FBI

Last night we showed what turned out to be Dzhokar Tsarnaev's 'getaway' vehicle from images on his twitter feed. It turns out that in one of those images was another car - a black BMW 330Xi - that has become very important to the ongoing investigation. As The Daily Mail reports, last night two young men (light-skinned, thin, and short) described by neighbors as "nice boys" and their girlfriend were arrested in connection with the Boston Bombings. They are thought to be frtom Kazakhstan, and had not been since the bombings until the FBI raided their home - based on suggestions that Dzokhar had lived there. Despite the 'nice boys' comments, neighbors claimed the men had stolen the BMW but Azmat and Diaz, students at UMass, "who used to party til 3 or 4 in the morning," had one more unsettling surprise up their sleeves... the license plate of their car... "Terrorista#1".

Yesterday we reported that the initial, and largely expected, response by the father of the Boston bombing suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev, was that they had been set up by US secret services. As RT reported further, in an interview with Russian television the brothers’ father Anzor Tsarnaev also claimed that they are innocent and somebody might have set them up. "I’m sure about my children, in their purity. I don’t know what happened and who did this.  God knows and he will punish them,” he told Zvezda channel. “Somebody might have set them up. I don’t know who and because of their cowardice killed the boy." It was not unexpected that the mother also decided to go the conspiracy route, and allege the boys conduct was "set up" and that the FBI had been following them for years.  “They used to come [to our] home, they used to talk to me…they were telling me that he [the older, 26-y/o Tamerlan] was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him. They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites… they were controlling him, they were controlling his every step…and now they say that this is a terrorist act! Never ever is this true, my sons are innocent!” More deranged appeals to some conspiracy theory involving the FBI? Possibly. But then we learn that the FBI did indeed interview Tamerlan nearly two years ago

The nightly developments continue as we learn next that Tsarnaev is in serious (or critical according to Bloomberg) condition in the hospital, with a gunshot wound to the neck and leg, and that perhaps just as importantly, he will not get his Miranda warning, instead the FBI is overruling due process and using the "public safety" exception instead.

No, We Shouldn't Kill Everyone from a Particular Religion

@therealabdul_ boston marathon isn't a good place to smoke tho

— Jahar (@J_tsar) August 10, 2012

In a series of bizarre if morbid events, things in Boston have gone from bad to surreal. According to Reuters, police killed one suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing during a shootout and were engaged in a house-to-house search for the other on Friday in the Boston suburb of Watertown. The suspects, incidentally, as AP reports, are reportedly brothers and originally from the separatist Russian region of Chechnya, who lived in the US for at least 1 year and were Cambridge residents at the time of the incident. The night started off in a just as dramatic fashion, with the violence beginning around 10:30 p.m., with the robbery of a 7-11 in nearby Cambridge, authorities said. The two men then fatally shot an MIT campus police officer and carjacked a Mercedes sport-utility vehicle at gunpoint, keeping the vehicle's owner hostage for about a half-hour, police said. The owner was released at a gas station in Cambridge, authorities said. He wasn't injured. Police pursued that car to Watertown, where explosives were thrown from the car at police and gunfire was exchanged, the statement said. "During the exchange of the gunfire, we believe that one of the suspects was struck and ultimately taken into custody. A second suspect was able to flee from that car and there is an active search going on at this point in time," Colonel Timothy Alben, superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police, told a news conference.

With CNN not reporting anything (or retracting anything), we hope the FBI can clean up some of the 'facts' with regard the terrorist attack on Boston.

Moments ago the FBI released on its website, which was promptly DDOSed, pictures and a video clip of the two Boston Bombing suspects. Both appear Caucasian. The pics are attached below. The FBI is requesting tips from anyone who has information on these people of interest.

First we got headlines coming out, from CNN and WCVB TV in Boston, that a suspect is now in custody:

• Law enforcement official: Boston Marathon bomb suspect in custody, expected in federal court.
• Janet Wu reports it is a man who was arrested.
• The officials says the suspect is to be taken into custody by federal marshals and taken to a courthouse. 
• There is no immediate word on where the arrest was made.   
• Suspects at Federal Court are brought into an entrance away from public view.
• Jack Harper says the security at the Federal Courthouse is almost unprecedented.
• A source tells Newscenter5's WuWCVB that one male suspect delivered both bombs.

