Boston Bombing Suspect Says US Wars Were Motivation

Older brother was the main actor
US News • Views: 36,385

He’s still in serious condition and unable to speak, but Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is providing investigators with a wealth of information about the plot already.

The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews.

From his hospital bed, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has acknowledged his role in planting the explosives near the marathon finish line on April 15, the officials said. The first successful large-scale bombing in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era, the Boston attack killed three people and wounded more than 250 others.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, said Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by police as the two attempted to avoid capture, do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization.

Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were “self-radicalized” through Internet sites and U.S. actions in the Muslim world. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has specifically cited the U.S. war in Iraq, which ended in December 2011 with the removal of the last American forces, and the war in Afghanistan, where President Obama plans to end combat operations by the end of 2014.

Also coming out today: Tsarnaev says his older brother Tamerlan was the driving force behind the attack. This was already becoming clear, but now we have confirmation from the suspect himself.

A U.S. government source tells CNN that in preliminary interviews with the Boston Marathon terrorist attack bombing suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told law enforcement that no foreign terrorist groups were involved in the incident; there was an online component to their radicalization - through watching videos, not through online communication; and that older brother, Tamerlan, was the driving force behind the planning and execution of the attacks.

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72 comments
1 erik_t  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:09:55am

Iraq: the gift that keeps on giving.

2 Charles Johnson  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:11:07am

Uh, I’m hoping this is a hack:

3 Dr. Matt  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:11:10am

Feds: Boston Bomb Plot Hatched Without Foreign Help

Bad news for blood thirsty, small government pro-lifers who want to invade and drop bombs on yet another country.

4 Charles Johnson  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:11:45am

Yup, they’ve been hacked.

5 Dr. Matt  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:12:09am

re: #2 Charles Johnson

Uh, I’m hoping this is a hack:

Ditto.

Nothing on CNN yet except:

Boston Marathon attack suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s condition upgraded to fair, U.S. attorney’s office says.

6 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:12:52am

Note to self: do not believe anything you see on Teh Twitters.

7 wrenchwench  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:13:00am

.

8 klys  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:13:24am

re: #4 Charles Johnson

Yup, they’ve been hacked.

Someone apparently doesn’t like the memo that this is supposed to be a slow news week.

9 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:14:10am

re: #2 Charles Johnson

Hacked

10 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:14:24am

Speaking of bombings…is the AP twitter feed hacked or are they just crazy?

11 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:16:05am

First CBS, now AP. Are any acronyms sacred anymore?

12 Slap  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:16:53am

Mornin’, all.

OT, but here’s a pretty incredible story about a HS athlete having a record season:

She’s got ARM!

AND she holds the HR record as well.

Wow!

13 Dr. Matt  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:17:00am

re: #11 darthstar

First CBS, now AP. Are any acronyms sacred anymore?

CNN doesn’t need to be hacked to report bullshit.

14 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:17:00am
15 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:17:56am

One of these days, somebody is going to hack Anonymous.

16 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:18:07am

re: #13 Dr. Matt

CNN doesn’t need to be hacked to report bullshit.

Maybe they’ll cover by reporting that Wolf Blitzer was hacked last week.
//

17 Tigger2005  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:18:11am

It still mystifies me why anyone reaches the conclusion that terror attacks on random civilians is the best way to register one’s displeasure with national policy.

18 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:19:59am

Let’s have some fun…

19 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:20:42am
20 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:20:43am

re: #15 darthstar

One of these days, somebody is going to hack Anonymous.

How would anyone know if anonymous was hacked? Maybe it was, and anonymous is hacking hackers who hacked away for the sake of hacking. After all, except for that one guy Barrett Brown, everyone follows the rule of anonymous. No one talks about anonymous. Second rule - no one talks about anonymous.

21 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:21:23am

re: #17 Tigger2005

It still mystifies me why anyone reaches the conclusion that terror attacks on random civilians is the best way to register one’s displeasure with national policy.

Spurious logic, but I think it goes something like this:
1. Government you elected is making innocents in other country live in fear of being bombed, arrested, etc.

2. We will bomb innocents here in retaliation in order to make you understand how they feel - and thus you will stop your leaders from continuing the policy.

22 Charles Johnson  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:21:38am
23 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:22:10am
24 Gus  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:22:19am
25 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:22:43am

re: #17 Tigger2005

It still mystifies me why anyone reaches the conclusion that terror attacks on random civilians is the best way to register one’s displeasure with national policy.

Better yet, how would anyone know what the motives are without a manifesto or other public pronouncement about intentions. With AQ and other movements, they’ve listed their grievances ahead of carrying out the attacks.

If both brothers were killed, how would we know what they were thinking, or why? Sure, the investigators might piece together something based on web searches, pages, postings, trips, etc., but it would have been incomplete.

26 Dr. Matt  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:23:01am

APNewsBreak: Ricin suspect released from jail

A federal official says the man charged with sending poison letters to President Barack Obama, a U.S. senator and a Mississippi judge has been released from jail.

