April 19, 2013 (PaulCraigRoberts.org) -- Boston Marathon Bombing
Dear Readers,
A number of you have asked me my take on the Boston Marathon Bombing and subsequent events.
I am flattered that so many look to me for leadership on so many issues. However, I've not followed closely the Boston event. My website hasn’t the resources to field an investigative team, and in my opinion the TV and print news is part of the misinformation or disinformation. While driving (April 19) I listened to a NPR program on the Boston bombing and was disheartened by the absence of hard questions and any thought.
Alex Jones has made a definitive statement that I lack the information to verify or contest. (See here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axQtAFtmtVA )
The video shows numerous military type guys on the scene prior to the explosion in identical garb–black baseball hats with white insignia, black shirts or jackets, tan pants and combat boots with cell phones in their hands. All have identical backpacks.
The backpack straps match those on the remains of an exploded backpack, which the media has attributed to the backpack of one of the two brothers who are alleged to have committed the bombing. But they also match those of the guys who seem to move at ease among the police. No cop demands to search any of the backpacks.
The video also shows prior to the bombing bomb-sniffing dogs patrolling and the Boston Globe’s report that a mock bomb attack would be part of a drill at the marathon.
These documented facts have disappeared, to the extent that I have paid attention, from the media’s reports.
What strikes me about the event is the ease with which authorities were able to lockdown entire metropolitan areas, preventing U.S. citizens from leaving their homes in order to go to their jobs, to doctor’s appointments, to the grocery store, or to walk their dogs. This is a precedent. It sets the stage for martial law, although it is not being called that, and for daylight curfews. Is this what Homeland Security meant two years ago when its leader said the agency had shifted its focus from terrorism to domestic extremists?
All of this is happening because of four or five deaths including one of the alleged perpetrators of the bombing. The response of the authorities is disproportionate to the crime.
Lockdowns of metropolitan areas because of a hunt for one guy that might be a patsy? This is a new development. It is ominous for our future as a free society.
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Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. His latest book, The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West is now available.
