Boston Marathon Blasts: 3 Killed, More Than 100 Injured

 

04/15/2013

Three people were killed and more than 100 people were injured this afternoon as two powerful explosions detonated in quick succession near the Boston Marathon finish line in Boston’s Back Bay section, transforming a scene of athletic celebration into bloody chaos.

The dead included an 8-year-old boy, according to a law enforcement source who was briefed on the investigation.

President Barack Obama promised that whoever planted the explosives would be found and brought to justice.

 

“We still do not know who did this or why. And people shouldn’t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts,” he told reporters at the White House shortly after 6 p.m. “But make no mistake. We will get to the bottom of this … Any responsible individuals, any responsible groups will feel the full weight of justice.”

The blast came on Patriots Day, Obama noted, which is a state holiday in Massachusetts that celebrates the beginning of the American Revolution.

Blood and broken glass covered sidewalks in the area where the blasts occurred at about 2:50 p.m. Immediately after the explosions, some of the wounded could be seen to have lost limbs; others lay unconscious.

 

“It was just immediately [evident] there were injuries, right in the middle of the spectator crowds,” said boston.com sports producer Steve Silva, who was on the scene, covering the race. “There was blood everywhere; there were victims being carried out on stretchers. I saw someone lose their leg. People are crying. People are confused.”

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At least 115 people were brought in for treatment at seven area hospitals. Brigham and Women’s Hospital received the most, with 26 treated, including two in critical condition.

 

Asked if the explosions were a terrorist act, Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said, “We’re not being definitive on this right now, but you can reach your own conclusions based on what happened.”

No suspects have been arrested, Davis said. “We’re questioning many people, but there is no one in custody at this point,” he said.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it had implemented a no-fly zone around an area of Boston at the request of law enforcement officials and temporarily stopped planes on the ground at Logan International Airport to change the runway configuration.

 

Davis said the attacks had occurred without warning. “There was no specific intelligence” suggesting an attack would take place, he said.

Governor Deval Patrick said it was a “horrific day in Boston” and authorities were focusing on making sure the area around the Copley Square finish line was safe and secured. He urged everyone to stay away from the area.

Davis had initially said that there had been a third explosion at the John F. Kennedy Library in Dorchester. But he downplayed those comments at a later news conference, suggesting that the incident might have been “an incendiary device or a fire” and saying the incident had not been directly linked to the marathon explosions.

 

Hundreds of police officers and firefighters descended on the scene immediately after the blasts, clearing the finish-line viewing stands. FBI, State Police, and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were among the investigators, officials said.

Bomb squads were searching the area, said Steve MacDonald, a spokesman for the Boston Fire Department. Officials said another explosion, heard in the city around 4 p.m., was a “controlled blast” staged as part of bomb squad activity.

“There were two bombs that exploded near the finish line in today’s Boston Marathon. We are working with law enforcement to understand what exactly has happened,” the Boston Athletic Association, the organization that runs the marathon, a magnet for runners from all over the world, said in a statement.

A Globe reporter saw people fall injured at two spots on Boylston Street, some of them knocked unconscious by the blast.

Davis, the police commissioner, said the two explosions had happened 50 to 100 yards apart at about 2:50 p.m.

MacDonald said that one explosion had happened in front of the Marathon Sports store at 671-673 Boylston and the windows were blown out at a LensCrafters store, where “the sidewalk is loaded with blood.”

Boston.com’s Silva said, “I was there at the finish, shooting finish line scenes, and then, bang!, it just went off, and then less than 15 to 20 seconds after, there was a second explosion, closer to Fairfield Street.”

“It was just an explosion. It came out of nowhere. … I saw dismemberment. I saw blood everywhere.”

Obama said he had directed the full resources of the federal government to “investigate and respond” to the blasts and that he had assured Governor Patrick and Mayor Thomas M. Menino that “every single federal resource necessary” was available to them.

“The American people will say a prayer for Boston tonight,” Obama said. “We will find out who did this and we will hold them accountable.”

Menino said, “Let me just say that this is a tragedy. We’re going to work together on this.”

 

Dave Benson, 41, was in the stands across Boylston Street from the explosion.

“I thought it was an end-of-the-event celebration with fireworks. Then I saw a huge plume of smoke and people falling down.”

