Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby coffin_dodger » Thu May 23, 2013 4:46 pm

Official Story has Odd Wrinkles: A Pack of Questions about the Boston Bombing Backpacks - whowhatwhy.com

http://snipurl.com/273saq4

seems like genuine sleuthing - apols if already posted
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby stickdog99 » Fri May 24, 2013 1:38 am

OK, so I made the following post on this thread on May 20th long before anyone reported the dead agents' Hostage Rescue Team took part in the manhunt and arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.


stickdog99 » 20 May 2013 22:15 wrote:2 FBI Agents Killed: What Happened To Christopher Lorek and Stephen Shaw?

Another FBI spokeswoman in Virginia Beach said the deaths of the two FBI agents did not involve gunfire. The FBI has not released any further information.

"We mourn the loss of two brave and courageous men," FBI Director Robert S. Mueller said in a statement. "Like all who serve on the Hostage Rescue Team, they accept the highest risk each and every day, when training and on operational missions, to keep our nation safe."

He added: "They will always be part of the FBI Family."

The FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, or HRT, was established as a national level counter-terrorist unit in 1983 and is based at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. The U.S., at the time, had no civilian counter-terrorism tactical team. Politico reports that the group was founded in preparation for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, Calif., and has been involved in more than 800 sting operations in the U.S. and abroad. It is an elite group trained in military maneuvers and equipped with combat-style gear and weapons.

"Operators are able to fast-rope out of helicopters, parachute with full mission equipment, and conduct advanced SCUBA techniques," the FBI reports. "They are trained to be superior marksmen, proficient in a variety of breaching techniques-including explosives-and experts in close-quarter tactics."

According to the FBI's website, the U.S. military cannot legally operate with in the U.S. borders without approval from the president or legislature, so officials needed other "tactical alternatives."

"When Los Angeles won the nomination . . . the question was, 'Who would handle an event such as Munich?' And there weren't a lot of good answers," FBI Deputy Director Sean Joyce told Fox News.


New Details

A law enforcement official said the agents were killed while training to use a rope for landing on a ship from a helicopter. The official said the helicopter encountered weather difficulties and the agents fell into the water rather than making a landing on the ship. The official believed winds were a factor but did not know if it was raining at the time.

The official said the agents died as a result of the impact rather than drowning.

The accident took place about 12 nautical miles off shore, the official said.



Now you tell me, when I posted these links to this story on this thread three days ago, was I being paranoid or prescient? Have these adjectives now become synonyms?
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Hammer of Los » Fri May 24, 2013 9:58 am

...

Sorry guys, I only read two pages of this thread.

But somethin's up fer sure.

Why do I keep thinking PDS and COG?

That's rhetorical, too.

...
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Transfemoral Amputation

Postby Iamwhomiam » Fri May 24, 2013 3:35 pm



Pre-Op Plan

As with all amputations, one critical decision is where exactly to cut the femur. Several factors must be taken into consideration when choosing where to cut the femur for a transfemoral amputation.

1. All of the diseased, severely traumatized, or infected tissue must be removed.

2. The bone cut must be proximal enough to perform a myodesis and allow the flaps to cover the end of the femur without tension.

3. Having a very long transfemoral amputation has some benefits:
a. Creates a longer mechanical lever arm for strength.
b. Leaves more of the normal adductor attachment to minimize contractures.
c. Creates a longer limb for seating support and transfers.

4. But, having a very long transfemoral amputation has some real drawbacks:
a. Makes padding the residual limb more difficult.
b. Does not leave adequate room for prosthetic components.
c. Creates complex leg length and knee center prosthetic situations.

5. Leaving metaphyseal bone is very controversial, and is not typically recommended. In theory it is suggested that the larger diameter of bone might increase end bearing, but this has not been shown clinically. In addition, long amputations at this bone level, when covered by muscle and skin flaps, do not have enough space between the end of the residual limb and the opposite leg knee center for socket, connectors, knee unit, let alone a rotator unit.

6. Many transfemoral amputees enjoy having a rotator unit installed between the socket and the knee unit. A rotator unit is useful when getting in and out of a car, when donning pants, shoes and socks, and when sitting in confined spaces. A rotator and its connectors need 2.5 to 3 cm of additional space.

