Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

[Burnt Hill]

From the article -

Taramiv also said that Todashev "felt inside he was going to get shot" by the FBI.

.
Self fufilling prophecy brought on by guilty feelings due to his involvement in the triple murder?
It seems as though he would have told Todashev "why" he would get shot if he "knew something".
If this was an attempt to cover-up, or eliminate loose ends, why not kill the both of them?
As far as the FBI shooting to kill, he was a suspect and I suppose thats what you do when being threatened with a knife.
Of course why wasnt he thoroughly searched prior to questioning? They already knew of his violent history.

[Jerky]

Jesus H. Christ, guys, what the everloving FUCK?!?!?

http://www.wcvb.com/news/local/metro/man-questioned-in-boston-marathon-bombing-shot-killed-by-fbi/-/11971628/20250158/-/k4uelaz/-/index.html

http://www.myfoxboston.com/story/223822 ... estigation

A friend of Ibragim Todashev said he and Todashev were being investigated as part of the Boston bombings. He said Todashev, 27, knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because both were MMA fighters.

The man claims he and Todashev were interviewed by the FBI for nearly three hours on Tuesday. The friend said he left the interview, and when he came back to the apartment he found that there had been a shooting. Todashev was killed, WESH reported.

The FBI confirmed that a person was shot and killed, but would not disclose details about the investigation.

"We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent," FBI spokesman Dave Couvertier said. "The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The suspect is deceased."

Sources said Todashev spoke with Tsarnaev one week before the April 15 attack.

Edit: Cross-posting SLAD's link from another thread:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/05 ... oning?lite

[IanEye]

My son enjoys playing "Lego Batman" on the PlayStation3.

He recently received the book, "Batman's Friends and Foes" as a gift.

It is published by Harper Collins.

Here are some pages:





It is somewhat hard to explain to him that Chechens as a whole aren't bad people when he is literally learning to read now and associates Chechens right off the bat with scarecrows and jokers.

So, I took the book away from him.

[Novem5er]

That's crazy about the Batman book. I didn't a little research though, and it looks like that book was published in 2008. Also, "The Chechen" actually is a batman villain from the movie "The Dark Knight". I don't see any reference to The Chechen pre-Dark Knight movie... so was he invented by Christopher Nolan and crew?

In this case, is this yet another link from the Batman trilogy to terrorism and violence in the US? So odd.

RE: the new shooting. My first thought was "why is it always Florida?" Can't we catch a break?

[IanEye]

I think the Batman synch stuff is odd.
But I don't think there is a specific pre-planned agenda to it.

The Chechen stuff in my son's book just isn't particularly helpful right now in 2013 (not that it was helpful in 2008 either).

In the early 70's my grandmother dug out a Better Homes & Gardens Treasury of Children's stories for me to read as a child that had been my mother's when she was a child.

I doubt my grandmother had looked at that book in 20 years.

Most of the stories in there were fairly harmless, but smack dab in the middle of the book was the story of Little Black Sambo, and his parents, Mumbo & Jumbo.

Again, i don't think my grandmother had any ill intent in giving me this book, it is just that my parents, like a lot of others were trying to move on, so they put the book away.

[seemslikeadream]

[stickdog99]

CNN

The FBI had followed Todashev for days, his friend told CNN affiliate Central Florida News 13.

Khasuen Taramov told the TV station that Todashev was living in Boston a couple of years ago when he became acquainted with Tamerlan Tsarnaev. After the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, the FBI began questioning and following Todashev and Taramov.

Todashev "wasn't like real close friends (with Tsarnaev), but he just happened to know him," Taramov said. "But he had no idea that they were up to something like that, like bombings and everything, you know what I mean?"

He told CNN affiliate WESH that Todashev and Tsarnaev had spoken by telephone about a month before the bombings.

"It was a complete shock to him," Taramov said.

The two met in Boston, where Todashev had lived and where there is a small, close-knit community of Chechens, said Taramov.

Their telephone conversation before the bombings contained nothing but routine pleasantries, he said. "It was 'How are you doing; how's your family?' That's all."

Taramov said he himself was questioned by the FBI for three hours Tuesday night. Asked what he was asked, Taramov said, "Different kind of questions like 'what do you think about bombings,' 'do you know these guys,' blah blah blah, what is my views on certain stuff."

He said Todashev was not a radical. "He was just a Muslim. That was his mistake, I guess."

Taramov said his friend had told him he had a bad feeling about the direction the investigation was heading.

"He felt like there's going to be a setup ... bad setup against him. Because he told me, 'They are making up such crazy stuff, I don't know ... why they doing it. OK, I'm answering the questions, but they are still making up some, like, connections, some crazy stuff. I don't know why they are doing it.' "

Before meeting with the FBI for a 7:30 p.m. interview Tuesday, Taramov said, his friend asked him to take his parents' telephone numbers. "He just told me, 'Take the numbers, in case something happens, if I get locked up, or whatever, call them.' You know what I mean?

