Who is responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing? After hearing initial reports of the tragic event yesterday afternoon, this is a question that unequivocally needs to be answered. We took you through the details about what exactly happened during the two explosions, along with coverage of six unique vantage points. What each of these viewpoints suggests is that the sheer timing of both blasts was a coordinated attack, a fact that the White House has confirmed leads it to be “approached as an act of terror,” though it is unknown if it’s of foreign or domestic origin.
In a bit stronger rhetoric, Representative Bill Keating of Massachusetts, who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee, told CNN that the events were a “sophisticated, coordinated, planned attack.”
Surprisingly, many theories of who, or what, is behind the two explosions (the Boston PD confirmed the reported third blast was “fire related”) have risen from the woodwork. What’s so interesting about these speculations is that they’re coming from a broad range of sources, from right-wing blogs to liberal mainstream media pundits.
The key factor that may be able to tell us more about the identity of who is responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing is simple, yet overlooked: the type of explosive used. While there were two blasts near the marathon’s finish line-zone, it has been reported by multiple sources that law enforcement officials found multiple unexploded devices (though the exact count varies by outlet, but rests in the 2-3 range) nearby.
It’s also important to note that Fox News originally reported the explosive devices contained ball bearings, according to those wounded by the dual blasts. These devices were improvised in nature, placed near ground-level, and are detonated by cell phone signal in many cases, according to the Scientific American.
CNN, which discussed the details of the IEDs as well, reported that the FBI will head the investigation into the devices, to determine if their creators left a unique “signature.” The placement of the detonated devices, along with the reported presence of ball bearings, indicate that the attacker or attackers’ primary objective was to inflict the maximum amount of injuries possible.
At the time of this writing, the tragedy’s unofficial count rests at 144 people injured and three passed away–a injury-to-death ratio above that of other events of similar magnitude in recent history.
Still, it is unclear what the motivations were of those responsible for the attack, and if they are related to any of the potential parties that many outlets have begun to speculate about in recent hours. Let’s go through a collection of them, and it all starts with what analysts on CNN and BBC have suggested:
Right-wing extremist groups
Here’s a clip from the latter, discussing the potential of a “homegrown” attack, not foreign in nature.
Another from CNN, discussing speculations on who is responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, suggesting “right-wing extremists.”
Immediately, many readers will obviously question the nature of such a claim by outlets that aren’t always moderate in their coverage, as it’s not fair to X-out similarly motivated “left-wing extremists” either.
But that’s not all. There are some equally interesting theories on the parties responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing, and a few may surprise you. We want to be clear here: this information is sourced from other reports within the media; we’re just organizing it in an easy-to-understand manner.
Let’s take a look at the others (source listed below):
