As officials release more information about the Boston bombings — and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capture, in particular – key details previously advanced by authorities are changing. Among them, some police sources are now claiming that the 19-year-old suspect was not armed while hiding in a boat last Friday. But that’s only a sliver of the new information that seems to contradict previous reports about the chaotic manhunt.
The New York Times published an article on Thursday morning, highlighting some of these issues and corrections. To begin, not only did Dzhokar reportedly not have a gun in the boat, but it appears that police may have only found one other weapon that is traceable back to his brother, Tamerlan. This means that the brothers didn’t necessarily have an arsenal, as was previously assumed.
Plus, there’s the issue of how the brothers first came to the attention of officers — one that also deserves a second look. It was the murder of Officer Sean A. Collier that apparently set the chaotic evening’s event’s in motion last Thursday.
According to authorities, the Tsarnaev brothers were purportedly trying to get Collier’s gun when they allegedly killed him. Evidence at the scene apparently corroborates this theory, as the two were, according to sources, unable to get the weapon out of its holster.
The Times continues:
Police officials initially announced that officers had “exchanged gunfire” Friday evening with the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, as he hid in a boat in the backyard of a house in Watertown, Mass. Now several law enforcement officials say no gun was found in the boat, and officials say they are exploring what prompted officers to fire at Mr. Tsarnaev, who some feared was armed with explosives.
Law enforcement officials now say they have recovered only one gun elsewhere, which they believe was used by Mr. Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan — not the three previously reported. And initial reports that the brothers first came to the attention of the police after robbing a 7-Eleven were wrong. The police were called to a gas station convenience store early Friday after a man who said he had been carjacked by the marathon bombers escaped and sought help.
The gun issue is particularly intriguing, as the Daily Mail notes, because media coverage to date has essentially advanced the notion that Dzhokhar was engaged in a firefight with police from inside of the boat before he was apprehended. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis had also apparently said that a firefight unfolded — and a previous Times piece noted that an M4 rifle was found on the board, Daily Mail reports.
Most notably, if no gun was on the boat, then it’s impossible for Dzhokhar to have shot himself; his injuries, in this case, were potentially sustained before he went into hiding (possibly during the gunfight that killed his brother).
If the latest information from authorities is true, the previous gun claims have now been debunked. Again, this paints a very different picture from accounts that previously circulated. Take, for instance, NBC News’ coverage from a few days ago about the purportedly showdown that unfolded between Dzhokar and authorities:
Over the course of two hours, several bursts of gunfire could be heard. The police exchanged fire with Tsarnaev, threw flash-bang grenades designed to disorient him and brought a negotiator to the scene as night fell, officials said.
Just before 9 p.m., the wounded Tsarnaev was taken into custody. “He sustained significant blood loss,” a law enforcement official at the scene said.
And, as the AP and TheBlaze previously reported, U.S. officials also said Wednesday that physical evidence, including a 9 mm handgun and pieces of a remote-control device commonly used in toys, was recovered from the bombing scene. This showcases that the bombs were potentially controlled by the two suspects from a reasonable distance. The Atlantic adds more details:
Aside from the new details about the shootout, it was also revealed on Wednesday night that the Tsarnaev brothers used a remote control to detonate the bombs on Marathon Monday. According to Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, a Maryland Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, it was the same kind of remote control used for remote control cars. And according to CBS News, it was bought with drug money. We already knew that Dzhokhar was a pothead and potential dealer, but the latest reports suggest that Tamerlan got in on the action, too. This leads to the natural conclusion that the bombing, somehow, was funded by their drug money. But honestly, it’s very tough to tell how they got the money they spent on the bombs.
Rubio Facing Another Florida protest
She was one of his loudest converts, selling underdog U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio across the conservative airwaves of South Florida.Today radio host Joyce Kaufman calls Rubio a "fraud" and "Sen. Amnestyman."
It was never going to be easy for Rubio to step into the immigration debate, but the release of the 844-page bill he helped write is doing little to counter the opposition.
Kaufman is promoting a protest against Rubio Wednesday when he speaks at the St. Lucie County Lincoln Day Dinner. It's the second one against Rubio, and it comes as conservatives outside Florida are finding fault with their hero and his signature legislative effort.
