RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/04/20/know-boston-bombers/

I know the Boston bombers

By Alyssa Kilzer

Published April 20, 2013

The FBI released images of the pair of suspects believed to be responsible for the bombing attack near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Investigators are asking for the public’s help with any information leading to their whereabouts. The FBI is urging anyone who recognizes the men to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or go to the bureau’s website, FBI.gov.

I started getting facials from Zubeidat Tsarnaeva (pronounced Zu-bey-da) six years ago when I was 17 at a spa in the Boston area. She soon after left the spa and contacted my mom to have us start coming to her house, at 410 Norfolk St., right on the line of Cambridge and Watertown.

All throughout my senior year of high school and four years of college I went to her house about three times a year. The last time I went to the house was in December and January of 2011/2012.

The first few years the third-floor apartment was often crowded with her two sons, now identified as the alleged Boston bombers, and her two daughters, one of which was around my age. It was definitely not a glamorous place to get a facial, as the “spa” was set up in her living room, and during these years the family expanded.

The staircase was crowded with their shoes, the house filled with noises of arguing, cooking, etc. She would often apologize for this. Her daughters and Dzhokar, the younger son, always struck me as perfectly nice and normal kids about my age. As far as I knew the daughters also attended Rindge (the local public high school) along with their brother.

She gave a damn good facial, often working on my skin for two or three hours, and this is why my sister, mom and I continued to go back to her home for years.

During this time one of Zubeidat’s daughters, and then the other, were set up in arranged marriages, and started having kids. This was something I found slightly disturbing, as one was just my age (18-19) and didn’t seem to be happily married.

Within two years I heard that she had been beaten badly and eventually filed for divorce, which was at first against her mother’s wishes. Later Zubeidat said that she had accepted the divorce because it was an unhappy marriage. Her daughter then moved back into the house with her child. Her younger son, Dzhokar, was often in the room or the room next door looking after his nephew while I was getting my facial.

There were usually issues with parking on her crowded Cambridge Street. Sometimes she would have Dzhokar go down to the street to put the visitor-parking pass into my car window (Yes, I gave him my car keys). Once he moved my car, which made me nervous, as the street was so crowded and parking spots so small. Dzhokar was always friendly to me and seemed easy going. In 2010-11, there was a day when Dzhokar wasn’t home, so Zubeidat took the parking pass out to the street for me.

I noticed that she first put on a hijab before going outside. She had never worn a hijab while working at the spa previously, or inside the house, and I was really surprised.

Between 2008 and 2012 I got to know her pretty well. During those 2-3 hours I spent a lot of time asking her about her personal life, background and her family. (I’m a writer and tend to ask people exhaustive questions about their personal lives, especially as interesting a character as this.)

The hijab shouldn’t have surprised me so much, because she had become increasingly religious while I was in college. She often mentioned Allah, and the lessons of the Koran. “Allah will reward him,” she said once about my brother, when I told her that my brother and mom were close, and that I thought my brother would take care of my mom later in life.

She started to refuse to see boys that had gone through puberty, as she had consulted a religious figure and he had told her it was sacrilegious. She was often fasting. She told me that she had cried for days when her oldest son, Tamerlan, told her that he wanted to move out, going against her culture’s tradition of the son staying in the house with the mother until marriage.

She started saying things like, “Don’t worry, there aren’t men in the house today,” when I asked if I could use the bathroom, which I thought was kind of funny at the time, since I didn’t mind if there were men in the apartment or not.

In my last year of college I was getting a facial from her, and asking her about why she had originally come to the United States with her family about eight or ten years previously.

She told me that she and her husband had been lawyers and political activists in Russia. They had fled the country after “something that her husband did.” Her daughter had recently been divorced at this time, and her daughter’s ex-husband had taken their child to Russia, refusing to return him. Finally the child was returned.

When my mom asked Zubeidat how they had gotten the child back, she told her that “my [Zubeidat’s] husband is crazy” and everyone knew it. When he threatened the daughter’s ex-husband’s family, they returned the child.

During this facial session she started quoting a conspiracy theory, telling me that she thought 9-11 was purposefully created by the American government to make America hate Muslims. “It’s real,” she said, “My son knows all about it. You can read on the internet.”

I have to say I felt kind of scared and vulnerable when she said this, as I am distinctly American, and was lying practically naked in her living room.

Throughout my years of knowing Zubeidat I certainly had more contact with her daughters, one of whom attended the Catherine Hinds Institute and aspired to open a spa, and Dzhokar, than with the older brother Tamerlan.

