Boston Bombing Update

 

We're starting to learn more about the Boston Marathon bombing.

The death toll has definitely been put a three so far, although an undisclosed number of people are in critical condition and some have been put into medically induced comas to try and recover.

The bombs themselves are of interest. They were made using large 6 liter pressure cookers as containers and filled with nuts, metal shards, bolts and nails bearings designed to act as shrapnel and maximize casualties.

A recipe fo rthese bombs appeared in the al-Qaeda magazine 'Inspire'.

There were at least two men involved, one who was described as dark skinned, with s a foreign accent who was carrying a large backpack and kept on trying to enter an area closed to the public near the finishing line. The second man was photographed walking on a rooftop overlooking the finishing line after the second bomb exploded by a spectator.

Both men were wearing hoodies.

These types of bombs in similar containers have been used before in Afghanistan, Iraq,India and in Israel before the security barrier went up. One of the three bombs used in the attempted May 2010 Times Square bombing was a pressure cooker. Typically they're constructed with an initiator, a switch and an explosive charge and can be triggered remotely with a cell phone (a favorite method) or with a timer.That and the sequenced explosions designed to maximize casualties point to professionalism by people whom knew what they were doing.

The Saudi 'person of interest' has now been identified as Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, who was living in an apartment with two Saudi roommates in Revere. He's still being questioned by the FBI. Apparently he wasn't picked up by police merely because of his Arab headgear. Reportedly he smelled of 'gunpowder', had badly burned hands and declared, “I thought there would be a second bomb.”

He also asked: “Did anyone die?”

I have a report from one of my notorious Lil' Birdies that the FBI is more than casually interested in the three roommates of that apartment.One of men was taken into custody over what's officially being called 'visa problems', while a third is reportedly still being 'sought for questioning' to use the usual law enforcement lingo. I'm told they all hail from the Asir province near Yemen, a part of the Kingdom where Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP)is not exactly unpopular.

It's worth pointing out something at this point. If in fact we eventually find out that Muslim terrorists were involved, rest assured that the usual media suspects and the Obama Administration will do handsprings to tell us that Islam is a religion of Peace, that this is a perversion of Islam, that there are millions of peaceful Muslim who do not condone what happened.And that last statement is certainly true.

On the other hand, if the perpetrators turn out to be anyone who can even remotely be linked with the Right, with the Tea Party or with Republicans, expect these same people to behave like starving sharks thrown some raw bloody meat. And expect them to use it to demonize anyone connected with those groups, no matter how peace loving and no matter how quickly they moved to condemn the actual perpetrators of the violence.

Speaking of the Muslim world, the mood is downright celebratory in a number of places.

In Gaza, for instance, there was quite a bit of street dancing and passing out of sweets in celebration, just as there was after 9/11.Apparently half a billion dollars worth of jizya to these people is yet another example of th eold saying that money can't buy love.

Similar scenes were reported in Cairo, Egypt and in Jenin and Ramallah in th eAreab occupied part of Judea and Samaria.

The Muslim Brotherhood provided yet another example of how they operate differently in English and in Arabic.

 In English, the Brotherhood released a statement "categorically reject[ing] as intolerable the bombings committed in the U.S. city of Boston," and "offer[ing] heartfelt sympathies and solemn condolences to the American people and the families of the victims."

In Arabic to the home town crowd, things were just a wee bit different. Brotherhood leader and the vice chairman of the group's political party Essam el-Erian published  a post on his Facebook page with a pro forma condemnation of the Boston bombing, but said America brought in on itself, and it was our own fault.

"Who disturbed democratic transformations, despite the difficult transition from despotism, corruption, poverty, hatred, and intolerance to freedom, justice tolerance, development, human dignity, and social justice?" he asked. "Who planted Islamophobia through research, the press, and the media?

Translation? : 'well I'm required to condemn the bombing, sadiq, but it couldn't have happened to  more deserving people, ins'hallah'.

More as it comes in.