The brother who's been killed was reported to have had explosives on his body...

So the fear now is that the other brother, now on the run, may be carrying explosives as well (not to mention armed, after their shootout last night.)

So, let's speculate. Chechnyan terrorists or crazy individuals? Seperatists or Islamists? And why bomb the Boston Marathon on Patriot Day?

What about confining this to one thread? Do there really need to be 3 threads about Boston created within half an hour?

Let's NOT speculate.

CNN reports that the brothers went to Kazakhstan before coming here.

And the older brother apparently posted on his website "I don't have a single American friend; I don't understand them."

And you can see the National Guard on the streets of Watertown right now, armored vehicles and everything...very surreal...

And CNN also now reporting the brothers WERE Muslim...

The ENTIRE CITY OF BOSTON as well as Watertown and surrounding areas on lock-down right now while they look for the surviving Chechnyan Boston Marathon Bomber...

An entire major city on a mass lock-down right now, wow...

It's pretty crazy... There have been non-stop police sirens all through the night.

I've heard conflicting reports about Kurdistan - anyone confirm?

Never mind, it was Kyrgyzstan. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, born in Russia and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, from Kyrgyzstan.

Apparently they have also lived in Dagestan, but have been in the U.S. for a subtantial amount of time (10+ years). Tamerlan said that he "did not have a single American friend."

I was expecting an IRA connection. NORAID, Boston, Gaddaffi, p. IRA, Semtex.......bang bang all over the UK.

http://www.securitynewsdesk.com/2013/04/17/opinion-noraid-supporters-must-examine-their-consciences-over-ira/

Analysis:

It does look as though at least one of the brothers is an ethnic Kurd. Kyrgyzstan isn't as renowned for Islamic terrorism as the rest of the region, but it obviously isn't paradise either. It's a scene of both Russian and U.S. imperialism, which could have had an effect on the brothers.

Dagestan, near Chechnya, is on the other hand a hotspot of religious fanaticism. It's quite possible that one or both of the brothers became indoctrinated and trained in this region.

While the attack was clearly anti-American and could be considered an "Islamic" attack, these men didn't receive any equipment or assistance in carrying out their attack. They seem to have been working alone, and therefore their motivations, while possibly fuelled by Islamic extremism, seem to be disenfranchisement and alienation reminiscent of the "Virginia Tech" massacre.

The BBC Moscow bureau reports that Dzhokhar Tzarnaev moved to the US in 2001 or 2002 from Makhachkala - the capital of Dagestan, a southern Caucasus Republic near to Chechnya. His school there says he was only a student for a couple of years, and had arrived from Kyrgyzstan.

I find this whole case quite troubling. As much as I want to be rid of anyone remotely involved in this plot, I find this really hard to believe. The most wanted men in the United States *stayed* in Boston and robbed a 7/11. That takes a lot of stupidity that these guys didn't show before. Only really strong evidence is that they had backpacks at the marathon; any good lawyer could squeeze out of that one. They conducted this attack using methods gained from military training (teams with leaders and extractors). The main media that I'm looking at is reporting these as lone wolf attacks, not assisted by any government, and this I simply can't believe at this point.

If these guys had stood down, they'd have gotten a trial, and based on the evidence right now, it'd be tough to convict with a clean jury. I hope that more comes out (and maybe they know more that they aren't saying)...

And, by the way, for those questioning the "Islam" part, here you go: http://vk.com/id160300242

What am I looking at bo_sox? Nobody is questioning whether they were muslims, only whether the attack was a religiously-motivated attack, which is unclear at present.

I am also really skeptical that any government was involved in this due to the crudeness and lack of effectivness of the bombs. An IRA or Al Quaeda bomb, in comparison, would have killed hundreds at the marathon. To me it is clear that they were working alone.

Mas evacuations now in the area, apparently CNN reporting that many people are being rapidly evacuated and squads swarming the scene as they don't feel it's safe...

They clearly are worried about more explosives, and pretty seriously so.

@ SYnapse

Al Qaeda bombs come in many different shapes and sizes.

What amazes me about the story is why they would go to such trouble to attack Yanks when their homeland is right next to big bad Russia.

They lived in the us..

