President Barack Obama pledged on Friday that the United States will find out whether the two ethnic Chechen brothers suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombings received help, and he pleaded for Americans not to rush to judgment.
Obama appeared in the White House briefing room after police arrested the lone surviving suspect in the Boston suburb of Watertown, ending a dramatic manhunt. The other suspect was killed in a shootout overnight with police.
The U.S. leader watched the fast-paced developments on television in the White House residence, then returned to the Oval Office where he was briefed by FBI Director Robert Mueller. Relief swept the White House at the news of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s arrest but there was no sign of a celebration.
“Obviously tonight there are still many unanswered questions. Among them: why did young men who grew up and studied here as part of our communities and country resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any help?” Obama said.
The successful conclusion of the manhunt allowed Obama to tout a major law enforcement achievement in response to the worst attack on U.S. soil since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Questions remain, however, over the FBI’s disclosure on Friday that it had interviewed one of the suspects in 2011 and found no evidence that he posed a security risk.
The president, looking somber and gripping the podium, said Americans are in debt to the people of Boston and Massachusetts for their resilience in responding to the twin blasts that killed three people and injured 176 others on Monday and enduring a wrenching week.
“We will determine what happened. We will investigate any association that these terrorists may have had and will continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe,” Obama said.
In urging Americans to show tolerance, Obama may have been referring to the surviving suspect who is known to have posted links to Islamic websites calling for Chechen independence.
Obama appealed for Americans to avoid a rush to judgment, saying people should stay true to the “unity and diversity that makes us strong.”
“That’s why we have courts. That’s why we take care not to rush to judgment, not about the motivations of these individuals, certainly not about entire groups of people … We welcome people from all around the world, people of every faith, every ethnicity,” he said.
Obama spoke earlier in the day with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Boston bombings and the White House said he praised U.S.-Russian counter-terrorism cooperation including after Monday’s attack.
The end of the Boston manhunt capped an emotional and difficult week for Obama.
His legislation to tighten background checks on gun buyers, a response to the December massacre of 20 children and six adults at a school in Connecticut, went down in a bitter defeat in the U.S. Senate, prompting Obama to angrily denounce it as a “shameful day” in Washington.
And with the nation already on edge, authorities intercepted letters laced with ricin, a highly lethal poison, that were sent to Obama and Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker. Authorities have arrested a Mississippi man in the case.
Obama also attended a wrenching inter-faith service for the victims of the bombings in Boston on Thursday.
“All in all, this has been a tough week,” he said. “But we’ve seen the character of our country once more.”
________
Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.
Copyright 2013 Capitol Hill Blue
3 thoughts on “Feds will investigate to see if Russian terror brothers had help”
Danny, I was a part of the Conservative movement and read Judicial Watch as part of their popular agenda. I became so discusted with the GOP House when they stopped much of our federal government over Clinton’s affair with Monica.
There was a book that exposed much of Cheney’s interest in Iraq and brought us into the War in Iraq.
Since that time, I have realized how badly our government needed some honest and strong leadership.
I would rather have a forum like CHB refuse to take sides in all the actions from D.C. We are all disgusted with Obama’s failure to get respected by the House and Senate. I’ve known Doug for many years, and could not tell you how he votes. He will, however tear the hell out of any government who seems slow to react to what many know to be required. I went viral when I learned of the actions of our Drone program.
He has many opinions that counter my own but I need to read his commentaries as they keep me balanced. I have three adult children and have no idea how they look at our government. Better, I keep it that way.
Judicial Watch (Conservative site) has sent me the following link claiming Obama did not react to the arrest of the older brother when he went to Russia.
https://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/04/boston-bomber-could-have-been-deported-after-2009-conviction/
I guess the media is picking this up and I hope it is not true. I know the boy was questioned.
President Obama will take an enormous kick if this is true. Rachael Maddow will be doing a history of Chechnya.
Sandy: I don’t know if Judicial Watch is conservative, or just very, very hard on politicians currently in power–like Doug is. 🙂 It had a big coup early in the Bush Administration, for instance, by using the FOIA to get details of Bush’s and Cheney’s secret meetings in early 2001 with energy companies–turning up, among other things, that Cheney had poured over maps of Iraq’s oil capabilities six months before 9/11.
Comments are closed.