Multiple Explosions At Boston Marathon Finish Line
Tragedy in Boston.
Just about a half hour ago, there were at least two explosions near the Finish Line of the Boston Marathon:
BOSTON — Two explosions at the finish line of the Boston Marathon have resulted in injuries.
Bloody spectators were being carried Monday to the medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners. Police wove through competitors as they ran back toward the course.
“There are a lot of people down,” said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg. A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.
I’ve seen multiple Tweets from people on the scene that include pictures of the damage and it looks as though there was a tremendous amount of glass damage in the area, which is likely to contribute to the number of injuries. CNN is reporting that the Marathon itself, which is still going on even though the winners crossed the Finish Line some three hours ago, has been halted, and accessing Boston area news sites is next to impossible at the moment, most likely because of the traffic load.
This photo comes from a CBS screen shot at Business Insider:
A reporter for New England Cable News tweeted this:
Update: A first report from The New York Times:
A series of explosions erupted near the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday. The Boston Police Department confirmed that they were looking into an explosion, but had no further comment.
The Associated Press reported that the authorities were helping injured runners leave the scene and bloody spectators were being carried to a medical tent that was being used for runners.
The A.P. said that a loud explosion was heard on the north side of Boylston Street, near a photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another explosion was heard several seconds later.
Local television showed ambulances at the scene. Pictures posted online showed several injured runners being attended to and smoke around the finish line.
The headquarters for the organizers of the marathon, one of the world’s oldest, was reportedly locked down while authorities investigate. Reporters inside the Copley Plaza Hotel, where the media center is and where many elite athletes are staying, were unable to leave.
The explosions went off more than four hours after the start of the men’s race, which meant that there were still several thousand runners yet to finish the race.
Big city authorities are typically on the highest levels of alert for events like a marathon, said Anthony Roman, a security expert.
“It is quite the counterterrorism effort,” said Mr. Roman, who runs Roman & Associates, a New York firm.
For major events in New York and other large cities, Mr. Roman said the police would typically weld manhole covers shut, while also examining the entire route just before the race. They will also place snipers on rooftops, with helicopters overhead. Analytic cameras in the city will be focusing on the race, he said.
“They have all the analytic cameras in the city focusing on the race with their advanced software network, reading license plates,” Roman said.
And from New England Cable News:
BOSTON (AP) – Two explosions shattered the finish of the Boston Marathon on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry away the injured while stragglers in the 26.2-mile race were rerouted away from the smoking site.
Competitors and race volunteers were crying as they fled the chaos. Bloody spectators were being carried to the medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners.
“There are a lot of people down,” said one man, whose bib No. 17528 identified him as Frank Deruyter of North Carolina. He was not injured, but marathon workers were carrying one woman, who did not appear to be a runner, to the medical area as blood gushed from her leg. A Boston police officer was wheeled from the course with a leg injury that was bleeding.
Neither race officials nor public officials could immediately estimate the number or degree of injuries.
About three hours after the winners crossed the line, there was a loud explosion on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. Another explosion could be heard a few seconds later.
Smoke rose from the blasts, fluttering through the national flags lining the route of the world’s oldest and most prestigious marathon. TV helicopter footage showed blood staining the pavement in the popular shopping and tourist area known as the Back Bay.
“There are people who are really, really bloody,” said Laura McLean, a runner from Toronto, who was in the medical tent being treated for dehydration when she was pulled out to make room for victims of the explosions. “They were pulling them into the medical tent.”
Fox News is reporting that three people are confirmed dead, but that report has not been confirmed by other news outlets or by law enforcement.
Obviously we don’t know the source of the explosion. It could possibly be a gas explosion, although there are no reports of the smell of gas in the area, or a steam explosion, but that would usually be followed by scene rising from the scene of the explosion, not smoke that seems indicative of some kind of explosive device. Ironically, today’s Marathon was being run in memory of the victims of the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.
Update: The Boston Police Department is reporting 23 injured, 2 dead as of this time.
Update # 2: If this report is true, it would seem to confirm that this is not accidental:
Also, CNN is reporting that this was a bombing based on information received from law enforcement sources.
Update #3: The Boston Police Commissioner just said at a press conference that they have not found other devices. This reminds us that early reports are often inaccurate. Of course, law enforcement could be holding back information at this time.
Also, The Atlantic has photos from the scene. Be warned, several of them are graphic.
