Althouse: "The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist 'sleeper cell' linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers."

April 21, 2013

"The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist 'sleeper cell' linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers."

"Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack."

The brothers' mother claims the FBI had been watching for Tamerlan for up to five years: “They knew what my son was doing. They knew what sites on the internet he was going to. They were telling me that he was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him. They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites. They were controlling him."

49 comments:

Anonymous said...: It's clear that someone trained these kids to make bombs. You don't make an effective pressure cooker bomb just following instructions off the internet.; 4/21/13, 7:13 AM
TWM said...: None of whom are sleeping with the Tea Party I assume . . .; 4/21/13, 7:13 AM
Cody Jarrett said...: The family of eight-year-old bombing victim Martin Richard welcomed the arrest of Tsarnaev. “Our community is once again safe from these men,” the family said in a statement.

Not if there is indeed (and there is) a sleeper cell.

I like the headline in the Telegraph:

"Boston bombs: Obama lulled America into false confidence over terror threat
The war on terror cannot be fought at an arm's length - and the attacks on Boston have brought uncertainty back to American streets, writes Peter Foster."; 4/21/13, 7:14 AM
Fr Martin Fox said...: Narrative fail--again.

Why is it so important to "progressives" that terrorism be committed by white Americans who are anything-but-Muslim?; 4/21/13, 7:15 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: Terrorists know not to use a credit card to buy their pressure cookers, I should think.; 4/21/13, 7:15 AM
Cody Jarrett said...: Hey looka there...a boat under a tarp!

Excellent pictures. Kind of like what some of us said the other night, eh?

And you can make a hell of a pressure cooker bomb without training. The hard part is detonating it remotely.; 4/21/13, 7:15 AM
kentuckyliz said...: THEY knew my son was doing all this. Well, so did you, Mom. How evil is it to watch your son grow into a violent terrorist for five years and not do anything about it? You are one sick bitch.; 4/21/13, 7:16 AM
mesquito said...: The person who made the bomb was trained by someone.; 4/21/13, 7:17 AM
Rick Moran said...: Uh-oh. Be careful of this story. First, it appears only in the Mirror. There are no domestic news outlets that even hint at an at-large cell except those that reference this single article.

Second, it would be hard for the FBI to miss 12 terrorists - sleeper cell or not. It doesn't ring true from what we know of the Bureau's capabilities.

Just sayin...

Rick Moran; 4/21/13, 7:19 AM
Rick Moran said...: Uh-oh. Be careful of this story. First, it appears only in the Mirror. There are no domestic news outlets that even hint at an at-large cell except those that reference this single article.

Second, it would be hard for the FBI to miss 12 terrorists - sleeper cell or not. It doesn't ring true from what we know of the Bureau's capabilities.

Just sayin...

Rick Moran; 4/21/13, 7:20 AM
Anonymous said...: And you can make a hell of a pressure cooker bomb without training. The hard part is detonating it remotely.

That's part of what I mean by "effective pressure cooker bomb."

I don't claim any expertise here, but most things that work are trickier than they look. Murphy's Law applies to terrorists as well -- as those Weather Underground bombers discovered in their townhouse explosion.; 4/21/13, 7:27 AM
Oso Negro said...: There were apparently three other arrests. And it may be time to examine the curriculum at the University of Massachusetts - Dartmouth to see if it promotes a positive view of the United States and Western Civilization.; 4/21/13, 7:30 AM
kentuckyliz said...: I think the big lesson here is that the Islamofascist terrorism we need to worry about originates from other countries than the typical set of middle eastern countries we've been focused on so far.

I wouldn't trust a Muslim farther than I could throw their loaded pressure cooker.; 4/21/13, 7:31 AM
Cheryl said...: "They" is the subject of every sentence she says. Presumably she means the FBI in the first several sentences, but the last one? Grammatically, "they" would refer to the sites. But what if that isn't what she means? It is hard to talk like that, repeatedly using a pronoun to refer to one thing and then, at the very end, use the same pronoun to refer to something totally different.; 4/21/13, 7:38 AM
James said...: How did these two guys support themselves? Neither appeared to have jobs yet the younger in reported to have at least three residences; a dorm room, an off-campus apartment, and an apartment in Cambridge. They also appear to have a taste for luxury cars.; 4/21/13, 7:39 AM
Anonymous said...: Islamofascist terrorism we need to worry about originates from other countries than the typical set of middle eastern countries we've been focused on so far.

