The Tsarnaev Brothers and Amateurism

According to Russian officials, Chechenya rebels are linked with Al-Qaeda, however there is a possibility that the Tsarnaev brothers who bombed the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 had no connection to the terrorist organization giant.  Even if they were affiliated with Al-Qaeda, their leaders may deny their association since the Tsarnaev brothers were very amateurish in their planning, and/or to protect other members of their sleeper cell if it exists.  So far, Al-Qaeda has not confirmed or denied their membership.

Dzhokhar, 19, carefully masked his intentions by being sociable at school, and he filled his Twitter account with tweets of rap lyrics and pictures of his cat.  He minimized his expression of beliefs on his Facebook account safely stating his world views were: Islam.  Though on his VK account, a Russian social networking site, he expressed his feelings for Chechen independence.

Tamerlan, 26, was not as careful.  He had a YouTube channel titled, “Terrorists,” where he displayed Islamic extremists giving speeches, including Amir Abu Dudzhan and a Chechen bard, Timur Mutsuraev.  The latter sang, “We will devote our lives to jihad.”  In a Boston University publication he stated, “I don’t have a single American friend.  I don’t understand them.”  The FBI and the Russian government had long term suspicions regarding Tamerlan.

When the terrorist event occurred, friends of Dzhokhar were shocked, saying he was “out of character,” and their parents Zubeidat and Anzor were in denial that their sons committed the bombings.  Chances are the two brothers were very respectful of their Muslim parents, and loved them very much.  Their father is quoted regarding Dzhokhar, "My son is a true angel," and the mother claimed that her sons would not harm anyone.  Given what the brothers committed, they were able to hide their intentions from their own family.

Amateurism

Before they placed their bombs, the destructive duo dressed carefully to blend in with the crowd.  Tamerlan covered his face with his baseball cap visor and sunglasses.  Dzhokhar wore his baseball cap backwards with no sunglasses, completely revealing his face to surveillance cameras.

Their bombs were not really amateurish considering the damage sustained.  Though they were not as sophisticated, for instance, as some explosives used for airlines that are triggered by altitude pressure.  Tsarnaevs' bombs were less complicated.  They were made from easily obtained items: pressure cookers, firecrackers, and remote control car parts, among other pieces.  Regardless of the simplicity, their bombs killed three people, injured over 170; some of whom lost limbs for life.

Instead of fleeing the city after the blasts, Dzhokhar reportedly returned to campus and went to a college party.  Tamerlan had to be close by in order to meet up again.  Dzhokhar’s tweets after the attack included, “I’m a stress free kind of guy,” and “There are people that know the truth but stay silent & there are people that speak the truth but we don’t hear them cuz they’re the minority.”

The two fugitives planned to “party in NYC,” and then detonate their residual supply of bombs in Times Square.  They did not flee Boston for their next target, but stayed giving Boston the necessary time to lock down the city and hunt for them.  They had little or no exit plan.  The notorious but foiled terrorist, Ramzi Yousef, had already booked a flight out of the US after bombing the World Trade Center in 1993.  He left the country before the US had a chance to track him.  This is an exit strategy.

Instead of maintaining a low profile, they fatally shot an MIT police officer, Sean Collier.  The Tsarnaev brothers then hijacked a Mercedes SUV, and fled which led to a dramatic shootout with police, drawing even more attention.  All Mercedes have built-in GPS tracking devices to counter auto theft.  If they were smarter they would have known that already and selected a different vehicle.  Moreover if they were better prepared, they would have already had a getaway car.  If they had left MIT Officer Collier alone and went to NYC, they would have been able to commit more attacks.  The shooting of the officer was an impulsive act.  They seemed to still be in "party mode" in their morbid sense, by the way they gloated to their hostage about their involvement with the Boston Marathon attacks.  The hostage's English was not fluent, but he could make out the word, "Manhattan" over and over.  The suspects mercifully set their hostage free unharmed, and continued their ride in the stolen car.

Dzhokhar had to run away from law enforcement, and instead of escaping the city, he had to hide.  His tactics were now desperate attempts to evade the cops.  He chose to hide in a white tarp covered boat in someone’s yard, and his blood stained the tarp, catching the eye of the owner.  Police, the Bomb-squad vans, ambulances, and hovering helicopters surrounded his boat with only the tarp sheltering him.  He was in checkmate, and he desperately exchanged fire with law enforcement, which furthered his injuries.

