Beltway Insider: Boston Bombing Suspect Moved; President, Senator Targeted in Bio-Terror Scare; CISPA Killed in Senate; Fertilizer Plant Victim’s Mourned

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Category: Beltway Insider

Published on Sunday, 28 April 2013 19:21

Written by Janet Walker

President Obama, with the Boston Marathon bombing suspect in custody, attended a memorial service at Baylor University in Waco for those who died in the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion.

According to Gallup, President Obama’s job approval, over the past week, rose a single percentage point to 52% of those polled who approve of his effectiveness as President and those who disapprove of his effectiveness as President dropped two percentage points to 40%.

Boston Bombing Suspect Moved to Prison

Federal officials spent the week questioning Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who remained hospitalized at Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center throughout most of the week.

Unable to communicate verbally, Tsarnaev wrote his answers and from all accounts was cooperating with federal officials. He was moved Friday to a Federal Medical Center Devens, a federal prison for inmates requiring long term medical care, while he recovers from a gunshot wound to the throat and other injuries sustained during his efforts to escape capture.

Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen and his brother Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, now deceased, a legal permanent U.S. resident, were the primary focus of the manhunt after the Boston Marathon bombing that left four dead and over 200 injured.

According to federal officials, a criminal complaint was officially unsealed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts charging the surviving brother with use of a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property resulting in death which carries a penalty if convicted of death or life in prison. Additional charges against Tsarnaev may result as the investigation continues.

Federal officials have focused their attention on the two brothers and their parents and the possibility of jihadist or other global terror organization ties. The brothers first appeared on the FBI radar two years ago when a foreign government requested information. The yet to be named government informed the FBI the older Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam and considered an extremist.

FBI officials performed a cursory cyber investigation and found no links to extremism or other jihadists terror ties. Experts in terror recruitment have indicated the older Tsarnaev may have become despondent over his economic situation when his dreams of America the land of plenty for all were shattered thus becoming the catalyst for a resurrection of his terror views.

In an informal ceremony federal officials returned the Boston Marathon crime scene to the city of Boston with deep appreciation for the tireless work performed by every agency and others who assisted in the capture of those responsible.

President, Senator Targeted in Biological Terrorism Attack

An arrest has been made in the biological terror attack on President Obama and Senator Roger Wicker, (R-Miss), both of whom had been targeted through letters containing ricin, a deadly poisonous substance.

James Everett Dutschke, of Tupelo Mississippi, a martial arts instructor, was charged with possession of a biological warfare agent in connection to the terror attack on the president and others. He may face additional charges.  He was recently indicted on unrelated charges stemming from sexual conduct with underage females.

The ricin-laced letters were discovered after they were received at a mail screening facility in Washington D.C. The letters were immediately quarantined by U.S. Secret Service personnel and sent to an independent laboratory, according to protocol, and tested for the poisonous substance.

Both letters were found to contain the biological terror agent. In all, three ricin-tainted letters were found, including one addressed to a local judge. 

Ricin is a natural poison found in castor beans throughout the world. It is deadly and dangerous if chewed and swallowed. Castor beans are used to make castor oil. Ricin is the ground substance left over from the processing procedure. 

CISPA Dies in Senate

The Cyber Security and Protection Act, an amendment to the National Security Act of 1947, which had passed the House of Representatives and headed full steam to the senate for review and vote, died on the floor this week.

In actuality CISPA modernizes the national security act already in place. The proposed legislation would have allowed companies and others who participate in e-commerce to forward, without warrant, all information as it sees fit to federal agencies.

With the White House opposing any changes to the National Security Act already in place, the bill was doomed and from all accounts it will be some time before CISPA sees the light of the Senate floor again.

Fertilizer Plant Victim’s Mourned

President Obama spoke this week at a memorial service for the victim’s of the fertilizer plant explosion in West, Texas that killed 14 including 11 firefighters and nearly leveled the tiny town.

Survivors describe the explosion as emitting a mushroom cloud which could be seen for miles. The blast began as a warehouse fire. Twenty minutes later, the plant exploded leveling a nursing home located directly beside the blaze and ripping off the side of an apartment building. By a miracle, and the simple grace of God, not one of the elderly residents died in the fire and subsequent blast.

President Obama paid tribute to the brave men and women who rushed into the blaze without thought or consideration for their lives or the potential for harm, danger or loss of life in a service at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

For more information on President Obama: www.whitehouse.gov 

Sources; Gallup, Wikipedia, NBC.com, Yahoo! News, FBI Blog