Thread: FACTS: What we know about the terror attack, Boston Marathon aftermath

What we know about the terror attack, Boston Marathon aftermath

By CNN Staff
updated 11:16 AM EDT, Tue April 16, 2013

Read our developing news story and follow up-to-the-minute reports on CNN.com's This Just In blog.
A man comforts a victim on the sidewalk at the scene of the first of two apparent bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

(CNN) -- New developments:
-- In all, 176 people were treated at area hospitals after the blasts with 17 in critical condition, Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters on Tuesday.
-- No one is in custody, Davis said.
-- Authorities are processing "the most complex crime scene that we have dealt with in the history of our department," Davis said.
-- Two explosive ordnance disposal sweeps were carried out Monday, the first early in the morning and the second an hour before the first runners crossed the finish line, Davis said. "They did not turn up any evidence," he said.
-- "Make no mistake: An act of cowardice and of this severity cannot be justified or explained," District Attorney Dan Conley said. "It can only be answered."
-- Thirty forensic specialists and a number of dogs trained to detect explosive devices and their residue are at the scene of the blasts, according to Gene Marquez, special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
-- No unexploded devices have been found, Marquez said.
-- Authorities are asking those who may have video or pictures from the scene around the time of the blasts to call city or FBI hotlines.
-- The blast site will take several days to process, Marquez said.
-- FBI Agent Rick DesLauriers said law enforcement has received a "voluminous" number of tips.
-- Attorney General Eric Holder and FBI Director Robert Mueller arrived Tuesday at the White House.
Previously reported:
Three people died and scores more were wounded in the two bomb blasts, 12 seconds apart, that erupted near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon, Boston police said.
At least eight of the wounded are children.
Investigation:
-- A law enforcement official said there was no specific suspect in the bombings and no leading theory on a motive.
-- The official said investigators have found no surveillance video showing the bombs being put in place but were continuing to comb through video from nearby businesses, etc.
-- The intelligence community is poring through all threat reporting to see if there is anything that could be connected to the explosions in Boston, U.S. counterterrorism officials said.
-- The federal Emergency Response Team has cleared the crime scene near the finish line and is beginning to inventory the evidence, a federal law enforcement source said.
-- The device may have been placed in a trash can, from which shrapnel was created when it detonated.
-- Authorities searched an apartment late Monday in the town of Revere, northeast of Boston, and removed items, but would not say how the search might be linked to the investigation.
-- The official said the Revere search is connected to a young Saudi man on a student visa who has been questioned at a hospital.
-- The initial search found nothing related to the bombing, the official said.
-- The search took place with consent, so no search warrant was needed, a federal law enforcement official told CNN.
-- U.S. and Saudi officials said more than one Saudi has been interviewed. CNN knows of a male, whose apartment was searched, and a female. All those interviewed are cooperating, and none has been labeled a suspect, Saudi officials, said.
-- Investigators have urged police to be on the lookout for a "darker-skinned or black male" with a possible foreign accent in connection with Monday's bombings, according to a law enforcement advisory obtained by CNN. The man, seen with a black backpack and sweatshirt, was trying to enter a restricted area about five minutes before the first explosion, the notice says.
-- The FBI has taken over the investigation's lead role, said Richard DesLauriers, the special agent in charge of the bureau's Boston office.
-- "The situation remains fluid, and it remains too early to establish the cause and motivation," the FBI's Boston Division said in a statement asking people to call in with any information, images or details related to the explosions.
-- President Barack Obama on Monday ordered the "full resources" of the federal government to respond to the bombings, and called for increased security around the United States as necessary.
-- The Pakistani Taliban was not involved in the attack, spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said.
-- Federal law enforcement has been placed on "Level 1 mobilization," U.S. government sources said. "That's equivalent to all hands on deck," one official said. A senior federal official told CNN that teams were on standby to search flights leaving the United States; no team had been activated.
The devices:
-- A law enforcement official said the only devices recovered are the two that blew up, and no unexploded devices have been found. This account differs from others. The official said investigators have not determined how the two bombs were detonated. The official did not know whether the bombs contained ball bearings or other shrapnel.
-- One unexploded device was found at a hotel on Boylston Street near the bomb site and another unexploded device was found at an undisclosed location, said Rep. Bill Keating, D-Massachusetts. Keating, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, called Monday's incident a "sophisticated, coordinated, planned attack."
-- But a law enforcement official said no unexploded device had been found.
Get up-to-the-minute updates on CNN.com's This Just In blog
Casualties:
-- Martin Richard, 8, was killed. His mother, Denise, underwent surgery for a brain injury, and his 6-year-old sister lost her leg, WHDH reported.
-- Eight of the 29 patients at Massachusetts General Hospital were in critical condition late Monday, trauma surgeon Peter Fagenholz said. The most serious wounds "have been combined, complex lower injuries that involve blood vessels, bone and tissue," and several underwent amputations, he said.
-- The bombings resulted in at least 10 amputations and left doctors picking ball bearings out of victims in the emergency room, a terrorism expert briefed on the investigation said.
-- Some of the wounded were treated in medical tents that had been erected near the finish line to treat exhausted runners. Others were taken to nearby hospitals.
-- In addition to the patients treated at Massachusetts General, 21 patients were treated at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; 23 at Boston Medical Center; 17 at Tufts Medical Center; 31 at Brigham and Women's Hospital; 10 at Boston Children's Hospital; at least four at Carney Hospital; 18 at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center; and one at Newton-Wellesley Hospital.
-- The patients at Boston Children's Hospital were in good to serious condition Monday night. They included:
A 9-year-old girl with leg trauma who underwent surgery;
A 42-year-old parent of a patient is being treated;
A 7-year-old boy who is being treated for a minor leg injury;
A 12-year-old with a femur fracture;
A 2 year-old-boy with a head injury who has been admitted to the Medical/Surgical ICU;
A number of other patients in good condition were treated in the emergency department.
Communications:
-- AT&T said Monday evening that it had set up a mobile calling center and phone charging station in the Sheraton Hotel. "In addition, our Wi-Fi network, turned up for the Boston Marathon, is now available to customers of all wireless carriers and will remain on for an extended period of time."
-- Google's Crisis Response team created a "Person Finder" tool to help marathon runners, their families and friends, and spectators keep track of each other and share information, Google spokeswoman Susan Cadrecha said. The web address is http://google.org/personfinder/2013-boston-explosions.
Security:
-- All off-duty Boston police officers were called in to help with the response to the attack, Massachusetts Emergency Management said. Additional security measures were being taken throughout the city, including at Boston's Logan Airport, MEMA spokesman Peter Judge said. The airport remained open, with additional security procedures in place.
-- More than 400 Massachusetts National Guard troops had already been on duty, assigned to help local police keep the route clear for runners.
Flights banned over Boston Marathon blast site
-- Obama was to meet Tuesday evening with Cabinet members, national security and other counterterrorism advisers, a senior official at a key agency told CNN.
-- Obama was briefed by homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco and other members of his senior White House staff in the Oval Office.
-- Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "has been notified of the incident in Boston," an administration official said. "At her direction, DHS is in contact with state and local authorities and will provide whatever assistance is necessary in the investigation and response."
-- Officials in other cities, including London, Washington, New York, Miami, Chicago and Los Angeles, said they were monitoring events and stepping up security.
-- London Met Police Chief Superintendent Julia Pendry said: "A security plan is in place for the London Marathon. We will be reviewing our security arrangements in partnership with London Marathon."
Reaction:
-- "This is a horrific day in Boston," Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said. "My thoughts and prayers are with those who have been injured."
-- In a telegram to Cardinal Sean O'Malley, archbishop of Boston, a spokesman for Pope Francis said, "At this time of mourning, the Holy Father prays that all Bostonians will be united in a resolve not to be overcome by evil, but to combat evil with good (cf. Rom 12:21), working together to build an ever more just, free and secure society for generations yet to come."
-- A number of professional sports teams held moments of silence Monday night.
-- The U.S. House of Representatives stopped debate at 5:09 p.m. ET to observe a moment of silence on the House floor.
-- Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir condemned the bombings. "What occurred today in Boston is a heinous crime which contradicts the values of humanity," he said.
　
http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/15/us/boston-marathon-things-we-know/index.html?hpt=hp_t1

