Boston Terror Attacks

[ChaserGrey]

Unless the police say it in a new conference, I'd be real skeptical of any no source information appearing for a good many hours and days. Remember when 30,000 people were reported dead at the World Trade Center?

Yeah, I'm not even repeating anything until I see it somewhere solid.

I'd expect suspicious bag reports to keep coming in for the next couple days. There's always a lot of dropped stuff along the marathon route, and people lose track of their stuff in ERs all the time. Difference is that right now you've gotta assume it's a potential bomb.

[CaptHawkeye]

Unless the police say it in a new conference, I'd be real skeptical of any no source information appearing for a good many hours and days. Remember when 30,000 people were reported dead at the World Trade Center?

The problem is how many people are going to come to the same conclusion about the news media? The really nasty news groups will try to get out the most head-turning rumors and conclusions as soon as possible because that's when people are least likely to call bullshit. Yet few people seem to understand that it behooves news stations to be the center of attention, not the center of facts.

[weemadando]

My greatest hope is that the West stands firm and doesn't overreact and cause greater loss of liberties and life. But we know that hope is pointless.

[Marko Dash]

i don't think there's going to be too much overreaction to this. for all the fuss being generated right now this seems to be a very small scale attack, so unless they find a big cell organizing this, it looks like the effort of just one person.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Yeah, the thing that makes it different than, say, a ferry having a hard landing accident, in terms of casualties, really just seems to be the horrifying number of severed legs from some kind of low bouncing heavy debris. But of course it's fairly normative for intentional acts to garner disproportionate attention to comparable accidents no matter what.

[General Mung Beans]

The news I'm hearing is absolutely horrific. Shit...

I wouldn't jump to conclusions just yet he's a right-wing nut job (or for that matter an Islamist either) personally. The initial speculation for the Tucson shooting, the Times Square Bomber, and the Norway shootings (the latter in which I was mistaken too) should give us caution.

[Broomstick]

The FAA has instigated a no fly zone below 3,000 ft.

That is standard with any mass casualty event whether accident, natural disaster, or criminal. It keeps the news choppers from colliding if nothing else.

I'm assuming my niece in Boston is OK, because if she wasn't I'd assume someone from the family would contact us, but I'll probably give my sister and dad a call a bit later.

I'm wondering if the delay was deliberate - target not the start nor the first finishers, but the middle-finishers. Or maybe the packages were planted after the initial winners were done when, perhaps, people were starting to let down their guard.

Bad all around.

[Dalton]

Someone I know was saying that it was more likely an IED with a bungled timing mechanism that went off at the wrong time.

[TimothyC]

One of my friends said it best:

May the Almighty, in whatever (if any) form one believes them to take, comfort the afflicted, console the bereaving, strengthen the healers, enlighten the investigators, grant wisdom to the politicians and endurance and perseverance to those who hunt and be with all who watch, work or weep this night.

For those going after whomever did this, good luck and good hunting.

[Broomstick]

Given how many people targeted by the current Federal administration are no longer among the living I could almost pity whomever is behind this.

Those bombs were intended to main as well as kill. The barbarian side of me is having very nasty thoughts about how to respond, but I am doing my best to beat it into submission. I prefer any action taken to be based in reason rather than emotion.

[The Yosemite Bear]

ow, this is bad, I hate it when humanity's inhumanity rears up like this. Makes no sense to me. Unfortunatly my statistical based brain says odds point to Neo Nazi asshats...

[Flagg]

Someone I know was saying that it was more likely an IED with a bungled timing mechanism that went off at the wrong time.

Well the average finishing time was about when the bomb went off.

[Simon_Jester]

Given how many people targeted by the current Federal administration are no longer among the living I could almost pity whomever is behind this.

Those bombs were intended to main as well as kill...

I'm not clear on that, is there some special evidence regarding that?