7. Space needed between the skin and ideal knee center is 10 cm if a rotator is to be used and 7.5 cm without a rotator.

8. Given that the myodesis and skin closure adds approximately 5 cm between the end of the bone and the skin, then the bone should be cut 15 cm proximal to the knee center if a rotator is to be used, and 12 cm proximal to the knee center if a rotator is not going to be used.

9. A rotator unit can still be used on a long transfemoral amputation, but the knee center on the amputated leg will then be lower than the opposite knee center. The lower leg will also be shorter than the opposite leg. This creates a situation similar to many knee disarticulation patients. Although it appears awkward and is biomechanically sub-optimal, it has not been shown to be more detrimental than standard transfemoral component placement in any documented study.

When prepping and draping a patient for a transfemoral amputation, it is advisable to have surgical access all the way up to the hip and groin area. Therefore, using a standard tourniquet applied above the prepped field is not recommended. After the prep and draping, a sterile tourniquet can be used and applied for a short time to limit blood loss during the amputation.

Skin and Flaps

Skin incisions are drawn out based on the proposed level of the femoral bone cut. Level selection for a transfemoral amputation should be above the zone of injury.

The anterior to posterior diameter of the limb at the level of the bone cut is measured. The length of the flaps is ½ the diameter of the limb plus 1cm.

Incisions should be made through skin, subcutaneous tissue and fascia in a decisive fashion to avoid feathered edges. Incise through the muscle and down to the bone. Dissect soft tissue out of the way and dissect down through the periosteum.

Nerves
Sciatic Nerve:


The sciatic nerve has often divided into the tibial, peroneal, and sural nerves at this level. The nerves may still be together, or may have started to separate out anatomically. The surgeon should make certain that all three branches are addressed. The nerves are dissected proximally.

The nerves are then pulled distally to allow ligation with absorbable suture. The sciatic nerve is quite large and has small vessels that can and do bleed. Ligation with an absorbable suture prevents this intra-operative and post-operative bleeding.

After ligation, the nerve is pulled distally and transected. Then, use a finger to ensure the nerve moved up proximally and was not tethered. The nerve ending should end up away from areas of scar, pulsating vessels, and closure. The ending should be away from areas of pressure in a standard prosthesis.

Vessels
Femoral Vessels:


Locate the femoral vessels (an artery and two veins). Dissect the vessels proximally and clamp for double ligation.
Stick tie:
A stick tie of 0 silk suture is used first. The stick tie will not slip or pulse off of vessels, but does leave a hole that could bleed or lead to a pseudo aneurysm or an arterial/venous fistula.
Free tie:
A free tie is place proximal to the stick tie. The proximal free tie prevents bleeding at the site of the stick tie and also minimizes the chance of an arterial/venous fistula forming.

Tie off small peripheral and muscular vessels. Obtain hemostasis with electrocautery.

Bone
Femur:


Clear soft tissue off of the femur circumferentially with the Cobb elevator. Use the Cobb to work through the very thick linea aspira posterior fascial attachments on the femur as well.

Do not leave strips of periosteum, which may calcify and lead to spikes of bone or heterotopic ossification.

A carefully dissected periosteal flap may be used to cover the end of the femur. While some surgeons discuss the theoretical advantages of this technique, it should be pointed out that adding a periosteal flap has not been shown in any controlled studies to improve functional outcome. This remains open to discussion and further study.

Use large retractors to hold the quadriceps out of the way, and use an oscillating saw to divide the femur perpendicular to its long axis. Cool the saw with saline.

Rasp the bone to smooth edges in preparation for myodesis.

Myodesis

Myodesis is performed to attach and stabilize muscle directly to bone in order to provide fixed resistance against which a muscle can move, to maintain function, and to provide distal padding of the bone. In this procedure, deep muscle layers are attached directly to the distal portion of the bone, and then more superficial layers are sewn to each other above the bone attachment as a myoplasty.

In a transfemoral amputation, the greater trochanter and abductor muscle insertion remain normal, so abduction remains strong. The lesser trochanter and attachment of the iliopsoas tendon also remain normal and therefore flexion remains strong. The main goal in a transfemoral myodesis is to try and restore some extension and some adductor strength to the limb. This helps rebalance the limb between flexion and extension, and abduction and adduction.

