Something Wicked This Way Comes

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. ~ 1 Peter 5:8

Much ink has been spilled over the condition of the economy, nation and the world with the opinions basically falling into one of two camps.1) Things have hit a temporary blip down and can and will/are recovering. 2) Things have fundamentally changed for the worse and the 'rules' by which we gauge things are also changing, thereby rendering much of the so-called analysis absolutely moot.

Consider for a moment a few of the recent headline grabbers -

• Gun control
• Boston 'Patriot' massacre
• Ricin letters
• Gold crush
• Bitcoin inflation/pop...
• Cyprus
• Insider trading legislation
• Six strike policy
• North Korea's rise in rhetoric
• Bullet and equipment acquisitions
• The dollar rolling over

The half-life of market intervention is shortening and the cost of each intervention is inversely proportional to its effectiveness. New highs in the Dow are relentless despite massive poverty, low level home ownership and other such metrics.

One who is assessing the current world landscape is left in the regrettable position of proclaiming that the rules are now defunct and that something truly evil is on the horizon.

Republican Constitutionalism

The Boston terr'ists aren't getting much love from the GOP -

Carney said that the department of Justice and Attorney General Eric Holder support not trying the terror suspect as an enemy combatant in addition to the entire national security team.

A number of Republicans have called on the Obama administration to declare Tsarnaev an enemy combatant and put him in military detention in order to gather intelligence from him.

““It is clear the events we have seen over the past few days in Boston were an attempt to kill American citizens and terrorize a major American city,” a group of GOP lawmakers led by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a statement Saturday.

“The suspect, based upon his actions, clearly is a good candidate for enemy combatant status. We do not want this suspect to remain silent,” the senators said.

Graham said Sunday that while he wants the Boston suspect held as an enemy combatant to gather intelligence, he also thinks that Tsarnaev should ultimately be moved into the federal courts for trial because he is an American citizen.

The Obama administration argues that it can gather intelligence from Tsarnaev in the federal system, and military detention is not necessary.

If there was ever any doubt that there is only one, anti-Constitutional party in the United States, this should obliterate any of those pretenses. Let us keep in mind that these are at this time merely suspects that have not been tried, let alone convicted in a court of law. To be certain, there is evidence that these are the guys, but that is exactly why we have courts of law, to ensure that the evidence is heard and that the rights of the suspects are preserved.

The nonsense continues -

Tsarnaev has not been read his Miranda rights yet, as the federal government has invoked an exemption that allows those rights to be waived temporarily when there is a threat to public safety. He remains in serious condition in a Boston hospital, according to the FBI.

I'm pretty sure that the 'public safety' exemption exists in order to permit the police to bag a suspect that poses an immediate threat to the surrounding public and prevent the suspect from getting off because the "timing" of the reading of his rights happened to trample his 'right' to wave a hand grenade at a bus full of children. The fact that it has been three days and they still haven't read him his rights (C'mon people, we're talking about informing a person that he has rights as a citizen) shows just how far down this cesspool of 'Get the bad guys' we've sunk. Further, I am personally aware of many individuals who posed absolutely zero risk to the public safety who never received so much as a phone call, let alone their rights.

I'd like to pose the following questions to Mr. Graham:

1. Every day, gang warfare in the cities claims multiple lives. Is the standard for law enforcement now such that the brutality of an alleged crime is enough to strip you of your citizenship? If so, why is this standard not applied to present members of known foreign cartels openly operating in the United States? MS13 is one that comes to mind...
2. Have we disposed with the notion of trial by a jury of your peers in the United States?
3. Do you support the President's position of assassination of American citizens?

Keep in mind, it is not the veracity of the charges levied against these two that concern me. It's the process that's targeting them that could be subsequently turned on others that is the far greater threat to the American peace and safety from a malicious Federal/State tyranny.

Update:
Apparently the Wall Street Jornal agrees with the Republicans -

Which brings us to interrogating 19-year-old Dzhokhar if he recovers from his wounds. The flap over reading his Miranda rights is a largely irrelevant distraction. Under a 1984 Supreme Court decision (New York v. Quarles), police can invoke a "public-safety exception" to Miranda for a short period of time. Attorney General Eric Holder has embraced this exception as a way to show that the criminal-justice system can handle terrorists as well as the law-of-war paradigm favored by the Bush Administration. 

That's right, because the Supreme Court makes the laws... Just how long is that "short period of time"?And what about...the torture?

