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Home-Grown Terrorist Attack Threatens to Disrupt Obama Agenda

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The Boston Marathon terrorist attack allegedly hatched by two brothers from Chechnya is threatening to disrupt President Obama’s second-term agenda.

Opponents of immigration reform — the most promising priority of Obama’s second term remaining after the defeat of gun control — are already using the attack to try to slow progress on a bipartisan Senate bill.

More broadly, the attack is raising questions about how the administration should deal with 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was captured Friday after an exhaustive manhunt in Boston, and concerns over whether the FBI was too complacent in letting his older brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev out of its sight after interviewing him in 2011.

The issues are expected to create political problems and distractions for Obama, whose fight against terrorism has largely been a political success highlighted by the killing of Osama bin Laden.

It is unclear how much oxygen the issue will consume in the coming weeks, but it seems certain it will shift the political debates in Washington.

Read more from this story HERE.

The ‘Co-Exist’ Bombers: This must Disappoint David Sirota

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Photo Credit: National Review

This has been a strange and deadly week in America. On Monday, two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, the first successful terrorist attack on a civilian target on American soil since 9/11. And yet a mere two days later, Boston’s death toll was surpassed by a freak fertilizer accident at a small town in Texas.

In America, all atrocities are not equal: Minutes after the Senate declined to support so-called gun control in the wake of the Newtown massacre, the president rushed ill-advisedly on air to give a whiny, petulant performance predicated on the proposition that one man’s mass infanticide should call into question the constitutional right to bear arms. Simultaneously, the media remain terrified that another man’s mass infanticide might lead you gullible rubes to question the constitutional right to abortion, so the ongoing Kermit Gosnell trial in Philadelphia has barely made the papers — even though it involves large numbers of fully delivered babies who were decapitated and had their feet chopped off and kept in pickling jars. Which would normally be enough to guarantee a perpetrator front-page coverage for weeks on end. In the most recent testimony, one of the “clinic”’s “nurses” testified that she saw a baby delivered into the toilet, where his little arms and feet flapped around as if trying to swim to safety. Then another “women’s health worker” reached in and, in the procedure’s preferred euphemism, “snipped” the baby’s neck — i.e., severed his spinal column. “Doctor” Gosnell seems likely to prove America’s all-time champion mass murderer. But his victims are ideologically problematic for the media, and so the poor blood-soaked monster will never get his moment in the spotlight.

The politicization of mass murder found its perfect expression in one of those near-parodic pieces to which the more tortured self-loathing dweebs of the fin de civilisation West are prone. As the headline in Salon put it, “Let’s Hope the Boston Marathon Bomber Is a White American.” David Sirota is himself a white American, but he finds it less discomforting to his Princess Fluffy Bunny worldview to see his compatriots as knuckle-dragging nutjobs rather than confront all the apparent real-world contradictions of the diversity quilt. He had a lot of support for his general predisposition. “The thinking, as we have been reporting, is that this is a domestic extremist attack,” declared Dina Temple-Raston, NPR’s “counterterrorism correspondent.” “Officials are leaning that way largely because of the timing of the attack. April is a big month for anti-government and right-wing individuals. There’s the Columbine anniversary, there’s Hitler’s birthday, there’s the Oklahoma City bombing, the assault on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco.” Miss Temple-Raston was born in my mother’s homeland of Belgium, where, alas, there were more than a few fellows willing to wish the Führer happy birthday back when he was still around to thank you for it. But it was news to me it was such a red-letter day in the Bay State. Who knew? At NPR, “counterterrorism” seems to mean countering any suggestion that this might be terrorism from you know, the usual suspects.

Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Bombing Suspect: Pot Head, Obama Supporter and Other Quirky Details

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

By Robby Soave. Boston bombing suspect and fugitive Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was a “normal pot head” who supported President Obama for re-election last November, according to friends and his Twitter account.

Chris Barry, who attended the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth with Tsarnaev, described him as normal teenager who loved to smoke pot and cigarettes every day.

“He was a pot head, a normal pot head,” said Barry in an interview with Politico. “I couldn’t even imagine him being mad at someone let alone hurting someone.”

