The verbal diarrhea coming from all of the Tsarnaev family members is a psychological case study in denial, duplicity, deep shame , and rage of a kind only decades of war and trauma, and terror can produce. We need to think more carefully about who we let into this country and not just accept the stories people give us at face value when we lack the sophistication and intelligence capability to truly "get" the politics of their country. It is very doubtful that the immigration officials approving the aunt's paperwork could have nailed her and her brother, not as the persecuted, but as collaborators with the Russian puppet gov't. This is a family that seems to have changed uniforms at least 3 times. Two days ago her boys were framed innocents, now she is lining herself up to get jihadi widow money by claiming " the FBI was trailing my son for several years as he became more and more devout" I have whiplash and I really wish some immigration official would have hit the trap door button on this family long ago. |
My opinion from reading the reports and watching the families duplicitous interviews : The father was a "prosecutor" in a former soviet puppet state. When things started to go south for the USSR in the Caucass they left. Remember the aunt's words , " all my family, they were lawyers" Well, perhaps the reality is many were members of the secret police, enforcers of the regime. So, with Chechens turning up the heat, they leave. Now FF 10 years and Russia has a puppet gov't installed down there, the Dad goes back. Cancer , my ass. " wanted to die in my homeland" , my ass. What's clear from the moment he gave THAT excuse is that this man is a liar and everything else he is going to say is either an outright lie or a partial truth. Every statement he makes is based on, not the truth, but a loss /benefit calculation. Ditto every other member of the family. These people are scavengers of their own truth. And we wonder why the sons did what they did? No morals at home, for one. More likely the father ran afoul of his ethnic branch of the Russian mafia in the mid-atlantic area and so he chose the lesser of two evils, and went back "home" Hence, the split with the maryland half of family. |
Not true, and who the heck cares. That was not my point. My point is that religion is not the prime mover of men the way you people seem to have taken to believing it is. Men drop their religion pretty quickly when its in the way of what they really want, in my experience. |
Obviously I was not the lone voice in the entire world or even the entire country. But, I was essentially the lone voice in that discussion forum. My point is to show that conventional wisdom can coalesce around a falsehood. Time and again we find ourselves in a situation in which "everyone knows" something, yet there are not facts to support what "everyone knows". Can you deny that according to conventional wisdom at the time, Collin Powell had delivered an outstanding and persuasive presentation of the facts? Can you now deny that conventional wisdom was wrong? I am just saying that because "everyone knows" something, you should not immediately accept it as fact.
None of this is true. Most news sources have actually been pretty careful about describing motivations. I am reacting to specific posts in this forum and the general conventional wisdom that the brothers were motivated by radical Islam and are indistinguishable from the 9/11 attackers, the London Underground bombers, or any other Muslim terrorists. If you believe that there are sufficient facts available to support the conventional wisdom, let's have a discussion of those facts. While I am being accused of grasping at straws, I think those who cherry-pick one or two videos from a Youtube feed while ignoring others are the real straw graspers. But, let's discussion what is known and see where it leads us. |
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You are conflating political propaganda passed through a few cherry picked members of a political party( Colin Powell being one) and the motivations that political party had for doing same ( the profit that can be made in war, and settling old scores)
with the motivations of literally hundreds of journalists who are reporting on the brothers back ground, many of which are WSJ reporters reporting from Moscow or Dagestan who have been covering the beat for decades, speak Russian well as well as other dialects, have real insight and lack the political agenda of the Cheyney, Rumsfeld, Powell, and who was their director of CIA ? Different horse. To call a spade a spade here is not equal to saying that " all the muslims in the world are in a world wide conspiracy to get us", its just to say that the Tsarnaev brothers had chosen to channel their rage and frustration towards a target indentified for them by radicals who use their religion and their cultural bak ground to win and hold their loyalty. The evidence is not just that Tamerlan happened to have one video on his you tube account. Why are you deliberately minimizing ? I suggest you turn off the internet for a while and pick up your phone and talk to some real journalists in the field. Get on the phone with the people at Mosocw bureau of WSJ, or people down at Freedom House who know the Caucasses well, and hear what they have access to. DCUM is a bit of a phone booth echo chamber,and does not reflect " commonly held views" , not by the standard of info that is, perhaps not commonly available in Washington, but available if you have a few friends who work in the field. |
