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At a Monday night press conference, Gov. Deval Patrick urged Bostonians to be vigilant on their morning commute Tuesday, and to report any suspicious packages to the police. The FBI has officially taken over the investigation, and is treating it as a potential terrorist attack. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis stressed that the police had no suspect in custody yet. "I'm not prepared to say we are at ease at this time," Davis said, when asked if the area was safe. Authorities found and dismantled five more more explosive devices in the area, according to The Wall Street Journal. "This cowardly act will not be taken in stride," Davis said. "We will turn over every rock to find out who is responsible.''
Davis said Boston police were not aware of any specific threat to the marathon before it began. Police said they had no one in custody and no suspects, but the Boston Globe reported that a "person of interest" who was injured in the blast was being questioned at Brigham and Woman's Hospital Monday night. Two large explosions, just 50 yards apart, went off at 2:50 p.m. ET, more than four hours into the race. One of the explosions happened near the entrance of the Fairmont Copley Hotel in Copley Square. The blast scattered hundreds of onlookers and runners, and left a bloody scene of injured spectators, including children. Local news reporter Jackie Bruno wrote that she saw some people with their limbs blown off. The Boston Police Department said it is looking for video footage taken from the finish line as part of its investigation. Video footage shows first responders and bystanders rushing to the scene of the blast to help the wounded.
Boston Medical Center took in 20 patients, including two children, most of whom are being treated for "lower leg injuries," a spokeswoman said. A spokeswoman for Tufts Medical Center said the hospital is treating nine patients for conditions such as shrapnel wounds, ruptured ear drums, and "serious orthopedic and neuromuscular trauma to the lower legs." At least one patient was as young as three years old. President Barack Obama warned Americans in a brief statement Monday evening not to jump to conclusions before authorities find out who committed the crime. "We will find out who did this," Obama said in an appearance in the White House briefing room. "Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice." A White House official said the incident is being treated as an act of terror.
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Writing in the online magazine of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Inspire, the terrorist known as Abu Musab al-Suri listed what he called “the most important enemy targets.” Al-Suri contended that civilians should be targeted “when responding to a brutal practice carried out by America and her allied forces.” “This is done by targeting human crowds in order to inflict maximum human losses,” he wrote. “This is very easy since there are numerous such targets such as crowded sports arenas, annual social events, large international exhibitions, crowded market-places, skyscrapers, crowded buildings … etc.” “It is possible for ordinary Resistance fighters among the Muslims residing in America and the allied Western countries to target them, in order to participate in the jihad and the Resistance, and to stretch out a helping hand to the mujahidun [Islamic warriors].”
Abu Musab al-Suri, a leading al-Qaeda propagandist whose real name is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, is wanted by Spain in connection with the 2004 Madrid bombings.
Any short list of terrorist groups dedicated to carrying out attacks against U.S. targets would include AQAP, the al-Qaeda affiliate active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It claimed responsibility for the failed attempt by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bomb a Detroit-bound aircraft on Christmas Day 2009; and for an attempt in Oct. 2010 to mail parcel bombs to the U.S., succeeding in getting them commercial cargo planes bound for the U.S. before they were discovered. In his Inspire article, al-Suri wrote that “the goal of the operations of the Resistance and the Individual Terrorism Jihad is to inflict as many human and material losses as possible upon the interests of America and her allies, and to make them feel that the Resistance has transformed into a phenomenon of popular uprising against them.”
Al-Suri, a Syrian-born jihadist whose proper name is Mustafa Setmariam Nasar, is credited with authoring a 1,600-page online propaganda treatise entitled “Call for Global Islamic Resistance.” He was captured in Pakistan in late 2005 and turned over to the U.S. Wanted for plotting jihad against Syria’s Assad regime, he was then handed over to the Syrians. But Syria reportedly released him in late 2011, a step experts speculated at the time was a signal to the U.S. government that Damascus’ counterterror cooperation was over because of its support for the anti-Assad opposition.