"We were expecting to get him locked up, but not getting him killed. I can't believe it."

[8bitagent]

It is somewhat hard to explain to him that Chechens as a whole aren't bad people when he is literally learning to read now and associates Chechens right off the bat with scarecrows and jokers.

So, I took the book away from him.

If my entire country and people were being slaughtered wholesale by Russians I'd be pretty pissed too. Anyways, so bizarre that page is in a kid's book. I mean what if it had said "A Pakistani" or "A Nigerian"?
What does a Chechen have to do with Batman?

[barracuda]

What does a Chechen have to do with Batman?

He's this guy.

[8bitagent]

What does a Chechen have to do with Batman?

He's this guy.

Oh, I got it. Like in a spy movie a strong man mafia guy might be nicknamed "the Russian". Ok.

I remember a 2002 Tom Clancy game predicted the September 2008 Georgia/Russian conflict

[pianoblues]

Have any details been given 'HOW' Todashev supposedly implicated himself in the triple murder case in which Tamerlin's friend, Brendon Mess, was a victim? Will the FBI dole us any more healthy doses of hearsay? Why didn't the FBI and LE arrest Todashev, take him in rather than out?

https://willyloman.wordpress.com/2013/0 ... v-killing/

FBI Claims the “He’s Comin Right at Us!” Defense in Ibragim Todashev Killing
Posted on May 22, 2013 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

Ned and Jimbo explained to the kids of South Park on a hunting trip how they figured out they could get around certain laws restricting the killing of endangered animals and deer that were too young to shoot. You say “he’s comin right at us!” and tell the officials your life was in immediate danger so you HAD to kill it. Seems reasonable, doesn’t it? After all, dead deer tells know tales.

It would appear our heroic (just watch any Hollywood movie these days) FBI agents have been briefed by Ned and Jimbo in the usefulness of this particular strategy.

We are expected to believe that a 27 year old man being questioned by an FBI agent and two Massachusetts State Police troopers as well as “other law enforcement personnel” suddenly “grabbed a knife” and attacked the gang of armed men.

“The man who was shot, Ibragim Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a knife…

… The agent, two Massachusetts State Police troopers, and other law enforcement personnel were interviewing an individual in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing investigation when a violent confrontation was initiated by the individual,” the statement said.

That’s at least five armed law enforcement personnel this guy supposedly pulled a knife on during an interview. Really?

They are saying he is not a suspect in the Boston bombing and I don’t know what to make of that. Are they suggesting the brothers needed assistance figuring out how to buy a pressure cooker and some fireworks? Supposedly he was being questioned in relation to another killing in Boston a couple years back. I wonder if Ibragim Todashev is going to track back to a couple months in Dagestan around the same time Tamerlan was there. Time will tell.

http://willyloman.wordpress.com/2013/05 ... ent-crazy/

“Sources Say” Dead Guy Fingered Tamerlan and Then “Just Went Crazy”
Posted on May 22, 2013 by willyloman

by Scott Creighton

UPDATE: (H/T The Walrus) – Oh. Silly me. I forgot that the FBI has a blanket policy of not recording their interviews or interrogations so that they can lie as much as they want about what a suspect or witness says. It’s official policy for the entire FBI. Silly me. I forgot for a second and thought they were somehow still at least attempting to appear legit.

“But the FBI leaves out the even more potent criticism of its practice — that such interview tactics seem virtually geared toward establishing as fact what the FBI wanted to hear from the witness. Frightened and confused interviewees, who, if they deny they said what any 302 report claims they uttered, can then be indicted for making false statements. The FBI is thus able to put words into a witness or suspect’s mouth and coerce him to adopt the FBI’s version as his own. The FBI thus establishes the official version of what a witness said, and the pressure on the witness to adhere to the 302 version is enormous. Any deviation, after all, raises the question: “Were you lying during your FBI interview, or are you lying now?”” Boston Globe 2010

One guys asks the questions while the other guy pretends to fill out the 302 report that was actually filled out by a PR guy a couple days before and when the suspect refuses to sign it, shit happens I guess. Oh, wait… he goes “crazy” and has to get shot.

wow.

(thanks Walrus)

————

Are you shitting me?

ABC “News” (ok, they can’t even be called “news” after this) is reporting that “sources” told them that Ibragim Todashev was about to sign a confession, saying he and Tamerlan Tsarnaev brutally murdered a couple of guys over some drugs two years ago, when he suddenly and out of the blue “went crazy” and started stabbing the FBI agent for no apparent reason.

