Bomb Blasts at the Boston Marathon

Will Boston still fund the Real IRA?

An article in the Spectator points out that the city of Boston has been responsible for funding terrorism in the past, and poses the question that their own recent atrocities may give them cause to reflect.

One of the first world statesmen to send a message of sympathy to Boston after last week’s outrage was Gerry Adams, president of Sinn Fein. ‘Just watching news of the explosion in Boston,’ he tweeted, ‘Sympathy with people of that fine city.’ Mr Adams has every reason to think fondly of Boston. Throughout the troubles, while he sat on the IRA war council, Boston was one of the major American centres which he (through Noraid) could rely on for support and funding. Bostonian money would have been used to help pay for the IRA attack on Margaret Thatcher’s democratically elected government in Brighton, the grotesque Birmingham pub bombings that left 21 dead, and of course the Lisburn van bombing of 15 June 1988. On that terrible occasion six off-duty British soldiers were killed by an IRA bomb just after they had completed a half-marathon for charity.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/the-week/diary/8895981/diary-608/

Steven

Wrong. My conclusions were formed after I learned more about their background (i.e. ties to extremists, etc.). Prior to that point, I didn’t know who they were or why they had done what they did. To be honest, I initially suspected they might be some right-wing nuts (ala Timothy McVeigh), but I had no idea so I didn’t really form an opinion until more information was available. My disappointment with you was not because you preferred to hold off your opinion because as I said, that’s not a bad way to go about things. My disappointment with you was due to your seeming refusal to acknowledge their religious motives once it had become apparent that this was the case.

You aren’t open minded enough, IMHO.. If the Fox declares religious motives to be the case, then you simply take it for granted and never give it a second thought. I can’t think like that, sorry.

For me there is a man in solitary custody, declared an enemy of the state #1, sentenced to capital punishment before the trial even begun.. they can make him sign whatever they want him to sign.. Guilty or innocent, his fate is sealed, anyway..

The rest of my comments were directed at the general forum members who might have been following the thread…not at you specifically. They were an analysis of the situation as I see it here. If you (MSphere) don’t understand it, then don’t worry about it. Nothing I could say would make you understand anything on this side of the pond anyways.

I can pretty much understand the situation you describe because there are similarities in Europe (UK, France…) What I cannot understand is the “solution” and the course your govt has decided to take a decade ago.

I’m not surprised that you brought Iraq and Afghanistan into this, and that fact alone tells me more about who you are and your agenda. None of my comments were in any way related to anything in Afghanistan or Iraq. My discussion with you (MSphere) is now over.

Interesting, what exactly does it tell you about me?
It is useless to pretend to be concerned with the Muslim problem but at the same time ignore Iraq.. Something tells me that this ain’t gonna work.

According to a recent report, this pair had always intended to attack New York’s Times Square, with four bombs, but found that the car, which they’d hijacked, didn’t have enough fuel, and, when they stopped to fill up, the car’s owner (whom they’d kidnapped) escaped and informed the police. Knowing the jig was up, they changed their plans, and went for the Marathon instead.
“For evil to succeed, it only needs the good to do nothing” is as true, now, as it ever was. As long as “ordinary” Muslims condemn, tut-tut, but do nothing to eradicate these people, their religion will continue to be hijacked by those consumed by evil intent. The “ordinary” Germans, Japanese and Italians sleepwalked into WWII, and the same is happening now. Anyone who ignores it, or (worse) tries to justify it by introducing irrelevances like deaths in countries thousands of miles away, is playing directly into their hands; it’s to be hoped you wake up before your local bobby morphs into Abu Qatadah.

I am not following any logic in this statement of yours. Your stance from day one was “they come from Chechnya, they must be Jihadists”, my stance was “we got no idea about their motives, I will rather hear what they have to say” – exactly what is so much disappointing in that?

Wrong. My conclusions were formed after I learned more about their background (i.e. ties to extremists, etc.). Prior to that point, I didn’t know who they were or why they had done what they did. To be honest, I initially suspected they might be some right-wing nuts (ala Timothy McVeigh), but I had no idea so I didn’t really form an opinion until more information was available. My disappointment with you was not because you preferred to hold off your opinion because as I said, that’s not a bad way to go about things. My disappointment with you was due to your seeming refusal to acknowledge their religious motives once it had become apparent that this was the case.

The rest of my comments were directed at the general forum members who might have been following the thread…not at you specifically. They were an analysis of the situation as I see it here. If you (MSphere) don’t understand it, then don’t worry about it. Nothing I could say would make you understand anything on this side of the pond anyways.