Tsarnaev, a Muslim, did not come across as strongly religious, said Barry.

“He never brought it up. It seemed like he could care less,” he said. Read more from this story HERE.

“Barack, You My Dawg,” and other Pro-Obama Tweets

By Matthew Sheffield. Several posts on what several news organizations have confirmed as the Twitter profile of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev indicate that that the 19-year-old Chechnyan immigrant was a supporter of Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

If that is indeed the case, it does not mean that Obama has any sort of connection with or responsibility for the bombing suspect or his brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. It does, however, completely reverse the fantasy that many American liberals were openly hoping for: that the bombing suspects might be revealed as Timothy McVeigh 2.0, someone whose very name they could use to smear and deride anyone who stands against their belief system. In other words, one of those “dog whistles” we keep hearing so much about.

Now that information has emerged which not only indicates the suspected bombers were not radical conservatives but that one of them appears to be a supporter of President Obama, how widely will it be spread in the endless series of reports trying to report as many details about the two suspects? Read more from this story HERE.

Father of Captured Bombing Suspect: ‘Tell the Police Everything’

By Bianna Golodryga. The father of a suspected Boston Marathon bomber started to cry when ABC News told him that his son had been captured alive.

“Thank God,” Anzor Tsarnaev said, speaking in Russian, thanking ABC News for relaying word that his son, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was in custody and alive.

Asked what he wanted to tell his son, Anzor Tsarnaev said, “Tell police everything. Everything. Just be honest.”

Tsarnaev spoke to ABC News on more than one occasion today from his home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, Russia, as Boston police carried out an intense dragnet for his son.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev survived a running gun battle with police during the night that left an MIT security officer dead and a Boston police officer badly wounded. His older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died in the shootout. Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect: ‘I Don’t Have a Single American Friend’

By CBS Boston. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was killed early Friday, once described himself as not having a single American friend and aspired to be a U.S. Olympic boxer.

As police continue the extensive manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev hours following a fatal shootout that killed his older brother, more details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s personal life and past athletic aspirations are coming to light.

In Johannes Hirn’s photo essay, “Will Box for Passport,” Hirn profiled Tamerlan Tsarnaev on his road to the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City. Throughout the 15-picture photo essay, which has since been made a private gallery, Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s life is on display, talking openly about his religion, his straight-edge lifestyle, his boxing dreams, and the difficult time he had adjusting to living in the U.S. for five years.

“I don’t have a single American friend, I don’t understand them,” Tamerlan Tsarnaev said in the photo essay. Read more from this story HERE.

Background on the Capture of the Second Bombing Suspect

By Sheldon Alberts, Daniel Strauss and Jonathan Easley. “We are exhausted folks, but we have a victory here tonight,” Massachusetts State Police Col. Timothy Alben said.

After a long day of tension and uncertainty, Tsarnaev’s capture happened in a burst of action Friday evening. It started shortly after an update on the investigation in which law enforcement announced that a daylong lockdown on Boston and the surrounding area had been lifted.

Just after that, gunshots sounded in Watertown, where officials suspected Tsarnaev had been hiding. A fleet of police cars sped to surround the suspect. What followed was a standoff as law enforcement officials eventually closed in on Tsarnaev, who was hiding in a boat behind a Watertown home.

Just before 9 p.m., Boston police tweeted that the suspect was custody.

“CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody,” the department wrote on Twitter. Read more from this story HERE.

Michelle Obama Visited Saudi 'Person of Interest' at Boston Hospital Yesterday

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The well-known Saudi Arabian news site Okaz.com released a report claiming first lady Michelle Obama visited two young Saudi Arabian nationals — including one once considered a person of interest and who sources tell TheBlaze was being considered for deportation — in the hospital Thursday following the Boston attacks and reassured them of their health status.

Below is a screenshot of the Okaz report:

Steven Miller, a researcher at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, translated the Arabic-language article into English for TheBlaze:

“Yesterday, Michelle Obama, the wife of the American President, visited the Saudis in the hospital who were injured in the Boston bombing, Abdul Rahman Ali Isa al-Salmi al-Harbi and Noura Khaled Saleh al-Ajaji, to reassure them of their health,” begins the article before explaining the students’ injuries.

