The Glade 4.0

Liberty Was Also Attacked in Boston
by Ron Paul


Forced lockdown of a city. Militarized police riding tanks in the streets. Door-to-door armed searches without warrant. Families thrown out of their homes at gunpoint to be searched without probable cause. Businesses forced to close. Transport shut down.

These were not the scenes from a military coup in a far off banana republic, but rather the scenes just over a week ago in Boston as the United States got a taste of martial law. The ostensible reason for the military-style takeover of parts of Boston was that the accused perpetrator of a horrific crime was on the loose. The Boston bombing provided the opportunity for the government to turn what should have been a police investigation into a military-style occupation of an American city. This unprecedented move should frighten us as much or more than the attack itself.

What has been sadly forgotten in all the celebration of the capture of one suspect and the killing of his older brother is that the police state tactics in Boston did absolutely nothing to catch them. While the media crowed that the apprehension of the suspects was a triumph of the new surveillance state – and, predictably, many talking heads and Members of Congress called for even more government cameras pointed at the rest of us – the fact is none of this caught the suspect. Actually, it very nearly gave the suspect a chance to make a getaway.


The “shelter in place” command imposed by the governor of Massachusetts was lifted before the suspect was caught. Only after this police state move was ended did the owner of the boat go outside to check on his property, and in so doing discover the suspect.

No, the suspect was not discovered by the paramilitary troops terrorizing the public. He was discovered by a private citizen, who then placed a call to the police. And he was identified not by government surveillance cameras, but by private citizens who willingly shared their photographs with the police.

As journalist Tim Carney wrote last week:

“Law enforcement in Boston used cameras to ID the bombing suspects, but not police cameras. Instead, authorities asked the public to submit all photos and videos of the finish-line area to the FBI, just in case any of them had relevant images. The surveillance videos the FBI posted online of the suspects came from private businesses that use surveillance to punish and deter crime on their property.”

Sadly, we have been conditioned to believe that the job of the government is to keep us safe, but in reality the job of the government is to protect our liberties. Once the government decides that its role is to keep us safe, whether economically or physically, they can only do so by taking away our liberties. That is what happened in Boston.

Three people were killed in Boston and that is tragic. But what of the fact that over 40 persons are killed in the United States each day, and sometimes ten persons can be killed in one city on any given weekend? These cities are not locked-down by paramilitary police riding in tanks and pointing automatic weapons at innocent citizens.

This is unprecedented and is very dangerous. We must educate ourselves and others about our precious civil liberties to ensure that we never accept demands that we give up our Constitution so that the government can pretend to protect us

Lawmakers Upset Judge Ended Tsarnaev Interrogation

By John Parkinson
Apr 25, 2013 7:42pm

Federal Bureau of Investigation/AP

A federal magistrate judge has set off a firestorm of criticism for ending the interrogation of the surviving Boston Marathon bombing suspect before, lawmakers contend, law enforcement officials had concluded their initial interview.

On Monday morning, Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler visited Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s hospital bedside to preside over his first court appearance, reading him his Miranda rights and informing him of his right to remain silent. That ended the suspect’s cooperation in questioning that the Department of Justice’s High-Value Interrogation Group had begun under a public safety exception to Miranda, when it can legally question a suspect without a lawyer present.

Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had only just begun answering questions in writing.

“He stopped cooperating,” Rep. Mike Rogers, chairman of the House Intelligence committee, said today. “The FBI will tell you, they don’t believe that they got the information, all the information that they would have liked about the public safety factor in the interrogation.”

Following a classified briefing Wednesday evening, Rogers, a former FBI special agent, sent a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder seeking an explanation into Bowler’s actions, which he suggested may have been “sua sponte” — of one’s own will – and not fully coordinated with law enforcement officials conducting the interrogation.

“We have to piece together, were there other people involved,” Rogers, R-Mich., told ABC News today. “We were in an interview trying to develop that rapport with this individual so that they would tell us if there is a public safety concern here with other bombs and other individuals. Now we just won’t know.”

Rep. Pete King, who also sits on the Intelligence committee, pointed to a slate of questions the FBI was unable to ask, including whether there were additional co-conspirators, other explosives or whether there was any foreign connection or training.

“The interrogation ended, and yet my understanding is that the FBI wanted to continue doing it,” said King. ”This certainly was cut short and why it was done by the attorney general and why the FBI wasn’t notified about it in advance, why it wasn’t discussed, I just don’t have the answer.”

DOJ officials maintain that the surviving suspect’s silence has not impacted their ability to prosecute the suspect, and they contend nothing precludes the suspect from agreeing to take more questions in the future.

“Consistent with the Rules of Criminal Procedure, following the filing of the criminal complaint in this matter on Sunday, the Court, that evening, scheduled an initial appearance for Monday, which it then coordinated with the prosecutors, federal defender, court reporter, U.S. Marshal Service and the hospital,” DOJ spokesperson Dean Boyd said. “The Rules of Criminal Procedure require the Court to advise the defendant of his right to silence and his right to counsel during the Initial Appearance. The prosecutors and FBI agents in Boston were advised of the scheduled initial appearance in advance of its occurrence.”

King also criticized the FBI for not notifying New York officials until Wednesday night that the brothers had intended to continue their carnage in Times Square.

“If the ultimate target was to hit New York, New York should have been warned, should have been on notice and should have been ready to take whatever action they had to,” King said. “We have to find out why the FBI did not notify N.Y.C. immediately as soon as they heard that there was a possible attack against Times Square.”

“For us not to be told immediately, once there was even a hint of a threat against Times Square and against Manhattan, again we need a real explanation on this, what went wrong,” he continued. “I thought in a post-9/11 world, there would be instant communication, instant sharing of information.”

ABC News’ Pierre Thomas contributed to this report