"Marco Rubio, you need to run -- but not in 2016. Run now. Today. Quickly," Kurt Schlichter wrote Monday on Townhall.com. "Run away, Marco, run as fast as you can. Run away from the electoral Hiroshima that is this immigration reform bill. It is a fraud and a scam, and we know it's a fraud and a scam, and you telling us from every mic and every camera you can get in front of that it's not a fraud and a scam is making us wonder just what the hell is going on with you."
The feeling is growing. The New York Times this morning has a front-page story about the divide between Jim DeMint amd his "protégé" Rubio. In Florida, Sarasota GOP Chairman Joe Gruters dismissed the Senate bill as "amnesty first." Conservative blogs are full of criticism.
In a floor speech last week, Rubio flashed with irritation and challenged critics to offer ways to improve the legislation. He has allies in Paul Ryan, Jeb Bush, Grover Norquist and other bold-face names who argue the immigration problem needs to be addressed for the GOP to appeal to a wider audience.
But Rubio, 41, is being tested like never before.
Kaufman on her website has posted interviews with Rubio before he was elected, suggesting he has changed his tune. In a June 23, 2009, show Kaufman put him on defensive for the failure of several crackdown bills that failed to advance the House while Rubio was speaker.
"It's important to point out that those bills that people said that didn't pass when I was speaker, they didn't pass didn't pass this year either, and I wasn't the speaker this year," Rubio said.
"I assure you that people have scoured the public records to find a single comment from me that shows that at any time have I have been in favor of amnesty. It's not because I'm against 13 million human beings that are in this country illegally. It's because I believe that to give people blanket amnesty when they enter in this country illegally would discourage and undermine legal immigration, which I think properly managed is a great asset for America."
Nearly four years later, Rubio argues that he's still against "blanket" amnesty. People in the country illegally will have to pay fines, pass a criminal background check and wait at least 13 years to become citizens.
UPDATE: Not everyone would have to wait 13 years; Dreamers and agricultural workers would be on a faster pathway.
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/with-another-florida-protest-planned-over-immigration-bill-rubio-facing/2118231
"Jimmy Carter, you are the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home, and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You're the "runner-in-chief."
"Bill Clinton, you played ring around the Lewinsky while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses to the USS Cole and the First Trade Center Bombing and Our Embassy Bombings emboldened the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately, they grew bolder, until 9/11/2001".
"John Kerry, dishonesty is your most prominent attribute. You lied about American Soldiers in Vietnam ... Your military service, like your life, is more fiction than fact. You've accused our military of terrorizing women and children in Iraq .. You called Iraq the wrong war, wrong place, wrong time, and the same words you used to describe Vietnam . You're a fake! You want to run from Iraq and abandon the Iraqis to murderers just as you did to the Vietnamese. Iraq , like Vietnam, is another war that you were for, before you were against it."
"The late John Murtha, said our military was broken. He said we can't win militarily in Iraq. He accused United States Marines of cold-blooded murder without proof and said we should redeploy to Okinawa. Okinawa? And the Democrats called him their military expert! Maybe he suffered a traumatic brain injury while he was off building his war hero resume? He was a sad, pitiable, corrupt, and washed up old fool, not a true Marine. He wouldn't amount to a good pimple on a real Marine's ass, a phony and a disgrace".
"Dick Durbin, you accused our Soldiers at Guantanamo of being Nazis, tenders of Soviet style gulags and as bad as the regime of Pol Pot, who murdered two million of his own people after your party abandoned Southeast Asia to the Communists. Then you wanted to abandon the Iraqis to the same fate. History was not a good teacher for you, was it? Lord help us! See Dick run!"
"Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Carl Levine, Barbara Boxer, Diane Feinstein, Russ Feingold, Pat Leahy, Barack Obama, Chuck Schumer, the Hollywood Leftist morons, et al, to name a few ad nauseam: Every time you stand in front of television cameras and broadcast to the Islamic Nazis that we went to war because our former President lied, that the war is wrong and our Soldiers are torturers, that we should leave Iraq, you give the Islamic butchers - the same ones that tortured and mutilated American Soldiers - cause to think that we'll run away again, and all they have to do is hang on a little longer. It is inevitable that we, the infidels, will have to defeat the Islamic jihadists. Better to do it on their turf, than later on ours after they may gain both strength and momentum."