Andrea George, 39, who was also across the street, said, “We heard a noise and heard the glass shatter. My friend was right there, and I can’t get in touch with them. I just started running. Everyone was running in different directions. It was the scariest thing I ever saw.”

Davis said that many people who fled the scene on Boylston left bags and parcels strewn along the route, and those items were being “treated as suspicious devices” and might be detonated by authorities.

Davis said he could not confirm reports that the bombs were placed in trash cans.

Davis also gave out two emergency phone numbers for people to call. Relatives of victims and anyone missing can call the mayor’s hotline at 617-635-4500, and anyone with information about the explosions should call police at 800-494-TIPS, he said.

Via BostonGlobe

Related Link: Was Boston Bomb Squad Running “Controlled Explosion” On Same Day As Marathon Blasts?

Eurozone Finance Ministers Approve Bailout Deal for Cyprus

 

03/25/2013

Eurogroup has approved a deal on a 10 billion-euro bailout for Cyprus struck early Monday in Brussels. The country avoids an exit from the eurozone but will have the second largest bank closed with its big depositors apparently facing heavy losses.

“The size of financial assistance will amount to 10 billion euro,” Eurogroup president Jeroen Dijsselbloem has announced at a press conference in Brussels.

“With this agreement we’ve put an end to the uncertainty that has affected Cyprus and the euro area over the last few days,” he added.

The new deal agreed between Cyprus and the Troika of international lenders – the EU, the ECB and the IMF – will set up a “good bank” and a “bad bank” and will mean that the country’s second largest bank Laiki will effectively be shut down.
Deposits below 100,000 euros will be shift from Laiki to the Bank of Cyprus to create a “good bank.” Deposits larger than 100,000 euros will be frozen and used to resolve debts. It remains unclear how large the writedown on those funds will be.

The decision comes hours before the Monday deadline set by the European Central Bank, following heated talks between the President Nicos Anastasiades and the Troika.

Earlier on Sunday the central bank in Cyprus has imposed an ATM withdrawal limit of 100 euros per day for the island’s two biggest banks, in order to prevent a run on lenders.

Via RT

Ron Paul: Neo-Con War Addiction Threatens Our Future

 

03/25/2013

William Kristol knows what is wrong with the United States. As he wrote recently in the flagship magazine of the neo-conservatives, the Weekly Standard, the problem with the US is that we seem to have lost our appetite for war. According to Kristol, the troubles that have befallen us in the 20th century have all been the result of these periodic bouts of war-weariness, a kind of virus that we catch from time to time.

He claims because of the US “drawdown” in Europe after World War II, Stalin subjugated Eastern Europe. Because of war weariness the United States stopped bombing Southeast Asia in the 1970s, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. War weariness through the 1990s led to Rwanda, Milosevic, and the rise of the Taliban. It was our fault for not fighting on! According to Kristol, our failure to act as the policeman of the world is why we were attacked on September 11, 2001. Of the 1990s, he wrote, “[t]hat decade of not policing the world ended with 9/11.”

That revisionism is too much even for fellow neo-conservatives like Paul Wolfowitz to swallow. In a 2003 interview, Wolfowitz admitted that it was the presence of US troops in Saudi Arabia that led to the growth of al-Qaeda:

“(W)e can now remove almost all of our forces from Saudi Arabia. Their presence there over the last 12 years has been a source of enormous difficulty for a friendly government. It’s been a huge recruiting device for al Qaeda. In fact if you look at bin Laden, one of his principle grievances was the presence of so-called crusader forces on the holy land, Mecca and Medina.”

But for Kristol and his allies there is never enough war. According to a new study by Brown University, the US invasion of Iraq cost some 190,000 lives, most of them non-combatants. It has cost more than $1.7 trillion, and when all is said and done including interest the cost may well be $6 trillion. Some $212 billion was spent on Iraqi reconstruction with nothing to show for it. Total deaths from US war on Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan have been at least 329, 000. None of this is enough for Kristol.

The neo-con ideology promotes endless war, but neo-cons fight their battles with the blood of others. From the comfortable, subsidized offices of magazines like the Weekly Standard, the neo-conservatives urge the United States to engage in endless war – to be fought by the victims of the “poverty draft” from states where there are few jobs. Ironically, these young people cannot find more productive work because the Federal Reserve’s endless money printing to keep the war machine turning has destroyed our economy. The six trillion dollars that will be spent on the Iraq war are merely pieces of printed paper that further erode the dollar’s purchasing power now and well into the future. It is the inflation tax, which is the most regressive and cruel of all.