The important security issue isn't convicting Dzhokhar but finding out what he knows that might prevent a future attack or break up a terror network. This is where naming him an enemy combatant would be useful. Such a designation allows for extensive, long-term interrogation without a lawyer.

 This should be very simple to understand. IT.IS.NOT.THE.JOB.OF.A.SUSPECT.TO.BE."USEFUL"!
The Wall Street Journal is here arguing that they should be able to wave their hand and declare you - Without Rights. Why? So they can do "extensive, long-term interrogation without a lawyer", newspeak for torture the crap out of you so they can 'extract info'. Oh but wait, the Supreme Court says - Yah, that's OK too..

The Supreme Court has ruled that even American citizens—Dzhokhar is one—can be held indefinitely as enemy combatants. If he cooperates, the combatant designation can be revoked and he can always be transferred to the criminal-justice system for prosecution.

What a FARCE. WHAT A JOKE. "If he cooperates..." Read as - Say what we want and we'll let you go. This turns the very idea of justice on its head! They even admit as much. Just like the Patriot Act, you're ALL suspects...

Boylston Street sure looked like a battlefield on Monday, and so did Watertown on Thursday night. The artificial distinction is Mr. Paul's focus on geography. The vital distinction for public safety is between common criminals, who deserve due process protections, and enemy combatants at war with the U.S., wherever they are.

Oh the humanity. How can we ever deal with individuals who want to kill people? They need special laws becau

As for due process, the greatest danger to liberty would be to allow more such attacks that would inspire an even greater public backlash against Muslims or free speech or worse. The anti-antiterror types on the left and GOP Senators who agree that the U.S. isn't part of the battlefield are making the U.S. more vulnerable.

Demonstrably false. Democide. Look it up.

Further, the ole' 'You ain't safe unless you do what we want' is beyond cliche at this point. Seriously? That's the best you got?

Chechen Terrorists? Facts and questions, questions, questions...

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, 19, of Cambridge, Mass. and his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26 are now, by virtue of the fact that they are being reported on, guilty.  That isn't to say that they actually performed the acts, merely that very few people will actually ask any relevant questions about the case, merely accept that the police got their 'perp' and that justice has been done.(Just taking a gander around the Weekly Standard  raises this little gem - "...Authorities still have to carefully piece together the details of how the brothers became terrorists,")

Yet any casual look into the history of law enforcement, let alone high-profile cases, reveals that police will admit that they could care less if justice is being done, merely that the guy(s) that they suspect of committing the act are bagged. 

Now of course this doesn't mean the opposite, that they didn't perpetrate the acts, it merely illustrates that the act of being accused/suspected is insufficient evidence to convict. 

Motive

The one big thing that is lacking here is the most critical as always - motive. 

• "The brothers’ alleged motive in Monday’s bombings remains unclear..."
• "...two law enforcement officials said there is a “Chechen connection” to the bombings. "
• Other than the fact that the brothers were from a 'terrorist region' (Who isn't anymore?), what real links to terrorism are reported? I think the obvious implication is - Suspects are Chechen and Chechnya has terrorism, Therefore a 'link' has been established.
• "...in the last several months, Tamerlan Tsarnaev had posted videos to YouTube indicating his interest in radical Muslim ideologies."
• "On a YouTube channel, Tamerlan created a video file called “Terrorists,” where he posted footage that has since been removed from view. He also shared other videos of lectures from a radical Islamic cleric. In one video, Arab voices can be heard singing as bombs explode from high-rise buildings"
• How do we know that this is his account?
• "Radical" is a subjective term.
• Where are the manifestos, the proclamations of  deadly intent? People who go ape like this generally leave behind some sort of proclamation before going off.
• Why would individuals that were effectively Americanized turn on a country that they had seemingly embraced?

General

• Kyrgyz officials said the family left the country about 12 years ago for Dagestan, and after a year there emigrated to the United States.
• The father worked as an auto mechanic. Jerry Siegel, owner of Webster’s Auto Body, in Somerville, Mass., said that the elder Tsarnaev worked for him for about 18 months and that he was an excellent mechanic who spoke very little English.
• “He was just a hard-working, strong, tough guy,” said Siegel. “He would get under a car in the middle of winter, did whatever I asked.”
• His wife is registered as a cosmetologist. She is facing a criminal trial in Natick, Mass., after police said they arrested her last year trying to steal up to nine women’s dresses from a Lord & Taylor store at a local mall.
• "Speaking to journalists in Dagestan Friday, the brothers’ father, Anzov Tsarnaev, said his sons never had any interest in weapons. “I believe my children were set up,” he said."
• The father would have a decent idea of the nature of his children.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev

• Tamerlan Tsarnaev was a boxer who worked out at a martial arts facility in the Cambridge area.
• Tamerlan began boxing shortly after arriving in the United States. He registered with USA Boxing, the governing body for Olympic-style boxing, as early as 2003 and steadily rose through the ranks. By 2009, he reached the national Golden Gloves tournament in Salt Lake City, where he lost in a three-round decision bout with a boxer from Chicago.
• Colleagues all described him as athletic, and aggressive. “He was tall, taller than most of the guys, and tough,” said Paul Barry, vice president of the New England Boxing Association in Worcester, Mass., who once judged one of Tamerlan’s bouts.Tamerlan was arrested in 2009 for assault in a domestic dispute with his girlfriend, according to Spotcrime.com, an online source of crime information.

•  He was a 9/11 truther?
• Tamerlan Tsarnaev's name was placed on the National Counter Terrorism Center's database.
• Began gathering materials for the explosives at least two months ago, when he was spotted at a New Hampshire fireworks store. The store told the FBI that it sold $400-worth of fireworks in February to the accused Boston bomber. 
• "He just wanted the biggest, loudest stuff we had in the store," said Megan Kearns, the assistant manager of Phantom Fireworks
• Bought two large reloadable mortar kits during a two-for-one sale. She said she remembered Tamerlan because of his Russian accent. The store has since confirmed his purchase with store records.
• The amount of gunpowder that could be harvested from the kits -- less than half a pound -- would not have been enough to detonate the Boston bombs, Phantom Fireworks VP William Weimer said.

Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev

• The younger brother, Dzhokhar, graduated in 2011 from Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school in Cambridge. He was a quiet young man who was on the school wrestling team, said Deana Beaulieu, 20, who attended schools with him since the seventh grade
• The city of Cambridge announced two years ago that it had awarded a $2,500 scholarship to Dzhokar Tsarnaev, who was listed as a senior at Cambridge Rindge & Latin School, a highly regarded public school whose alumni include Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and NBA star Patrick Ewing.
• Ty Barros, 21, a former high school classmate of Dzhokhar’s, told The Washington Post that Dzhokhar was widely known as Jahar and was “a normal regular American kid.”
• He liked sports and listened to rap music with other kids hanging out in the Cambridge neighborhood around Norfolk Street, Barros said. “He was a fairly popular kid; he was a fairly friendly, nice kid,” Barros said.
•  In 2011, Dzhokhar graduated high school, where he was the captain of the wrestling team, and went on to study at the University of Massachusetts. He hoped to become a dentist.
• Dzhokhar was an avid skateboarder, and Sunday night before the Monday bombing he cruised down Norfolk Street toward the house where his family has lived, said Caprice Ruff, 18, a grocery store cashier who lives about five houses away, across the street, on the same block in Cambridge.
• FBI agents found "a large pyrotechnic" in his college dorm room

The 'Night of Terror'

• Witnesses reported hearing explosions and gunfire as the police apparently engaged the two men and local television footage showed one man lying spread out on the ground, with his arms out, surrounded by police.
  However, it is now thought that this man is not one of the suspects wanted by law enforcement.
  Police officials would not discuss the incident with reporters.
  When asked for information on the incident, Boston police spokeswoman Neva Coakley frantically told MailOnline, 'I don't know anything... I don't know anything at this point.'
• Police said they had conflicting reports on whether the brothers robbed a 7-Eleven in Cambridge, near the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, on Thursday night. 
• Why rob a 7/11?
• They don't kill an anonymous car jack victim because he's foreign. Who escaped.
• So kill anonymous runners including foreigners, but not a foreigner who can identify you?
• They then shot to death an MIT police officer, 26-year-old Sean Collier, while he was responding to a report of a disturbance, investigators said.
• Ambushed the officer and shot him five times in the head
• Why were they at MIT?
• Why kill a security guard?
•  Shootout with police
• A shootout with police and then the older brother 'blows himself up'? 
• Reportedly the younger brother "Ran over" the older brother. Or the police ran him over.
• Why would the younger brother run his older brother over? 
• "Authorities gave no details on how his younger brother escaped."
• How did a nineteen year old, with little to no experience escape police when accomplished crooks can't get away to save their lives?
• 
  