“An acquaintance of deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was “about to sign a statement” confessing his and Tsarnaev’s involvement in an unsolved triple murder when he was killed by an FBI agent, sources told ABC…

… At some point during the interview, Todashev “just went crazy,” law enforcement officials told ABC News. The Chechen immigrant pulled out a knife and stabbed the FBI agent several times before the agent shot and killed him. The agent’s injuries were non-life threatening.” Huffington Post

You mean to tell me the guy took the time to make a confession and snitch on Tamerlan, even writing it all down, then OUT OF THE BLUE he gets his hands on some kind of little knife and attacks one of the 5 or more armed law enforcement officers in the room?

“It’s not clear who shot Todashev, officials say, because — while he was being questioned by an FBI agent — officers from the Massachusetts state police and the Orlando police department were also present in the house where the interrogation was going on.” NBC “news”

The FBI could not have confessed that they killed Ibragim Todashev while trying to coerce him into a false confession any better if they has set out to do that.

They don’t have a video or audio tape of the confession. If they did, it would have been released by now. It would also have the attack on it.

At what time did law enforcement stop recording confessions?

Apparently they also didn’t have a signed statement either.

And what do you mean it’s not clear who shot him? How many people fired a gun in the little room? Do you think the law enforcement “experts” could figure that one out?

So in fact, they got bullshit. Nothing but some agent’s say-so coming from unnamed “sources” who can never be held responsible for lying to the public.

We are well beyond the Keystone Cops here. This is like if the Trailer Park Boys were in charge of our Justice Department. It’s a farce. That’s all I can say about it.

The only way these officers involved don’t look like the most incompetent cops in history is if they were simply looking to frame this guy and he resisted so they killed him. Either they are the biggest clowns law enforcement has ever seen or they’re thugs. And honestly, we all know the which side they come down on.

Five trained officers in a little room with a 140lb guy and they let him get to a knife and stick one of their companions a few times before one of them gets off a shot… and they don’t know who shot him?

Is that a joke or something? Are we supposed to even pretend to be stupid enough to believe that? And no recording of any kind OF THE INTERROGATION?

Or are we supposed to be polite enough to allow the authorities to simply execute citizens on the spot if they refuse to play ball?

WTF?

That’s just insulting. That’s all there is too it. And as dumb as that is, it’s the second dumbest thing I’ve heard today.

[seemslikeadream]

Last month, the team was involved in the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings.

FBI: Agents died in fall from helicopter off Va. coast


By Scott Daugherty
The Virginian-Pilot
© May 20, 2013
Two members of the FBI’s elite counterterrorism unit died Friday while practicing how to quickly drop from a helicopter to a ship using a rope, the FBI announced Monday in a statement.

The statement gave few details regarding the deaths of Special Agents Christopher Lorek and Stephen Shaw, other than to say the helicopter encountered unspecified difficulties and the agents fell a “significant distance.”

A law enforcement source told The Pilot the incident happened about 12 nautical miles off the coast of Virginia Beach. The official blamed bad weather for the incident and said the agents – members of the FBI’s Hostage Rescue Team, based in Quantico – fell into the water. The official said he believed the agents died as a result of the impact rather than drowning.

Glenn McBride, a spokesman for the state medical examiner’s office, said it could be months before his staff can release a final cause and manner of death for the two agents. He said they must wait for the results of routine toxicology tests.

According to a Navy official, the agents were using a ship the FBI had leased from the Navy’s Military Sealift Command. No Navy personnel were involved in the exercise, the Navy official said.

An Army helicopter crashed into a similar ship in 2009 during another training exercise off the coast of Virginia Beach, killing one person and injuring eight.

In interviews Monday, the founder of the Hostage Rescue Team and other former special agents called the unit “elite” while outlining the difficult training exercises members must endure.

“It’s the most rigorous training regiment in law enforcement, probably in the world,” said Danny Coulson, a former deputy assistant director of the FBI who started the team 30 years ago and served as its first commander. “They have to be able to do any mission, at any time.”

Among other things, members of the Hostage Rescue Team are trained to rappel from helicopters, scuba dive and use explosives to break down doors and walls. When needed, the team can deploy within four hours to anywhere in the U.S.

“It sounds risky, and it absolutely is,” Coulson said. “They have the same skill sets as SEAL Team 6 and Delta Force.”

In all, the team has responded to more than 850 incidents involving terrorism, violent crimes and foreign counterintelligence, according to the FBI’s website.

Last month, the team was involved in the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. And in February, it rescued a 5-year-old boy held hostage for six days in an underground bunker in Alabama.

“Whenever things go really wrong, the FBI calls in the Hostage Rescue Team. It’s the government’s 911,” Coulson said.

Irvin Wells, a former FBI special agent who retired in 1990 after leading the Norfolk field office for three years, stressed that the Hostage Rescue Team is different from the FBI’s regular SWAT teams. He noted that agents assigned to a field office’s SWAT team also must perform other jobs inside the bureau, while agents assigned to the Hostage Rescue Team have no other duties.