From CNN:
Boston Marathon explosions

Obama calls bombings "act of terror"


New this morning:

• Doctor: Shrapnel included pellets, nails
• Home searched in suburb
• At least one Saudi interviewed
• Bomb may have been in trash can

FULL STORY

• Bergen: Why such attacks are rare
• What we know about the attack
• Joy to carnage | The rush to help
• How you can help | Map
• Affiliates: WBZ | WHDH | WCVB

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Student in his 20s was injured and is cooperating as a witness from his hospital bed. . .

Bomb Details Emerge in Boston Inquiry



By Ben Werschkul, Channon Hodge, Pedro Rafael Rosado, Erica Berenstein and Alyssa Kim
Looking for Clues in Boston Bombings: The Times’s Michael Cooper reports on developments as the authorities begin to unravel a complex crime scene one day after explosions at the Boston Marathon.


By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

Published: April 16, 2013

BOSTON — The deadly bomb blasts that killed three people and injured 176 at the Boston Marathon are being investigated as “an act of terrorism,” President Obama said Tuesday, as other officials said that the explosives used in Monday’s lethal attack were probably some kind of “pressure-cooker” devices that can send sharp bits of shrapnel flying into victims in the vicinity.

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“This was a heinous and cowardly act,'’ the president said Tuesday at the White House. “And given what we now know about what took place, the F.B.I. is investigating it as an act of terrorism. Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror. What we don’t yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual.”
Surgeons at Boston hospitals told televised news conferences on Tuesday that the devices were packed with small pellets and sharp “nail-like” objects that were designed to maim their victims.
Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, said authorities believe the explosive may have been a “pressure-cooker device,” similar to improvised explosive weapons that have been used against American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Mr. McCaul, a former federal prosecutor who received briefings Tuesday morning from the F.B.I. and Homeland Security officials, also said that authorities still did not know whether the attack was a foreign or domestic plot.
An explosive device fashioned from a pressure cooker was also used in the attempted bombing of Times Square in New York in 2010.
Among the dead in Boston was an 8-year-old boy, Martin Richard, of Dorchester, according to Conor Yunits, a family spokesman. He had been watching the marathon with his family; his mother and a sister were badly injured. The names of the other victims have not been made public.
Late Monday night, law enforcement officials descended on an apartment building in the suburb of Revere, about five miles north of Copley Square, linked to a man the police took into custody near the scene of the bombings. But on Tuesday morning, one law enforcement official said investigators had determined that the man, who was hurt in a blast and was questioned at the hospital, was not involved in the attack.
Representative Stephen Lynch, Democrat of Massachusetts, said doctors had identified material lodged in a survivor’s leg as a ball bearing.
Mr. Lynch characterized the choice of the material as deliberate. “This is not a device like Oklahoma City,” he said. “That was to bring the building down. The ball bearings are meant as antipersonnel munitions. They’re trying to cause carnage here.”
The authorities have not announced any arrests, and so far, no one has claimed responsibility as the police conduct what they have said is “a criminal investigation that is a potential terrorist investigation.”
Law enforcement officials pleaded at a briefing Tuesday morning for anyone who took pictures or video of the finish line at the time of the blast to submit them to boston@ic.fbi.gov or to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324).
The plea underscored just how pervasive cameras have become at events like the marathon and how crucial they can be in helping the police piece together crucial bits of evidence. But it may also suggest how few clues the authorities have otherwise.
The police also said they were examining footage from nearby security cameras frame by frame as they continue their search for the identity of the person or persons who placed explosive devices near the end of the 26.2-mile course.
Police Commissioner Edward Davis said that officials were gradually reducing the size of the crime scene, which on Tuesday stretched for 12 blocks in Copley Square, down from 15 blocks on Monday. He said it was the most complex crime scene in the history of the department.
City streets that normally would be clogged at rush hour were largely deserted on Tuesday except for a cold wind and a few runners out for a morning jog. “It’s very surreal,” said Mary Ollinger, 32, who works at Wentworth Institute of Technology. “The streets are empty and the Common is filled with media trucks.”