“Noura al-Ajaji underwent a third surgery yesterday to repair and beautify the thigh area, just above the knee, treat skin damage caused by shrapnel, and remove fragments. This was the third round of the treatment plan for al-Ajaji; the first phase focused on sterilizing the wounds, and the second focused on healing the gash caused by glass shrapnel. Medical reports issued by the hospital yesterday confirmed the complete integrity of her knee and thigh.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Captured Suspect Favorited This Tweet: 'The Battle Within is Defined by the Word Jihad.'

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Photo Credit: FBI.gov

Amid the mundane chatter of an ordinary digital teenager, a Twitter account believed to belong to the Boston Marathon bombing suspect who was captured after eluding authorities on Friday contains some chilling chatter.

The @J_tsar Twitter feed is believed to belong to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, one of two Chechen brothers police say carried out Monday’s terror attack in Boston. Buzzfeed on Friday reported that a high school classmate of Dzhokhar, Stefanie Gardner, confirmed that the account belonged to Tsarnaev.

A tweet Tsarnaev marked as a favorite was apparently sent just hours before the attack, at 1:07 a.m. on Monday, from someone going by “Steezy_Be_Eazy”:

“The ultimate sacrifice is within you, The battle within is defined by the word jihad.”

The last tweet orginating from the account believed to be Tsarnaev’s, on April 16, after the Monday bombing that killed three and left dozens gruesomely injured: “I’m a stress free kind of guy.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Chechen Bombing Suspects Bring Fire on Rubio's Immigration Bill

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Photo Credit: Gage Skidmore

A powerful senator warned Friday that this week’s Boston marathon bombings should give Congress pause as it attempts to overhaul the nation’s immigration system.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), senior Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, emphasized that it’s too early to know whether the perpetrators of the bombings exploited gaps in immigration law to help stage their attacks. But with the chief suspects said to be ethnic Chechens raised in Kyrgyzstan who have lived in the United States for roughly a decade, he suggested their story could serve as a cautionary tale as lawmakers attempt to revamp the system.

“Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system,” Grassley said in his opening statement of a Judiciary hearing on reform. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of the people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.

“How can individuals evade authorities and plan such attacks on our soil?” Grassley asked. “How can we beef up security checks on people who wish to enter the U.S.? How do we ensure that people who wish to do us harm are not eligible for benefits under the immigration laws, including this new bill before us?”

Friday’s Judiciary hearing — the first this year on the immigration reform issue that is one of President Obama’s top second-term priorities — came as law enforcers had shut down much of Boston in an unprecedented search for one of the suspects in Monday’s twin marathon bombings. The improvised devices killed three people and injured more than 170 when they detonated near the finish line more than four hours into the storied race.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boston Bombing Marathon Suspect Dead, Another 'Armed and Dangerous,' both from Chechnya, Police Say (+video)

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Photo Credit: AP

By ANTHONY CASTELLANO and LEE FERRAN. One suspect in this week’s deadly Boston Marathon bombing is dead while a second suspect is still at large and the subject of a massive overnight manhunt in Massachusetts, police said early this morning.

In a brief press conference, a local police official said the first suspect was killed after exchanging fire with police officers, during which multiple explosive devices were detonated. One officer was injured and is in critical condition. The man the FBI identified Thursday as Suspect 2 in photos released related to the Boston Marathon bombing investigation is on the loose and is armed and dangerous, police said. He is the target of an “active search by tactical teams.”

“We believe this is a terrorist, we believe this is a man that’s come here to kill people,” said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis.

Police also released a new image of Suspect 2, which they said was taken from a local 7-11 in Cambridge, Mass., last night.

Watertown police have blocked off at least one town street and multiple police cars, ambulances and fire trucks are on the scene. Read more from this story HERE.

Boston Marathon bombing suspects are brothers of Chechen origin, say reports

The two suspects in Monday’s Boston Marathon bombing have been identified as men from Chechnya.

