THE BOSTON BOMBS

It is too soon to speculate; even at this late stage there is still more that we don't know, than what we do know. Prayers to the victims, their families, & to the wounded survivors - S.L.



The news broke quickly at about 14:50hrs this afternoon and right away the pol-scientists and the journo-analysts were picking our brains - by 'our' I mean the two Snake Eaters in the room; myself and my runnin' partner. I posted the above photo because this is what we were initially working off because right away the Suits were pouring into the Security bubble and asking questions.

In the aftermath of a surprise attack, there is a thirst for information. It was incredible how the senior execs quizzed us; as if we could know any more than what they could see with their own eyes on TV. But we could see more because we know what it is we are looking at . . . or perhaps it is because we know what it is not . . .

White smoke suggests it is not C-4; no huge fireball suggests it is not a gasoline cover. In fact that much smoke and dust suggests AMFO; Ammonium Nitrate Fuel Oil, with a 1lb TNT kicker. Crude but effective enough in a packed crowd, especially with the ball bearings.

Then there were the conflicting casualty counts - it went from 2 to 12 then settled back down to 3. I was coming back from the latrine and the Suits were all piling out of a conference room and it was like an impromptu press conference right there in the hallway.

"How many killed?"

"What is it? Any more bombs found?"

I told them it is too soon to say, the media was full of conflicting reports, that the casualty count was anywhere between 2 and 12 killed, as many as 110 wounded, possibly more, possibly much more.

Then Theo emailed me asking the same thing and this is what I told Theo:

So far this thing has the earmarks of an AQ-recruited homegrown amatuer. They got lucky this time, actually got a couple to detonate. There were more apparently - from what I've seen so far in open-source intell, they look like amfo (ammonium nitrate/fuel oil) with ball bearing apparently. Crude but effective.

Time will tell. They should waterboard the hell out of the perp for 48 hours, then give him to me. All I'll have to do is make friends with the rat bastard, and then coax info out of him by saying, "If you don't want to talk to me, I'll give you back to the waterboard team and you can talk to them . . . " . . . he'll talk. They always do . . .

I can't say shit like that at work. Scares the shit out of the Suits.


- STORMBRINGER SENDS