At rush hour, the city’s subway system was uncharacteristically quiet, watched over by a heightened police presence and SWAT team members. Parts of the city seemed to have ground to a halt: Stores on Newbury Street, Boston’s busy retail thoroughfare, were closed, and tables on the patio at Stephanie’s, a restaurant there, were still covered in dishes left there on Monday.
Metal barriers and more police guarded the crime scene, forming something of a black hole in a busy retail and business district in this city. Inside, the streets were still littered in the detritus of the marathon — runners’ blankets, water bottles, even a pile of bananas.
Hundreds if not thousands of office workers avoided the city on Tuesday because of the closures. Maria Luna, 38, who lives in Watertown and usually commutes by bus to her job as an investment analyst at John Hancock, said she was staying home. “My manager told me it would be very limited access,” she said by phone. The emergency protocol in her office was activated, she said, meaning that essential workers, like those who must move cash on a time-sensitive basis, could report to an off-site disaster recovery station in Portsmouth, N.H., where the company has computers.
She said she felt a combination of sadness and terror. “Right now I have a big ball in the pit of my stomach,” she said.
But many runners, clad in the blue and gold jackets given to this year’s marathoners, made pilgrimages to the blockade on Boylston Street, pausing to take pictures with their cellphones. Others came wearing jacket from previous marathons — the symbol of accomplishment had, apparently, turned into a sign of solidarity.
Alison Gardner, a runner from Austin, Tex., who completed the race on Monday about 10 minutes before the blasts, left a potted hydrangea and tucked a bunch of tulips into the metal barrier.
“It’s supposed to be a day of celebration today, and it’s a day of sadness,” said Ms. Gardner.
Her companion, Bonnie Yesian, is among many visitors still marooned in the city, because her hotel — and her luggage and identification — is inside the crime scene.
“I can’t fly, so I’m stuck,” said Ms. Yesian, who said strangers and marathon volunteers had offered her guest rooms and supplies in the meantime.
Marathon officials had set up an ad hoc site adjacent to the crime scene, where runners who had been stopped before the finish line could pick up their medals and bright yellow bags of belongings that they had left at the start. What would ordinarily be a moment to bask in accomplishment was a grim occasion, as runners — many with tears in their eyes — wondered what to make of a medal for a marathon they had been unable to complete.
“It’s heartbreaking to not cross the finish line, you train so hard for this,” said Lauren Field, an auctioneer who now lives in Hampstead, N.H., who was stopped blocks from the finish line. “It’s sad, but I’m safe.”
Caroline Burkhart protested gently as a volunteer handed her a medal. “I didn’t finish,” she said, explaining that she had stopped at mile 25.2. She took off the medal and examined it. “Memories,” she said, with a shudder. “Next year, I’ll wear it.”
In Dorchester, the street outside the home of Martin Richard, the 8-year-old victim, a large two-story gray Victorian with a basketball hoop and a hockey goal in the driveway, was filled with reporters and television cameras on Tuesday. Mourners stopped to leave flowers in the front yard. A neighbor, Jane Sherman, 64, described the Richard children as “very active, very normal American kids.” Ms. Sherman, a real estate agent, said she would often see the children outside the house playing. “They’re very happy-go-lucky kids,” she said. “All of Dorchester is devastated.”
White House officials said that President Obama received updates overnight about the investigation from Lisa Monaco, his chief counterterrorism and homeland security adviser. “The president made clear that he expects to be kept up to date on any developments and directed his team to make sure that all federal resources that can support these efforts, including the investigation being led by the F.B.I., be made available,” a White House official said. Mr. Obama is to be briefed again later this morning by Ms. Monaco and the director of the F.B.I., Robert Mueller.
Almost three-quarters of the 23,000 runners who participated in the race had already crossed the finish line when a bomb that had apparently been placed in a garbage can exploded around 2:50 p.m. in a haze of smoke amid a crowd of spectators on Boylston Street, just off Copley Square in the heart of the city. Twelve seconds later, another bomb exploded several hundred feet away.
On Tuesday morning officials said that the only explosive devices found were the ones that exploded at the marathon — clarifying conflicting statements that were given Monday in the chaotic aftermath of the blast, when some law-enforcement officials had said that other devices were found. “There were no unexploded devices found,” Gov. Deval Patrick said Tuesday morning.
　
　
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/17/us/officials-investigate-boston-explosions.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