The adductor and medial hamstring muscles will be used for myodesis at this level. Early on, the distal medial skin and subq tissue should be elevated to reveal the attachment of the adductor. The adductor is preserved longer than the other muscles so that later the myodesis can be performed.

Suture Placement:

Using a 2.5mm drill bit, 4 uni-cortical drill holes are made in the distal femur. Irrigation is used to cool the drill bit.

The first hole is on the anterior-most portion of the femur. The three other holes move laterally from the first.

Four holes allow for the placement of three independent sutures: Anterior (A), Anterior Lateral (AL), and Lateral (L).

Suture A:
Suture is first passed from the outside of the cortex into the medullary canal. Suture is often easier to pass then from the inside of the bone with the blunt end of the needle as the sharp end gets caught in the trabeculi of the bone. The suture is placed in the first and second holes, starting medially. It is the most superior/anterior suture.
Suture AL:
The second suture (anterior lateral, “ AL”) is passed using the blunt end of needle in order not to damage the first suture and weaken it. The sutures share space within the second hole. This suture is placed in the 2 nd and 3 rd holes.
Suture L:
The third suture (lateral, “L”) is placed in the 3 rd and 4 th holes. It shares the 3 rd hole with suture AL. Again, it is passed using the blunt end in order not to damage suture AL and weaken it.

Adductor Myodesis:

The adductor muscle is advanced over the distal end of the femur. At the discretion of the surgeon, one of the three sutures is used with the Krakow locking suture technique on the adductor fascia. The Krakow technique obtains secure fixation with four locking points and minimizes devascularization of the tissue.

Medial Hamstring Myodesis:

The hamstring tendon and muscle are mobilized. Again, the surgeon chooses the most appropriate suture and uses it to myodese the medial hamstring muscle by suturing in the tendon, near the myotendinous junction.

The hamstring is brought over the distal end of the femur and myodesed with a locking Krakow suture technique to obtain secure fixation and minimize devascularization of the tendon tissue.

Reinforcement of the Myodesis:

The surgeon chooses a suture and uses it to reinforce both the adductor and the medial hamstring myodesis and to keep the femur centered in the muscle mass.

Further Myodesis:

Absorbable suture is used to secure the deep fascia of the quadriceps to the myodesis point by suturing to fascia and periosteum.

Closure

Close the deep fascia of the quadriceps to the deep fascia of the hamstrings.

A deep suction drain is placed and brought out medially and laterally. It is cut between holes to facilitate removal.

Then, close the superficial fascia. Trim any excess skin and complete the superficial fascial closure.

Complete the subcutaneous closure with dermal 2-0 absorbable suture in a horizontal placement.

Trim corners to avoid a “dog-eared” appearance.

Complete the skin closure with 3-0 nylon sutures places in the figure 8 fashion.

Suture the drain in place to prevent it from being pulled out, dislodged, or removed early. In a transfemoral amputation, the dressing is a soft ACE spica around the waist, but the soft dressing can be easily opened to cut the stitch and remove the drain anytime it is ready.

Bandaging

Non-stick adaptic gauze

4x4 gauze is opened up and one by one laid across the incision. Gauze should not be in a large lump that can put pressure on the skin and cause skin breakdown.

Fluff gauze to add padding and some compression.

Kerlex roll gauze to secure the dressing and apply gentle compression to the end of the amputation site. 2 rolls.

Apply mongo extra long 6 inch ACE wrap around the above knee amputation site, the proximal limb, and the waist in a spica fashion. The gauze is wrapped in an angled fashion to avoid proximal constriction of the limb and the “tourniquet effect”.

Secure the spica ACE with tape to keep it from getting tangled, displaced, or becoming tourniquet-like.

©Prosthetics Research Study


Image

A picture is worth a thousand words.


Bauman appears to be applying pressure the his left femoral artery in his groin with his right hand, if you zoom in. When zoomed, Arredondo also appears to be holding in his left hand of a the end of a black wide tourniquet, possibly the belt db wondered was a stocking of some sort being rolled up. Dunno, really.

edited to add photo and all below.
Last edited by Iamwhomiam on Fri May 24, 2013 4:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Simulist » Fri May 24, 2013 3:49 pm


Never — ever — talk to the FBI without proper legal representation present at the interview.

