Officials: Boston Marathon Bombs Triggered By Remote

[DonViejo]

Source: AP/TPM

ADAM GOLDMAN & LARA JAKES APRIL 24, 2013, 2:03 PM 2788

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say the Boston Marathon explosions that killed three people and wounded more than 260 were triggered by a remote-controlled detonator.

Two officials on Wednesday said the bombs were not very sophisticated. One of the officials described the detonator as “close-controlled” — meaning it had to be triggered within several blocks of the bombs.

Both U.S. officials are close to the ongoing investigation but spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

It was not immediately clear what the detonation device was.

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/officials-boston-marathon-bombs-triggered-by-remote.php?ref=fpb

[Spitfire of ATJ]

1. "It was not immediately clear what the detonation device was."

A wireless doorbell?

[FarCenter]

2. Remote control for model car from Tenergy

[tinrobot]

6. Clap on, clap off?

[FarCenter]

7. Clap on

[Spitfire of ATJ]

13. Okay, that would be less likely to be triggered on the way....

It would be a pain to be taken out by the pizza guy.

[tofuandbeer]

3. It still amazes me that these 2 were completely oblivious to store video cameras, phone cameras, etc

But perhaps that's why they wore hats. ...and that bright white hat was a brilliant idea.

[Kelvin Mace]

8. How stupid are these people

Fact - Every downtown metropolitan area is swarming with video cams

Fact - Almost everybody with a cell phone has a camera

Fact - At a public event like the Boston Marathon, the place will be crawling with media, all of whom have cameras, not to mention the non-trad media (bloggers).

Fact - At any given moment a non-trivial number of people will have their video cams out recording. At the finish line I would guess that 40%-50% of the people would have cameras out and be recording sporadically.

Fact - The chance that a person could plant a bomb and not get recorded and thus identified is ZERO.

[tofuandbeer]

11. Very well outlined. Thx. ...and the younger one went to school the next day.

I'll bet his stomach dropped when he heard the FBI was studying video/pictures surrounding the area.

[Kelvin Mace]

12. How do you participate in social media

and not realize the omnipresence of cameras?

[southshore]

16. Like Detective Munch always says....

Thank God for stupid criminals.

[gordianot]

4. I am sick and tired of the damn "not sophisticated" bomb pronouncements by media and experts.

First of all the bombs worked, were of similar construction, were not detected before hand, killed and maimed people, used electronic components with a very powerful minature battery and now it seems they were remote devices.

Since I guess they were not sophisticated the people who set off the bombs just came up with the design on their own much the same as they radicalized themselves on the internet.

I am not saying there is an international conspiracy but specifically how did they learn to contruct these (sophisticated) remote devices?

[Flora]

5. They seemed sophisticated enough for me..

and as you say, they did the intended job.

[FarCenter]

9. Gunpowder bombs are 13th century technology

A radio control to trigger them can be easily made from a toy car radio controller and the controller board out of the toy car.

[gordianot]

20. I build radio control airplanes, it is not that easy to get servos, radio connections to work.

The controller I use is large would not work for something like this. They also made smaller bombs with what is being described as having redundant triggering mechanism. Now I have spent several hundred dollars to get planes to work including the help of hobbyist who have engineering degrees. So they use some sort of black powder or pyrodex or who knows what, not in any way 13th century.

Easy I doubt it.

[FarCenter]

22. It's simpler than an RC plane servo

You only have one on/off control to implement. So cut the wires to the drive wheel motor of a RC car. Solder a flashlight bulb in its place. Break off the glass envelope of the bulb. Put the bare filiment in the powder to be ignited. The go forward button on the controller should ignite the powder.

[gordianot]

24. Yes right without setting off your other device all done without a programmable control pad?

You have to plan that well in advance and hope other transmissions do not conflict. One discussion I just saw stated that scenario with a cell phone as easy with radio control tricky.

Not that easy.

[FarCenter]

25. Buy one 27 MHz toy and buy one 49 MHz toy

[gordianot]

27. Just hope you do not get interfering transmission in the middle of a large city without encoding.

Good luck. Sometimes the on off switch goes on for no apparent reason in my case all I lost was a bent landing gear and broken wing.