Terrorism is like a game of chess, and both sides think they are the good guy.  Putting righteousness aside, the war-game is won by who makes the final capture.  Dzhokhar and Tamerlan’s options were pawns which were eliminated by their poor decisions and weak planning.  Tamerlan was more likely than not the mastermind, and was killed like a fallen Queen chess piece.  Dzhokhar was certainly no King in this analogy, other than he could hardly move and his attacks were just as futile as a King chess piece.  He was more of a Rook, a rookie, and he spent time in his ivory tower of college being studious, and partying too.  Coming back from this tangent, America has experienced a lot of terrorism in our history.  It is best not to mess with the US in this kind of game of chess.

©2013 Caroline Friehs

Originally posted: April 27, 2013
Updated: April 28, 2013

References

Associated Press (2013 Apr. 24).  Did Boston bombing suspects plan to party in NYC after attack?  CBS NEWS.  Retrieved from:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57581266/did-boston-bombing-suspects-plan-to-party-in-nyc-after-attack/

Ballou, B (2013 Apr. 23).  Police, governor also honor slain MIT officer.  The Boston Globe.  Retrieved from:  http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/23/private-funeral-service-underway-for-mit-police-officer-sean-collier-allegedly-murdered-boston-marathon-terrorists/VBfmPStMAETHumnzWDXJxL/story.html

BBC News (2013 Apr. 20).  Boston marathon bombs suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev captured.  BBC News – US and Canada.  Retrieved from:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22228151

BBC News (2013 Apr. 21).  Boston bombs:  Officials wait to question Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.  BBC News – US & Canada.  Retrieved from:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22232196

BBC News (2013 Apr. 22).  Profile: Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tzarnaev.  BBC News US & Canada.  Retrieved from:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22219116

Isachenkov, V (2013 Apr. 25).  Putin:  Boston bombing shows West’s mistake.  Yahoo News.  Retrieved from:  http://news.yahoo.com/putin-boston-bombing-shows-wests-mistake-101701441.html

Ross, B; McPhee, M; Mosk, M (2013 Apr. 25).  Accused Bombers Plotted Attack in NYC, Officials Say.  ABC – The Blotter.  Retrieved from:  http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/accused-boston-bombers-plotted-attack-nyc-police/story?id=19038313#.UXv8d0pNGSo

Shuster, S (2013 Apr. 19).  The Brothers Tsarnaev: Clues to the Motives of the Alleged Boston Bombers.  Yahoo News.  Retrieved from:  http://news.yahoo.com/brothers-tsarnaev-clues-motives-alleged-boston-bombers-162101446.html

Weintraub, K & Kao, J (2013 Apr. 24).  Thousands mourn as MIT officer Sean Collier laid to rest.  USA Today.  Retrieved from:  http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2013/04/24/mit-boston-honors-slain-campus-cop-sean-collier/2109327/

 

Boston Marathon Attack vs. Middle Eastern Attacks - Same Date

April 15, 2013:  Roughly 23,000 people ran that day in the Boston Marathon which is annually held in honor of the Massachusetts state holiday, Patriots Day.  Two bombs exploded at the finish line.  Three were killed, and 100 were injured by shrapnel.  Between 25-30 people immediately suffered amputations, specifically legs and feet.

I give my condolences to the victims in this attack.  While scrolling my Facebook newsfeed, a friend posted a picture with the caption:

“While the world is ‘shocked’

by Boston-Bombing:

At the same:

7 Palestinians were killed

55 Deaths in Iraq by bombings

32 Other random killings in Iraq

12 Deaths in Afghanistan…

and we could go on…

But ‘less’ important?"

The idea is that America gets worldly coverage for a terrorist attack resulting in three deaths, and the Middle-East had more deaths but less coverage.  This lends the idea that Americans think their people are more important than people from other countries.  Still, it seems bitter to downplay the Boston attack because more people died elsewhere.  Even though they were only three people, they were still people, which came before nationality, race, religious beliefs, or any other distinguishing trait.  The reason why it was covered so quickly and so pervasively was that disturbed a peaceful tradition.  No one runs a race thinking they will be blown away with raining shrapnel.  It was a “surprise attack” which is the worst form of intelligence failure in preventing crime.  Since warfare and bombings occur at a high frequency in Middle-Eastern countries, a bombing would not surprise people as much, however their deaths are just as painful as ours in the same kind of attack.  That is what the Facebook poster was trying to help us realize.  A shock to America is something more common in other areas of the world where the people are less fortunate.

