B.RAMAN
THE FACTS: As reported by the BBC and the CNN:
• Three
persons, including an 8-year-old child, were killed in two explosions near the
finish line of the Boston Marathon on the afternoon of April 15,2013.
• Hospitals
reported at least 144 people are being treated for injuries, with at least 17
of them in critical condition and 25 in serious condition. At least eight of
them are children. At least 10 people
injured had limbs amputated. Several of the patients treated at Massachusetts
General Hospital suffered injuries to lower limbs.
• The two
blasts were about 50 to 100 yards apart with a few minutes one after the other.
A federal law enforcement official told CNN that both bombs were small, and
initial tests showed no C-4 or other high-grade explosive material, suggesting
that the packages used in the attack were crude explosive devices.
• Authorities
in Boston found at least one other explosive device , Boston Police
Commissioner Ed Davis said. Rep. Bill Keating of Massachusetts said two more
were found. 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.
· There
were no credible threats before the Marathon, a state government official said.
There is no suspect in custody, but many people are being questioned, Davis
said. Investigators warned police to be on the lookout for a
"darker-skinned or black male" with a possible foreign accent in
connection with the attack, according to a law enforcement advisory obtained by
CNN. The man was seen with a black backpack and sweatshirt and was trying to
get into a restricted area about five minutes before the first explosion, the
lookout notice states. Also, a Saudi national with a leg wound was under guard
at a Boston hospital in connection with the bombings, but investigators cannot
say he is involved at this time and he is not in custody, a law enforcement
official said.
· In
addition to scrutinizing images of surveillance cameras in the area, the FBI
likely was issuing subpoenas for records from cell towers in the area to
isolate and trace calls from around Copley Square at the time of the blasts,
according to a former federal law enforcement official who now works in the
intelligence community.
· Mayor
(Thomas) Menino said: “Our focus is on making sure that the area around Copley
Square is safe and secured. I am asking everyone to stay away from Copley
Square and let the first responders do their jobs."
· The
Federal Aviation Administration placed a flight restriction over the site of
the blasts. Other cities, including New York and Washington, tightened security
as a result. Following standard protocol, the White House cleared out an area
in front of the West Wing.
· Troops
from the Massachusetts National Guard, already at the site as part of the
marathon's security and crowd-management plan, were assisting police as well.
· The
FBI has taken over co-ordination of what it described as a "potential
terrorist inquiry". Although President Obama, in his initial statement,
did not use the word "terrorism", a White House official later said:
"Any event with multiple explosive devices - as this appears to be - is
clearly an act of terror and will be approached as an act of terror."
· Officials
in Washington said no group or individual had so far said they carried out the
attack.
2. Since the 9/11 acts of catastrophic terrorism in
the US Homeland carried out by Al Qaeda, using hijacked aircraft, there have
been two attempted acts of catastrophic terrorism by Al Qaeda by causing
explosions on US passenger aircraft flying from Europe to the US.
3. On 22 December 2001, Richard Reid,
a British citizen, boarded American Airlines Flight 63 from Paris to Miami,
wearing shoes packed with explosives, which he unsuccessfully tried to
detonate. Passengers overpowered him on the plane, which quickly landed at
Logan International Airport in Boston, , the closest US airport. He was arrested and indicted. He was reported to have
been motivated by Al Qaeda elements in Pakistan.
4. On December 26,2009, Abdul
Mutallab, 23, a Nigerian, tried to detonate an explosive device, apparently a
mix of powder and liquid, on a North-West
Airlines flight, coming from Nigeria via Amsterdam, and approaching Detroit. An
alert passenger noticed him and he was overpowered. He was believed to have
been motivated by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
5. The Boston Marathon blasts have coincided with a
fast reportedly undertaken since March 19,2013, by 24 of the Al Qaeda suspects
still held in the Guantanamo Bay detention centre to protest against the
alleged inhuman conditions in the Centre. Activists of a Muslim
group called Witness Against Torture (WAT) began a hunger strike in solidarity with the detainees at Guantanamo
Bay. The group said in its web site: “We will gather for action in New York
City, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities domestically and internationally to denounce the barbaric practice of torture
and indefinite detention and to demand justice for the men at Guantanamo.” The
solidarity fast by WAT was scheduled to last till March 30. A handful of
activists plan to continue fasting every Friday until the prison is closed.
6. There is
so far no evidence to indicate that the Boston blasts might have been linked
with the fast. No claim of responsibility for the blasts has been made so far
and there is till now no evidence to show whether the blasts were carried out
by individual rogue elements with personal grievances or ideologically motivated
organisations.
7. While the US Homeland had previously seen acts
of catastrophic terrorism and attempts to commit such acts through aircraft,
this is the first time a conventional act of terrorism using improvised
explosive devices has been committed, if the involvement of rogue individual
elements is ruled out.
8. The perpetrators, whether rogue individuals or
members of ideologically motivated organisations, have succeeded in evading
physical security for the Boston Marathon in procuring explosive material,
detonators and timers and planting the IEDs without being noticed by the
extensive CCTV camera network along the Marathon route.
9. The local security authorities and the FBI do
not appear to have received any advance inkling of a possible terrorist strike
either through electronic chatter or from human sources.
10. The explosions show that despite the
strengthening of homeland security in the US after 9/11, terrorists have
managed to find intelligence and physical security gaps in the security network
and exploited them. The Boston blasts also illustrate the difficulties in
preventing conventional style attacks as against sophisticated catastrophic
attacks. (16-4-2013)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For
China Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
