Friday 19 April 2013

Operation Misery: Month 2, Week 2, Day 5 - Man Down.

It has been confirmed in the last few hours that the suspect in the Boston marathon bombings has been shot and killed by the police. This is still a confused and developing situation so what I'm about to write should not be considered a wholly accurate and complete account of the events.

However it appears that the two suspects decided to make themselves known to the police by attempting to rob a "7/11" type convience store close to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) university in Cambridge, Massachusetts at around 03:00GMT (22:00 local). This emergency call was responded to by at least one officer from MIT's campus police. This police officer was shot and killed by the suspects who proceeded to hijack a car and drive west while being pursued by other police officers. There are reports of shots being fired during that car chase but it seems the suspects decided to stop their vehicle in the town of "Watertown," Massachusetts in order to make their last stand in a place that is a clear reference to the so-called 'water wars' which is very big issue in the middle-east and the area of central Africa known as the "Five Lakes Region" that includes the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Coming under sustained fire and no doubt pumped up by the death of their brother officer the police shot and killed the suspect known as "WhiteHat" who was pronounced dead in hospital at around 06:15GMT (01:15 local).

Fortunately the other suspect known as "BlackHat" appears to have escaped the scene alive. While I fully appreciate that it might not be the police officers choice to make I hope BlackHat is taken alive. That's because I'd much rather be watching his trial than a lenghty and very public investigation into the conduct of the police officers and medical staff involved in his final hours. Such an investigation will obviously be spun into a metaphor for the killing of Osama bin Laden and the killing of Mohamed Merah in Toulouse, France.

Sadly though I suspect BlackHat will be making himself availible for suicide by cop right around the time I'm going to the gym. So prepare for Twitter (@Sovereignaka) updates.


10:00 on 19/4/13.

Edited at around 11:25 on 19/4/13 to formally correct my mistake. Authorities have always said that it was the BlackHat suspect who was killed and the WhiteHat suspect who remains at large.

The Associated Press news agency have gone further and identified WhiteHat as Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a 19 year old from the Chechnya region of Russia. BlackHat is suspected of being his brother although I have not further details on his name or age. This information has not being verified by any other source.

However as people are already talking about it I should point out that there is a world of difference between a Chechen militant and a Russian militant and due to military conscription there are a lot of guns for hire in that region. It would though be a perfect way to explore Russia's attitudes towards Islam and Israel with the 2010 Moscow Metro bombings and the 2012 killing of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria which was largely based on the Syrian backed militia Hezbollah being the key events.

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