Yes, Americans are war weary, concedes Kristol. But he does not blame the average American. The real problem is that the president has dropped the ball on terrifying Americans with the lies and imaginary threats that led to the invasion of Iraq. Writes Kristol: “One can’t, for example, be surprised at the ebbing support of the American public for the war in Afghanistan years after the president stopped trying to mobilize their support, stopped heralding the successes of the troops he’d sent there, and stopped explaining the importance of their mission.”

If only we had more war propaganda from the highest levels of government we could be cured of this war-weariness. Ten years ago the US invaded Iraq under the influence of neo-conservative lies. Those lies continued to promote US military action in places like Libya, and next on their agenda is Syria and then on to Iran. It is time for the American people to shout “enough!”

Via Ron Paul @RonPaul

Iraq & WMDs: The Spies Who Fooled The World

 

03/18/2013

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War, Panorama reveals how key aspects of the secret intelligence used by Downing Street and the White House to justify the invasion were based on fabrication, wishful thinking and lies. Peter Taylor tracks down some of those responsible and reports on the remarkable story of how, in the months before the war, two highly-placed sources – close to Saddam Hussein – talked secretly to the CIA and MI6. Their intelligence said Iraq did not have an active WMD programme – but it was simply dismissed.

Related Link: MI6 & CIA Were Told Before Invasion That Iraq Had No Active WMD

Rand Paul @ CPAC 2013: Do We Have a Bill of Rights? Do We Have a Constitution? And Will We Defend It?

 

03/14/2013

Fresh off the heels of last week’s sure-to-be-historic filibuster, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) gave a rousing speech at Thursday’s Conservative Political Action Conference that once again ripped into US President Barack Obama.

Speaking on day one of the annual CPAC conference near Washington, DC, the libertarian-leaning senator briefly rehashed his arguments from last week’s 13-hour filibuster on the Senate floor by once again voicing his concern with Pres. Obama’s interpretation with the US Constitution.

“No one person gets to decide the law,” and, “no one person gets to decide your guilt or innocence,” said Sen. Paul. “My question to the president was about more than just killing Americans on American soil. My question was about whether presidential power has limits.”

In the wake of leaked Obama administration memos that justify the extrajudicial killing of Americans suspected of terrorism, Sen. Paul has demanded that the White House answer questions about the president’s authority when it comes to condemning his own citizens to death-by-drone without ever asking for a trial. Following last week’s marathon filibuster, the Department of Justice and White House alike both admitted that the president does not in fact have the authority to execute US citizens without guaranteeing them due process. Even after saying he was satisfied with that answer, though, Sen. Paul told the CPAC crowd this week that he has questions about the president’s own interpretation of his role as commander-in-chief.

Of particular concern, said the senator, was Pres. Obama’s December 31, 2011 signing of the National Defense Authorization Act, an annual Pentagon spending bill that last year included a provision allowing for the indefinite detention of US citizens without charge or trial. Under the NDAA, US citizens can be locked up for life if the government has only a minor suspicion even that they have ties with suspected terrorists. The Obama administration has since been in and out of court over the matter after a group of human rights workers and journalists sued the White House, claiming that the law could chill free speech in America by having reporters imprisoned merely for conversing with suspected terrorists. Despite vowing to not sign the NDAA into law, the Obama administration has defended the legislation vigorously in federal court during the last year.

“President Obama, who seemed once upon a time to respect civil liberties, has become the president who signed a law allowing for the indefinite detention of American citizens. Indeed, a law that allows an American citizen to be sent to Guantanamo Bay without a trial,” Sen. Paul said on Thursday. “Now Pres. Obama defends his signing of this bill by saying he has no intention of detaining an American citizen without a trial. Likewise, he defended possible drone strikes on Americans by indicating that he had no intention of doing so.”

“My 13 hour filibuster was a message to the president that good intentions are not enough,” said the senator. “The filibuster was about drones, but also about much more. Do we have a Bill of Rights? Do we have a Constitution? And will we defend it?”

CPAC will continue throughout the weekend with appearances scheduled by other well-known members of the Republican Party, including House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump.