28. Oswaldwasalefty
    2 days, 4 hrs ago

    Tamerlan Tsarnaev: Alex Jones Fan:
    http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/tamerla

    So obviously, this was a carefully contrived plot by Alex Jones and some of his followers to boost the ratings of the show. Anybody denying this theory is obviously in on the plot. And Jones and his minions thought they could get away with it!

  29. 2 days, 4 hrs ago

    Also, any admission of overseas involvement by the surviving brother could see him assigned status of "enemy combatant" and shipped to one of our offshore torture dungeons.

  30. bashi
    2 days, 2 hrs ago

    State Rep. Stella Tremblay (R-Auburn), A Republican state legislator in New Hampshire is claiming that the UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT is responsible for the Boston Marathon bambing.
    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/23/stella-t
    http://stopmakingsense.org/2013/04/24/boston-more

  31. El Tonno
    2 days, 2 hrs ago

    +1

    This starts to look like another episode of the neverending "XIII" comic series

  32. El Tonno
    2 days, 1 hr ago

    If I understand Rockwell, he implies that this was another of those FBI "let's create some terrorists that we can catch later" job gone wrong with a real bomb going off.

    But to me there is more to this.

  33. El Tonno
    2 days, 1 hr ago

    > They are not all-powerful, and can't control every event

    We know that, otherwise people would still believe the Gulf of Tonkin thing was an attack, or th USS Liberty was blown apart by mistake.

    Enjoy photographic data form the 21st century.

  34. El Tonno
    2 days, 1 hr ago

    > the Boston Marathon bambing

    This neologism pleases me.

    BAMBING (noun, m.): (1) Faked up bombing or false flag operations by state or state-aligned organizations (cf. Boston) (2) Actual bombing by security-service-entrained people where the security service wanted to be too clever by half (cf. Oklahoma)

  35. delta
    1 day, 20 hrs ago

    somebody told nbc (and we believe nbc) and nbc told somebody 2.

    and nobody believes any of this.

  36. john g
    1 day, 17 hrs ago

    Me too. It isn't even a good one but the believers will believe.

  37. Wolfgang9
    1 day, 14 hrs ago

    Hi, a friend from Boston who was there for all the mens and females winners,
    he even mailed me a picture of that trash can on the sidewalk,
    told me that this happened when he and his friends and many others
    had already left! So that explains why no more people are on the picture!
    Wolfgang9

  38. eric siverson
    1 day, 13 hrs ago

    I think the news reporters should find some old pictures of the young chechnya boys when they were about 10yrs old and than apologise to Russia for the brutle police attack on the young muslim boys . Maybe prosecute the police and pay the relatives plenty of public money for all the suffering the Islamic families have been put through ..

  39. Wolfgang9
    1 day, 10 hrs ago

    Hi Rick,
    if you would read the Russian media you would know that the hostile relations between the US and Russia are mostly a one way street. The US politics is very hostile after the Russian domestic politics changed between Jeltsin and Putin. Naturally, that also has to do with the fact that the US during Jeltsins regime thought they could get the Russian resources almost for free using their Oligarchs like Chodorkovsky and Berzovsky. When this dream was smashed by Putin, the US turned violantly in extending NATO towards the Russian borders, building up the missile defense system for neutralizing the Russian defense system, supporting dictators in Georgia and the Ukraine against Russia and even supporting the Chechen Muslim sepration movement the Kaukasus region. I do not know of any practical Russian responses, but the Medwedjev and Putin governments many times tried to make the relations more peaceful, even trying to talk about the very hostile missile defense system which is now established almost around the Russian borders.

    Part 2 follows.

  40. Wolfgang9
    1 day, 10 hrs ago

    Part2:
    And they also tried to make it clear to US politicians that those Muslim sepration movements like in the Kaukasus region or in Syria would be even very dangereous for the US at one day. They even helped the US with a base to move arms and equipment to their troops in Afghanistan.
    But there are forces in the US who cannot stand good relations with Russia, since they want a free access to Russian the very valuable resources and there is a lot of money to make.
    I just hope that this new government of Obama can see things more realistic and will reach out to Russia.

  41. RickR30
    1 day, 9 hrs ago

    Hi Wolfgang. Yes, I think most here are very much aware of the US aggressiveness toward Russia, while Russia in spite of all that has responded rationally and friendly even.

  42. Mark
    1 day, 7 hrs ago

    With the narrative changing with the wind it allows for any and all people to snag a snippet they agree with and use it to reinforce their position. The "authorities" are tossing out a Narrative du Jour as this goes on. If they actually knew what happened or they wanted an informed public we wouldn't be seeing such a spectacle. And this includes the Ricin letters AND the Canadian "AQ" plotters.

    Like digging in a barn, with all this "stuff" on the floor there has to be a pony in here somewhere.

  43. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 5 hrs ago

    Only idiots believe that patience is a vice in these matters, since getting at the heart od the matter requires the gathering of facts, not merely fitting everything into a preconceived schema. Gathering facts, and interpreting them, requires patience.

  44. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 5 hrs ago

    He is by no means having a quick recovery, although being young, he will probably recover more quickly than most. He is still unable to speak, which he may never fully recover. If he missed the spinal cord, there is no reason to expect that he wouldn't be able to write, or that he would regain full mental acuity, as well as motor skills.