Jeff Woodfin, chief deputy with the U.S. Marshals Service in Oxford, Miss., says Paul Kevin Curtis has been released from custody.

Woodfin says he doesn’t know if there were any conditions on the release.
The development comes hours after officials canceled a detention and preliminary hearing on Tuesday.

27 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:23:22am

I think TGDN is disappointed.

28 Lidane  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:23:37am

So to summarize, these were two homegrown idiots who decided to blow shit up in a misguided, poorly reasoned protest against Iraq and Afghanistan. No outside terror connection. No outside funding or training. The older brother got radicalized by watching YouTube then talked his younger idiot brother into it.

Does that about cover it?

29 darthstar  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:24:04am

Wow…

30 Bulworth  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:24:09am

re: #18 darthstar

Let’s have some fun…

435! Checkmate, Librools! /

31 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:24:22am

TEH SAUDI NATIONAL HACKED AP!!11!!!! BENGHAZI

32 Dr. Matt  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:24:28am

re: #22 Charles Johnson

If you needed evidence that traders watch twitter, that was it.Dow tanked in moments on single hacked tweet.
— Brian Sullivan (@SullyCNBC) April 23, 2013

Pretty impressive, albeit momentary, tank: DOW

33 Amory Blaine  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:25:53am

So were the letters tainted or false positives?

34 Lidane  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:25:55am

re: #29 darthstar

Wow…

Just imagine what it would look like if the glorious armed insurrection that the wingnuts keep talking about ever came to pass.

35 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:26:17am

re: #22 Charles Johnson

DJIA dropped 130 points in under a minute, recovering moments later (when AP noted the hack).

Given how the markets work on news/rumors, it’s a valid question as to whether the person who hacked was doing this for financial motives (to short the market).

36 GunstarGreen  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:26:39am

re: #32 Dr. Matt

Pretty impressive, albeit momentary, tank:
DOW

And yet we (meaning as a nation, generally) still consider it sound advice to prepare for one’s financial future by participating in this ridiculous, arbitrary shell game.

37 Bulworth  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:28:16am

re: #28 Lidane

So to summarize, these were two homegrown idiots who decided to blow shit up in a misguided, poorly reasoned protest against Iraq and Afghanistan. No outside terror connection. No outside funding or training. The older brother got radicalized by watching YouTube then talked his younger idiot brother into it.

Does that about cover it?

Yeah, I mean, I just don’t….

These guys and their plot were awful lame given all the hurt and destruction they caused.

38 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:28:19am

Someone should tell Twitter about the magic of two-factor authentication.

39 Romantic Heretic  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:29:52am

re: #21 Feline Fearless Leader

Spurious logic, but I think it goes something like this:
1. Government you elected is making innocents in other country live in fear of being bombed, arrested, etc.

2. We will bomb innocents here in retaliation in order to make you understand how they feel - and thus you will stop your leaders from continuing the policy.

Don’t forget:

3. We’re going to be fucking famous! We’ll assuage our weak egos by performing an act that demonstrates we are not insignificant. We’ll be evil, but that’s better than being nobody.

40 Hercules Grytpype-Thynneghazi  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:30:15am

re: #13 Dr. Matt

CNN doesn’t need to be hacked to report bullshit.

Breaking:
CNN Reports Entire Broadcast Schedule Between 4/15 and 4/20 Was Hacked

41 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:31:52am
42 First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:32:00am

re: #28 Lidane

So to summarize, these were two homegrown idiots who decided to blow shit up in a misguided, poorly reasoned protest against Iraq and Afghanistan. No outside terror connection. No outside funding or training. The older brother got radicalized by watching YouTube then talked his younger idiot brother into it.

Does that about cover it?

Just to pull some completely unfounded speculation out of thin air (it’s all the rage these days), suppose the stuff they watched on YouTube included Alex Jones explaining the *real* truth about 9/11 and false flag this and NWO that. Taking his bullshit to heart, one gets a picture of the US as a profoundly evil entity that rains misery and destruction all over the world as a matter of intentional policy. Suppose they were the 0.00000037% who decided to try to do something about it?

43 Gus  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:33:00am

Alex Jones now reports that the AP account was not hacked and that the Obama administration has now been replaced by the George Soros Bilderberg Shadow Government and from now on when you see President Obama it will be a hologram. You’ve been warned!

44 Gus  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:34:51am

Uh oh. This won’t go over well.

45 abolitionist  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:39:00am

re: #28 Lidane

So to summarize, these were two homegrown idiots who decided to blow shit up in a misguided, poorly reasoned protest against Iraq and Afghanistan. No outside terror connection. No outside funding or training. The older brother got radicalized by watching YouTube then talked his younger idiot brother into it.

Does that about cover it?

According to what I’ve read, their mother got much more serious about islam about the time the family moved to USA. The parents divorced not long after, and the father returned to Russia. The mother and/or the wife of Tamerlan could possibly have contributed to the radicalization.

I get an impression that the father was the voice for moderation in the family.