Better yet: just don't talk to the FBI. That's not a cynical position; it is the only intelligent response to the FBI's long history of tactics against those it interviews.
"The most strongly enforced of all known taboos is the taboo against knowing who or what you really are behind the mask of your apparently separate, independent, and isolated ego."
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Burnt Hill » Fri May 24, 2013 5:23 pm

This is the FBI-
http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/smartnews/2013/05/the-fbi-investigated-the-song-louie-louie-for-two-years/?utm_source=smithsoniantravandcult&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=201305-travel
Two years investigating "Louie Louie" for obscenity, never asked the singer about the lyrics.
I am surprised we havent heard from frumenschen(sp?).
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby 8bitagent » Fri May 24, 2013 9:51 pm

Can we keep it to links to grizzly photos and videos if it's part of our posts? Just thinking not everyone can handle such material. It is the strangest wound I've ever seen, tho nothing fake about it.
(strange because normally a mine/IED attack blows apart limbs as ive never heard of it leaving a perfect peg leg)
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Jerky » Sat May 25, 2013 2:04 am

8bitagent » 25 May 2013 01:51 wrote:Can we keep it to links to grizzly photos and videos if it's part of our posts? Just thinking not everyone can handle such material. It is the strangest wound I've ever seen, tho nothing fake about it.
(strange because normally a mine/IED attack blows apart limbs as ive never heard of it leaving a perfect peg leg)


The meat was literally pulled off the bone. The thing that struck me as so awful about that wound when I first saw it was not how surreal it seemed, but how REAL it seemed. I can't comprehend those who look at it and think "that's GOTTA be fake, brah!" Fucking dolts.

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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Jerky » Sat May 25, 2013 2:06 am

If anything, the absurd reaction to this film reminded me of the reaction to the Nick Berg beheading, one of the most terrifyingly, disgustingly "real" things ever captured on video. Still, you had amateur Quincy's clogging the UnderNet with claims that "the blood would have spurted more!" or "he was dead already!" or "he doesn't even move!" Such malarkey.

Jerky

Jerky » 25 May 2013 06:04 wrote:The meat was literally pulled off the bone. The thing that struck me as so awful about that wound when I first saw it was not how surreal it seemed, but how REAL it seemed. I can't comprehend those who look at it and think "that's GOTTA be fake, brah!" Fucking dolts.

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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby barracuda » Sat May 25, 2013 2:41 am

8bitagent » Fri May 24, 2013 6:51 pm wrote:Can we keep it to links to grizzly photos and videos if it's part of our posts?


I wanna see the gore. It's a shot in the gut that reminds me that my country's at war with the planet. Let's not bar photography of the toll of that war like Bush saw fit to.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby stickdog99 » Sat May 25, 2013 6:02 am

barracuda » 25 May 2013 06:41 wrote:
8bitagent » Fri May 24, 2013 6:51 pm wrote:Can we keep it to links to grizzly photos and videos if it's part of our posts?


I wanna see the gore. It's a shot in the gut that reminds me that my country's at war with the planet. Let's not bar photography of the toll of that war like Bush saw fit to.


at war with the planet, or just at war in general?
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Iamwhomiam » Sat May 25, 2013 11:06 pm

Sorry to have fractured so explosively your serenity, 8bit, but I thought a reminder of the bloody point was in order and so I decided to bring it home to you clinically and graphically, in living color. The true impact of acts of terrorism extends far beyond the lifelong trauma of its closest victims. Terrorism is effective because it leaves the uninjured feeling insecure, that they might suffer the same. Fear controls.

Imagine for a moment if you will, what an altered state many exist in; a world of violence unknown to comfortable us. While photos may convey shocking images, they cannot convey either the physical impact or the sounds of explosive shocks. The norm for some.

I wanna see the gore. It's a shot in the gut that reminds me that my country's at war with the planet.

He is a barracuda, after all.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby pianoblues » Sun May 26, 2013 3:42 am

No question that there's an ongoing investigation- and yet, that doesn't sufficiently explain to me why the FBI and law enforcement are not releasing any details regarding their offing Ibragim during questioning at his home or rather his girlfriend's home. She's been taken in for immigration offenses, so we aren't hearing anything from her. How bullet ridden is his corpse? Did just one agent shoot him or several? How many law enforcement officials were present, witnesses at the scene? How many times had Ibragim already been questioned? The accounts offered by his ex wife and the mainstream press differ a lot; she said he'd been questioned already 6 or 7 times since the marathon.

I'm curious where Ibragim got the money to afford the white Mercedes and all his gym training, much as I am curious where Tamerlin got the money to afford his fine duds. Both of them appear bankrolled to me. Could they have been CIA recruits, or expendable pawns when their loyalties became dubious? How was Tamerlin able to obtain entry to Russia twice in recent years despite being on watch lists by both sides?

If the triple murder of Mess, Weissman and Teken had been retribution for a drug deal gone bad, would ordinary nefarious thugs leave a considerable wad of cash and drugs behind?

So far, at least, everything about the Boston Marathon case appears to me more plausibly connected to a need or desire to protect information that the government doesn't want exposed.

I'm still curious as to whether Dzhokhar's neck injury was indeed from a bullet, or from being sliced...

...............................................................................................................................................................................................................

By Michael Rezendes and Bob Hohler

May 24, 2013

On a Sunday afternoon in summer 2010, Brendan H. Mess, a close friend of Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a specialist in mixed martial arts, was walking along a Cambridge street when he came face to face with a police officer. The patrol­man was investigating a complaint that Mess, then 24, had attacked a group of people near Inman Square, breaking one man’s nose and leaving another with a bloody mouth.

Rather than cooperate, Mess began yelling at the officer, at one point saying, “I can knock you out if I wanted to,” according to the officer’s ­report. Soon, three additional officers arrived, and Mess was hit with a chemical spray, wrestled to the ground, and handcuffed.

Even then, police said, Mess continued threatening the officers.

A year later, Mess was dead, his throat slashed in a grisly triple homicide in Waltham on Sept. 11, 2011, that was widely assumed to be a drug deal gone bad and all but forgotten. But 18 months later it has burst again into the public eye, an international incident with links to the alleged Boston Marathon bombers, a man shot this week in Orlando, Fla., and a world of extreme violence they inhabited.

“This is an ongoing investigation, and clearly there are some very dangerous people ­involved in this whole series of crimes,” Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis said Thursday.

Authorities now say bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have helped kill the three men, along with Ibragim ­Todashev, who was shot by an FBI agent after he allegedly lunged at the agent with a blade during an interview in Orlando.

“The Orlando questioning was focused on what happened in Waltham,” Davis said.

Little has been publicly known of the three men who were discovered in Mess’s apartment, where they had gathered to watch a football game. Investigators said they appeared to have been ambushed, their throats slashed and marijuana covering them.

Killed with Mess were Erik H. Weissman, 31, and Raphael M. Teken, 37. All three were ­familiar to police. Teken, who attended Brookline High School and Brandeis University and whose father, Avi Teken, is the spiritual leader of a Jewish congregation in Newton, had received six months of pretrial probation in 2005 after he was charged with assaulting a woman and maliciously damaging property.

Weissman, who, like Mess and Tsarnaev, attended Cambridge Ringe & Latin School, had run into deeper legal trouble. According to court records reviewed by the Globe, on Jan. 17, 2011, Boston police searched Weissman’s Roslindale apartment and seized more than $21,000 in cash, along with drug paraphernalia and a wide assortment of drugs, including marijuana, hashish, cocaine, and Oxycontin.

Weissman was also charged in 2008 with drug possession with intent to distribute after Boston police stopped him for traffic violations in Allston and found marijuana in his car.

Weissman’s lawyer, Norman S. Zalkind, said Weissman was not attempting to negotiate a plea deal by informing on other criminal suspects, which would virtually eliminate the possibility that the three men were killed as an act of retribution by a drug supplier who may have been involved with Weissman.

“We were working out a very positive situation for Erik; he had a very good case,” Zalkind said, adding that Weissman was challenging the legality of the warrant used to search his apartment. “He wasn’t afraid of any significant problem.”

Friends and relatives of the victims said the apartment was rented by Mess and that Weissman, after having his cash and drugs seized by the police, was staying there temporarily. ­Teken also lived in Waltham.

It has always been clear, author­ities say, that those who committed the killings were strong and skilled combatants. On their death certificates, Mess is listed as a martial arts instructor and Teken as a personal trainer. Yet the three men were overpowered and killed without a shot being fired.

