…
Yes. He will be executed. Unless it turns out that his brotger’s recent stay abroad indicates the possibility of actionable knoweledge regarding some terrorist group, in which case he might be able to bargain for his miserable life…but I think that’s unlikely. More likely, after a couple of years in max security prison, he’ll be lethally injected.
They got Locrian!!!
No. Almost. Thank the city planners for back alleys. But it did look like I suddenly disappeared, didn’t it? Like Matheson’s “Disappearing Act?”
To finish my own meaningless post, I wanted to type:
Almost like “Full Metal jacket”. Deserted streets, gunfire, and we end up with a teenager.
In some ways, I feel sorry for the guy. He is 19, was apparently well-liked, it sounds like the only problems he really had were the problems any 19 year old has, and for some reason he’s gone and done all this. Maybe he felt pressured into it by his brother; heck, maybe he didn’t know what was actually in those bombs and just thought it’d be a small explosion and a bit of a scare. Or maybe he was completely and totally into this. I obviously don’t know and I’m glad he was taken alive so that we can know.
Yeah, the most instructive parallels so far (to me) are with the Washington, DC-área sniper case – mentor and acolyte.
FBI came to them two or three times, asking ‘Are you Chechens? Is anyone harassing you?’ Why would anyone offend us? Then they came again. Said they wanted to talk to Tamerlan. We didn’t know what was going on, didn’t know whether he had done something. But they were saying, ‘Oh, it’s nothing, it’s just routine.’ They talked to us at our home," father Anzor Tsarnaev told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency. “I heard myself that they (the FBI) said: ‘We know that you read, what you drink, what you eat, where you go.’ And then they added that that’s routine practice to prevent bombings on the streets of Boston, so that our kids can go to school in peace. This conversation happened half a year ago. But I keep asking, why did they have to talk to him about that then?”
*
Just six months ago, FBI talked to BOTH of them about preventing bombings on the streets of Boston?
You don’t say…
Is it possible the father might have a motive to make self-serving statements that are not true?
I catch myself in moments of sympathy too, because I have kids about his age and I’ll bet anything the asshole brother is a lot more culpable than he is. But Jesus, what a mess they made. 19-year-olds in Boston go bad all the time – drugs, gangs, etc. - and end up facing life in prison; 19-year-olds join the armed forces and face dying overseas. They really aren’t “kids”, and my perception of their youth doesn’t make them harmless.
FBI already says that they interviewed him on behalf of “unnamed” foreign request in 2011. I’d say self-serving would be FBI not disclosing everything.
I’m sure father’s claim can be easily proven - the problem is who is available to prove it?
Should have brought him some string and sealing wax, dragons dote on fancy stuff. Reviewing the evidence you have offered, being zero, it is certainly clear that these people are just making stuff up, hoping to focus more attention on themselves. They are most likely checking every hour, hoping that Pam Geller or Eric Rush publishes their names and home address and makes them famous!
Look, you may be right, there may be no backlash at all. That would be FUCKING WONDERFUL! That would be proof positive of a level of maturity and compassion that I had not seen in our people previously, which is probably Obama’s fault.
Then instead of bemoaning something that might, possibly, happen, you save it for when it does. I’ll be right beside you denouncing those who do such things, if and when it happens.
Well, he wouldn’t have known that if his expression of anxiety that history would basically repeat itself hadn’t prompted you to reassure him of such.
It’s good of you to offer your commitment, btw. Also, in case someone was planning to bring doughnuts to the denouncing, it’s always helpful to have at least an approximate headcount. 
So, in terms of my vague understanding of the law… the fact that this is a federal crime means the death penalty applies, overruling the fact that the state where the crime occurred does not have the death penalty?
So, no mitigating circumstance for him maybe being merely an accomplice/under the sway of his mastermind brother?
Two people, two bombs. That’s going to be a tough road to argue “mitigating circumstances.” It’s not like he just helped build the bombs, and his brother was the one who set them.
I have a 19 year old, too and couldn’t help trying to imagine what this kid was thinking. Especially as the backstory emerged and he really appeared to be a "kid " at least until recently. Not rich or poor; not a zealot or a loner or a stoner; neither a bully or bullied by his peers.
But the truth is, I have no idea. It was easy to compare this kid to my own son and his friends. Oh, yeah, except for the murdering terrorist fugitive part. That is the dichotomy that I hope his survival will help resolve. As he was laying in that boat, was he thinking about what a fucking mess his brother had gotten him into or how many more cops he might be able to take out before getting killed himself? The question remains -was it a scared kid or defiant young man who opened fire from the boat but ultimately gave up?
It appears he can add brother-murder to his list of crimes.
This. IMO “kids” are capable of being both amazingly smart and stupid at the same time. Calculus? Check. AP English? Check. 4th Year Latin AND French. Check. Working 20 hours a week also? Check. Deciding abortion clinics are killing innocent children and might need a fire bombing after hours because you know, muder is wrong? Check. That sorta thing.
I think both these kids (but the older much more than the younger) got some notion in their head that bad things were happening and that somehow America was to blame and another somehow logic thing where bombing the Boston Marathon would actually do something about bad thing happening. But, being kids, they did not have the sophistication to realize their point was stupid, their actions wouldn’t do jack shit, and most importantly that this would actually result in people dieing and arms, legs and feet being blown off of real innocent people for no good reason.
I’d bet good money a part of them thought “OMFG what have we done?” after they did it.
Think back when you were 5 years younger than you were now? Absolute idiot about something or another am I right? Another 5 before that. And yet another 5. Maybe even a few more for good measure.
Hell, now at this day and age I am surprised at 20 I could cloth and feed myself.
IMO, these were probably generally good kids like I was back then that were unfortunate enought for various reasons to get fixated on a stupid solution to a problem they couldn’t fix and/or got hooked up with some higher level crazies that used them.
What a damn useless waste all around.
After they’re already dead, you’ll join the handwringing. Thanks a pantsload. :rolleyes:
Don’t you think there might be a better plan?