And we're not necessarily safe from Muslims who seem to have adapted to the United States, even naturalized citizens.

The younger brother did become a naturalized citizen. As to the older brother, wiki notes:

A record of his FBI interview led Homeland Security to hold up his application for citizenship. Despite not being a U.S. citizen, he was registered to vote in Massachusetts.; 4/21/13, 7:42 AM
Fr Martin Fox said...: James:

We the taxpayers supported them, it appears.; 4/21/13, 7:43 AM
Vet66 said...: Al qaeda has devolved (metastasized) from a hierarchical organization to small cells working independently. They radicalize the susceptible few open to radical Islam and use them as useful idiots just like liberalism does on college campuses and the hotbeds of anarchy that set up shop in the shadows of the various universities. The FBI is powerless under present restrictions to do anything other than a superficial background check on potential Islamic zombies. That is the brilliance of the jihadists, namely, to choose someone with a clean record and radicalize him to a murderous frenzy like we just witnessed. Maybe by accident, they appear to be operating under the influence of Saul Alinsky's rules for radicals with much success. Time to get real and serious in fighting extremists.; 4/21/13, 7:45 AM
Anonymous said...: Hey, it's all good! Just as long as they don't mess around with the golf course Barack is playing on.; 4/21/13, 7:47 AM
madAsHell said...: The media loves the grieving mother. The mother sobs that "He was always a good boy".

The media never talks to the father.; 4/21/13, 7:55 AM
Rusty said...: Fr Martin Fox said...
Narrative fail--again.

Why is it so important to "progressives" that terrorism be committed by white Americans who are anything-but-Muslim?

And then there is this from our president , father.

"Americans should not decide their opinions about the Boston terror attacks until the government decides its own opinion, President Barack Obama told the nation late Friday night."

Apparently we're not not supposed to opine until officially told to do so. Tyranny fits him. Don't you think?
phx would be so proud.; 4/21/13, 7:56 AM
Anonymous said...: Al qaeda has devolved (metastasized) from a hierarchical organization to small cells working independently.

This is important to remember. Under Bush and Obama we have pounded hard on al-Qaeda. It's no longer the organizination it was before 9-11.

Those who take McArdle's "Terrorists want large, splashy attacks" theory seriously should consider that Islamic terrorist organizations are being pressed hard and judging by the last four American attacks they are willing to settle for less ambitious targets than "hubristic" skyscrapers.; 4/21/13, 7:57 AM
Vet66 said...: The Chinese tortured their adversaries "Death by a thousand cuts." Apparently it caught on...; 4/21/13, 8:08 AM
ricpic said...: Right, the FBI was "controlling" sonny boy. Why would we ever doubt what Mom says?; 4/21/13, 8:18 AM
KCFleming said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/21/13, 8:19 AM
KCFleming said...: Little brother is now up for tenure at Columbia, perhaps to assist Prof. Boudin in her research. His Master's thesis was proof of her original concept.

Older brother is ineligible, being dead; 4/21/13, 8:21 AM
jr565 said...: Ricpic wrote:

Right, the FBI was "controlling" sonny boy. Why would we ever doubt what Mom says?

How is that all that different than what a truther might say?; 4/21/13, 8:24 AM
Anonymous said...: Rick Moran said:

Second, it would be hard for the FBI to miss 12 terrorists - sleeper cell or not. It doesn't ring true from what we know of the Bureau's capabilities.

Maybe they knew about a cell and chose not to do anything about it.

Best to err on the PC-side than the safety of American citizens as we saw in the Ft. Hood massacre.; 4/21/13, 8:28 AM
ricpic said...: j - I assumed that you assumed the sarc without a sarc tag.; 4/21/13, 8:28 AM
Michael said...: Sleeper cells? Muslims? But.......; 4/21/13, 8:29 AM
Hagar said...: I would think it best to wait until after July 4th before believing anything published about this case.
Maybe better make that July 4th 2014!; 4/21/13, 8:31 AM
Unknown said...: It so frustrating when people form their own opinions! Sometimes their opinions are not the same as the Obama administrations opinion and that requires a lot of re-education.
Sometimes Obama is forced to get out of bed and make statements.