Earlier today they killed a police officer at the MIT campus, injured a transit officer in a firefight and threw explosive devices at police during their getaway attempt in a long night of violence that left one of them dead and another still at large Friday, authorities said.

A law enforcement intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP identified the surviving bomb suspect as 19-year-old Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev of Cambridge, Massachussets.

Two law enforcement officials told AP that Tsarnaev and the other suspect, who was not immediately identified, had been living legally in the US for at least one year.

Authorities say the suspects threw explosives from the car as police followed it into Watertown. The suspects and police exchanged gunfire and one of the suspects was critically injured and later died. Read more from this story HERE.

Editor’s Note: Fox is reporting in its live broadcast this morning that both individuals are brothers from Russia near Chechnya, who have been living in the Boston area with their family of six for the past year. Fox also reports that the brothers are registered to vote and must “obviously” be citizens.

Man Witnesses Boston Marathon Bombings – then Watches Deadly Texas Fertilizer Plant Explosion after Returning Home

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Photo Credit: AP

People keep asking Joe Berti if he feels unlucky.

A bomb exploded at the finish line of the Boston Marathon moments after Berti finished the race. Two days later, he was in his home state of Texas when he saw a fertilizer plant explode near Waco.

“I was just like, ‘I can’t believe this!’” said Berti, who said he had never witnessed an explosion before. Then he thought: “I just want to get out of here and get away from all these explosions.”

But Berti, as it turns out, is far from unlucky. Instead, he feels fortunate. He left both tragedies unscathed, while members of his running group and his wife – who was closer to the Boston explosion than he was – were also unhurt.

“It’s a miracle,” he said Thursday in an interview with The Associated Press. “People keep saying, ‘Don’t you feel unlucky?’ and I was actually the opposite – saying not only do I not feel unlucky, but I feel blessed that my wife could be 10 yards from the explosion and not have a scratch.”

Read more from this story HERE.

FBI Releases Images of Suspects in Boston Marathon Bombing (+video)

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Photo Credit: FBI

The FBI today released images of two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing the bureau still considers to be “armed and extremely dangerous.”

At a press conference, FBI special agent in charge Richard DesLauriers referred to the two men as Suspect 1 and Suspect 2 and said Suspect 2 was spotted dropping a bag before a bomb exploded at the second bomb site. The two men appear to be “associated,” DesLauriers said.

DesLauriers asked the public for their help identifying the suspects, but asked the public not to approach them. Though the men are considered armed and dangerous, the FBI said they still do not believe there is an imminent danger in the area.

A few hours later, an FBI official cited a large volume of calls as a result of the photos and DesLauriers’ appeal for help.

A source close to the investigation told ABC News authorities have “good confidence” that the men in the photos perpetrated the crime. The degree of confidence, the source said, comes from a “revealing” reaction Suspect 2 had to the detonation of the first bomb, which was captured on surveillance video.

Watch video here:

Read more from this story HERE.

Security Video May Show Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect; Report of Arrest Premature (+video)

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Photo Credit: Washington Post

The daunting task of sifting through thousands of images of the Boston Marathon bombing site in search of a culprit suddenly telescoped to a single video from a Lord & Taylor security camera Wednesday.

The discovery of video of a man who wore a large backpack to the finish line area and then dropped the package there raised hopes for an imminent breakthrough in the case, setting off a media frenzy and insistent statements from authorities that no arrest has been made. A Boston city official said the video is of “special interest” to investigators.

The second full day of the investigation into the attack that killed three people and injured at least 176 brought jitters, rumors and at least the hope that investigators had made important progress, though Massachusetts Gov. Deval L. Patrick (D) said that while the probe is “making some progress . . . it’s going to be slow, it’s going to be methodical.”

Boston’s federal courthouse, where hundreds had gathered in response to false reports of an arrest, was briefly evacuated because of a bomb threat. Officials also evacuated a Boston hospital, Brigham and Women’s, and Oklahoma City’s City Hall because of suspicious vehicles outside. No explosives were found in those cases.

In Boston, many of the injured were released from hospitals. At Brigham and Women’s, which initially treated 35 people, only 11 were still hospitalized Wednesday evening, four of them in critical condition.

Watch video here:

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