I’m not surprised that you brought Iraq and Afghanistan into this, and that fact alone tells me more about who you are and your agenda. None of my comments were in any way related to anything in Afghanistan or Iraq. My discussion with you (MSphere) is now over.

If anyone else would like to discuss things related to the bombings, then I’d be more than happy to. Otherwise, the mods can delete the thread if they so choose.

Despite the fact that I will take the blame for getting the thread off topic by asking about where one of the other members was from, I must say I’m disappointed in you MSphere. Despite the fact that I vehemently disagree with you on many things, I’d have thought you’d be proper enough to at least acknowledge the bombers’ motives.

I am not following any logic in this statement of yours. Your stance from day one was “they come from Chechnya, they must be Jihadists”, my stance was “we got no idea about their motives, I will rather hear what they have to say” – exactly what is so much disappointing in that? 🙂

Before you crucify me for seemingly saying “I was right and you were wrong”, that’s not what this particular comment is about. It’s about driving home a point that is growing increasingly worrisome on this side of the pond, and of course on your side of the pond I believe it has firmly taken hold, resulting in many of the issues England is having with members of the Islamic faith. In reading all of your comments, you sounded like many over here who often turn a blind eye to reality when it doesn’t fit their view.

I do not quite follow your logic here, again – you say got a problem with Muslims in where you live, but instead of taking care of the domestic matters your govt have poured a decade worth of energy into fighting in Iraq or A’Stan.. What sense does it make? For me it sounds like you had an issue with immigration policy..

The point that I speak of is known as being politically correct, and it is a disease that is infecting my nation on a daily basis. Over here, many people (namely the mainstream media) have gotten to where they are afraid to call something like it is for fear of offending someone or some group. As such, the lengths that news networks or individuals will go to so as to avoid having to admit the truth on a particular situation can be absolutely mind boggling. This doesn’t just apply to Islamic extremists, but to anything that might be construed as offensive to someone or some group even if it happens to be true.

Well… Unfortunately I can’t see how could I help you here with this.. :confused:

In the case of Islamic extremism, I deeply hope that at some point the moderate Muslim members of the world will do more to stand up and stand against the brand of extremist violence that some members of their faith choose to partake in. Until that time, you will often have people of other faiths (or even those who aren’t religious at all) questioning what their religion is really about and thus you’ll have the uproar when something like what happened in Boston the other week happens in another Western country.

Let us be realistic for a while – if you were a moderate Muslim of the world, would you be more upset by three dead in Boston or by ~100k-500k dead in Iraq?

I’m not advocating calling all Muslims terrorists, but in this case, based on the background information that started to come out, I made a prediction within a short amount of time as to why these two had done what they did. It turns out that unfortunately I was correct. I wonder though……..why were you so reluctant to say the same? I get that you are the type that is suspicious of everything, but it’s certainly no secret now (and it wasn’t last week) as to what their motives were.

As said before, I will simply follow all news (not only the official ones) and then will make my own judgement of the situation..

Yes indeed – I can’t disagree with any of that. And muslims, albeit perhaps not top muslims as you would have it, do get air time to condemn and disown the extremists. But public disavowal of the extremists, their activities and aspirations from the muslim leadership in all western countries would be a step forward.

I think as ever the minority give the majority a bad name .I would like to see the top Muslims in this country come out on TV and tell everyone that terrorism is wrong and that THEY themselves will take action to stop it.They will say they do BUT they need to let everyone else and their own community know.
Regarding information given by the Russians i suppose until the guy himself actually does something illegal the authorities can only stand back and watch.
I do have concerns over the PC brigade but i do worry more about the gang culture ,muggings etc seemingly perpetrated by groups ethnics occurring.

I know what you are saying although I think that the “PC” phenomenon is both overused and misunderstood and often used as a shorthand for other societal shortfalls. And I think this applies equally whichever side of the pond you are as well as in many other countries.
I do accept that there is an unhealthy fear of “muslims” and the radical muslims intentionally an successfully exploit it. And that has to be challenged and confronted, if necessary.
Certainly in the UK we owe them no more and no less than any other minority ethnic group and they most emphatically should not be allowed to operate outside the laws of the land, at any level.

charlie,

You certainly make valid points, and a rush to judgement is certainly not the way to go about things, especially for the authorities themselves. In my line of work, a rush to judgement can get someone killed. What I was trying to say is that once several of the facts had come about, such as the background of the two men, their ties to religious extremists in particular, I made an educated guess if you will, as to their motives. Now, some would still consider this a rush to judgement, but in my defense I held off any thoughts of who they were or why they had done what they did, until a lot of the relevant information was made public.