Al-Suri, who holds joint Syrian and Spanish citizenship, is wanted by Spain for alleged involvement in the 2004 Madrid train bombings that killed 191 people, and is the subject of an Interpol red notice. His article on “the most important enemy targets” appeared in the ninth edition of Inspire, an AQAP publication which terrorism experts say has played an important role in cultivating and inciting English-speaking jihadists to plot attacks against Western targets. The ninth edition came out in May 2012, and was the first to have been produced after Inspire editor Samir Khan was killed in a U.S. drone strike along with Anwar al-Awlaki, the Yemeni-American cleric and top al-Qaeda propagandist, who also played a leading role in the magazine.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/al-qaeda-propagandist-called-attacks-sports-events
President Barack Obama branded the attack an act of terrorism, whether carried out by a solo bomber or group, and the FBI vowed to "go to the ends of the Earth" to find out who did it. Scores of victims remained in Boston hospitals, many with grievous injuries, a day after the twin explosions near the marathon's finish line killed three people, wounded more than 170 and reawakened fears of terrorism. A 9-year-old girl and 10-year-old boy were among 17 victims listed in critical condition.
Officials found that the bombs consisted of explosives put in common 1.6-gallon pressure cookers, one containing shards of metal and ball bearings, the other packed with nails, and both stuffed into duffel bags, said a source close to the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still going on. At a news conference, FBI agent Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, confirmed that investigators had found pieces of black nylon from a bag or backpack and fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker. He said the items were sent to the FBI for analysis at Quantico, Va.
Police officers react to a second explosion at the finish line of the Boston Marathon in Boston on April 15, 2013. Two explosions shattered the euphoria of the Boston Marathon finish line on Monday, sending authorities out on the course to carry off the injured while the stragglers were rerouted away from the smoking site of the blasts.
Pressure-cooker explosives have been used in international terrorism, and have been recommended for lone-wolf operatives by Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen. But information on how to make the bombs is readily found online, and U.S. officials said Americans should not rush to judgment in linking the attack to overseas terrorists. The bombs exploded 10 or more seconds apart, tearing off victims' limbs and spattering streets with blood, instantly turning the festive race into a hellish scene of confusion, horror and heroics. The blasts killed 8-year-old Martin Richard of Boston, 29-year-old Krystle Campbell of Medford, Mass., and a third victim whose name has not been released.
Doctors who treated the wounded corroborated reports that the bombs were packed with shrapnel intended to cause mayhem. "We've removed BBs and we've removed nails from kids. One of the sickest things for me was just to see nails sticking out of a little girl's body," said Dr. David Mooney, director of the trauma center at Boston Children's Hospital. At Massachusetts General Hospital, all four amputations performed there were above the knee, with no hope of saving more of the legs, said Dr. George Velmahos, chief of trauma surgery. "It wasn't a hard decision to make," he said. "We just completed the ugly job that the bomb did."
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Arredondo had come to the Boston Marathon to watch National Guardsmen run the race in honor of fallen soldiers, including the son Arredondo lost in Iraq. He carried a camera and a small American flag. On the other side of the fence now, he dropped the flag. He took four pictures of the scene, focusing on a young man with an expressionless face and a left leg that was only a bone below the knee. Arredondo put the camera away. He picked up the flag, now soaked in blood from the sidewalk, and put it in his back pocket. He asked the injured man his name. "Stay still," Arredondo told him. "The ambulance is here." Arredondo, a native of Costa Rica who has lived in the United States since 1980, was one of several bystanders who helped treat and evacuate victims from Monday’s bombing. When the smart thing to do was run away, many ran into the smoke instead.
Arredondo has become one of the better known among this group, appearing in news photos in a distinctive cowboy hat. On Tuesday morning, as his wife fielded calls from Katie Couric and Boston police detectives, Arredondo said he had acted out of instinct, using training he had received as a fireman and a rescuer of injured bullfighters in Costa Rica. "I did my duty," he said. On Monday, Arredondo said, he was quickly joined at the injured man’s side by another bystander. Maybe a doctor, Arredondo doesn’t know. The stranger asked for tourniquets. Arredondo tore strips out of a sweater he found lying on the ground. As the other man tied the tourniquets on the injured man’s thighs, Arredondo talked to the victim, and tried to block his view of his own legs. "The ambulance is here," he repeated. "You’re okay. Relax."
Carlos Arredondo, center, runs with other responders with an injured man in a wheel chair past the finish line the 2013 Boston Marathon following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013.