We are acting as if nationality is a sure fire determination of intent. I think that is stupid. These guys came to the us as kids. If this is Islamic related they were probably radicalized here over the Internet. Otherwise they are just two dicks who wanted to go out in a blaze of glory.

"why they would go to such trouble to attack Yanks when their homeland is right next to big bad Russia."

Octavious: because this isn't a politically or religiously motivated attack. They were just pissed off Americans living in America. I think HumanWave is correct.

Al Quaeda/IRA/Hezbollah/ETA are VERY professional and well-equipped, their bombs are 20-50 times more powerful than those used at Boston, which are more akin to a Internet-recipe pipe bomb.

@SYnapse ... I'm saying that they have not gone through due process and are working simply to kill suspects. If the suspects (before, not anymore, now that they have explosives on them and pose an imminent danger) had simply stood down they would not have been able to convict them under judiciary policy based on the evidence that WE as the public currently know.

I do not think the government was involved in this, but the fact that government strategies are being used against them here (as was the case in 9/11 if you make an abstract comparison) is troubling. If terrorists are using us against us, then how are we to stop them?

The most troubling thing to me is that the media is going to - as usual - sensationalize this whole thing and make the criminals the biggest names in the country that everyone will know, and this is even more troubling because I can say with high certainty that most all of us have the ingredients in our own homes to make the same crude explosives that they set off at the Marathon.

@Octavious ... the fact that they are Russian (and really a Russian would probably tell you that they aren't purely Russian) has little to do with this crime based on what we know. Agreed with HW and SYnapse there.

Ah, I get what you're saying now bo, but to be honest they already shot someone dead, had a firefight with police and threw some explosives - I'd say it's pretty fair game now to shooting them. We're basically talking a war scenario, although one side massively outguns the other.

You don't have any information about what happened so how can you say police methods were wrong.

And I think that your wild assumption that they were unconvictable is ridiculously stupid. We have been shown surveillance tapes where they have lost their backpacks during the course of the race. Meanwhile there is potential evidence everywhere, purchase of pressure cookers, Internet usage, training, recent behavior, witness testimony physical evidence at the scene and in their apartments. Just because a prosecutor hasn't gone on cnn and made his closing argument doesn't mean the state wouldn't have had a case.

@SYnapse ... once again, I said "if they stood down." I do believe that they were the bombers because of their behavior, but that tape of them having backpacks at the Boston Marathon in packs of thousands of people acting natural just like everyone else and having no security checks at all to confirm that any of the evidence was actually inside those backpacks and was not either put in later or given to them by someone else (you get the idea yet?) .... etc. .... would not have gotten them convicted.

@HumanWave ... it is not a "wild assumption." You are completely ignoring every little bit of everything I said. "Potential evidence" including all of the things you said HAS NOT COME OUT YET TO THE PUBLIC and thus we have NO IDEA IF IT WILL EVENTUALLY BE USED OR NOT. That's called speculation. Until it comes out, we can't reasonably assume it exists at all.

I never said the case wouldn't have been solved; I never said they weren't guilty; I never said the state wouldn't have a case. I simply said that the information distributed to the public that all of us are using as a base for our judgment is not enough. Information that hasn't come out yet hasn't come out yet so don't act as if it has come out yet in order to discredit me.

What the fuck does the fact that its public matter at all? OK I concede, you didn't make a stupid assumption, you just made a stupid inconsequential statement. I guess this is similar to the ridiculous temper tantrum you threw when I wouldn't cite common knowledge in the North Korea thread. I guess we have an empiricist.

The Uncle is a fucking star ...... he is loving the Press !!

"What the fuck does the fact that its public matter at all?"

BECAUSE YOU ARE THE PUBLIC AND I AM THE PUBLIC AND WE KNOW THE THINGS THAT THE PUBLIC KNOWS SO UNLESS YOU WANT TO MUTE THIS THREAD AND STOP SPECULATING GET ON BOARD THAT YOU ARE DISCUSSING A PUBLIC MATTER

"I guess this is similar to the ridiculous temper tantrum you threw when I wouldn't cite common knowledge in the North Korea thread."

Since you're making an idiot out of yourself, yes, in that way, it's exactly the same.