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boston marathon! shocking scenes
daniel mason - 15/4/13 at 08:54 PM

just been reported over 20 now have an arm leg,or both legs missing. terrible scenes

nick205 - 15/4/13 at 09:25 PM

Just read this!!!!

daniel mason - 15/4/13 at 09:26 PM

look on sky news. 3 bombs gone off. injured people everywhere

britishtrident - 15/4/13 at 09:29 PM

The Sky News website seems to have up to date info.

Home grown, al Qaeda, Koean we can only speculate --- reports of "person of interest held by Boston Police.

[Edited on 15/4/13 by britishtrident]

daniel mason - 15/4/13 at 09:32 PM

why bomb a library? seems madness to me

britishtrident - 15/4/13 at 09:33 PM

Bombs were in mail boxes JFK Library fire may not be related

2nd bomb timed to catch people evacuating area and first rsponders.

daniel mason - 15/4/13 at 09:37 PM

i think they are all linked!

britishtrident - 15/4/13 at 09:37 PM

quote:
Originally posted by daniel mason
why bomb a library? seems madness to me


It is probably just a plant room fire but what makes you think the Koreans or Al Qaeda won't burn books ?
It was the JFK library significant to Democrat Obama,

austin man - 15/4/13 at 09:54 PM

It is Patriots Day today so there is a bit of a reason for Terrorism

britishtrident - 15/4/13 at 10:12 PM

quote:
Originally posted by austin man
It is Patriots Day today so there is a bit of a reason for Terrorism


Kim Il-sung birthday but my betting is al Qaeda or home grown teenage nutter

tank81 - 16/4/13 at 07:09 AM

Sorry to rattle the cage people. Ask yourselves this. If we are to believe terrorists are determined to sacrifice themselves to ensure maximum devastation then why:

Did they not stand at the start line and take out several thousand people

Did they "plant bombs" in gaps of spectators and conveniently at just the right distance from the packed grandstands such that they weren't in the blast radius (not even close!)

Did they use such small amounts of explosives in such an insignificant way

..... Ps: it won't be Korea as America can't afford (financially as well as physically) to take North Korea on as they are heavily funded by china (oh, sorry, were not supposed to know that....) and it is of no political benefit to Kim Jong Il to take a petty pot shot like this.

As anyone studying politics and economics will know, the best way of boosting support for a flagging leader while generating work in a stagnant economy is to raise the fear of attack and prepare to go to war.....

Please note I am NOT condoning this appauling attack on innocent civilians but I believe people should be looking a lot closer to home for the guilty parties.

I could well be wrong...... The only ones who truly know what is occurring are those involved and noone else.....

.....the press are only ever after a story....

swanny - 16/4/13 at 08:13 AM

i take it you're suggesting hinting at some sort of CIA/FBI/US government conspiracy in order to get the country on a war footing in order for Obama to remain in power? (perhaps the ultimate homage to Mrs T this week?)

i dont think you take into account the human frailty involved in carrying out these sorts of terrorist atrocities. These arent cool, level headed professionals in most cases, they are generally unexceptional men previously found working in chip shops or schools http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7_July_2005_London_bombings The structure al-Qaeda uses tends be small local groups working on their own so these guys are sitting at home, cooking up bombs built from internet instructions and then setting them all off they hope at the right time and place. There have been numerous bombs in the past that have failed to go off because (thankfully) they were poorly made. see also the 7-7 bombings where things were re arranged on the fly (the tavistock square bus bomb) as things went wrong on the day and the plan had to be changed. so i think you read too much into the mercifully inept placing of the bombs. lets just hope for the most part it stays that way.

britishtrident - 16/4/13 at 08:42 AM

Forget conspiracy theories this isn't in Kabul where IEDs are made in batches by practised bomb makers.
I looks to me like a home made kitchen mixed explosive was used the explosive power of which are very unpredictable.
The bombs were placed in bins or mail boxes which funnelled the blast upwards rather than outwards.

It was a bomb made by an amateur and probably "not the sharpest tool in the box" .

Not Anumber - 16/4/13 at 10:20 AM

Whoever did it lets hope they are soon brought to justice and that every effort is made to deconstruct their evil philosophy at source.

tank81 - 16/4/13 at 10:31 AM

Agree it is most likely to be a disgruntled library worker or such like.

Re: conspiracy theories, I was tying to point out that although the governments do not actively cause such disasters it is not beyond them to use random acts of violence as part of a structured political process.

I believe far too many people watch the news and swallow whatever is served to them without thinking about the factors involved.

Unfortunately that was partly why the nazi party ended up in power.... (I am not now suggesting this is the start of a Third World War/facist regime etc... Just pointing out there is always more to a story than what the press publish and the information governments release to allow them to gain public favour)

I am now stepping down from my soapbox and returning it to the kitchen before I get branded a fantasising liberal......

I sincerely hope this is dealt with as a, hopefully, isolated incident and not whipped up into another "terrorists on our doorstep" style frenzy creating further distrust between nationalities, races, religions causing further generations of isolated, angst ridden communities that are more likely to carry out individual acts of violence....

Ok, I'm REALLY getting off the soapbox now....

JoelP - 16/4/13 at 12:38 PM

quote:
Originally posted by tank81
..... Ps: it won't be Korea as America can't afford (financially as well as physically) to take North Korea on as they are heavily funded by china (oh, sorry, were not supposed to know that....) and it is of no political benefit to Kim Jong Il to take a petty pot shot like this.


America would utterly crush the North Korean Army. Its no secret that China is their main ally and source of aid, be it money, food or oil. But equally china doesnt want to upset its nice position in the world at the minute. They want north korea to be a buffer state, causing enough trouble to keep the western world on their toes, but under no circumstance does China want a war on its doorstep, nor waves of refugees.

America would crush them without even using nuclear weapons, with the possible exception of ground penetrating nuclear ordnance if underground facilities needed destroying from afar. I doubt very much that they would use them though. As for affording it, the USA isnt in half as bad a position as people make out. They have colossal debt, but are the best placed economy to pay it off. Plus shale oil and gas has almost compeltely freed them from inports of foreign oil. They are even talking of exporting gas.

The bottom line is that there is no need to do anything about north korea beyond ensuring worldwide agreement that they must not continue to develop their missle or bomb programs. China and Russia both agreed to the last round of sanctions, and i think this recent bluster will have convinced them even more that Kim Jong Un is a foolish young man and a danger to the region. As the despot declared the armistice null, China (who are also a signatory) reaffirmed their commitment to it. There will be gentle and continuing pressure to rein in North Korea, via diplomacy.



But back on subject, the bombings in boston are an outrage. To suggest government complicity (first line in your first post) is equally outrageous and indeed a little naive in my opinion. It will be an american citizen either with a grudge or radicalized by islamists. Not a suicide attack so id lean towards the grudge. Hopefully they'll nail the bastard to a lamppost somewhere. Just be glad that our security services keep these attacks few and far between.

Not Anumber - 16/4/13 at 03:02 PM

I doubt very much this could be anything to do with North Korea but I do suspect there will be a lot of people in that country worried sick the Americans may have thought it was.

Issuing a statement today saying they would attack without warning was not really the most sensible thing to do in the present circumstances.

Texan - 17/4/13 at 03:09 PM

I don't think N. Korea would do anything on this small a scale.

Pressure cooker bombs? No, that's some homegrown, small scale person with a grudge.

What kind of grudge? We won't know till someone takes the credit or gets caught.

Who would do something like this and not at least send an anonymous letter to a newspaper somewhere? What's the purpose otherwise, unless this was meant to be a murder of a specific person.