Update # 4: The Wall Street Journal is reporting through law enforcement sources that there were indeed additional devices found near the scene of the attack:
Counterterrorism officials found what they believe to be five additional, undetonated explosive devices around the Boston area, according to two people briefed on the rapidly moving investigation.
The devices—which are in addition to the two that exploded near the finish line of the marathon—were discovered over the course of a frantic inspection of suspicious packages, many of them abandoned as pedestrians, runners, and others scrambled away from crowded public streets. Each had been rendered inoperative or was in the process of being rendered inoperative, the officials said.
But the officials also sounded a note of caution, saying they are moving quickly and each device they believe is a bomb hasn’t been fully dissected or analyzed.
This has not been confirmed by law enforcement, and as the story notes a “device” may just mean a report of a suspicious package.
Twitter already lighting up with false flag accusations.
@Gold Star for Robot Boy:
Oh, FFS
Alex Jones is/was leading the charge.
Here’s a screencap of Jones’ tweet.
I’m afraid to ask what “false flag” means.
Found on the twitter:
“All the #obamabots are attacking me for saying it could be a false flag &Obama would not be below doing something this horrendous.”
Of course you’d be an “obamabot” to not think, minutes after an explosion, that you have it all figured out, and that it is a liberal conspiracy.
@reid:
Dates to wooden ship and iron men, running up a false flag to sail closer … then down comes the flag and up comes your own (or the jolly roger.)
Edit: I guess I should have included more modern scenarios … attack under a false flag, so that you can then retaliate under your own.
jp: I see, thanks. Makes sense in a historical context, such as your example. I’m a little unclear what these people are implying in this case… Why would Obama do this? (I realize we’re in conspiracy-nut territory here, and it’s probably best not to understand.)
@john personna: E.g., the Nazis did it at the start of World War II: they staged an attack by “Polish” soldiers into Germany, and used dead bodies from concentration camps dressed us as Poles as evidence of the “attack”.
North Korea?
@reid:
Who knows. We should all be patient though and let the police keep their secrets as they follow leads.
I’m pretty sure this means we need more gun control!!11
jp: Certainly. Nuts will be nuts, and best to ignore them. Just a morbid curiosity.
Well shit.
@Matt: Inappropriate.
Tax Day.
Patriot’s Day.
Boston Tea Party.
We’re a nutty country.
please, please, PLEASE stop with the political points and the tax day/tea party insinuations. Let them clean up the f@cking blood first. dammit, people.
@Matt:
You’re concerns for the victims are duly noted, asswipe
Running is not good for you.
A third explosion went off at the JFK library.
Time to declare the Tea Party a terrorist organization.
With Steven’s recent post about the Gosnell coverage on my mind, it was pretty striking to listen to the difference in coverage approach between the local/national Clear Channel Talk Radio station/network and NPR.
The prior preempted the Sean Hannity show and basically put the Boston affiliate’s live feed on (without warning or local station identification). And, at times, the Boston Radio station was just broadcasting the feed from their TV affiliate station (with occasional breaks for interviews).
NPR, on the other hand, continued regular live programing (Talk of the Nation into All Things Considered) with live break ins as new facts emerged.
What was striking, switching back between the two, was how that changed the tone of the event.
A the Clear Channel coverage was divided into either (a) restatement of the facts, (b) speculation and speculative reports, or — all too often — (c) the anchors vamping about the marathon (“the most famous one in the world”… btw, I think NY takes issue with that), the patriotic aspects of the marathon, how this is another destruction of “innocents” and “innocence”, and how things “will never be the same again.”
NPR, on the other hand, treated things, so far, in a far cooler fashion. The explosion was one event among many going on today. They didn’t even broadcast Deval Patrick’s address (something that I do think was a mistake). Instead they would only report what was known and included very little speculation about unknowns (i.e. exactly what had happened outside the JFK Library).
The net result was an entirely different rhythm of coverage. While NPR left me wanting more, on the flip side, I felt like the Clear Channel coverage ended up being far more about generating a wide range of emotions, and heightening the sense that “something major and dangerous happened,” than actually conveying news about the event.
@J-Dub:
Dude, take a deep breath. Wait.
Haven’t watched the tv, but the best updates I’ve found on the Web are at the Guardian website.
Authorities must be given slack considering information fluidity. The story is awful/dramatic enough without network nitwits hyping it up/scoring points
We should probably do the same.
I’m home sick…and so have been watching coverage since I first heard the news.
They are all over the place on facts.