Those three children were always friendly and kind to me. I think I only met Tamerlan twice, and he wasn’t friendly. Zubeidat certainly mentioned arguing with him, and being worried about him in general after he got his girlfriend pregnant. I never met Zubeidat’s husband. I know that a few years ago her husband got cancer, but she told us that the doctors had caught it early, and that he was doing well. She made one long trip to Russia in the period of 2011-2012.

While Zubeidat was very good at giving facials, I can say that her increased religious zeal and offensive political suggestions about 9-11 in part influenced my decision to not return to her home since January 2012. Those details aside, she struck me as a hard-working woman who cared a lot for her family.

When my mom called me earlier today telling me about how she had seen the picture of Dzhokar this morning and called the FBI, I couldn’t believe it. As her client for years I felt affection for Zubeidat and was very distraught to hear that her sons could have committed such horrific crimes.

When I read online that she had left for Russia a few months ago, my first reaction was to think that she might have known about the attacks her sons were planning. Articles online suggest that she is in Russia because of her husband’s poor health. I know that her husband often went to Russia without her, and for extended periods of time.

She was also very close with her sons and showed many signs of political leanings herself. Of course this is only my personal conjecture, and to my knowledge there is no proof about the parent’s involvement at all.

The actions of the two men have been atrocious beyond words. I wrote this story in order to help clarify some of the untruths I read online during the past few days, and I hope that any knowledge I have shared about the family can help investigators get to the bottom of these terrorist actions and not cause any further harm.

Since writing the original article I have experienced enormous relief following the capture of Dzhokar. I continue to pray and think about the victims of the bombings and everyone in Boston.

Alyssa Kilzer is a 23-year old writer and yoga teacher. She is earning her Master’s degree in Creative Writing, specializing in life-writing and non-fiction works. She is originally from the Boston are

https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2007-featured-story-archive/moe-berg.html
A Look Back … Moe Berg: Baseball Player, Linguist, Lawyer, Intel Officer
Moe Berg
Baseball Coach
Morris “Moe” Berg was an American catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. Wikipedia
Born: March 2, 1902, New York City
Died: May 29, 1972, Belleville
Education: Barringer High School, New York University, Columbia Law School, Princeton University, Columbia University

It’s baseball season. Fans are filling stadiums from coast to coast to watch America’s pastime. They hope to see their favorite player in action, relive childhood memories, and – perhaps – catch a fly ball.

For well over a century, summer in America has been synonymous with baseball. The greats – Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, and Joe DiMaggio (to name just a few) – have earned a place in history for their skill and for their dedication to the sport. But there is one – Morris “Moe” Berg – whose spot in American history comes not from baseball, but from espionage. He was a catcher who put his multitude of talents to work for his country as an intelligence officer.

The Brainiest Man in Baseball

Moe was born in New York City on March 2, 1902. He began playing baseball as a child, and while majoring in modern languages at Princeton University, he played shortstop on the school team. After graduating from college in 1923, Moe was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers. He started his career as a first baseman and shortstop. But, Moe was a man of many skills (he spoke 12 languages), and baseball was by no means his only passion.

Off the field, Moe studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris and then decided to attend Columbia University Law School. In 1926, Moe joined the Chicago White Sox, and changed positions from shortstop to catcher. When asked how he did it, Moe replied that “they didn’t call me the brainiest man in baseball for nothing.”

He received his law degree and was admitted to the New York State bar in 1928. He joined the law firm of Satterlee and Canfield and kept playing ball for the White Sox. Moe injured his right knee in 1930, which eventually limited his playing time. In 1931, Moe was traded to the Cleveland Indians, and then to the Washington Senators. The move to Washington would change his life.

Joining a Different Kind of Team

Being a baseball player with vast intellectual gifts, Moe was frequently invited to embassy dinners and parties. He impressed many with his exceptional language ability and quick wit. He soon became very well known around town and caught the attention of the Roosevelt administration.

Moe played with the Senators until 1934; that year, he toured Japan with the American All-Star baseball team. While in Japan, the Japanese-speaking ball player filmed Tokyo Harbor, military installations, and other facilities for the US government.

Moe Berg
Moe Berg

When he returned from Tokyo, Moe began playing with the Boston Red Sox. While with Boston, Moe played in the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame game in 1939. He played and coached for the Boston Red Sox until his retirement in 1942.

