Free Republic

We cannot bring back the stolen lives. We cannot bring back the lost limbs or the lost hearing. And we cannot mitigate the infinite grief of the victims' loved ones. But there is something we can and must do: We must learn all the lessons we can. Here are some: 1. The gulf between the decent and the indecent Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, once told an interviewer before a Golden Gloves boxing competition: "I don't have a single American friend. I don't understand them." The reason Tsarnaev didn't understand Americans was not primarily cultural. Tsarnaev came to America...

In Obama's Audacity of Hope, he insinuated that he would stand with Muslim Americans should the political winds shift in any ugly direction." He also asserted in Bob Woodward's Obama's Wars, "We can absorb [another] terrorist attack." These are two straightforward statements that raise the question of whether a man who has been seemingly obsessed with reaching out to "the Muslim world" since taking office is capable of fulfilling his duty as commander-in-chief to keep America safe and secure.

UN Human Rights Council “expert” Richard Falk has published a statement saying Bostonians got what they deserved in last week’s terror attack. He quotes W.H. Auden to make his point: "to whom evil is done/do evil in return.” Richard Falk is the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” He has held the post since 2008, despite exposure as a 9/11 conspiracy theorist. In his latest rant, published online on April 21, 2013 by foreignpolicyjournal.com Falk repeats the libel that prior to 9/11 President George W. Bush was seeking a “pretext”...

At the time I wrote the column below, news had not broken about the massive and devastating explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Texas. Of course, all of my condolences and commendations about the victims and crisis care community in Boston I extend with profound correlations to my own heartbroken neighbors in Texas. One television news report estimated that 700 first responders were deployed immediately into action there. Let no one say the selfless and sacrificial American spirit isn't alive and well!As with others across the nation, my wife, Gena, and I are so proud of the first...

Court records reveal the chilling moment police believe the Tsarnaev brothers revealed themselves as the Boston Marathon bombers to a terrified carjacking victim. --SNIP-- The man pointed a gun at him and said: 'Did you hear about the Boston explosion?' and 'I did that.' He then removed the magazine from his gun to show the victim the bullets. 'I am serious,' he said. --SNIP-- In his first comments since the night of violence, the driver said he was spared because he 'wasn't American.

The FBI did not know that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older Boston Marathon bombing suspect, took a six-month trip to Russia because his name was misspelled, according to a key Republican senator on national-security issues. Sen. Lindsey Graham, South Carolina Republican, said Monday that he had spoken to an assistant director at the FBI about the agency’s failure to monitor Tsarnaev after interviewing him in 2011 following a tip from the Russian government that he could be dangerous. Late Friday, the FBI said it found nothing “derogatory” after that initial questioning.

Law-enforcement officials trying to understand what happened in Boston are looking into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev had taken a turn toward radical Islam. Among the things they are examining: a six-month trip he took last year to Dagestan, a republic in Russia's south, bordering Chechnya. A close examination of the Tsarnaev family shows that, over the past five years or so, the personal lives of the family members slipped into turmoil, according to interviews with the parents, relatives and friends. The upheaval in the household was driven, at least in part, by a growing interest in religion by both Tamerlan and...

Right-wing rocker Ted Nugent has taken to his column to call for the public hanging of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, one of the now-charged Boston Marathon bombers. The column, titled “Time To Stretch Neck Of Jihadist Punk,” was posted on the right wing website WND over the weekend. Stressing the need for quick justice, he (mostly) avoided his frequent talking points (fighting against gun control, criticizing Democrats and President Obama).

Thomas Friedman of the New York Times has received many accolades for his column following the bombing at the Boston Marathon. Under the category of “a stopped clock is right twice a day,” Friedman nailed the situation on the head. His column spoke of how Boston should immediately rebuild the area where the bombing was done. He drew the analogy to our younger brothers, the Israelis, and how they immediately cleanup and repair after a suicide bomber kills and maims. They leave no scars for the madmen to praise and the citizens to be reminded of their losses. In that...

Less than a week after the push by Democrats push for more gun control went down in flames in the Senate, Reuters is reporting the suspected Boston Marathon bombers ignored gun laws that are already on the books in possessing the firearms they used in shootouts with the police. According to Reuters, "The two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, who police say engaged in a gun battle early Friday after a frenzied manhunt, were not licensed to own guns in the towns where they lived." This means the handguns and "at least one rifle" the brothers had with...

