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[Scelly9]

What I find ironic is that people are saying that the US has grown complacent in the face of terrorism. Really. We have security guards sticking their hands down 6-year-old children's pants, invasive pat-downs, and ridiculous amounts of security already. This was something that nobody could predict or prevent without stripping everybody who came in. Even if you frisked them, it's easy to make a decent bomb from a laptop battery.

Yeah? Well I can guarantee you those three people wouldn't be dead if they'd just invasively searched every single one of the tens of thousands of people attending that event each year for the past century.

Please. Even that would be a cakewalk to get past. Just walk through the sewers and come out in an alley, ditching the mud boots.

[Max White]

Yeah? Well I can guarantee you those three people wouldn't be dead if they'd just invasively searched every single one of the tens of thousands of people attending that event each year for the past century.

Careful about the use of sarcasm on the internet, it will always fly over the heads of some...

[MonkeyHead]

Still no cliams of responsibility from anyone, which seems very unusual - things like this are often carried out as a big attention grab... the nature of the individual devices smacks of "random lone nutcase" as opposed to a more established or organized group, but the number of them and the apparent co-ordination seems to contradict a lone mad bomber.

[Scelly9]

So, what information becomes public after these things? I'm kinda curious about what they used to detonate the bombs.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Considering they had Boston's cell network shut down after the bombing, I'm guessing a modified cell phone.

[Scelly9]

From what I understood that was just a precaution. After all, I think it would take a bit longer than that to piece together the fragments. (I think it went down before they reported any additional devices.)

[IronyOwl]

Yeah? Well I can guarantee you those three people wouldn't be dead if they'd just invasively searched every single one of the tens of thousands of people attending that event each year for the past century.

Careful about the use of sarcasm on the internet, it will always fly over the heads of some...

Yeah. Thought that was over the top enough to be safe from anyone who was genuinely paying attention, though.

From what I understood that was just a precaution. After all, I think it would take a bit longer than that to piece together the fragments. (I think it went down before they reported any additional devices.)

They also shut down airports and urged citizens to stay inside, so going all Madagascar "just in case" seems par the course.

[Scelly9]

Yeah? Well I can guarantee you those three people wouldn't be dead if they'd just invasively searched every single one of the tens of thousands of people attending that event each year for the past century.

Careful about the use of sarcasm on the internet, it will always fly over the heads of some...

Yeah. Thought that was over the top enough to be safe from anyone who was genuinely paying attention, though.

For the record, I was pretty sure you where being sarcastic. Just making a point for anyone who legitimately agreed with that.

[sneakey pete]

I'm not going to get into the debate above, but you all seem to be ignoring the fact that this bomb seems to have been designed to cause Injuries, not deaths. Permanent, debilitating ones.

Looking at one of the videos from the finish line, the the moment the bomb explodes you can see a line where stuff hits the fabric barrier's near the bottom, and a runner on the track falls over and grabs their legs. There's also a lot of reports about amputations of legs and feet. It seems like the bomb may have been designed to project shrapnel out in a disc shape at lower leg level, eg it was designed specifically to injury people.
But that's just my casual observation.

[IronyOwl]

For the record, I was pretty sure you where being sarcastic. Just making a point for anyone who legitimately agreed with that.

Yeah, I just meant in general. I don't think anyone here took it seriously, but I also don't doubt there's someone out there. _{Though I did consider suggesting that if the terrorists are using sewers and boots we need to put a stop to those also.}

I'm not going to get into the debate above, but you all seem to be ignoring the fact that this bomb seems to have been designed to cause Injuries, not deaths. Permanent, debilitating ones.

Looking at one of the videos from the finish line, the the moment the bomb explodes you can see a line where stuff hits the fabric barrier's near the bottom, and a runner on the track falls over and grabs their legs. There's also a lot of reports about amputations of legs and feet. It seems like the bomb may have been designed to project shrapnel out in a disc shape at lower leg level, eg it was designed specifically to injury people.
But that's just my casual observation.

This seems needlessly speculative. Somebody falls over clutching their leg, some reports have been limbs blown off, therefore it was deliberately designed to maim?

I'll admit that my countertheory to "limbs everywhere" is "and only three people dead? Bullshit," so maybe there's more to it than that. But, I'm not really inclined to take vague anecdotal accounts as a sound basis for motive speculation.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

This seems needlessly speculative. Somebody falls over clutching their leg, some reports have been limbs blown off, therefore it was deliberately designed to maim?

I'll admit that my countertheory to "limbs everywhere" is "and only three people dead? Bullshit," so maybe there's more to it than that. But, I'm not really inclined to take vague anecdotal accounts as a sound basis for motive speculation.

You must be new to terrorism.

[Vector]

I've heard that they were full of ball bearings.

So yeah, that's not an attempt to destroy buildings, or even really to kill people.  That's a maiming device.

[Myrkky100]

I'm not going to get into the debate above, but you all seem to be ignoring the fact that this bomb seems to have been designed to cause Injuries, not deaths. Permanent, debilitating ones.

Looking at one of the videos from the finish line, the the moment the bomb explodes you can see a line where stuff hits the fabric barrier's near the bottom, and a runner on the track falls over and grabs their legs. There's also a lot of reports about amputations of legs and feet. It seems like the bomb may have been designed to project shrapnel out in a disc shape at lower leg level, eg it was designed specifically to injury people.
But that's just my casual observation.

A blast pattern like that would be ridiculously difficult to produce. Most likely the devices were just packed full of ball bearings, nails etc. Those will do terrible tissue damage but the chance of a hit is reduced very fast when moving further away from the point of detonation.

A couple of things occurred to me (and please correct me if I'm wrong or forgetting something):

1) I can't remember any al-Qaeda franchise targeting an event like this. The place was swarming with cops and National Guard. From Bali to New York and London, al-Qaeda inspired hits have shunned high security targets and gone for every day concentrations of people; subways, busses, discos etc.

2) I can't remember any lone wolf-terrorist using more than a single device in a single location. The risk of getting spotted goes up with every device you leave.

3) The target really isn't something any domestic US extremists would obviously be interested in. Even the Olympic Park bombing back in the 90's had the logic of attacking a symbol of "internationalism" but the Boston marathon is a very "American" event that seems to lack strong ties to the federal government, race-issues, abortion, religion or any other thing that riles up local extremists.

In conclusion, I'm really puzzled.

[Sheb]

New theory: Some marathonian lost its legs in an accident a few weeks ago and decided that if he doesn't get to have legs, no one does. (Not serious BTW)

[Silicoid]

snip

The reason why the death toll is so low is that a lot of medical personal were at the site when the blast hit... having taken first aid the first few minutes makes a difference in whether someone survives or not.