My concern relates to the overarching fear of offending people taking precedence over taking the proper action when it should be deemed necessary. Hell, the Russian government had apparently warned us about the older brother around 3 years ago, and for whatever reason, nothing much was done. I’m not trying to second guess intelligence services or the authorities, but my point is that the possibility of this being something that could have been prevented, but wasn’t due to fears of offending groups due to prejudgment as you put it, is very troubling.

As I said before, the politically correct bandwagon that so many (especially on the left) in my country are now riding on is a one way ticket toward a dim future. The PC crowd are the nation’s best at putting their heads in the sand and pretending we live in a happy go lucky world.

It’s a damn shame too…

Paul – well that’s true!!

Phantom – yes you were right and most of us probably agreed. I see the problem differently although I agree with much of what you say. I dislike the vogue for prejudgement. Whatever we might think or perceive until those with the specialist knowledge determine the cause of anything I’d rather we waited instead of chiming in with our “feelings” about the cause.
And it always refreshing to see muslims vehemently condemning the activities of radical muslims, with whom they share little or nothing, as we did yesterday.

I also heard that the other day, and it was certainly disturbing. I’m glad they were stopped.

Had they got away with the Boston explosions, and not been caught, New York was to be next on their hit list.
Makes me sick, on what makes them tick.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

Despite the fact that I will take the blame for getting the thread off topic by asking about where one of the other members was from, I must say I’m disappointed in you MSphere. Despite the fact that I vehemently disagree with you on many things, I’d have thought you’d be proper enough to at least acknowledge the bombers’ motives.

Before you crucify me for seemingly saying “I was right and you were wrong”, that’s not what this particular comment is about. It’s about driving home a point that is growing increasingly worrisome on this side of the pond, and of course on your side of the pond I believe it has firmly taken hold, resulting in many of the issues England is having with members of the Islamic faith. In reading all of your comments, you sounded like many over here who often turn a blind eye to reality when it doesn’t fit their view.

The point that I speak of is known as being politically correct, and it is a disease that is infecting my nation on a daily basis. Over here, many people (namely the mainstream media) have gotten to where they are afraid to call something like it is for fear of offending someone or some group. As such, the lengths that news networks or individuals will go to so as to avoid having to admit the truth on a particular situation can be absolutely mind boggling. This doesn’t just apply to Islamic extremists, but to anything that might be construed as offensive to someone or some group even if it happens to be true. In the case of Islamic extremism, I deeply hope that at some point the moderate Muslim members of the world will do more to stand up and stand against the brand of extremist violence that some members of their faith choose to partake in. Until that time, you will often have people of other faiths (or even those who aren’t religious at all) questioning what their religion is really about and thus you’ll have the uproar when something like what happened in Boston the other week happens in another Western country.

I’m not advocating calling all Muslims terrorists, but in this case, based on the background information that started to come out, I made a prediction within a short amount of time as to why these two had done what they did. It turns out that unfortunately I was correct. I wonder though……..why were you so reluctant to say the same? I get that you are the type that is suspicious of everything, but it’s certainly no secret now (and it wasn’t last week) as to what their motives were.

It’s well past its sell-by date!!:apologetic:

Only to sell on dear boy:highly_amused:I get my morphine tablets and patches F.O.C. thanks to the NHS and I am not about to part with them. Oh well back to selling cat nip at the school gates then.:D

I suppose they could have been “Sleepers” and waiting for the right moment. It’s certainly going to sour the relationships with Russia, as far as the U.S.A is concerned, if the perps were indeed from there.
Jim.
Lincoln .7

They knew they were Chechens. They had contacted Russia about their travel over there long before the bombing, which the Obama administration first denied but now admits they did but the administration said they did not know these boys on the terror watch had returned.
Their relatives here and over there say they had been radicalized.

It’s well past its sell-by date!!:apologetic:

“son of an opium smuggler” I don’t suppose you have any still kicking about for a few quid in your pocket?

Thank god radical bombers always tell the truth !

Shouldn’t be that Thank god radical bombers always type the truth ? 🙂

That’s a continuing pleasure of this forum. It’s unpredictability – as well as its good humour – most of the time!:D

🙂 LOL, this has been a deadly serious thread before.. :angel:
I was just ready to tell the same story. Does it make us siblings? 🙂