I looked up the four tragic events, which are inarguably a part of the ongoing tragedies in those Middle-Eastern countries.  The 32 random killings was an earlier estimation of the same widespread attack in Iraq killing 55.  Even the same pictures are shown between the two reports.  The 12 deaths in Afghanistan actually happened in March, and I checked an Afghanistan news website, just to make sure.  Twelve people dying is still depressing for the survivors regardless of which month it occurred, though for the purpose of this entry, only the tragedies on April 15, 2013 will be compared.

Here are the attacks in Palestine and Iraq that happened on the same day:

7 Palestinians Killed

Seven Palestinians were killed in Aleppo, Syria.  They were in a refugee camp, Handarat.  There was a nearby militant camp that was attacked by President Bashar al-Assad’s government forces, and the Syrian rebels killed the Palestinian refugees during the ambush.

55 Deaths in Iraq

In Iraq, 55 people were killed and around 300 were injured.  There were 13 or more bombs, mostly car-bombs, exploding in 12 different areas of the country.  Those targeted were government powers, foreign diplomats, lawyers, bodyguards, and civilians.  Locations included Saddam Hussein’s hometown Tikrit, the oil rich city of Kirkut, and the heavily guarded airport in Bagdad.  The capital city of Bagdad was hit the hardest overall.  The coordinated attacks were a common tactic of the Al-Qaeda branch in Iraq, however no one claimed responsibility yet.

This deadly bombardment of attacks was to create fearful environment for people trying to vote in the elections taking place next week.  Before this series of bombings, 14 candidates have been killed already.  Al-Qaeda is linked to a Syrian rebel movement, Nusra Front, and they are helping them bring down Al-Assad by supplying the rebels with weapons while creating chaos in Iraq.  Last month 270 people were killed, and the deadliest day in that month was March 19^th, the anniversary of the US invasion, when 65 people were killed.

Insight

Instead of running a foot-race, the Iraqi people were in the midst of an electoral race.  Al-Qaeda or whoever was responsible was trying to take out voters to influence the election results, or not to have the election at all since they prefer a theocracy.  By supporting democracy, the participants are adopting another part of Western culture, and losing more of the culture innate to the Middle-East.  Perhaps they figured if a Sunni is elected, the elected official will be more sympathetic to at least some of the reactionary ideals, and eventually revert to a theocratic society.

In the midst of the attacks, a school full of children dropped to the floor screaming from the shattered windows.  Even though the Boston Globe says, “Although violence in Iraq has fallen from its peak in 2006 and 2007, bombings and other attacks remain common,” the children’s screams were the same as any children’s screams when in close-range of a bomb.  Even if violence is “normal,” children are still frightened, still scream; still cry.

Since Al-Qaeda is cooperating with the Nusra Front from Syria, President Bashar al-Assad possibly attacked the camp to prevent the terrorist mogul from supplying them weaponry.  It was opportunistic to attack the same day as the Iraq attacks, because Al-Qaeda or whoever was responsible would be too busy to supplement weapons.  So Al-Assad’s attack was pre-emptive.

The Palestinians set up a refugee camp that was too close to a Syrian rebel camp, or did they have no where else to situate themselves?  Did they believe they would be more protected by the militants?  Should they have communicated with them more and created bonds?  Were the militants too pre-occupied with their own crisis which started in 2011 to create a bond with their refugee neighbors?  Did they just not want the Palestinians there and used the attack as an excuse to semi-accidentally kill them?  Some of these questions will be right and some will be wrong.  Perhaps the Palestinians were in the wrong place at the wrong time.  They were not the targets of either side of the attack.  Still, they were still human beings with families and loved ones.  They may have been human beings intended on killing other human beings, but there is no way to know for sure.  They are just humans that had beating hearts.  Blood does not have a race or a religion.

Blood rushed through the Boston Marathon runners’ veins on the same date, whether in ambition to win a defeated race or in fear of the explosions as they happened.  The shrapnel hurt just as much as the victims in the Middle-East.  If the terrorist who committed these Boston attacks is from an Islamic extremist group, the person probably wanted our people to feel what the Middle-East endured regularly.

Though the perpetrators in Iraq were insurgents and the Syrian government initiated the other attack against the militant rebels.  If the Boston bomber is an Islamic extremist, the attack will have been inspired by the drone strikes.  If America simply attacks back, they further hurt their reputation by being duped again into Carlos Marighella’s trick of “Enraging the Beast.”  The more America attacks the Middle-East through more drone strikes, the more people want to fight back by joining terrorist organizations.