[Kelvin Mace]

10. People watch too many movies

And anything that doesn't look like Hans Gruber built it is going to be considered "crude" by their clueless standards.

Anyone who puts a little thought into it can build a bomb. Anyone who got a decent grade in chemistry has probably built one in his head. I went to military school and spent "summer camp" hanging around National Guard artillery units and special forces units along with a few dozen other cadets. All we had back then for "backup" would have been "The Anarchist's Cookbook", which pales before what can be called up with a few keystrokes. I would guess that more than a few of us would be capable of building a bomb. I am sure we would be insulted if it were described as "unsophisticated".

(And to all the FBI types reading this, no I have never built a bomb and have no intention to start).

[Agschmid]

14. Love the disclaimer....

Whenever I bitch about anonymous I always add... "But really you anonymous are great!"


p.s. No BUT REALLY you anonymous guys are great!

[AtheistCrusader]

15. Two for two is a high rate of success.

Maybe they are just trying to preserve some mystique about the idea, to discourage copycats.

(Or better than 2 for 2, if they detonated one during the confrontation)

[BootinUp]

17. *stop fighting the mind control* lol

you must get weary from this. relax man. lol.

[Yo_Mama]

18. There were apparently instructions for pressure-cooker bombs in "Inspire"

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/23/17881308-slick-al-qaeda-online-magazine-aims-to-train-a-generation-of-killers?lite

You can find pdfs of this thing on the internet. Here's a kicker"

Inspire was the brainchild of Samir Khan, a young blogger and Photoshop whiz from Charlotte, N.C., who moved to Yemen in 2009 and leveraged his skills to help al Qaeda produce a magazine that could appeal to young would-be radicals.

He was killed in September 2011, at age 25, by an American drone strike in Yemen that also killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent radical cleric. Since Khan’s death, terrorism analysts said, the magazine has taken on a less professional look.

Part of the magazine’s appeal to its audience, the analysts said, is that it engages its readers: It invites them to share stories of their jihad skills. And getting published, just as it might in Time or People, imparts a certain celebrity status.

[brett_jv]

19. It seems the problem ...

May be that you're wanting the term 'sophisticated' (or the converse, 'crude') to have a different meaning than ... what it does.

The (efficacy/whether or not it goes off/how much damage was done) is not part of that definition.

What happened in West was probably one of the simplest possible 'scenarios' wherein an explosion can take place. Fertilizers are very simple compounds, there was no bomb casing, and hell ... it wasn't even MEANT to explode. So the de-facto 'bomb' that went off couldn't possibly have been any more crude an explosive 'device' than it was. Yet it was huge, killed lots of people ... what I'm trying to say is that efficacy and reliability are not necessarily related to sophistication.

From what I've gathered, instructions on how to make the type of pressure cooker bombs these guys made are available on the internet. And I doubt that these instructions are all that difficult to follow, even when they include a remote detonator. This isn't 1950, remote control technology is ubiquitous, cheap as hell, and well-understood by millions of people ...

I don't 'get' why so many people seem to really WANT it to be the case that there's some deeper/darker conspiracy involving international terrorist organizations ... when, really nothing we've been told (so far) is even remotely outside the realm of what even a single mildly intelligent person could pull off all on their own, let alone two working together.

I know I don't WANT it to be part of some global terrorist conspiracy at ALL. Besides being scarier in general re: our general safety ... it's just going to mean more Blood and Treasure spent on war and occupation abroad. I HOPE it's just these guys, and I think every DU'er should.

[BootinUp]

21. Interesting take. nt

[gordianot]

23. As I posted earlier working on servos is not always simple.

Cross frequency radio transmissions can cause servos to malfunction for no apparent reason. Someone knew what they were doing.

[Sunlei]

26. I think you're right it was just the 2 of them.

What do you think can be done to make it harder for the next person to do this kind of crime? Take down those websites?, make it hard to get large fireworks? We're always going to have persons just like those brothers in our society.

I noticed when the bombs went off all the police were facing away from the side of the street where the bombs were placed. If only they were watching that side of the street they would have noticed the out of place package and their behavior.