You clearly either have problems reading or problems comprehending because your response has almost no relationship to my message. I suggest that you go back and re-read my message and then reply to what I actually wrote. As I wrote, if you want to discuss the facts of this matter, I am happy to do so. I won't have a discussion with someone who is debating straw men that don't exist. |
Provide evidence please. |
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/uncle-of-bombing-suspects-says-he-had-falling-out-with-older-nephew-over-commitment-to-islam/2013/04/20/de8272ea-a9d6-11e2-9e1c-bb0fb0c2edd9_singlePage.html?tid=obnetwork
So for the future should relatives or others who know of those who choose to abandon work/school for possible mayhem report them to FBI? Doesn't seem like this person was in a program similar to a seminary or divinity school. |
This is interesting. I think identifying the Tsarnaev brother's means of support will answer a lot of questions. |
I am glad you brought this up. No one seems to wonder how this 26-year old with expensive clothes and a Mercedes supported himself. He didn't seem to have a job or be at school; yet he had a wife and a 3-year old (who seem to be laying low). |
You are asking for evidence of what exactly ? Yes, there is a tool of convenience in some muslim countries that is a marriage certificate for a pre-set period of time. In countries of the middle east that have legalized this form of marriage of convenience it basically amounts to prostitution for hire with only one customer from this date to this date ( a sex permit, if you will). Not something I would engage in. Why would I need to ? Why would I be so stupid as to give up some of my soverenty and enter into a contract like that when my male partner has chosen to engage in this activity with me, assuming all the risks thereof and I could take the relationship or leave it at no risk to myself. Yes, I did have a marriage proposal or two. I laughed them off. To me, it was simple, if you are afraid of being caught and getting 80 lashes, then don't come to be with me. My experience was that, religious law and legal punishments were just pushed aside in the man's mind as a calculated risk. They were grown ups. That is on them. Whether or not such "sex permits " exist is irrelevant to my point because a) I did not enter into such a contract and b) my purpose of pointing out that sex outside of Islamic law exists widely in even the most conservative Muslim countries, is not to debate that per se, but to point out that: contrary to what many people on this thread seem to think, religion is NOT a prime mover of men IN ANY CULTURE. In fact, I would say, if religious law or custom becomes an obstacle for a man between him and a base motivator he has, men all over the world will just shove aside or tune out their religious "beliefs" in pursuit of what are their more prime movers of their behavior. It is my personal experience that this is true when what they want is sex, and I imagine it is also true when they are giving into hatred and rage. Religion may be used as a crutch AFTER THE FACT, but when the decision is being made to give priority to a base motivator, religion is cast off as quickly as a Jimbia that falls to the floor when the belt of one's thobe is undone. That is my point. |
What are you talking about? They sound like pretty much every parent of a murderer. Can't believe it's true, claim their kids are innocent and being set up, lots of crazy talk. This doesn't require decades of anything except being a parent. This is so common it is cliche. |
Didn't he have the Mercedes for a matter of minutes? From the time he carjacked it until the police riddle him with bullets (and his brother drove the Mercedes over him)? |
Yup, they carjacked the Mercedes SUV from someone. |
I think you misunderstood. No one questions your adventures in the Middle East, whatever they were. No one questions that men in conservative countries have sex. I don't think anyone inquired why you didn't accept proposals that came your way, so I am not quite sure why you feel compelled to explain them. What was in question, really, is twofold, as a matter of some detail: a. Marriage with a set expiration date is allowed, to my knowledge, only in Iran. No Sunni-majority country allows marriages with a known expiration date. With unlimited freedom to divorce for men, I don't know why they'd feel they need to. b. Truly devout Muslims do not have girlfriends. Note - not Muslims who feel the need to rationalize it in their minds - but Muslims who understand the rules of their religion and live by them. If Muslims have girlfriends, they aren't devout. That is all. And I'm married to a Saudi, so you don't need to explain the minutia of Muslim law and behavior to me. |