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Since 2008 – Progress Through Politics

Updated: Boston Marathon Explosions

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photo BOSTON-PRAYER-VIGIL_zpsbfcf7610.jpg

Continuing the discussions/information from this diary.  176 people were injured (17 in critical condition), and 3 killed in the explosions yesterday.

President Obama gave a press conference this morning:

Obviously our first thoughts this morning are with the victims, their families, and the city of Boston.  We know that two explosions gravely wounded dozens of Americans, and took the lives of others, including a 8-year-old boy.

This was a heinous and cowardly act.  And given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism.  Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror.  What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.  That’s what we don’t yet know.  And clearly, we’re at the beginning of our investigation.  

It will take time to follow every lead and determine what happened.  But we will find out.  We will find whoever harmed our citizens and we will bring them to justice.

We also know this — the American people refuse to be terrorized.  Because what the world saw yesterday in the aftermath of the explosions were stories of heroism and kindness, and generosity and love:  Exhausted runners who kept running to the nearest hospital to give blood, and those who stayed to tend to the wounded, some tearing off their own clothes to make tourniquets.  The first responders who ran into the chaos to save lives.  The men and women who are still treating the wounded at some of the best hospitals in the world, and the medical students who hurried to help, saying “When we heard, we all came in.”  The priests who opened their churches and ministered to the hurt and the fearful.  And the good people of Boston who opened their homes to the victims of this attack and those shaken by it.

So if you want to know who we are, what America is, how we respond to evil — that’s it.  Selflessly.  Compassionately.  Unafraid.

Full remarks available here

News outlets are now reporting that the bombs were designed out of pressure cookers loaded with shrapnel.  NBC’s story is here.

FBI agents searched an apartment in Revere, a Boston suburb, last night, and were seen leaving with bags of evidence.  They gave no comment to reporters.

If you are in the region, and would like to donate blood to help out, the Red Cross site is here  


Categories: Uncategorized.

/ 61 Comments

61 comments

  1. Avilyn

    on the original [and because Denise asked ;-)]

    There’s a lot of personal stories going around my office and on various social websites, most of which are touching and/or heartbreaking.  My thoughts & prayers are with everyone involved.

  3. fogiv

    Of the 380 individuals indicted for acts of political violence or for conspiring to carry out such attacks in the U.S. since 9/11, 77 were able to obtain explosives or the components necessary to build a bomb, according to a count by the New America Foundation.

    Of those, 48 were right-wing extremists, 23 were militants inspired by al Qaeda’s ideology, five have been described as anarchists and one was an environmentalist terrorist.

    http://edition.cnn.com/2013/04…

  6. fogiv

    Fox news will handle the investigation.

    A producer for Fox News Channel on Tuesday interviewed one of the roommates of the Saudi Arabian man who’s been questioned by authorities in the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings.

    The roommate, who was identified as Mohammed Hassan Bada by the Boston Herald earlier in the day, was asked by the producer if he thought his friend was responsible for the deadly explosions. As he told the Herald, Bada once again expressed doubt that his roommate had a role in the bombings.

    After being pressed by the producer, Bada, with a bookbag strapped on his back, grew frustrated.

    “Let me go to school, dude,” Bada said, after placing his palms over his face in exasperation.

    http://livewire.talkingpointsm…

  9. HappyinVT

    … Jeff Bauman is the man in the photograph that has become an icon of the Boston Marathon attack, the one showing a bloodied, distraught young man, holding his left thigh, being wheeled away by a man in a cowboy hat. If the world could not identify him immediately, Mr. Bauman’s father – also named Jeff Bauman – certainly could.

    That was his son with his legs destroyed, wearing a favorite shirt. That was his son.

    …

    When the explosions went off at the Boston Marathon, Jeff Bauman, 52, called his son’s cellphone again and again – no answer. He knew his son was there, to cheer for his girlfriend, Erin Hurley, who was running her first Boston Marathon. For an hour, he kept calling, calling. No answer.

    Then his stepdaughter, Erika, called him. “Did you see the picture?” she asked. “Jeffrey’s on the news. He got hurt.”

    “Are you sure? Are you sure?” He was shouting now.

    “Yes! Yes! I’m sure!” she shouted back.

    Mr. Bauman found the picture on Facebook. It was not the whole picture, the one that showed Jeff’s left leg blown off at the calf. He started calling Boston-area hospitals and found his son registered at Boston Medical Center. He and his wife, Csilla, drove from their home in Concord, N.H., and reached Jeff’s side just before 8 p.m. …

    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04…

    I had actually commented to a co-worker yesterday that I hoped this young man’s family didn’t found out he was injured from the picture.  (There is a more graphic one that I saw showing more of the left leg and the bone still protruding.)

  10. Adept2u

    Out there someone thinks he’s gotten away with it, but we have super computers recognizing and tracking every face that went on that street. We’re gonna get you. Did you leave a cell on those bags, did you think the explosion meant we might not find it? We will, and we’re gonna get you. Do you hear that click on your phone? It’s the NSA, do you hear that noise? It’s a counter terrorism team, and you know what motherfucker? We’re gonna get you. You think we’re afraid? We’re not, the only thing we fear is we might be outta town when we get you, WE ARE GOING TO GET YOUR ASS. God bless the people of Boston.

  11. fogiv

    murdered by a coward or cowards as he waited to see his father cross the finish line of the boston marathon.

    photo martinrichard_zpsa39c7825.jpg

    “And can it be that in a world so full and busy the loss of one creature makes a void so wide and deep that nothing but the width and depth of eternity can fill it up.”

    — Charles Dickens

  12. Avilyn

    our local radio station was talking about Boston, and a wingnut called in saying how the bombings were Obama’s fault; to his credit the host asked how he figured that, and the guy  started going off on how the bomber knew they could get away with it because Benghazi.  :-/   Really???  I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation because I turned the radio off, but seriously?  

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