Wow. Turns out sometimes you got to be for a few hours all hell breaks out in the mean time. It's tough to even keep up with the wild events that happened over night in Boston. Yesterday we had the first look at a couple of suspects of the tragic marathon bombing.
These sketches weren't that easy to distinguish much-for my eye at least-but no question as many noted, they "looked American." I won't pick out any one in particular but I saw that a few people on Talking Points Memo in the comments section said things like I hate to say it but how much you want to bet they come from Red States?
This underscores why it's best to wait until we know something before we rush to judgment. Many on the Right were inclined to imagine it was the Arabs Those like me of a more liberal persuasion tended to imagine it was some crazy Right wing group like Timothy McVeigh-or for that matter the White Supremacist who killed all those District Attorneys recently.
As it happens both theories-neither so implausible-were both wrong. Indeed, I did my best not to jump to any particular conclusion but if I had to guess I would have figured that it was probably one of the two theories. I just thought it was tough to decide between them. Turns out they aren't actually American born or anything to do with the Middle East.
The two suspects-one who is now dead-are from Chechnya. How many out there speculating could even spell that much less pick it out on a map prior to this morning? Since the Clinton Administration, American Presidents have avoided talk about Chechnya as a precondition of good relations with Russia during it's 20 year war there. However, there is an al Qaeda connection though not the one we usually think about the Arab world. President Obama for his part has never used the word Chechnya publicly:
"Since taking office, Obama hasn’t used ever said the word “Chechnya” publicly. The State Department has, though, taken action, designating Doku Umarov, the leader of Al Qaeda affiliate Islamic Caucasus Emirate, as a global terrorist in 2010. The designation came after Umarov’s group took responsibility for a double suicide bombing on the Moscow Metro, in which at least 40 people died and more than 100 were injured."
"Umarov’s leadership of Chechen insurgents has “intensified the split between national separatists and radical jihadists and led to a movement seeking to create an Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus with Umarov as the Emir,” the department said in a statement when announcing the move."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obama-bush-clinton-all-avoided-talking-chechnya-90327.html#ixzz2Quqah4Nd
It's a tricky situation. The Right might seem to have been closer to the truth in this one as there is an al Qaeda connection. However, this is not the country that was on anyones radar. Russia itself has tried to make this Chechnya connection part of the War on Terror. However, the U.S. has mostly avoided that, referring to it as Russia's war.
As noted above, this terrorist group, the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, has a record of terrorism in Russia. Apparently the plan in Boston was that if they really want notice they should do it in our backyard. They figured the way to get the world's attention was to do here.
I think it's safe to say they have the world's attention now.
P.S. For the most part I think we as a country have reacted well to this tragedy. There has not been too much rushing to judgment. One really bad reaction was Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King who suggested that the bombing was the result of the gun control bill.
Greg Sargent has a list of the worst and best responses to Boston.
http://inthesetimes.com/duly-noted/entry/14882/how_not_to_respond_to_the_boston_marathon_bombings/
Overall, I agree that we get high marks.
http://inthesetimes.com/duly-noted/entry/14882/how_not_to_respond_to_the_boston_marathon_bombings/
However, it seems that some people are now ready to rush to judgment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/19/the-morning-plum-foes-of-immigration-reform-pounce-on-boston-bombing/
UPDATE: I myself should be careful however. Above when I said that "The Right might seem to have been closer to the truth in this one as there is an al Qaeda connection." even that's a little misleading. There's no proof that these young brothers had membership in any al Qaeda group or any other major terrorist group. They come from Chechnya which has had an al Qaeda group. This is a far cry than there being any direct line for the two suspects themselves. As to their motivation-and they are still technically suspects though we have a pretty good case to presume the ones-it is not yet known definitively.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/chechnya-boston-marathon-bombing-90329.html?hp=t3_3
All this goes again to my main point that we shouldn't get caught up in premature speculation.
These sketches weren't that easy to distinguish much-for my eye at least-but no question as many noted, they "looked American." I won't pick out any one in particular but I saw that a few people on Talking Points Memo in the comments section said things like I hate to say it but how much you want to bet they come from Red States?
This underscores why it's best to wait until we know something before we rush to judgment. Many on the Right were inclined to imagine it was the Arabs Those like me of a more liberal persuasion tended to imagine it was some crazy Right wing group like Timothy McVeigh-or for that matter the White Supremacist who killed all those District Attorneys recently.
As it happens both theories-neither so implausible-were both wrong. Indeed, I did my best not to jump to any particular conclusion but if I had to guess I would have figured that it was probably one of the two theories. I just thought it was tough to decide between them. Turns out they aren't actually American born or anything to do with the Middle East.
The two suspects-one who is now dead-are from Chechnya. How many out there speculating could even spell that much less pick it out on a map prior to this morning? Since the Clinton Administration, American Presidents have avoided talk about Chechnya as a precondition of good relations with Russia during it's 20 year war there. However, there is an al Qaeda connection though not the one we usually think about the Arab world. President Obama for his part has never used the word Chechnya publicly:
"Since taking office, Obama hasn’t used ever said the word “Chechnya” publicly. The State Department has, though, taken action, designating Doku Umarov, the leader of Al Qaeda affiliate Islamic Caucasus Emirate, as a global terrorist in 2010. The designation came after Umarov’s group took responsibility for a double suicide bombing on the Moscow Metro, in which at least 40 people died and more than 100 were injured."
"Umarov’s leadership of Chechen insurgents has “intensified the split between national separatists and radical jihadists and led to a movement seeking to create an Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus with Umarov as the Emir,” the department said in a statement when announcing the move."
Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obama-bush-clinton-all-avoided-talking-chechnya-90327.html#ixzz2Quqah4Nd
It's a tricky situation. The Right might seem to have been closer to the truth in this one as there is an al Qaeda connection. However, this is not the country that was on anyones radar. Russia itself has tried to make this Chechnya connection part of the War on Terror. However, the U.S. has mostly avoided that, referring to it as Russia's war.
As noted above, this terrorist group, the Islamic Caucasus Emirate, has a record of terrorism in Russia. Apparently the plan in Boston was that if they really want notice they should do it in our backyard. They figured the way to get the world's attention was to do here.
I think it's safe to say they have the world's attention now.
P.S. For the most part I think we as a country have reacted well to this tragedy. There has not been too much rushing to judgment. One really bad reaction was Iowa GOP Rep. Steve King who suggested that the bombing was the result of the gun control bill.
Greg Sargent has a list of the worst and best responses to Boston.
http://inthesetimes.com/duly-noted/entry/14882/how_not_to_respond_to_the_boston_marathon_bombings/
Overall, I agree that we get high marks.
http://inthesetimes.com/duly-noted/entry/14882/how_not_to_respond_to_the_boston_marathon_bombings/
However, it seems that some people are now ready to rush to judgment.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/plum-line/wp/2013/04/19/the-morning-plum-foes-of-immigration-reform-pounce-on-boston-bombing/
UPDATE: I myself should be careful however. Above when I said that "The Right might seem to have been closer to the truth in this one as there is an al Qaeda connection." even that's a little misleading. There's no proof that these young brothers had membership in any al Qaeda group or any other major terrorist group. They come from Chechnya which has had an al Qaeda group. This is a far cry than there being any direct line for the two suspects themselves. As to their motivation-and they are still technically suspects though we have a pretty good case to presume the ones-it is not yet known definitively.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/chechnya-boston-marathon-bombing-90329.html?hp=t3_3
All this goes again to my main point that we shouldn't get caught up in premature speculation.
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