“Not to take anything from SWAT, but these guys train full time for the most dangerous of missions,” Wells said of the Hostage Rescue Team. “Like the SEALs, they are highly trained and train continuously.”

Nancy Savage, executive director of the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, said SWAT teams handle “normal dangerous situations,” while the Hostage Rescue Team handles larger-scale incidents that involve more specialized skill sets.

“It’s like one level up,” Savage said. “They are a very, very elite team.”

Coulson stressed that it takes more than brute strength to become a member of the Hostage Rescue Team.

“It’s not just biceps and triceps. It requires intellectual muscle, too,” he said.

To join the team, FBI agents must pass a special physical fitness test and complete a two-week selection class, Coulson said. Then, the agent must complete a 14- to 16-week “New Operator Training School.”

“It’s a national loss,” Coulson said about the deaths of Lorek and Shaw. “These are the best-trained individuals in the world.”

[Canadian_watcher]

wow.

[chump]

http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2013 ... story.html

Unrecorded testimony
By Harvey Silverglate

May 11, 2013

Those concerned with the survival of American civil liberties during the post-9/11 (and now post-Boston Marathon) “age of terror” most commonly fear the federal government’s technical ability to record and store virtually all telephonic and electronic communications. But a more immediate threat to liberty lies in what one particular agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, refuses to record, as Robel Phillipos is now learning the hard way.
Phillipos is a 19-year-old Cambridge resident, former UMass Dartmouth student, and friend of alleged Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. He faces charges of making materially false statements during a series of interviews with FBI agents. If convicted, he could get up to eight years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Phillipos underwent four FBI interviews. He is not alleged to have had any advance knowledge of, much less role in, the bombing itself. The FBI was apparently trying to obtain his information and cooperation concerning the role and knowledge of Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, the two Kazakh students who allegedly found and disposed of Tsarnaev’s backpack and laptop after he was named a suspect in the bombings.

The public and the media should withhold judgment not only as to what Phillipos did or did not do, but also as to what he did or did not say when questioned by FBI agents. Indeed, the public should look skeptically at the accuracy of any FBI claim regarding what transpires in the bureau’s infamous witness interviews. Here’s why.

FBI agents always interview in pairs. One agent asks the questions, while the other writes up what is called a “form 302 report” based on his notes. The 302 report, which the interviewee does not normally see, becomes the official record of the exchange; any interviewee who contests its accuracy risks prosecution for lying to a federal official, a felony. And here is the key problem that throws the accuracy of all such statements and reports into doubt: FBI agents almost never electronically record their interrogations; to do so would be against written policy.

In 2006 the FBI defended its no-electronic-recording policy in an internal memorandum, which The New York Times later made public. The memo in part attempts to defend the policy as logistically necessary, but given that virtually every cellphone today has sound recording capabilities, any “inconvenience” or “non-availability” excuse for not recording seems laughably weak. The more honest — and more terrifying — justification for non-recording given in the memo reads as follows: “. . . perfectly lawful and acceptable interviewing techniques do not always come across in recorded fashion to lay persons as proper means of obtaining information from defendants. Initial resistance may be interpreted as involuntariness and misleading a defendant as to the quality of the evidence against him may appear to be unfair deceit.” Translated from bureaucratese: When viewed in the light of day, recorded witness statements could appear to a reasonable jury of laypersons to have been coercively or misleadingly obtained.

But the FBI leaves out the even more potent criticism of its practice — that such interview tactics seem virtually geared toward establishing as fact what the FBI wanted to hear from the witness. Frightened and confused interviewees, who, if they deny they said what any 302 report claims they uttered, can then be indicted for making false statements. The FBI is thus able to put words into a witness or suspect’s mouth and coerce him to adopt the FBI’s version as his own. The FBI thus establishes the official version of what a witness said, and the pressure on the witness to adhere to the 302 version is enormous. Any deviation, after all, raises the question: “Were you lying during your FBI interview, or are you lying now?”

Unlike the federal government, many states understand that unrecorded testimony must be viewed with skepticism in a fair judicial process. In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court requires that a custodial interview be electronically recorded whenever possible. For unrecorded testimony to be admitted at trial, a judge must instruct the jury to be wary of police claims as to what the interviewee did and did not say.

The lesson: As long as the FBI relies solely on its agents’ uncorroborated reports of such interviews, it is difficult to credit the bureau’s version of what was and was not said. Presumably, much more is going to emerge concerning what Phillipos really told his interrogators, and nobody should arrive at any conclusions until all of the evidence, from both sides, has been made public. The FBI is not entitled to any presumption of credibility in these situations.

(bold added)

[barracuda]