Somebody appeared with an empty wheelchair. An angel, Arredondo thought later. Arredondo grabbed it and put the man in the seat. They wheeled him down Boylston, bypassing the medical tent. The man was too injured for that. "Ambulance! Ambulance! Ambulance!" Arredondo yelled. A photo of him pushing this wheelchair while holding one leg of a pale, ash-covered victim would be on front pages around the country. As they went, one tourniquet slipped off. Blood flowed again. Arredondo grabbed the tourniquet and wrenched it tight. Finally, they found an ambulance. He lifted the man out of the chair. "What’s his name?" the EMT asked. Arredondo had forgotten. He asked the man again. Somehow, the wounded man was still calm enough to start spelling it out, to be sure they got it right. The ambulance doors closed. The man was gone, as well as the other bystander who had first applied the tourniquets. What was the injured man’s name? "I can’t remember," Arredondo said Tuesday.
After leaving the victim, Arredondo found his own wife, who had stood on a ledge of the Boston Public Library and waved her American flag, as a signal to him. They went home to Roslindale, an outer part of Boston. He was shaking until 7 o’clock that night. His wife Melida didn’t feel warm again until about 2 a.m. The weather was mild for Boston in spring, but she had brought a chill home with her. On Tuesday, they both tried to explain why Arredondo had handled this shock with such calm. An earlier shock, the death of his son, had nearly killed him. "When the Marines came to the house, he set himself on fire," Melida Arredondo said Tuesday. Carlos Arredondo said he had learned from the earlier incident, which made national news, that you have to keep moving to overcome shock. At the marathon, he said, "I did what I could."
http://www.stripes.com/news/us/when-others-ran-away-after-boston-explosions-he-ran-in-1.216843
A Consulate statement late Tuesday said the family of the victim asked that the young woman not be identified publicly by name.
The consulate statement came several hours after Boston University said the victim was a BU graduate student. A university web site described the deceased student as one of three friends who had been watching the race near the finish line when the blasts occurred.
The statement said one companion, identified as Zhou Danling, was wounded in the blasts and is in stable condition Tuesday evening at a Boston hospital. The third person was unharmed.
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On Tuesday, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Hua Chunying expressed Beijing's condolences and said that China strongly condemns any violent attack against civilians. She said that one Chinese student had been injured following the bombings and she was being treated at a local hospital. Wang Shi, CEO of China's largest real estate developer Vanke, was at the finishing line of Boston's marathon, where he witnessed the blasts and uploaded pictures to his Chinese microblog account.
In a phone interview with CCTV news, China's state TV news channel, he said he heard the explosions from the VIP box where he was watching the race. "There was a sudden blast from the right side of the finishing line," he told the CCTV reporter. "Then white smoke started spreading. At that moment, there was no fire yet nor people hurt that I could see." Wang Shi was in Boston to accompany 15 of his employees who were taking part in the race. Wang had been documenting the race from his Twitter-like Weibo account. Minutes before the explosion, he had posted a picture of the fifth member of the Vanke team to cross the end line, wrapped in a Chinese flag as a cloak. The following pictures were of a very different kind: white smog engulfing the street and people ducking for cover.
Wang Shi was not the only Chinese at the marathon who provided live updates on the events. Fang Sanwen, a former deputy editor in chief at the Chinese news portal Wangyi, also took part in the race. He responded to concerned messages on his Weibo account saying that he had stopped running at the 40th kilometer and he did not know yet what had happened. Later, he posted a message saying that other members of his team had crossed the finishing line only two minutes before the blast. The attack in Boston was headline news for most Chinese news portals and messages of condolences came from many online users. On her microblog account, marathon runner Shi Yanxiu condemned the violence and encouraged people to react after the initial shock and anger. "We have to continue running!," she wrote, "From heaven, those who died probably want more people to take part in marathons and finish the journey they could not finish."
​Some comments online highlighted the intense Chinese media coverage of the tragedy and comparisons to state media coverage of similar domestic accidents. "Chinese media are full of detailed and timely reports with pictures and texts on accidents that happen abroad," one Internet user from Fujian wrote on his microblog account on Tuesday. "But I did not see such an array of reports for the fire that happened in Hubei on the 14th causing 14 deaths and 47 people injured." ​Another Internet user from Beijing praised the U.S. response to the attack and said that the Chinese government could learn from how American officials handled the situation. "If the Chinese government were to respond to a sudden accident like this, being open about its procedures and investigations, and without covering up, the Chinese public would trust its government just like the Americans do," she wrote. ​Figures from the Boston Athletic Association indicate 74 Chinese from the mainland and Hong Kong took part in the race, and another seven athletes from Taiwan.
China Reacts to Boston's Bombing