[Broomstick]

The doctors at the various hospitals are reporting that they're digging BB's and other shrapnel bits out of the wounded. This implies the devices were deliberately wrapped in such items. It's also why 2-3 dozen limbs were left severed on the scene, most of them legs and feet.

[Agent Fisher]

Unfortunatly my statistical based brain says odds point to Neo Nazi asshats...

Really? That's where your brain goes for most likely suspect?

[Col. Crackpot]

The doctors at the various hospitals are reporting that they're digging BB's and other shrapnel bits out of the wounded. This implies the devices were deliberately wrapped in such items. It's also why 2-3 dozen limbs were left severed on the scene, most of them legs and feet.

Disgusting...

The number of amputations is disturbing

[Flagg]

Jesus, anyone else see that screaming lunatic at the last presser?
False flag!

[Alyeska]

Five plus additional undetonated devices have been found.

This could have been so much worse. And more could yet come. Boston must be utter chaos right now.

[Gandalf]

Unfortunatly my statistical based brain says odds point to Neo Nazi asshats...

Aren't American Neo Nazis mostly just whiny redneck thugs, as opposed to guys who plant bombs?

How are you arriving at this conclusion?

[Col. Crackpot]

This really hits home... anyone who has ever been in Boston on Patriots Day will attest to the diverse family atmosphere in the city this day. The marathon... daytime baseball... families and international visitors... it's like a carnival. Fuck this asshole (or assholes) for ruining the lives of so many and stealing the innocence of so many more.

[loomer]

There was an InfoWars reporter at the thing, so I'm guessing that'd be the cause for the conspiracist.

[Flagg]

Unfortunatly my statistical based brain says odds point to Neo Nazi asshats...

Aren't American Neo Nazis mostly just whiny redneck thugs, as opposed to guys who plant bombs?

How are you arriving at this conclusion?

Google Eric Rudolph. Google Timothy McVeigh.

[The Duchess of Zeon]

The official toll has been updated to 3 dead, including an 8 year old child, and 113 wounded, with "many" amputation cases -- low end 15, upper end ~35. The explosion appears to be channelled, probably accidentally by what it was placed in, possibly intentionally, into producing heavy, low-flying debris that basically lopped people's legs off out from under them at ranges where the blast itself didn't cause any injury.

5 packages in Boston are suspicious and yet to be defused due to total exhaustion in the bomb squads, so they have a team of Navy Ordnance disposal people coming up from the Newport RI naval station to finish clearing the remaining packages. Cell service will remain off and Logan shut down until the Navy guys can finish the job.

[Broomstick]

This could have been so much worse. And more could yet come. Boston must be utter chaos right now.

Actually, a few reporters have remarked on how quiet it is. The governor of Massachusetts has urged everyone to stay home and off the streets and apparently people are complying.

Unfortunatly my statistical based brain says odds point to Neo Nazi asshats...

Aren't American Neo Nazis mostly just whiny redneck thugs, as opposed to guys who plant bombs?

No, they kill people, too. Not all of them, of course, some are just harmless fuckheads but some of them want to act out their bullshit.

Although I wouldn't be so specific as "neo-nazi". Basically, the batshit crazy end of the American right wing rednecks.

How are you arriving at this conclusion?

Note the dates of some US domestic events:

Patriot's Day - commemorates the start of the US Revolutionary War. This year it's on this date (3rd Monday in April in Massachusetts)
Tax Day - April 15 every year, when annual state, Federal, and local taxes are due.
April 19, 1993 - Waco Siege
April 19, 1995 - Oklahoma City bombing

Those are just the ones I remember off the top of my head. All four of those items are near and dear to the nutjobs. Of course, it's in no way conclusive but I have no doubt the neo-nazi/aryan/Christian identity/etc. crowd are being looked at by the FBI tonight, along with any other possible suspects.

[Gandalf]

Hence my question, why Neo-Nazi as opposed to just far right?

There are some big differences in the zoo of right wing Americans.