Mess once challenged a person who tried to rob him at gunpoint in Cambridge, said a friend who witnessed the incident. Though the gun turned out to be fake, the friend said, Mess approached his assail­ant and said, “Pull the trigger. Do what you have to do.”

“Brendan was nobody to mess with,” the friend said. “He wouldn’t lay down and get his throat cut.’’

The Globe reported last month that friends and relatives of the victims began suspecting Tsarnaev of the homicides for a variety of reasons, includ­ing a change in behavior after the slayings. The killings also occurred on a date of great significance to jihadists.

Initially, neighbors of the victims said they were told by police that the killings were probably drug related. But some family members disagreed, as did Zalkind.

“With a drug killing, people come over and – bang, bang – it’s over,” Zalkind said. “They want to get out of there as fast as they can.”

It remains unclear whether authorities investigated ­Tsarnaev in connection with the killings before friends and family of the victims began calling Waltham police and federal authorities last month to report a possible link, after Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar, were publicly identified as the suspected Marathon bombers.

But there is no question about Tsarnaev’s ties to Mess, who had recently moved to Waltham from Cambridge at the urging of Mess’s girlfriend, Hibatalla Eltilib, according to friends and relatives of the victims who spoke with the Globe. Mess and Tsaernaev had grown close as neighbors near Inman Square, sharing a love of fighting, as well as hip-hop music.

Newly named Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan on Thursday said she would have no comment on any aspect of the investigation. But friends and relatives of the victims, in hindsight, said police should have examined the relationship between Eltilib, a native of ­Sudan, and Tsarnaev.

Although friends knew ­Tsarnaev to be Muslim, they did not consider him to be an ­extremist.

Eltilib, by contrast, was outspoken about her Islamic beliefs and disdain for many American values, friends said.

“She and Tam got really close and became friends,’’ said a friend of Mess, Tsarnaev, and Eltilib. “This was closer to ­Brendan’s death. They would share stories of their distaste for American culture. She was extremely aggressive and violent and had this radical way of thinking.’’

All the friends and relatives of the victims who spoke with the Globe asked for anonymity due to fear of retribution from a killer who might still be at large.

Eltilib has since returned to Sudan. Repeated attempts to reach her in recent weeks were unsuccessful. It is unclear when she left the Greater Boston ­area, but her departure mirrors those of Tsarnaev and Todashev, each of whom also left the area following the triple homicide. Tsarnaev visited ­Russia for six months last year, and Todashev moved to Florida.

Only in retrospect did Tsarnaev’s behavior after the killings become suspicious to friends and family of the victims. They say he was absent from Mess’s wake a week after the slayings. Friends also wondered why he was absent again the next day when hundreds of Mess’s friends and relatives gathered for a memorial service at Ryle’s Jazz Club in Inman Square, near Tsarnaev’s home.

Several friends said he also behaved strangely during ­encounters in the weeks after. No longer humorous and engag­ing, they said, he was aloof, and one longtime ­acquaintance said Tsarnaev suddenly acted as if he did not know him.

Maria Sacchetti of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael Rezendes can be reached at rezendes@globe.com; Bob Hohler at hohler@­globe.com.
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Re: Two explosions at Boston marathon finish line

Postby Peachtree Pam » Sun May 26, 2013 5:26 am

Continuing on from Pianoblues post above, here is Brendan Mess's girlfriend disputing some points, confirming others. From the Boston Globe.

[quote]Waltham victim’s girlfriend says Tsarnaev visited[



The girlfriend of one of three men brutally killed in a Waltham apartment in 2011 said Friday that she told police soon after the slayings that Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been a frequent visitor to the apartment. She is the first to assert that police investigating the killings were aware that Tsarnaev, who previously had been questioned by the FBI for possible terrorist connections, had ties to the victims.

Waltham police and Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan have declined to comment on the homicide investigation, which appeared stalled until friends and relatives of Brendan H. Mess reported last month a possible link to ­Tsarnaev after his picture was released as a suspect in the bombings. Ryan declined to comment again last night.

The woman also said her boyfriend, Mess, kept a handgun in the apartment before the slayings and that police told her after the bodies were discovered that the firearm was missing. Friends of the victims had previously said they feared a gun stolen from the apartment had been used to kill MIT police Officer Sean Collier late on the night of April 18 and wound other officers shortly afterward in the shoot-out with police in Watertown.