A second victim of the Boston Marathon attack has been identified as Krystle Campbell, an official said.

updated 2:38 PM EDT, Tue April 16, 2013

http://www.alipac.us/f19/5-viral-sto...t-true-276322/

"Steve King: Boston Bombings Should Delay Immigration Reform"

How this computes to politicians who back illegal immigration : "We'll just allow more illegals in!"

"If You See Something, Say Something"
DHS is working to expand "If You See Something, Say Something ™" throughout the country by partnering with a variety of entities including: transportation systems, universities, states, cities, sports leagues and local law enforcement. If you’re interested in getting your group involved please contact 202-282-8010.
Report Suspicious Activity to Local Law Enforcement or Call 9-1-1.

This terror clearly shows the Immigration Bill has another crucial defect. One of main suspects, the resident of the searched apartment in the article is Abdulrahman Ali Alharbi, a student VISA foreigner in Boston.

By 9/11 and this accident, I feel clearly US schools don't have ability to monitor foreign students. In this reality, Gang of Eight is trying to post the Immigration Bill, which endows no limit in the number of green cards awarded to people of extraordinary ability in science, arts, education, business or athletics, or to outstanding professors, doctors and others. According to the bill, it also makes A new startup visa would be created for foreign entrepreneurs trying to come here to start their own companies. I don't think the bill is a good idea.

Detailed information at the article titled Bipartisan Senate immigration bill provides path to citizenship for millions, heightens border security.