Boston Bombing

• According to FBI sources who have spoken to CNN, still unreleased footage reveals that the suspects stayed at the scene to watch the devastation the two blasts created.
  'When the bombs blow up, when most people are running away and victims were lying on the ground, the two suspects walk away pretty casually,' said the official to CNN, who has seen the unreleased video.
  They acted differently than everyone else,' he added.
• FBI agent in charge in Boston, said Suspect No. 2 in the white hat was seen setting down a bag at the site of the second of two deadly explosions.
•  There is video of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev running away with his backpack.
• Video of suspect two planting his device exists, but the FBI has chosen not to release it because were the media to repeatedly show the suspects leaving the bomb, it might cause some people to overreact if they came into contact with them.
• Setting down "a" bag, is it "the" bag? Or is this circumstantial?
• Where did the 'expertise' and money to build the bombs come from? 
• How were the devices detonated? 
• Federal agents have analyzed the two pressure cooker bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack and confirmed early speculation that the other components were also built largely, if not entirely of commercially available items, including parts of a remote control toy car, BBs and small nails.

Apprehension and Investigation

•  Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev is captured in a boat.
• Was unarmed.
• How can there be a 'standoff" with no guns?
• Throat injury 
• Caused by a gunshot wound, shrapnel from a suicide attempt, that will leave him unable to speak again
• Not read his Miranda rights. Stops "talking" after rights are read to him.
• A single gun, a Ruger 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,  was recovered. (the serial number on the firearm was obliterated)
• How did the brothers stage a shootout with only one gun?

My initial impression? Mixed. The initial evidence seems to lend credence to the thought that these two were at least in the area and perhaps set the backpacks. The older brother seems somewhat compromised, but where is the dirt on the younger? But add to that the increased military presence in the area and the lack of motive and I struggle to connect why they would have done it.

And that is a crucial piece of info.

Patriot Day Massacre - The Results

Regardless of the material facts, (who, what, where...etc...) when you respond to a 'terror attack' by rolling out the military and locking the city down...YOU LOSE. Period...end of discussion...

Who wants to bet that going outside is prohibited?



Nothing like waking up to sharp-shooters on your lawn...

All of this militaristic posturing is nothing more than boys playing with their toys. There are no swarms of rampant jihadis waiting for them behind the bushes, no tactical column advances flanking their position, no air support needed to stop the invasion.

Why not just launch drone strikes and level the block? After all, the fact that they are dead indicates that they were with al-quaeda and 'acceptable collateral damage'. Plus, it's totally legal to kill Americans now...

Won't you heartless bastards just think of America's children and get the terrorists?!?

Reality Check: Did the FBI know about Boston bombing beforehand?

FOX19.com-Cincinnati News, Weather

Patriot Day Boston Marathon Massacre

What an odd day to blow up a marathon -

Multiple casualties are reported after at least two explosions rocked the area near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

Competitors and race organizers were crying as they fled the bloody chaos, while some witnesses reported seeing victims with lost limbs.

"Somebody's leg flew by my head," a spectator, who gave his name as John Ross, told the Boston Herald. “I gave my belt to stop the blood.”

Witnesses heard booms that sounded like two claps of thunder near the finish line inside the Fairmount Copley Plaza Hotel, according to multiple local reports.

This would have had to have been a huge bomb to be amputating limbs from a distance here. And not just one, but two? Plus, there's the timing of the holiday which lines up with the 'let's blame the founders' mindset -

This is Patriot’s Day, which commemorates the battles of Lexington and Concord, fought near Boston in 1775. Patriot’s Day is annually held on the third Monday of April.

Is a message being sent to "Patriots" worldwide? Will the culprit be someone who 'feels we need a new civil war'? Once again, we need more details before we can form substantive opinions.

Update:
A reported third bomb is detonated by police.

Update 2:
12 dead, 50 injured. (Waiting for that magic #13) Is it possible that Newtown victims were there?

Relatives of the victims of December’s school massacred in Newtown, Conn. were among those attending the race finish at a VIP area. It was not known of any of the relatives were among the casualties. 

Update 3:
Note the "international theme" to the area that was targeted. Don't be surprised if lines like 'This was an attack on the international community" start flying around.








Update 4:
A suspect is being guarded -

Authorities have a identified a suspect, who is currently being guarded in a Boston hospital with shrapnel wounds.

A fourth bomb is reported -

According to reports, authorities in Boston found two more explosive devices that had not gone off and police were dismantling them. The airspace above the city was ordered cleared as well.

A third explosion is linked by police to the other two -

Police confirmed a third explosion at JFK Library in Boston. It was unclear if the explosion was linked to the two earlier ones that took place at the Marathon.

Update 5: 
The suspect is a Saudi national.