46 Charles Johnson  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:39:07am

re: #44 Gus

Three first-degree murder charges were dropped against Gosnell after McMahon argued that “there is not one piece…of objective, scientific evidence that anyone was born alive” at Gosnell’s clinic.

Interesting. So the accusations of murdering babies that were born alive could very well be completely made up by the religious right nutbags.

Gosnell is still a seriously fucked up person, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to find out that the murder charges were trumped up.

47 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:40:53am

re: #46 Charles Johnson

Interesting. So the accusations of murdering babies that were born alive could very well be completely made up by the religious right nutbags.

Gosnell is still a seriously fucked up person, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest to find out that the murder charges were trumped up.

The wingnuts were reTweeting some alleged “testimony” that a fetus was “swimming around in the toilet looking for a way out” and I was like all WTF. Total bullshit.

48 wrenchwench  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:43:07am
49 Mattand  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:43:57am

re: #44 Gus

re: #46 Charles Johnson

The name “Jack McMahon” is faintly ringing a bell for me. Could be wrong, but he may be one of the more high-power lawyers in Philly. IIRC, he specializes in controversial cases.

50 Lidane  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:44:41am
51 Charles Johnson  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:48:04am

Another AP account hacked:

52 Lidane  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:48:12am
53 Big Steve  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:49:16am

re: #28 Lidane

So to summarize, these were two homegrown idiots who decided to blow shit up in a misguided, poorly reasoned protest against Iraq and Afghanistan. No outside terror connection. No outside funding or training. The older brother got radicalized by watching YouTube then talked his younger idiot brother into it.

Does that about cover it?

Probably right but at this point, the surviving bomber, a guy capable of blowing up innocents, doesn’t strike me as a credible source. That he is lawyered up and trying to save himself from the needle could create a torrent of lying. I would give this awhile before believing they didn’t have some guidance.

54 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:49:40am

re: #46 Charles Johnson

The charges were dismissed after the prosecution put on 5 weeks worth of testimony. That means that the prosecution couldn’t even pass the smell test on those charges before the defense began its case in chief.

There’s plenty on which Gosnell will likely be found guilty, but some of the charges are actually hard to prove despite the gruesome testimony provided in the prosecution’s case.

55 Vicious Babushka  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:50:55am
56 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:52:33am
57 Gus  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:53:11am
58 NJDhockeyfan  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:53:19am
59 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:54:43am

re: #58 NJDhockeyfan

60 Interesting Times  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:55:17am

I suppose we’ll be able to tell CNN suffered an equivalent hack when they post news that’s accurate and well-sourced.

61 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:55:29am
62 Political Atheist  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:55:31am

re: #41 Vicious Babushka

Obviously our professional traders think a healthy living breathing President Obama is very important to our economy. Tea baggers Not So Much.

63 NJDhockeyfan  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:56:01am
64 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:58:26am

Burn:

65 Feline Fearless Leader  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:58:46am

re: #63 NJDhockeyfan

Is it true that the LAPD has already shot fourteen of them?
///

66 lawhawk  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 10:59:31am

re: #65 Feline Fearless Leader

12 of 14 were Saudi nationals. Who were going to be deported. ///////

67 NJDhockeyfan  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 11:00:27am

re: #65 Feline Fearless Leader

Is it true that the LAPD has already shot fourteen of them?
///

Yes and CNN is trying to find out what kind of accents they have.

68 Dr. Matt  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 11:01:57am

Apparently one of the AP hackers was wearing khakis and a black backpack. #falseflag

69 NJDhockeyfan  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 11:04:13am

re: #68 Dr. Matt

Apparently one of the AP hackers was wearing khakis and a black backpack. #falseflag

Another one was a brown person and was wearing a hoodie.

70 Aligarr  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 11:22:13am

So the motive of these two was ? Kill Americans ,whom they hate [at atleast big brother ] he gets radicalized by the internet …..what on the internet ? Muslim radicals , so he picks up the gauntlet and commits the mass murder of strangers ….Americans …whose LIFESTYLE he has come to hate …..he NOW will kill as many infidels as possible ./
BUt …..it’s not a foreign plot . They are in this by themselves . So it’s not about radical islam ? What would be the difference if they had been sent a check by a terrorist group ? What would be the difference in motive ?
I dont buy the fame crap , nor the murder spree crap ……I will call it what it is , muslim extremism morphed into a physical act of targeted mayhem and slaughter .

71 stabby  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 2:07:04pm

not through online communication

They probably knew tons of assholes who approved of what they were doing and he is protecting them.

Hell, there are assholes on every point of the spectrum, all over the world who would cheer killing Americans. Reason? Who needs a real reason to hate? Hate is an addiction. And it’s a social one.

72 stabby  Tue, Apr 23, 2013 2:12:16pm

re: #48 wrenchwench

I notice that Steve Streza’s fursona is meant to look like a My Little Pony Friendship is Magic character.

And add “fursona” to the list of annoying new words.


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