WASHINGTON: American confidence about having staved off a terror attack on mainland USA after 9/11 was dented on Monday following blasts that killed three people and injured close to 150, 17 of them critically, near the finish of the iconic Boston marathon. Among the victimswas an eight-year-old boy who was watching his father run the race.
Nearly 24 hours after the bloody incident, it was still not clear if the attack came from the domestic disgruntled or foreign elements. President Barack Obama called for avoiding arush to judgment while pledging the perpetrators would be brought to justice. Authorities said late Tuesday that the two bombs were built using pressure cookers and were packed with gunpowder and ball bearings.
Obama did not use the word "terror" or "terrorism" in his initial remarks, but administration officials left little doubt that whether domestic or foreign, this was a terror attack different from the school shootings and other random gun violence endemic in the US.
But on Tuesday morning, some 24 hours later, the President said "given what we now know about what took place, the FBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism."
"Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror," Obama said in a statement, adding, "What we don't yet know, however, is who carried out this attack, or why; whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was the act of a malevolent individual." He said authorities were at the beginning of the investigations.
There were reports of a 20-year Saudi student being questioned even as the Saudi foreign minister was in the US Capital, but the initial finger of suspicion pointed to a home-grown, lone-person attack given the relative crudeness of the explosives despite its lethal nature.
Still, the debate was between whether it was an "Eric Rudolph-like case or a Faisal Shahzadoperation." Rudolph was an anti-gay, anti-abortion wingnut who undertook the
AtlantaOlympics bombing; Shahzad was a Pakistan-American responsible for the Times Squarebombing.
In either case, it was the first successful terror strike of this kind on mainland USA after the 9/11 attack. The incident brought to mind dozens of such strikes that have occurred in India over the years.
Indeed, one of the witnesses interviewed on television recalled the Mumbai carnage that took place when she was visiting. Incidentally, there were no Indians reported among the victims although Boston has a significant population from the sub-continent because of its reputation as a center of learning and technology hub.
But on a beautiful spring day, it was the historic marathon, which has been held since 1897, that was the target of the horrific bombing. Hundreds of runners were converging on the finish line when the two explosions, about 12 seconds apart, went off.
The race clock showed a little past 4 hours and nine minutes, which means the top class runners, who typically finish in less than two and half hours, had already finished the race. It was the middle-rangers who were converging on the finish.
The bombs stunned the runners, many of whom ran helter-skelter or turned around to run back. But there was also the incredible scene of 78-year old Bill Iffrig, who was knocked down by the explosion some 15 feet before the tape, but after being helped up to his feet by a race official, ran the remaining length to finish the race. He later said he wasn't going to give up after running 26 miles.
A similar resilience marked the approach of grim-faced law enforcement authorities as they set about the investigation even as the administration promised to bring the culprits to book. Time and again, there were exhortations not to rush to conclusions like it happened with the Atlanta Olympic Park bombing when a security guard who helped find a bomb was considered a suspect after initially being hailed a hero. It was months before he was exonerated and Rudolph was tracked down.
"We still do not know who did this or why," President Obama said at a White House briefing, cautioning people against jumping to conclusions because of such errors. "But make no mistake, we will get to the bottom of this, and we will find out who did this, we'll find out why they did this."
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