"American news media, the New York Times particularly: Each time you publish stories about national defense secrets and our intelligence gathering methods, you become one united with the sub-human pieces of camel dung that torture and mutilate the bodies of American Soldiers. You can't strike up the courage to publish cartoons, but you can help Al Qaeda destroy my country. Actually, you are more dangerous to us than Al Qaeda is. Think about that each time you face Mecca to admire your Pulitzer."
"You are America 's 'AXIS OF IDIOTS.' Your Collective Stupidity will destroy us.. Self-serving politics and terrorist-abetting news scoops are more important to you than our national security or the lives of innocent civilians and Soldiers It bothers you that defending ourselves gets in the way of your elitist sport of politics and your ignorant editorializing. There is as much blood on your hands as is on the hands of murdering terrorists. Don't ever doubt that. Your frolics will only serve to extend this war as they extended Vietnam . If you want our Soldiers home as you claim, knock off the crap and try supporting your country ahead of supporting your silly political aims and aiding our enemies".
"Yes, I'm questioning your patriotism. Your loyalty ends with self. I'm also questioning why you're stealing air that decent Americans could be breathing. You don't deserve the protection of our men and women in uniform. You need to run away from this war, this country. Leave the war to the people who have the will to see it through and the country to people who are willing to defend it."
"Our country has two enemies: Those who want to destroy us from the outside and those who attempt it from within.
Semper Fi".
J. D. Pendry - Sergeant Major, USMC, Retired
Statement From The TEA Party Of Florida
For Immediate
Release:
March 13, 2013
Vatican College of Cardinals Select Francis I
The TEA Party of Florida
congratulates Pope Francis I on his selection as the Pope. We join many
millions of others in wishing the new Pontiff well and praying that he lead
with wisdom, honor and truth.
We pray
that the new Pontiff succeeds in bringing people together and heals division
among the faithful.
Direct inquiries to:
John A. Long, Chairman
TEA Party of Florida
Statement from the TEA Party of
Florida
for immediate release
November
7, 2012
The evening of Election Day 2012, I
spent pacing the makeshift studio, located at the Marshall Student Center, on
the campus of University of South Florida, in Tampa, as a panelist for BBC.
They put together a sort of morphing round table, representing a mix of
politicians, students, activists and “personalities,” for the broadcast, which
lasted 8 hours.
BBC was bringing the feel of an
American election to their audience all over the world and the experience in
our studio was repeated in a number of American cities to give listeners a
“real feel,” of things here in their old colonies. Students were invited
representing campus Democrats, Republicans, both campaigns and a smattering of
single issue clubs.
Early on the host asked me to do a
one on one interview and introduce the TEA Party to an audience that had only
heard the horror stories of “old, angry, white, racists,” and I expect he
thought he would paint me with that brush. When I led off reminding the
listeners that the TEA Party of Florida was all in for Herman Cain and very
saddened when he dropped out, the racist tag was retired. As I explained our
concern that our country could reach the end of our borrowing capacity, become
suddenly unable to fund the federal branch and simply go out of business,
exactly like the old USSR, he scoffed but soldiered on to talk about our
position on the 2012 election.
He asked why the TEA Party of
Florida reluctantly gave our endorsement to Mitt Romney. I answered,
"Governor Romney is not our cup of tea, but he is the cup of tea we have
been served." When the host stopped laughing, he wanted to know what that
meant. Remember, they were British and a Tea joke goes far with them. I told
him that the TEA Party desperately hoped for a serious fiscal hawk willing to
ignore politics and do what's right.
We know how determined the GOP was to force America accept their choice
to go up against Barrack Obama, at any cost. We also know EXACTLY how that
turned out.
After two failed presidential elections and a House takeover
largely fashioned by TEA Party candidates, we are free to enact a new set of
rules and no longer allow ourselves to be hemmed in by the duopoly that is the
political landscape in the USA.
America has finally reached a place
where it is possible that a third party can be effective and achieve serious
support from those who have been failed by the self-centered policies that are
enacted to preserve power, instead of promote the general welfare of all
citizens.
The never ending rush to divide,
label and dismiss any and all opposition brought the GOP another stinging
rebuke from an electorate that expected better and got less. When an election
costs billions, not millions and the end result leaves people more partisan
that when it started, something is seriously broken and it is this two party
system that exists to take in money and put out influence.