Then this became a media pissing match with both NBC and Reuters denying reports from CNN, AP and WCVB (on the ground), that no arrest has been made.  And now CNN is denying its original report that a suspect has been arrested. At least no report yet of the Boston Federal Court being under 9 feet of water.   Finally, here comes the FBI: NO ARRESTS MADE IN BOSTON MARATHON BOMBING CASE, FBI SAYS

It appears the hunt for the so far unidentified Boston nomber may be coming to an end. From Bloomberg:

• OFFICIALS BELIEVE BOMBING SUSPECT IDENTIFIED, CNN SAYS
• ONE SUSPECT CLEARLY IDENTIFIED IN VIDEO, CNN'S KING SAYS
• AUTHORITIES HAVE IMAGE OF SUSPECT W/BAG AT 2ND BOMB SITE:GLOBE
• IDENTIFICATION COMING FROM STORE SECURITY CAMERA, CNN SAYS
• Authorities have an image of a suspect carrying, and perhaps dropping, a black bag at the second bombing scene  - Globe.com

And the kicker:

• Suspect is a "dark-skinned male" according to CNN. Apparently that is the proper nomenclature.

We will bring readers the picture when it is released.

Yesterday we got a flashback of 9/11, and now the Anthrax scare is back. From @911Buff

LETTER ADDRESSED TO A U.S. SENATE OFFICE INTERCEPTED AT U.S. CAPITAL, TESTS POSITIVE FOR RICIN POISION.
POISON LETTER WAS SENT TO SENATOR ROGER WICKER FROM MISSISSIPPI AT THE CAPITOL. FBI INVESTIGATING.

Ricin's toxic history is long and illustrious: starting with the death of Bulgarian dissident journalist Georgi Markov, using the infamous KGB umbrella, and most recently used by Walter White (unsuccessfully) to eliminate the meth dealing competition.

While We’re Waiting to Learn Who the Boston Terrorists Were … Let’s Review How Stupid Our Anti-Terrorism Policies Have Been

The idea of IRS agents poking through your email account might sound at the very least creepy, and maybe unconstitutional. But the IRS does have a legal leg to stand on: the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 allows government agencies to in many cases obtain emails older than 180 days without a warrant. In 1986 they decided this?  Who used email in 1986? That’s why an internal 2009 IRS document claimed that “the government may obtain the contents of electronic communication that has been in storage for more than 180 days” without a warrant. Another 2009 file, the IRS Criminal Tax Division’s “Search Warrant Handbook,” showed that the division’s general counsel believed “the Fourth Amendment does not protect communications held in electronic storage, such as email messages stored on a server, because internet users do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

The KMPG partner at the heart of today's Herbalife/KPMG fiasco was unknown for several hours, until finally his name resurfaced. Per Reuters: "Scott London, a partner at accounting firm KPMG, was the lead auditor for Skechers USA Inc who resigned after allegedly leaking insider information to traders, said Skechers Chief Financial Officer on Tuesday. In an interview, CFO David Weinberg said he was surprised to learn late on Monday from partners at KPMG that London had admitted to the allegations and was leaving the firm."

In the somewhat unsurprising conclusion of former FBI Director Louis Freeh's investigation into the MFGlobal collapse, Jon Corzine's aggressive bets on European sovereign debt led to the firm's dramatic collapse. The 124 page report (below) is extensive; noting, as Reuters reports, that Corzine's single-handed "negligent conduct" contributed to the company's failure. It was also "almost impossible to properly monitor the liquidity drains... caused by Corzine's proprietary trading strategy," the report said, adding that the "glaring deficiencies" in the firm's internal reporting were, "long-known to Corzine and management, yet they failed to implement sufficient corrective measures promptly." The investigation, based on interviews with former MF Global employees, board members and the review of hundreds of thousands of documents, concludes, "The risky business strategy engineered and executed by Corzine and other officers and their failure to improve the company's inadequate systems and procedures so that the company could accommodate that business strategy contributed to the company's collapse." Obviously, Corzine has denied any wrongdoing.