Damn those Tea Partiers!; 4/21/13, 8:37 AM
David said...: Er, ah, um, Big Sis said no wider plot.; 4/21/13, 8:50 AM
Rusty said...: wyo sis said...
It so frustrating when people form their own opinions! Sometimes their opinions are not the same as the Obama administrations opinion and that requires a lot of re-education.
Sometimes Obama is forced to get out of bed and make statements.

Damn those Tea Partiers!

I know,right?; 4/21/13, 8:54 AM
dc said...: Not Columbia. He's a local kid.
Harvard has first dibs.; 4/21/13, 9:00 AM
Brian Brown said...: this:

Thousands of police searched for hours to find the fugitive, and failed, even though he was hiding within their primary search area.

When the order was lifted, hundreds of thousands of citizens went out to check things that were important to them, and ten minutes later, the fugitive was found.

Doesn’t that suggest that shutting down the city was the wrong tactic?

Is a good summary of the FBI's approach here...; 4/21/13, 9:12 AM
dc said...: A question for Althouse.
Could a federal judge, desiring instant liberal folk hero status,toss the case because the punk was denied his Miranda rights?; 4/21/13, 9:13 AM
edutcher said...: I posted this last night in the cafe, but, given the quote, "The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist 'sleeper cell' linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers", it's worth noting the Russkies warned the G-men about Tamerlane and Joker 2 years ago.

David Hampton said...

Al qaeda has devolved (metastasized) from a hierarchical organization to small cells working independently.

This is how the Resistance movements in Occupied Europe operated.; 4/21/13, 9:14 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: "Best to err on the PC-side than the safety of American citizens as we saw in the Ft. Hood massacre."

Does this apply to these three dead men?; 4/21/13, 9:30 AM
Guildofcannonballs said...: All I know for sure, is that after three dead men were found Sept. 12, 2011, stabbed in the neck by what the cops thinks was someone they knew, everyone involved was happy as could be with the outcome.

They had the top men on it, and I haven't heard anything about the story that would indicate bigotry or discrimination, hence we can proclaim victory. Missions accomplished!

The searchers went state-to-state looking for the perps.

Didn't find them, but hey, they tried.

So kudos to everyone involved who didn't stop the killers from potentially stabbing anyone else in the neck. Just you try and declare these top men didn't earn their contract.

I dare you.; 4/21/13, 9:47 AM
Rusty said...: Doesn’t that suggest that shutting down the city was the wrong tactic?

That would be the rational conclusion.

but hey,................SQIRREL!; 4/21/13, 10:11 AM
AllenS said...: Where in the hell did they come up with this # 12? Do they have the names of these people that they feel accurate to give an accurate number?

I don't believe anything these government agencies say.; 4/21/13, 10:34 AM
mtrobertsattorney said...: Oso Negro is on to something.

What was taught to the younger brother about the United States, its history and traditions during all his years of schooling in Boston? Was he exposed to the standard leftist drivel that this was a flawed nation from its inception--a land of racists and blood thirsty capitalists whose only religion is exploitation of minorities?; 4/21/13, 10:43 AM
edutcher said...: To ask the question is to answer it.

Remember, he lived in the People's Republic of Taxachutetts.; 4/21/13, 10:45 AM
Paul said...: Five years.. Let's see Obama has been in office FIVE YEARS.

In the process he has had three terrorist attacks, two here in the U.S.

He's response? Drone war.

Failed failed failed.; 4/21/13, 11:10 AM
heyboom said...: @dc

There are other options available. They have already invoked a national security waiver or they could declare him an enemy combatant.

My understanding of Miranda is that it is still possible to convict provided any evidence gleaned from from the accused without it is not used in court. There is a preponderance of evidence that will convict him without any cooperation on his part in this case.

And it doesn't appear that Jahar is doing any talking anyway.; 4/21/13, 11:59 AM
Ann Althouse said...: Miranda only relates to whether statement can be used as evidence.; 4/21/13, 7:10 PM
Ann Althouse said...: Statemenra; 4/21/13, 7:11 PM
heyboom said...: Thanks for that, Ann.; 4/21/13, 7:53 PM