There was an explosion at the JFK library….no there wasn’t…yes there was…no there wasn’t.
I won’t trust any news on this for a couple days.
Let’s be clear on one thing: this was terrorism, regardless of who did it.
Not some goddamned “workplace violence incident” or whatever the hell some might want to call it.
@CB:
This, this, a quintillion times this.
I am so utterly sick and tired of and disgusted at the instant banal political finger-pointing that always follows something like this. We have NO IDEA who did this, or why. NO IDEA. There isn’t even the merest shred of a clue that’s been analyzed yet. We’re still in the phase of confused and contradictory reporting and all the speculation that will be proven entirely wrong in the coming days.
So, please, let’s just stop with the pointless and baseless recriminations.
The delayed second bomb is, as I recall, an invention of Islamist terrorists — the second one is intended to get the first responders.
However, they don’t hold a patent on the idea; anyone else could have adapted the technique.
30-40k spectators and only 2 fatalities and 20 or so injured…we were lucky today.
From the New York Post. 12 dead. 20 year old Saudi national held as suspect in hospital.
Will FOX News jump on this?
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/two_explosions_at_boston_marathon_iMR0LCkcwASg0RQfVsH1yI
@Jenos Idanian #13:
The timing is wrong. You don’t wait just 15 seconds, you wait for a few minutes.
The 15 second gap is more like the delay for a person to dial first one cellphone, then another.
@ernieyeball:
Is there any actual reason given as to why they suspect this guy or is it just “blame it on the closest surviving Arab”?
People from all over the world run in the Boston Marathon. This very well could be a case of “Running While Arab.” I’d be curious to hear why they grabbed this guy.
On the other hand, pretty much all the bombings and would-be bombings of the past decade or so have been by Muslims…
@michael reynolds & @Jenos Idanian #13:
Beyond 15 second being too short a period, one would also think that if it was a two bomb attack as used in the ME, then the blasts would also have been closer too each other to take out the clustering first responders.
@michael reynolds: Thanks, I’ve been “off the grid” for about 48+ hours, and just found about this maybe 20 minutes ago. I just heard that there was a gap between the two blasts, not how long.
@Stormy Dragon: I do not view the New York Post as a credible source. They are the only ones reporting more than two deaths. The link is there for you to click.
@ernieyeball: They might not be reliable to you on politics, but this isn’t a political story.
At least, not yet.
They’ve got a decent record on straight news, though.
From the Globe’s liveblog: “Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis: ‘There is no suspect in custody yet. We’re questioning many people, but there is no suspect in custody at this time.'”
Don’t know how recently he said that, though.
On the person of interest:
@WNYC – Boston police commissioner: “We are questioning many people, but there is no one in custody at this time.”
Response via NPR’s Andy Carvin on the post story (and police/new-speak):
@acarvin: Police chief says no suspect is being held. Is that the same as saying no injured person is under guard, as some news orgs claim?
@Jenos Idanian #13:
For what it’s worth, I had the same reaction when I heard there were two coordinated blasts.
@matt bernius: As I understand it, “suspect” and “in custody” have some very definite legal meanings. They could have a “person of interest” being “detained,” and still be perfectly honest in saying they have no “suspects in custody.”
And the countdown begins until the outrage starts over Obama not explicitly calling this a “terrorist attack.”
… and already finishes according to twitter…
The reporting on this seems to be all over the place – it’s probably going to take a while to get a firm grip on the situation. I don’t see any point in speculating. One thing we can all agree on – a horrible tragedy – jumping in to try and score political points, definitely not cool.
BTW, for those interested in watching aspects of the “news sausage” getting made, the Poynter Institute is curating a story feed of reporters reporting on the event (and discussing the reporting):
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/210338/how-journalists-are-covering-reacting-to-explosions-at-boston-marathon-finish-line/
One of the things about Twitter is that it’s designed so that the norm is public versus private correspondence. So you get to see far more of the “background” work that goes on in the reporting of an unfolding event play out.
Look, the first day of coverage of the Newtown shootings was all over the place too. The guy killed people in NJ. No wait that’s his brother, who is innocent. There was a guy in the woods. No, there wasn’t. He used an AR-15. No he didn’t, he used a shotgun. Nope, it was the AR-15, plus 2 handguns. Mom was a schoolteacher. No, she volunteered at the school. No, actually, she didn’t do that either.