Chaos. Things seemed to be spinning out of control on many fronts this week. Starting, of course, with the Boston Marathon bombing Monday. The bombers chose a significantly festive time and place for their attack. The marathon is held every year on Patriots Day, the Massachusetts state holiday commemorating the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775. Even before the identity of the bombers became known, it seemed likely that they were enemies of America. And their attack was a reminder that this free and open country remains a soft target. There is no way we can be entirely...

Two men are in federal custody as the FBI investigates a possible terror cell that may be linked to suspected Boston Marathon bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. The men, known only as Diaz and Azmat, were arrested Saturday, April 20, in New Bedford, Mass. While the suspects are being held on immigration violations, their arrest was made after police received new information regarding a possible 12-member terror cell operating in the area. Investigators say the group’s main focus may have been training the brothers to build compact explosives like the bombs used in the marathon attack and those thrown at...

'The FBI was last night hunting a 12-strong terrorist “sleeper cell” linked to the Boston marathon bomb brothers. Police believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were specially trained to carry out the devastating attack. More than 1,000 FBI operatives were last night working to track down the cell and arrested a man and two women 60 miles from Boston in the hours before Dzhokhar’s dramatic capture after a bloody shootout on Friday. A source close to the investigation said: “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and...

Breitbart News has learned that the Saudi National questioned after the Boston Marathon Bombing had his deportation order records altered, rescinding his deportation order. The alteration occurred the night before Secretary Napolitano vehemently denied the existence of any deportation order in testimony before the House of Representatives. Sources with knowledge of these matters says the change occurred subsequent to Secretary John Kerry's closed door meeting on Tuesday with the Saudi Minister and around the time of the meeting between the Saudi Minister and Obama later on Wednesday evening. The Saudi National has been identified as Abdulrahman Ali Al-Harbi. There is...

I’m not really in the mood to write a column. The reason why I’m in a foul disposition is I just saw the picture, taken a few minutes before the Boston blast, of the Muslim POS, better known as “Suspect #2”, dropping off his backpack filled with a pressure cooker bomb right behind eight-year-old Martin Richard, his little sister Jane, his mom Denise and scores of others. This image made me both sick and pissed off. Minutes after this picture was captured, as we now know, Martin would have nails and buckshot blast his body to smithereens, Jane would...

Progressives can’t help themselves. When a normal person hears of a tragedy, they feel the natural range of emotions – fear, anger, sympathy, etc. But progressives are not normal humans. When they hear news of a tragedy their first thought is “How can this help the cause?” There’s something oddly perverse about this mental defect that somehow overrides decency in tragedy’s aftermath, but it’s as widespread amongst the political left as freckles are on redheads. Harsh? Perhaps. But sometimes the truth hurts. In the hours after the Boston Marathon bombing, the usual suspects of progressive grave-dancers succumbed to the music...

FBI and ICE officials returned to the New Bedford, Massachusetts apartment on Saturday and re-arrested the two men who were brought in on Friday. The two men were led away in handcuffs Saturday afternoon. Police say bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev may have once lived with the men at the residence. The two men, Azmat and Diaz, are believed to be from Kazakhstan. South Coast Today reported: Agents wearing FBI and Department of Homeland Security jackets detained two men at the Hidden Brook apartment complex just hours after releasing three people believed to be associated with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev....

According to a family member, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a devout Muslim, was kicked out of his uncle's house because of his increasingly extremist views on religion. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother Dzhokhar, 19, are believed to have placed bombs at the Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 170. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police early Friday and Dzhokhar was badly wounded and captured by police Friday night. Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent roughly six months in Russia in 2012, but the relative, who insisted on anonymity to avoid offending other family members, insisted the young man had been radicalized in...

JUST 2012: -- Jan. 7, 2012: A native Albanian from Kosovo arrested for allegedly planning to bomb nightclubs, detonating a car bomb, using an assault rifle and wearing an explosive belt in a crowded area around Tampa, Fla. -- Feb. 17, 2012: FBI arrested a Moroccan man for allegedly plotting to carry out a suicide bombing at the U.S. Capitol building. -- Aug. 10, 2012: A person arrested after telling media outlets via email that he was going to blow up the Wainwright State Office Building in St. Louis. -- Oct. 17, 2012: Bangladeshi man charged with trying to bomb...

Watertown police chief Edward Deveau said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the 19-year-old suspected Boston Marathon bomber who was captured alive on Friday, killed his older brother Tamerlan by driving over him and dragging his body through the street with a carjacked SUV Thursday night. Deveau, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Saturday, said police officers were handcuffing Tamerlan, who had run out of ammunition, when Dzhokhar came at them in a carjacked SUV. Watertown officers were able to get out of the way. The brothers were armed with pipe bombs, firearms, and explosives and had been in a firefight with...