The hunt continues for the remaining suspect involved in the Boston marathon bombing, their trail of destruction leaving almost 200 wounded and four dead. The brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are the alleged perpetrators behind the bombing and their motives are still being debated.
Something we’ve been thinking of since they released the background information on the two brothers was re-iterated perfectly by Peter Bergen – if they were radicalized Chechen extremists, then they should be out blowing up people in Moscow, not in the United States. Russia is the number one enemy of Chechnya, not the “far Satan” AKA the United States in al-Qaeda lingo.
It seems likely that the brothers will turn out to have personalities that are inconsistent with our preconceptions about radical Islam. Like the 9/11 hijackers who drank alcohol and hung out at strip clubs, the Chechen brothers listened to secular non-Islamic music and even smoked marijuana. Human beings are terribly inconsistent when it comes to ideology so this shouldn’t surprise us in the least.
While on the run last night, the brothers car jacked a vehicle and apparently forced the driver to take them around town and make ATM withdrawals in order to build up a war chest for their escape. The circumstances are unclear but at some point in the night they made contact with law enforcement and a firefight broke out, killing Officer Sean Collier.
Get the run down here.
Reflexive Fire 