©2013 Caroline Friehs

Originally posted: April 18, 2013

References

Associated Press (2013 Apr. 15).  Syrian militants kill 7 Palestinians in Aleppo.  PressTV.  Retrieved from:  http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/15/298456/syrian-militants-kill-7-palestinians/

BBC News (2013 April 15).  Boston Marathon hit by deadly twin explosions.  BBC News – US and Canada.  Retrieved by:  http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22160691

The Gulf Today (2013 Apr. 15).  55 dead in Iraq.  GulfToday.ae.  Retrieved from:  http://gulftoday.ae/portal/5fe745dd-8067-40cc-b66e-dcdad54f1d6d.aspx

RT Question More (2013 Apr. 15).  Black Monday in Iraq:  55 killed; almost 300 injured in series of attacks.  RT Question More.  Retrieved from:  http://rt.com/news/iraq-election-attack-killed-876/

Salaheddin, S (2013 Apr. 16).  Highly coordinated attacks in Iraq kill 32, injure 200.  Arab News.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.arabnews.com/news/448301

Schreck, A (2013 Apr. 16).  Attacks across Iraq as elections near; at least 55 dead.  The Boston Globe.  Retrieved from:  http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2013/04/15/iraq-attacks-kill-elections-near-qaeda-group-suspected-less-than-week-before-vote/OZZfpnj86TEycv8YY9zU1O/story.html

Measuring the Hypocrisy of Lisa Biron, the Anti-Gay Activist, Christian, Lawyer/Incest Child Pornographer/Molester

It was Memorial Day 2012.  Lisa Biron, a lawyer from Vermont, took her 14-year-old daughter to Ontario, Canada to meet Kevin Watson, 19, to see Niagara Falls and have sex.  Biron videotaped her daughter having sexual intercourse with Watson.  Later on, Biron called this a “keepsake” of her child’s first sexual experience.  During this trip, Biron also engaged in sexual relations with her own daughter, also videotaped.  All of them smoked marijuana and drank alcohol.

In July 2012, Brandon Ore, 18, responded to a personal ad on Craigslist titled, “2 girls looking to party, 18 and 33.”  On the first encounter, he had sex with Biron, and she told him next time to bring a friend since her “room mate,” who was really her daughter, would be present.  The next time, he bought a friend, who only had sex with Biron.  This time, Biron showed Ore the video of her daughter having sex with Watson and porno photos of her daughter, and expressed how she would like him to have sex with that same girl, on the living room couch.  He obliged, and while they were having sex, Biron started recording it with her iPhone.  Ore did not realize he was being recorded, and asked Biron if she was taping them.  She answered, “No,” and laughed.

Afterward, Ore moved in with Biron since he was disagreeing with the house rules at his parents’ house.  He resided with the Birons for a few months.  Another man moved in, and Ore felt guilty and reported Biron and himself for their crimes to the Manchester Police, in September 2012.  Biron tried to force him to return to the police and file it as a false report, but Ore would not allow it.  The initial report launched the investigation against Biron and the two men.  Biron made phone calls to her ex-husband, the girl’s father, and blamed her daughter.  “She had a part in this,” and it was “all her fault.”

Lisa Biron, age 43, was arrested in November, and charged with eight felony counts, including transportation with the intent to engage in sexual activity, possession of child pornography, and five counts of child sexual exploitation.

She was also a radical, right-wing Christian who took an active role in the Alliance Defending Freedom organization which was strongly anti-homosexuality.  She was never formally employed but she earned the Honors Corps status by giving 450 hours of service pro bono to the ADF.  She also was featured in March 2011 as an “Allied Attorney Success Story.”  The Alliance Defending Freedom removed the story and every single piece of information about Lisa Biron down from their website.  They want nothing to do with her, but they may also want to disprove she was ever with their organization.

Insight

Lisa Biron is warped and hypocritical in so many ways, it deserves to be quantified.  In this entry, Warped refers to her immorality as a mother, and Hypocrisy refers to the incongruousness of her beliefs.

