[depricated]

jon.kiparsky, on 16 April 2013 - 06:51 AM, said:

depricated, on 16 April 2013 - 07:19 AM, said:

As I type this I see they've arrested a Saudi national and are pinning it on him for the time being. We'll see how that develops.

Searching for "boston marathon bombing arrests" brings up no reports of this. Source?

(in fact, the reports from this morning all say "no arrests have been made"...)

http://www.nypost.co...0LDdAH44vMFOEXM

My bad, looks like arrest is the wrong word. Detained might be more appropriate. He isn't charged yet but he's being grilled. "The law-enforcement sources also told The Post that the man was not free to leave the medical center."

Also worth noting I had said "as I type this" - I was watching on CNN where they said they had 'taken him in to custody'

This post has been edited by depricated: 16 April 2013 - 06:19 AM

[jon.kiparsky]

Craig328, on 16 April 2013 - 07:58 AM, said:

So, despite the fact that what I said was indeed speculation...is speculation somehow illegal now?

Who said anything about illegal? Talking out your pie hole is your right as an American. All I'm saying is, this is the sort of thing that anyone with any sense is going to ignore until some facts are in evidence.


As for the famous Saudi, if you read the article you linked to, you'll notice that he actually hasn't been arrested, he's been questioned.

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 16 April 2013 - 06:20 AM

[JackOfAllTrades]

I had immediate family -- including a 13-year-old -- about 50 yards from the second explosion. Thankfully they're safe.

[h4nnib4l]

It wouldn't be a tragedy without jon and Craig going at it...

[Sho Ke]

h4nnib4l, on 16 April 2013 - 01:29 PM, said:

It would be a tragedy without jon and Craig going at it...

FTFY

[jon.kiparsky]

h4nnib4l, on 16 April 2013 - 08:29 AM, said:

It wouldn't be a tragedy without jon and Craig going at it...

Have to maintain the traditions...

[h4nnib4l]

My thoughts on this?

My primary thought is that I'm really, really glad that the bomb maker did as poor of a job as he did. A bombing in a crowd like that could have had thousands of casualties. Not to understate the tragedy here by any means, but the percussion from a two-fist-sized chunk of Semtex on a suicide vest killed my battalion Sergeant Major without drawing blood (he was mostly shielded by a Hesco barrier). The nails and chunks of metal stuffed into the Semtex did a whole lot more damage to a lot of other people and structures. I'm not saying the two situations are comparable, just that it could have been a whole hell of a lot worse. We like to think that only masterminds pull stuff like this off, but that's not the case at all. I just hope this doesn't serve as inspiration to others.

[Craig328]

That was kind of my thinking as to why it wasn't someone from that team that did this. Suicide vests in the thick of the crowd would have been way worse, even for as bad as it turned out. If they could have gotten their hands on both quality HE and AP ball bearings, packing it into a vest and command detonating via martyr would have been astronomically worse.

I mean, seriously, you want to cause mayhem in America: have 4 visually distinctive arabic men detonate suicide vests in a crowd at something as innocuous as a road race, on Patriots Day, in an iconic American city like Boston, killing hundreds instead of handfulls. Imagine how Mr. and Mrs. America would react to similar looking people in their midst afterward. You want to cause an immense uproar across the country, make the average citizen start to question whether they want to be in the same shopping mall/school/office building/restaurant as someone who looked arabic. What's worse is that some people can't tell hispanic from arabic. Just imagine the social upheaval such an attack would have caused.

Yeah, given the amount of planning that had to have gone into this attack, it seems to lack the motivation that a jihadi group would have almost automatically had.

And yes, this is also speculation (just to divert frivolous admonishments before they start).

[depricated]

To speculate: this reminds me more of someone who had taken inspiration from Kaczynski or McVeigh, but who isn't even half as intelligent as either of them. It strikes me as domestic, homebrewed, and poor quality. I'm thankful for the poor quality - it could have been a lot worse. I prefer not to speculate too much though - I'm going to watch how things unfold, but I suspect it was domestic, and that the Saudi that Faux is currently painting as the antichrist is just being labeled as such because his skin isn't light enough.

edited for polish names are hard

This post has been edited by depricated: 16 April 2013 - 08:55 AM

[jon.kiparsky]

Craig328, on 16 April 2013 - 10:05 AM, said:

That was kind of my thinking as to why it wasn't someone from that team that did this.

Team? You think there's a team? Is there also a gay agenda and a liberal media and a right-wing conspiracy? Come on, show some sense...

As long as we're slinging bullshit, here's some steaming piles for you:

My uncle heard that it was an anti-immigrant group who's sick of all these Kenyans coming here and winning our medals.

My therapist said she heard it was an FBI sting that got out of control.

This guy I was talking to on the train said it was a bunch of liberals trying to make it look like it was a bunch of gun nuts trying to prove that explosives are just as dangerous as guns.

I heard from my neighbor that it was another prosecutor attack, like the ones in Texas. (it must be true, because a DA from Ohio was in the race, and he was nearly at the site when the bomb went off!)

And the guy at the post office said it was a bunch of pissed-off Tibetan buddhists who want China out of Tibet. (and yes, there's a huge Tibetan community just outside of Boston - half a dozen great Tibetan restaurants within a few blocks of my house)

See, we can make up stories all day. What makes any of them worth the bother? Nothing at all. They say more about the people who spread them around than they do about who did the bombing and what their motives might have been.

This post has been edited by jon.kiparsky: 16 April 2013 - 08:55 AM

[supersloth]

the picture of the kid who died made me sad.

[Craig328]

I speculate that modern medicine will find a cure for cancer before they find a cure for acute vaginitis silicosis.

[vividexstance]

It wasn't even explosives, they were pressure cookers filled with metal things like ball bearings/nails,etc. The reports about other "unexploded" devices were all false, and the only devices were the ones that went off.

[supersloth]

vividexstance, on 16 April 2013 - 01:21 PM, said:

It wasn't even explosives

*pats head*

hey kiddo, good job keeping up with the news. we'll let you know when grownups are done talking.

[Michael26]

supersloth, on 16 April 2013 - 12:38 AM, said:

really? i feel that during times like these most of what we do is spread misinformation, rush to beat others to spread misinformation first, read misinformation, and scold others for spreading misinformation.

then say something about patriotism and love.

You mean like this guy