Things are always confused right after something like this happens. What we actually know is limited: some folks died, others are really badly injured. At least 2 bombs, detonated in fairly close proximity (~500ft apart, ~10 seconds apart). That’s about it.
It could’ve been Islamist terrorists. It could’ve been a McVeigh type. It could’ve been some wackjob with another agenda entirely. Maybe mommy didn’t hold him enough, I don’t know.
We’ll find out more in time. For now, seriously:
Keep Calm and Carry On.
@Timothy Watson: Actually, the prisoners were alive when they were put into uniforms and then shot.
Relying on the liberal Democrat media for accurate and meaningful reporting of an tragedy like this is akin to relying on Bernie Madoff to give you accurate investment reports. No chance in hell. The combinations of ignorance, lack of education, inexperience, partisan agendas, foggy headedness, along with craven, nearly prurient desires for ratings, etc., simply are too overwhelming.
That aside, at this point in time it appears that a Saudi national is the prime suspect, which if true would all but close the book on whether this in fact is foreign terrorism. It is. And a Islamofacist terrorist attack in Boston today would make sick sense. Boston had direct ties to 9/11. It’s Patriot’s Day. The marathon always draws big crowds. Just the sort of things for which al Qaeda and their ilk are looking. After all they’re vermin. Vermin that really need to be eradicated off the face of the earth.
So we’ll see what happens. Hopefully this was a one-time, one-off event. Not the 1st in a series of planned attacks.
@Tsar Nicholas:
There is so much wrong in this statement, it staggers me.
Tsar, you’re a lousy American.
Tsar once again shows his/her simple-mindedness.
Alex Jones also shows his level of idiocy.
http://www.salon.com/2013/04/15/alex_jones_labels_boston_explosion_a_false_flag/
My bet’s on a McVeigh type.
No good reason to think that though.
@Tsar Nicholas:
I used to enjoy your daily rants, but dude, go play in traffic. Completely uncalled for
@ Tillman….
Today is a special day for militia types.
Just the same…it’s way to early to attribute blame to anyone…as Tsar is in a hurry to do.
I just heard an 8 year old was killed. All the injuries seem to be low to the ground…eg legs…8 year old kids are low to the ground.
Too soon to know anything. My guess is any foreign national relatively close would initially be a person of interest. Whether that pans out is anyone’s guess at this point. We sit back now and watch and wait, our thoughts and prayers go towards the injured and their families and to the families of those that died. Anything else is inappropriate. Speculation causes real harm in these situations.
@Jenos Idanian #13: “Let’s be clear on one thing: this was terrorism, regardless of who did it”
Can’t wait to see how fast Jay changes his tune if it turns out to be someone on his “side” who did this.
@Gold Star for Robot Boy: “Tsar, you’re a lousy American. ”
This is no time for chauvinism. He’s a lousy human being.
It’s almost as if America has a mental illness pandemic called “politics”. This has been going on for years now, where it seems like some people will actually welcome bad news if they think it hurts “the other side”. Some liberal commentary on the Iraq war during the Bush years seemed to fit this pattern. And more recently it sometimes feels like Conservatives are almost happy when a bad job report comes in, or the economy doesn’t grow as fast as we’d like.
Perusing Twitter and Facebook in the hours after this tragedy, it literally appears that (some/even many) people (depending on which tribe they claim) are “hoping” it’s a muslim, or “hoping” it’s someone associated with the tea party who did this … and are desperately grasping onto (and rapidly sharing) any “evidence” that might support their “desire”.
As I said, I’m just going to call it what it is … a sickness.
@wr:
Thanks, wr – first smile I’ve had in a few hours.
Again from the globe liveblog, “A horrible list fr Boston Childrens Hosp: leg trauma, age 9; femur fracture, age12; head injury, age2; head injury, age14; leg trauma, age10.” So upsetting.
Bill O’Reilly – “This makes me sick”
This is the guy who said he was OK with a terrorist attack on San Francisco – “You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.”
Shepard Smith & the rest of the Fox news reporting I’ve seen was tight, professional, & non-political.
I’m with Reynolds. Take a deep breath. Real info, people. All the rest of this thread is just crap.
I’ve been kicking this around for a few hours, and wanted to toss out a few ideas.
My first thought was that this was probably not a right-winger terrorist, on the basis that the attack was inefficient. The body count could have been a hell of a lot higher with a bit more planning and care. Hell, just on timing alone it could have been far worse — set it off a little after the winners cross the finish line, instead well after most had finished, and the body cound could have been far higher. Historically, right-wing terrorists in America like McVeigh have planned big, and succeeded big. It’s the left-wing terrorists who have been more inept.