  45. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 5 hrs ago

    "You may feel comfourtable (sic) about trusting your authorities."

    Why is this the first thing that conspiricists say when there conspiracy scenarios are subject to doubt? It has nothing to do with ANY feelings towards the authorities, comfortable or otherwise.

    As for "the official story" having "flaws," so what? Virtually ALL stories generated by catastrophic events have "flaws," especially if one upholds the initial reports above later clarifications and adjustments. As for the rest of your second paragraph, it denotes virtually nothing, except perhaps when you say "I PRETEND (emphasis mine) to have learnt a bit about humans through experience." Perhaps you are pretending more than you actually know.

  46. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 5 hrs ago

    You mean, "if" YOUR INTERPRETATION of "the official story is accurate;" I see nothing superhuman, "unique," "incredible," or even indicative of wild character changes in Dzhokar Tsarnaev, as related in "the official story." He seems quite ordinary to me. What makes YOU an expert in such things?

  47. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 5 hrs ago

    Glad to hear that you don't need any friends. With your obvious verbal skills, you probably don't have any!

    So tell me, paranoid:
    What is this "game" that I have "no skin in," and what "power" do you believe I think I have?

  48. Generalissimo X
    1 day, 4 hrs ago

    right you are! this site is currently reporting that a bomb contingency was in place for the marathon. the fed pigs denied that dogs and bomb teams were on site despite the photos, videos, and eye witness accounts. now it's an admission that yeh, we had a drill basically going.

    anyone and i mean ANYONE who believes this propaganda is either the biggest rube going or just in flat denial. there is no other alternative. NONE.

  49. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 4 hrs ago

    the most that I would be prepared to say that is at variance with "the official story" is this:

    It is possible that the authorities had some information that an attack might have been planned, but were unable to act in time to prevent it. This does not meant that the FBI initiated the plot, or that this is some kind of "false flag" operation. They were certainly tipped off about these two by the Russian FSB. The link below is to Cincinatti, OH TV station FOX19-WXIX:
    http://www.fox19.com/category/240225/video-landin

  50. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 4 hrs ago

    none of which has jacksh*t to do with the Boston marathon bombing. We all know the US military doesn't mind visiting mass destruction against foreign countries. That is irrelevant to the discussion. This is another example of the "I wouldn't put it past them" type gibbering that conspiranoids rely on, s if that were an argument.

  51. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 4 hrs ago

    HEY!!! Stop interfering with a perfectly good conspiranoid theory by reciting useless relevant facts! INFIDEL!!

  52. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 4 hrs ago

    Who gave YOUR facts to YOU, conspiranoid?

  53. A. G. Phillbin
    1 day, 4 hrs ago

    SO, because a crowd gradually transforms from a mostly African group to a mostly white group, and a guy with a t-shirt from a Finnish movie company is among them, it has now become clear to meth at in fact the entire incident was a racist conspiracy masterminded by the FBI, with technical assistance from Finnish intelligence. QED.

  54. A. G. Phillbin
    16 hrs, 10 mins ago

    GARBAGE. Learning the truth requires making adjustments; only dogmatic fools believe otherwise. Often, it takes time for all the facts to emerge. Reality is messy; learn to deal with that. Deal with Facts and Reality first, and then, and only then, should you move on to Truth. Figure it out.

  55. A. G. Phillbin
    16 hrs, 5 mins ago

    You forgot to mention Luxemburgers, Chechens, Moldavians, Allawites, and Lilliputians. So what? Was that the collection of nationalities you sold newspapers to, or did you cut their hair as well? You forgot to mention Aristotle, Socrates, Cicero, Francis Bacon, and Leonardo DaVinci, along with so many other luminaries. What makes you think the ability to write lists impresses anyone. You are a pompous pretender.

  56. A. G. Phillbin
    15 hrs, 52 mins ago

    The Republican state legislature is Stella Tremblay, and here is one of her sources of historical knowledge (from Huffington Post article cited in above post):

    Tremblay's history advisor, David Johnson, told The Huffington Post in March that former President Abraham Lincoln deleted a constitutional amendment and dissolved the United States, while also not freeing the slaves. He also claimed that the U.S. government is under the control of Queen Elizabeth II.

    Yeah, that's a source I would trust for "the real story." She makes Michelle Bachman look sane.

  57. A. G. Phillbin
    15 hrs, 46 mins ago

    " defying the laws of medicine, thermodynamics, ballistics, elementary psychology, police rules everywhere in the world etc."

    You forgot to mention hermeneutics, nuclear physics, differential calculus, spherical geometry, heuristics, metaphysics, among so many other disciplines "the official story" must contradict. Is there no field in which you haven't participated, or nationality you have no deep knowledge of?

  58. A. G. Phillbin
    15 hrs, 29 mins ago

    In other words, you believe that the government conspires because they are conspirators, and they are conspirators because they conspire! no facts are necessary, just presumed evil intent. It doesn't even occur to you that they don't have a monopoly on evil, or that some people can and do occasionally hit back, or believe that that is what they are doing.

    As to your last paragraph, it is pure emotional nonsequitor. the fact that the government creates chaos internationally is not an excuse for creating a fictitious conspiratorial "order" inside your own head.