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Posts tagged "Terror"

Menino: Stop Terror List Suspects from Buying Weapons

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino wants to know how one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects was able to get a weapon, despite being on a federal terror watch list. “Right now there are thousands of people on terror watch lists who are considered too dangerous to fly on a plane, but when it comes to buying an assault weapon — no problem. It’s crazy,” said Menino to the Boston Herald. Menino, one of the co-founders of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, said there are glaring loopholes in our federal gun laws, calling it the “Terror Gap”, which enabled Tamerlan Tsarnaev, to get his hands on weapons. Menino said current loopholes allow individuals on terror watch lists to pass background checks to purchase guns legally. But some detractors do point out that Tsarnaev did not purchase weapons legally, so it doesn’t matter if he was on a list or not. According to the Government Accountability Office, individuals on terror watch lists tried to buy guns and explosives 1,453 times between Feb. ’04 and Dec. ’10. And a staggering 91 percent of the time, or 1,321 occasions – the FBI could not block gun or explosives being sold to suspected terrorists. South End Patch

With Capture of Second Bomber, Week of Terror Comes to End

After 102 hours of terror, mourning, striving and struggle, police have killed one and captured the second marathon bomber suspects. With both of the bombers accounted for, law enforcement believe they have nabbed the men responsible for the deadliest domestic bombing attack in the 21st century. A hair-raising Friday night chase and firefight led to the death of MIT police officer Sean Collier, the shooting of Transit Police officer Richard Donohue, a dead suspect and another in handcuffs. Along the way, nearly one million greater Boston residents were trapped in their homes as the suspects tossed explosives engaged in heavy arms fire with police, and finally (after one was killed) the survivor barricaded himself in a Watertown house. The deadly night started on the MIT campus, when Collier was shot and killed after responding to an armed robbery at a 7-Eleven. The officer reportedly sustained multiple gunshot wounds, according to the Middlesex County District Attorney’s office. The campus was placed in lock down around midnight. Also around midnight, two men reportedly carjacked a Mercedes, taking the owner for a short ride before dumping him on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. The LoJack on the car located it in Watertown, where police responded. That led to chaos in the streets as the suspects tossed explosives out of the car and then engaged police in an extended firefight, caught on video by Watertown residents in their homes. The exchange with police included explosions, according to police scanner transmissions. The seriously injured Donohue was taken to a local hospital and treated for a gun shot wound, according to a statement by the MBTA. As Boston police, the FBI, ATF and Homeland Security swarmed in Watertown, local police struggled to keep residents in their homes and media away from the active scene. NBC’s Pete Williams reported that one of the explosives found by police was fashioned out of a pressure cooker, similar to the bombs used Marathon Monday. That was later corroborated by law enforcement officials, who said the suspects also had pipe bombs and grenades. In the wee hours of the morning, the names of the two suspects were released: Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnaev, two brothers originally from Chechnya. Tamerlan was killed in the Watertown gunfight, though its unclear if he was killed by police, blow himself up with a bomb vest, or was run over by his younger brother as Dzokhar frantically tried to escape capture. By Friday morning, a terrible stasis developed in Watertown, with police converging a home near Dexter and Quimby streets. Watertown itself was completely locked down, with residents told to stay behind locked doors, and no car travel allowed in or out of the community. All […]