Warped

1. Biron knew Watson was an adult of 19, and that her daughter intended to have sex.
2. This mother voluntarily transported her so a man could have sex with her underage daughter.
3. She thinks that videotaping her daughter’s first sexual experience is a “keepsake” equivalent to, “First steps,” “First Words,” etc.
4. Incest – enough said.
5. Created Child Pornography of her daughter – enough said.
6. Possesses multiple sex tapes of her daughter.
7. She willingly drank alcohol and smoked cannabis with her daughter and her a adult boyfriend, as if it were good-quality, family time.
8. She lied on the internet about her daughter’s age and her own age to get sex from an online stranger.
9. In this same ad, she seems to act as if they were friends who were equals rather than mother and daughter.
10. She referred to her daughter as her room mate.
11. She showed the stranger, Ore, pornography of her daughter.
12. She asked Ore to have sex with her daughter as if she were giving an assignment.
13. Biron blames her daughter for her crimes, including the child pornography, arranging sex with adult males, transporting her to Canada, incest, etc.

Hypocrisy

1. She is anti-gay, but she had lesbian sex with her daughter.
2. She belongs to right-wing organization that supports strong family values, but she committed child pornography, and
3. gave her underage daughter alcohol,
4. gave her marijuana
5. and then participated in drinking and drugs with her daughter and her online, adult boyfriend.
6. She is Christian has no scruples about sexual immorality.
7. She is Christian and lied on the internet.
8. She is Christian and tried to make Ore falsify reporting the crimes, instead of doing the right thing and confessing herself.
9. She lied to Ore about videotaping them while she was videotaping them, and
10. she thought the voyeurism was funny.
11. Biron is a lawyer and should know about laws.

Possibilities

The daughter was reportedly consenting, which is obviously no excuse for Biron’s atrocious crimes.  Because of how warped Lisa Biron is as a mother, it is possible that the daughter became a consenting victim as a result of her upbringing.  It is possible that she was sexually abused or “groomed” into becoming sexually involved so early in her teens.  There is no mention whether or not the incest was illegally consensual or violently un-consensual, however if the mother groomed her to be sexually active and created a bond with her, the daughter could have been consensual.  Though I am no sex psychologist, and that is why it is only a possibility.  The adult, Kevin Watson, witnessed the incest and was probably the one videotaping it.  If it were a violent rape and did not say anything about it, then he is as cruel as he is perverted.  If this was an un-consenting incest act, it is possible that she could have been too disturbed to talk about it.  The alcohol could have made her sexually indiscriminate, and the mother took advantage of that in combination of her sexually overt upbringing.

Brandon Ore did not initially know he was going to be sexually involved with an underage girl, because the advertisement on Craigslist misrepresented the girl’s age.  Although after seeing the pornographic imagery, he should have been able to figure out that she was under 18.  His sexual activity with the 14-year-old was absolutely wrong, though he did the right thing later by bravely reporting Biron and his own crimes, not leaving himself out.

©2013 Caroline Friehs
Originally posted: April 17, 2013

References

Davis, A (2013 Jan. 11)  Anti-Gay Activist Lisa Biron Found Guilty Of Child Pornography After Video Taping Daughter.  Opposing Views.  Retrieved from:  http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/anti-gay-activist-lisa-biron-found-guilty-child-pornography-after-video-taping-daughter

Huff Post Crime(2012 Nov. 20).  Lisa Biron, Anti-Gay Christian Lawyer, Arrested On Child Pornography Charges (Video).  Huffington Post.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/20/lisa-biron-anti-gay-christian-lawyer-child-porn-charges_n_2166055.html

The Inquisitr (2013 Jan. 14).  Lisa Biron: Anti-Gay Activist Lawyer Convicted Of Child Pornography For Filming 14-Year-Old Daughter.  The Inquisitr.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.inquisitr.com/480660/lisa-biron-anti-gay-activist-lawyer-convicted-of-child-pornography-for-filming-14-year-old-daughter/

Metzger, R (2013 Jan. 10).  Anti-gay Christian lawyer found guilty of 8 counts of producing kiddie porn.  Dangerous Minds.net.  Retrieved from:  http://dangerousminds.net/comments/anti-gay_christian_lawyer_found_guilty_of_8_counts_of_producing_kiddie_porn

Schlatter, E (2013 Jan. 11).  Anti-gay activist lawyer guilty of child pornography after videotaping daughter.  Salon.com.  Retrieved from:  http://www.salon.com/2013/01/11/anti_gay_activist_guilty_of_child_pornography_after_videotaping_daughter/

Vincent, D (2012 Jan. 10).  Female attorney guilty of bringing 14-year-old to Canada to make porn.  New Hampshire Union Leader.  Retrieved from:  http://www.unionleader.com/article/20130110/NEWS03/130119894