Behind the Boston Bombings

On 15 April 2013, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev brought terror back to America. This comprehensive report looks at key events and questions surrounding the Boston Marathon bombings.

The capture of the surviving suspect Dzhokhar, brought a much-needed relief to Boston residents: “I’m happy my family can go to sleep without worrying about some crazy terrorist on the loose.” While celebrations spread across Boston, the revelation that the FBI had investigated Tamerlan two years ago sparked anger amongst others. “The ball was dropped in one of two ways. The FBI missed a lot of things or our laws do not allow the FBI to follow up in a sound, solid way,” comments Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. Social media evidence demonstrating Tamerlan’s anti-American sentiments and linking him to a controversial Sydney cleric posed further questions whether the authorities had failed to tap into a key source. But with the limitless amounts of information being fed to online outlets daily, “narrowing down on the right information is incredibly challenging,” says former member of the NYPD counter-terrorism unit Steve Heitkamp. While state authorities struggle to develop new ways to prevent terrorism, the suspects’ Chechnyan origins highlight an identity crisis, which forms a common thread in many terrorism prosecutions. This leads Professor Karen Greenberg to believe that “more thought on how to help these individuals at an earlier stage” needs to be given to avoid future tragedies.