Shortly afterward, Moe toured Latin America with the Office of Inter-American Affairs, an agency set up to counter Axis propaganda in Latin America. During this trip, Moe used his linguistic talents to meet government officials, journalists, and businessmen.

In 1943, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) – the forerunner of the CIA – recruited Moe into its ranks. Although he got off to a rocky start in the OSS, he was sent to Switzerland to collect intelligence on Germany’s efforts to build an atomic bomb. He met German physicist Werner Heisenberg, who – during a lecture – let slip his belief that Germany would lose the war and that the Nazis were not close to developing the bomb.

Moe provided the United States with incredibly helpful intelligence during World War II.

Life After World War II

Moe stayed with the OSS until it was dissolved in 1945. Afterward, he served on the staff of NATO’s Advisory Group for Aeronautical Research and Development.

Known as a man of mystery, Moe planned to write a book detailing his career as an intelligence officer. He never wrote the book, and many of his secrets will never be known.

Before his death in 1972, he said, “Maybe I’m not in the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame like so many of my baseball buddies, but I’m happy I had the chance to play pro ball and am especially proud of my contributions to my country. Perhaps I couldn’t hit like Babe Ruth, but I spoke more languages than he did.”

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/bruce-thornton/illusions-about-why-muslim-brothers-kill/print/ Despite the fervent wishes of the progressive media and the buffoonish David Sirota, who hoped the culprit was “a white guy,” the terrorists who bombed the Boston Marathon have turned out to be not white, Tea Party, tax-hating bitter clingers, but Chechen Muslims. Quelle surprise, as the French say. Now we’ll start hearing all […]

http://frontpagemag.com/2013/david-horowitz/my-thoughts-on-boston/print/

Watching the news about the Boston bombing and the Muslim fanatics who perpetrated the deed, I cannot help reflect on all the nasty attacks that liberals and progressives and Muslim activists have conducted against conservatives who have attempted to warn Americans that their enemies are religious fanatics driven by an apocalyptic hatred of us because we are Jews, Christians, atheists, democrats – in a word, infidels.

It has been said by Nancy Pelosi, George Soros and other Democrats that George Bush created the terrorists by attempting to enforce a UN Security council resolution and take down one of the monsters of the 20th Century in Iraq. It has been said by the late Susan Sontag and other progressive intellectuals that the heinous attacks of 9/11 were the result of American policies. The Center for American Progress and university administrators have relentlessly defamed as Islamphobes and bigots those of us who have had the temerity to talk about the Islamic roots of Islamic terror. If only we ignored the Islamic beliefs behind the terrorism and made nice to all Muslims indiscriminately, the terrorists wouldn’t hate us.

Boston has exposed this as the Big Lie and fatuous delusion that it has always been. The Boston killers were treated better in America than all but an elite among Americans born here who love their country. They were given scholarships, they were admitted to the most exclusive prep schools, they lived in a Cambridge environment where critics of Islamic terror were regarded as Islamophobes and they as a minority deserving special consideration and concern. And yet they hated us. They hated America and ordinary Americans like the victims of their mayhem, and enlisted in the army of our mortal enemies. They hated us because they were fanatical believers in the idea that Mohammed had desired them to kill infidels and purify the earth for Allah. This is the face of our enemy and the sooner the delusional liberals among us wake up to this fact, the safer all of us will be.

http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/why_do_so_many_muslims_embrace_religious_and_ideological_warfare.html Mahatma Gandhi is quoted in his book, Gandhi: The Power of Pacifism, by Catherine Clement, as follows:   While Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Parsees and Jews, along with several million adherents of an animistic religion, all coexisted in relative harmony, one religion that would not accept compromise stood out from the rest: Islam.   Gandhi was […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/2010/11/who-is-really-distorting-islam.html

“All of us recognize that this great religion (Islam), in the hands of a few extremists, has been distorted.”

Barack Hussein Obama

“Those who know nothing of Islam pretend that Islam counsels against war. Those [who say this] are witless. Islam says: Kill all the unbelievers just as they would kill you all!”

Ayatollah Khomeini

While we now know that a young Obama rebelled against his mother and attended Koran classes, he clearly didn’t attend nearly enough of them. Or the Harvard genius is back to playing dumb.

According to Obama, and so much of the political establishment, the Koran is being distorted by a “few extremists” somewhere who are trying to convince the billion peaceful Muslims, that it actually promotes violence. But first a few obvious questions.