The woman asked that her name not be used in this report for fear of retribution, although she was named in a previous Globe article.

Authorities have been looking at Tsarnaev in connection with the triple homicide, along with Ibragim Todashev, who was fatally shot this week by an FBI agent after he allegedly ­attacked the agent with a blade during an interview in ­Orlando, Fla.

It was Mess’s girlfriend who discovered the bodies of the three men in the Waltham apartment on the morning ­after they were slain on Sept. 11, 2011.

She said she found the victims — Mess, 25; Erik H. ­Weissman, 31; and Raphael M. Teken, 37 — in separate rooms, their throats slashed, their bodies covered with marijuana.

The woman said she did not describe Tsarnaev to police as a suspect in the triple homicide but rather identified him as one of many visitors to the apartment. Police did not ask her about Tsarnaev after she gave them his name, she said.

“But if they questioned every­one whose fingerprints were in the apartment, I’m sure Tam’s fingerprints had to be there,’’ she told the Globe in a phone interview Friday.

The woman said Tsarnaev, who was born and lived his early years in former Soviet republics, had told Mess in the weeks before the killings that the FBI had placed him on a terrorist watch list.

“Brendan said, ‘The FBI is watching him; they think he’s a terrorist,’ ’’ the woman recalled. “We laughed about it. We never took it seriously.’’

Federal authorities have said that the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of the Russian government.

Mess’s girlfriend said she knew with certainty that he kept a handgun in the apartment. Another friend said earlier this week that Mess had been badly beaten by his marijuana supplier years earlier when he was short on his payment and then familiarized himself with firearms.

Mess and his girlfriend shared the apartment with Weissman, who was struggling financially after Boston police had seized a large amount of cash and drugs in a raid on his Roslindale apartment.

“They were pretty peaceful people, but I know Brendan had one gun,’’ his girlfriend said. “I think it was for protection. I don’t understand why he couldn’t have used it’’ during the deadly assault.

The woman said she never understood what the motive for the killings could have been, other than perhaps a robbery. Although about $5,000 remained in the apartment after the slayings, she said, she was aware that Mess and Weissman had a much larger amount of cash. She could not estimate how much.

She said Mess was such a close friend of Tsarnaev that he often asked her to cook only ­halal meat for Tsarnaev to honor his Muslim customs when he visited.

“I just can’t believe Tam would back stab Brendan like that,’’ she said. “It’s so painful to me, because Brendan was so open and loving with Tam.’’

In the week before the slayings, she said, she had an ­intense quarrel with Mess. She said she went to Florida to visit a friend and “clear my head.’’

She was scheduled to return on the morning of Sept. 12, 2011, and expected Mess to pick her up at Logan International Airport. She said she called him at 7:30 the previous night.

“It was the last time I heard his voice,’’ she said. “He said, ‘I love you.’ ’’

She said Mess, Weissman, and Teken planned to watch a football game on television, but when she called back later to say good night, no one answered. And when she called Mess the next morning, he did not answer.

When she finally reached the apartment and opened the door, she said she was shaken by the grisly scene. Lying in the entry room was Weissman’s body. She discovered Teken’s in the kitchen, then Mess’s in the bedroom. Furniture throughout the apartment had been toppled, she said.

The woman took strong excep­tion to friends of the victims who initially had considered her a suspect in the killings and reiterated their suspicions in Friday’s Globe. The friends said, for instance, that she held radical Muslim beliefs and spoke with Tsarnaev of their distaste for American culture.

“To be honest, I am not a practicing Muslim,’’ she said. “I don’t pray much. I don’t cover up. I drink. Tam would look at me and say, ‘You’re not doing the things Muslim women do.’ To me, religion is about how you treat people.’’

Some other friends of the victims questioned why Mess’s girlfriend, an African immigrant whose family lived in a mid-Atlantic state, left the ­Boston area a week after the slayings.

“After what happened, I was completely shocked and traumatized,’’ she said Friday. “I needed to be with my family.’’

She said she suffers symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which have been exacerbated by the suspicions about her.

“It really hurt my feelings that anyone thought I could be involved in something like this,’’ she said. “I am completely confident in my innocence. I’m a victim in this, too.’’
Bob Hohler can be reached at hohler@globe.com.







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