Then I thought about it some more, and I don’t think it was an American at all. American domestic terrorists tend to have political targets, at least tangentially so. The Weather Underground went after military targets. Anti-abortion terrorists go after doctors and clinics. McVeigh went after a federal building. The Occutards went after big business-related targets. And so on. The Boston Marathon has absolutely no political overtones whatsoever. The only people who hate the Marathon are those who live on or near the route and get inconvenienced by it.
But whoever it was, for whatever reason — hang ’em. I’ll buy the rope.
Oh, and Tsar Nicky? GFY.
At least now I know who posting here has little or no context to life beyond the political bubble.
@Jenos Idanian #13:
Remember the Oklahoma City bombing? As I recall,the first rumors were that a Middle Eastern man was a suspect. Right now we don’t know anything.
Jennifer Rubin uses the bombings to take a passive-aggressive shot over Gosnell:
https://twitter.com/JRubinBlogger/statuses/323899061742735360
It’s somewhat confounding how WaPo fired Weigel over so much less, brought her in as his replacement, and then she crosses lines with impressive regularity, but always seems secure in her job.
@al-Ameda: You’re a wee bit tardy on that. michael reynolds already pointed out that the delay between bomb 1 and 2 was maybe 15 seconds, so that notion’s already been discarded for about 5 hours.
And yeah, we know very little at this point. Which is why I’m very carefully making sure I’m saying this is all speculation.
In the age of drones and IEDs, we are all Afghani civilians now.
RC
@Robert C:
That’s pretty close to being as dumb as what Tsar had to say.
@Jenos Idanian #13:
Also I had not realized the two bombs were like a block apart.
@Jenos Idanian #13: Ok. Sorry I made a valid observation.
@al-Ameda: It was accurate, but others beat you to it.
Got anything else to offer?
People died today, and among them were children, and we should probably all remember that they didn’t die to become part of our own particular political narrative. The temptation is pretty strong, and I suspect I’ve failed to control myself at times in the past. But maybe the rule should be that we at least wait until we have some factual basis for a conclusion before offering one.
Michael, you may miss my point…I don’t know who is responsible for today’s bombs….but make not mistake about it, our Foreign Policy for the last decade has shown little regard for civilian causualties. He’ll, last week we used a drone to retaliate in Afghan., and killed a dozen kids. Why should domestic or foreign terrorists do any different, and why are we shocked?
I really hope this was domestic terrorism — and I don’t really care whether it is left-wing, right-wing, white-supremacist, or radical centrists, or whatever.
Right now the death toll is 3, and over a hundred injured, many of them missing limbs. If this is from the Mideast, or Africa, or anywhere we don’t quite consider civilized, we will likely be bombing, and will kill far more than 3 innocents.
If it is domestic, it will be treated as a criminal matter, and the likelihood of a wholesale slaughter of innocents is greatly reduced. I would also be reasonably happy with Brits still angry about the Boston Tea Party, as I doubt we would bomb London. France, I’m not so sure about…
That’s not really true, there have been plenty of right-wing keystone cops capers too.
At any rate, can’t you give it a rest for one day?
In Israel whenever a bag is stranded somewhere people will call the police in fear that it is an IED. Next thing the bomb squad will come, evacuate the area and try to detonate the suspicious cargo or disable it in case that a detonation is too dangerous. I’m wondering if America will adopt similar procedures after the recent events.
Jenos is so…so…so…
First…the timing was such that it caught the biggest crowd…most marathoners run around 4 hours…so the biggest groups were finishing…hence the most spectators…family members…an 8 year old boy watching for his father to finish.
Second…the closest analogue to this was the white-supremecist bomber in Spokane Washington…who thankfully failed.
If your entire world view is based on bullshit, prejudice, and mis-information…then you are a sad little man.
How about we all stop trying to compare it to other tragedies, and just take it on its own merits?
Here’s what we know: A bombing took place, and it killed 3 Americans, injured hundreds of others.
Here is what we do not know: Everything else.
I actually don’t mind at all Jenos’s speculating, as he is clearly just thinking aloud. While I usually disagree wholeheartedly with him, I’ve found nothing inherently wrong with what he has typed thus far.