We invite all Americans to
investigate the TEA Party, for themselves and decide if we are worth taking a
chance and joining. It costs nothing and just might change the tone of American
politics by taking partisanship out and putting common sense, fiscal sanity in.
Direct inquiries to:
John A. Long, Chairman
TEA Party of Florida
Statement From The TEA Party Of
Florida
for immediate release
September
12, 2012
Our thoughts and prayers go out to
all those affected by the senseless, murderous acts of Muslim terrorists, in
Libya and Egypt and the families of the dead and wounded.
The TEA Party of Florida condemns the Muslim terrorists responsible for the murderous attacks on US Embassies in Libya and Cairo yesterday, September 11, 2012. The actions of these terrorists amount to an act of war, especially since the Libyan Government refused to properly defend the embassy and should be treated as such. Pretending that the government of Libya is not responsible for this outrage is tantamount to surrender, which seems the intentions of Mr. Obama.
Mr. Obama has failed to lead, again,
in the interest of America. His lack of swift and strong action endangers every
American on foreign soil and here, at home. The United States cannot afford
another weak, directionless leader, like Mr. Carter, who is just as unable to
stand up to thugs, terrorists and state sponsored assassins, as Mr. Carter.
Mr. Obama has pursued a policy of
“leading from behind,” or simply, appeasement, as described by his press
secretary. Such a policy leads to this type of aggression by despotic regimes
and murderous Muslim terrorists. By refusing to lead, Obama allows US interests
to be hijacked whenever violent thugs wish. Giving the Muslim Brotherhood well
over a billion dollars, as a taxpayer funded “gift” looks as ill-advised today,
as it did when Mr. Obama made “gave” it.
The TEA Party of Florida calls upon
Mr. Obama to turn away from his policies of weakness and fear embrace a policy
of resolute strength and never again allow Muslim terrorists to murder American
citizens without swift and decisive response. Americans deserve a leader who
understands that backing up, bowing down and bending over are not the American
way.
Direct inquiries to:
John A. Long, Chairman
TEA Party of Florida
1420
Celebration Ave
Suite
200
Celebration, Florida
34747
Statement
From The TEA Party Of Florida
2012
promises to have enormous challenges, in America. At this time it is
important to remember the advice of Abraham Lincoln...
You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging
thrift.
You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong.
You cannot help the wage earner by pulling down the wage
payer.
You cannot further the brotherhood of man by encouraging
class hatred.
You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich.
You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than you
earn.
You cannot build character and courage by taking away man’s
initiative and independence.
You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they
could and should do for themselves.
Abraham Lincoln
Direct inquiries to:
John A. Long, Chairman
TEA Party of Florida
Statement From The TEA Party Of Florida
For Immediate Release:
April 3, 2012
President Obama's Abuse of
Power
In one day Barrack Obama and his administration have managed to remind America
why elections matter. The display of arrogance, petulance, and a cynical
disregard for the law, have delivered a virtual cafeteria of reasons why
Americans must remain vigilant, engaged and interested in the affairs of our
government.
Many observers of our government suggest the President has moved beyond
politics and into the arena of propaganda, with his latest actions and it is
hard to disagree. It is becoming clear that the President constantly fails to
distinguish the difference between campaigning and leading.
President Obama's incomprehensible statements with regard to the U.S. Supreme
Court, coming from a man that claims to have been a constitutional law
professor, border on delusional. The manner in which the President instructed
the media to ignore any opposing viewpoints and paint his as the only
worthwhile position, call his judgment into question, along with his integrity
and stability.
If that were not enough, DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano announced that DHS will
be issuing something ridiculously called, "Unlawful Presence
Waivers," to illegal aliens, at a time when increased oversight of the
likelihood the coming election will be impacted by fraudulently cast ballots
and a partisan battle over voter ID laws. The new waivers call into question
the intentions of the government to obey even the simplest laws, if they appear
get in the way of reelection.
All this in the span of twenty-four hours. Almost too much for a person to
comprehend, all at once, which may well be the intent.
The TEA Party of Florida cautions President Obama against all actions that,
once taken, can only be interpreted as being related to his reelection
campaign, at the expense of our Constitution, our laws, and our sensibilities.
None of the actions mentioned here pass the reasonableness test and call out
for a special, independent prosecutor to sort through the.
Direct inquiries to:
John A. Long, Chairman
TEA Party of Florida
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