Terrorism in the USA:threat & response

[Dayuhan]

Ongoing discussion of what the Russians did or didn't provide. Have to wonder if the omissions and failures to respond were deliberate or simply a lethargic bureaucracy dealing with what would have seemed a fairly minor matter:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...856008018.html

I also wonder how people would have reacted prior to the bombings if they'd discovered that US agencies were investigating people purely on the basis of information provided by the Russians. Russian actions in Chechnya have been perceived in the US as fairly heavy handed, with some reason; would Americans have been entirely happy to see what could have been perceived as US support for Russian pursuit of individuals supporting Chechen nationalist causes?

[davidbfpo]

A somewhat different viewpoint, by a American anthropology academic:http://www.opendemocracy.net/david-w...rathon-bombing

A couple of passages:

Lost in the move to connect Islam and the Tsarnaev’s Chechen heritage with terrorism is the role of schools and communities in the United States in addressing the alienation that led the brothers to committing such acts of violence.

All too easily forgotten:

There were, after all, three days of the city functioning between the Monday bombing and the Friday lockdown.

[davidbfpo]

An interesting article, based on interviewing Boston Police's Bomb Squad; with some details I have not seen before, notably the devices found after the initial attack:http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/201...omb-squad/all/