However, we do not know if this bombing is “most like” any other bombing in our history. And it doesn’t really matter if it is similar to some other tragedy. Eventually we will find out who did it. If an American did it, an investigation, trial, and sentencing will occur. If it was an act sponsored by a nation, then quite unfortunately many others in that nation will most likely due as punishment for their government. If it was a non-American acting on his or her own, without sponsorship by another nation, then we do not yet know what the response will be.
That’s about all you can say at this point.
@Neil Hudelson:
Generally speaking, I tend to agree. That said, armchair analysts (my self included) tend to forget past history… speaking of which:
Umm, anyone remember Eric Rudolph? Granted he was a proverbial “lone wold” (which chances are the current bomber may very well be. But he struck a public civilian event, with a similar style of bomb and with similiar results. And his goal: eliminate abortions and gays.
This isn’t to say that this IS or IS NOT an example of right wing terror. It’s more to suggest that categorizing “styles of violence/terror” is a difficult task.
BTW, another key lesson from the Atlanta bombing is that early speculation can truly be dangerous both for the investigation and the targets of initial interviews.
This is the kind of thing people should pause, and introspect on, before posting. Is it really true, or does it just “confirm priors?”
@matt bernius: Indeed. That security guard (Richard Jewell?) basically had his life ruined because he wanted to help.
@matt bernius: At risk of piling on indeeds your Rudolph reminds me of the two scientists questionably implicated in the unsolved anthrax attacks.
As we await more info, I suggest taking a breath and reading the “Eight facts about terrorism in the United States” Ezra Klien’s team has assembled:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/04/16/eight-facts-about-terrorism-in-the-united-states/
There’s something in there for everyone.
@ Neil…
That assumes capabilities never before exhibited. And this;
is just counter-factual nonsense and needs to be called for what it is.
matt bernius…
Thanks for the link…fascinating.
Tsar: You are generally not the worst conservative around here, more of an asinine contrarian. But in this case, there is nothing else to say but I hope you look back and realize what a terrible person you’ve become. You really need this: http://xkcd.com/481/
@john personna: It was almost entirely off-the-cuff. I was thinking about the Weather Underground, the Occupy idiots, the guy who tried to shoot up the FRC, and a couple of others vs. McVeigh, Rudolf (who, it must be remembered, wasn’t even a suspect in the Olympics bombing for years, and that’s a measure of success right there), and a couple of others.
As Neil said, what I’m saying here is just thinking aloud, tossing out ideas for consideration. If you thought I was asserting any kind of authoritative tone, I apologize for your misunderstanding.
@anjin-san:At any rate, can’t you give it a rest for one day?
I’m sorry, I missed your similar condemnations of the folks above who are blaming the Tea Party for the bombing in far more direct language than I used.
Well, I am not familiar with “pj”, so I don’t know if he/she habitually makes factually inaccurate, agenda driven comments. You, on the other hand, do. Pretty much on a daily basis. So keep playing the victim card. It’s easier than going to the trouble of making thoughtful, factually accurate comments.
Perhaps. But in the world of facts, you are wrong. Wildly wrong. Now that’s nothing new for you, but on a day like yesterday, it is far more tiresome than usual. My point being that if you can’t make a thoughtful, truthful post, perhaps it’s best to stay quiet.
@C. Clavin: “First…the timing was such that it caught the biggest crowd…most marathoners run around 4 hours…so the biggest groups were finishing…”
The good news, according to the NY Times, was that 3/4 of the runners had crossed the finish line already. The average for marathon runners nationwide is just under four and a half hours (hey, ma, I’m average!), but Boston is a hard race to qualify for and the participants in it seem to be faster…
@Jenos Idanian #13: “As Neil said, what I’m saying here is just thinking aloud, tossing out ideas for consideration”
“Ideas.” Right.
@C. Clavin:
Seriously, other than McVeigh and the Klan, rightwing terror has been this sort of penny ante crap- bomb a clinic here, shoot a doctor there hell Rudolph should be on death row for crap much like this.
A very recent news item:
Person briefed on probe: bombs in pressure cookers
A very interesting paragraph within:
Another source on the pressure cooker item:
Investigators believe Boston bombs were pressure cookers hidden in backpacks, officials say
@C. Clavin:
Actually, I think the closest analog is the Olympic Park bombing in 1996.
After reviewing the video of the explosions I’ll say I think it’s some lonish wolf type like Timothy Mcveigh. The explosions themselves were tiny which is fortunate as far more people would of died if they had been more like the IEDs in Iraq.
@john personna: He’s a troll. What does anyone expect?