How many exactly is a “few”? Are we talking about a few dozen, a few thousand, a few million? Naturally Obama and the Islam apologists never really address that question. Because it is a rather inconvenient question. Since Muslims are defined by religious streams and mosque attendance, it should be easy enough to come up with a realistic figure.

We could start with the population of Saudi Arabia, which ranks at some 25 million. That is quite a “few” extremists right there. Then there’s Pakistan with a population of 166 million. That’s a few more, right there. Of course officially both countries are allies of the United States and have nothing to do with terrorism. Even when it’s funded by their own governments.

So let’s move on to a slightly more definitive figure. In 2006, the Palestinian Arabs held an election. 440,000 of them voted for Hamas. A terrorist organization. In the 2009 Lebanon election, a coalition that included Hezbollah and the Baath Party won over 800,000 votes. So certainly we know that there are more than 1 million “misunderstanders” of Islam out there. And that’s out of a tiny portion of the Muslim world.

But as to the next question, is the vast majority of Muslims and their mosques and clergy are peaceful, then how can those who “distort its vision” ever be a real threat? If there is nothing of violence in Islam, then what exactly can they do? Re-edit the Koran? Insert verses that don’t exist there. But when asked about Jihad, even Barack Hussein Obama is forced to backpedal and say, that it has a lot of meanings in Islam. But if Islam is peaceful, then how could there be a non-peaceful meaning at all?

“Well, the phrase jehad has a lot of meanings within Islam. It is subject to lot of different interpretations.”

Barack Hussein Obama

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/

2 out of 3 governments agree that dealing with terrorism is all about having the right attitude. That, “Yes, we’ve been bombed, but we’re ready to pick ourselves up and get on with our lives without drawing any conclusions from what happened” attitude that politicians patriotically advocate as soon as the carnage is over.

“Americans refuse to be terrorized. Ultimately, that’s what we’ll remember from this week,” Obama said in his radio address.

But of course Americans were terrorized. Obama’s message is that in response to the terrorism, Bostonians won’t spend the rest of their lives locked in their homes, at least not until the next time there’s a terrorist on the loose. But then again neither are Rwandans or Sudanese. This isn’t so much an inspirational message as a pat on the back from a government that once again failed in its duty to keep Americans from being terrorized.

If America had refused to be terrorized, the Tsarnaevs would not have been admitted to this country or would have been shown the door once they started adding terrorist videos to their playlist. Instead Tamerlan Tsarnaev was free to slap around his girlfriend while his brother Dzhokhar was adding classic hits to his YouTube playlist like “We Will Dedicate Our Lives to the Jihad.”

That ditty, from the hit-master behind “Hey, Shahid”, “The Holy Jihad (Rise Muslim)” and “Insallah, We are Waiting for Paradise” contains lyrics like “Paradise’s rivers softly chime/The 72 virgins lovingly whisper” and “Infidels rule the earth/for the faithful life is torture”.

But while infidels might still rule the United States, though there are serious questions to be raised about who is ruling Michigan or New Jersey, life was hardly torture for the Tsarnaevs who drove luxury cars, attended good schools and got good media coverage. The good media coverage continued even after their bout of mass murder as the New York Times feature story on them was headlined, “Far From War-Torn Homeland, Trying to Fit In.” And who can blame them for trying to fit by practicing some of their native customs of mass murder.

http://dailycaller.com/2013/04/19/city-of-boston-gave-subsidy-to-bombing-suspects-radical-mosque/

City of Boston gave ‘subsidy’ to bombing suspects’ radical mosque

Posted By Patrick Howley

Suspected Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev attended a Massachusetts mosque that made a controversial deal with a Boston city agency that allowed it to buy land at a lower-than-market price in exchange for various token services to the Boston community, despite the mosque’s links to some radical anti-American figures

The 19-year-old Tsarnaev attended mosque at the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The Daily Caller reported Friday that the ISB hosted at its satellite cultural center a book signing April 6 featuring British journalist Victoria Brittain, who has criticized the United States and United Kingdom for waging a “war against Islam” in its anti-terrorism efforts.

http://nsroundtable.org/as-we-see-it/the-real-question/
The Real Question

Following Monday’s horrific Boston Marathon bombing, the one question we have been consistently asking throughout the Blogosphere, Facebook, Twitter, etc. is:

Since 99% of terrorist acts are committed by Muslims/Muslim converts, what is it about ISLAM that causes its followers to do that?

We got lots of chatter from “experts”, commentators, analysts, even President Obama, and others about the bombing, the bombers, Chechnya, etc., i.e., everything but an answer to that question.

Nevertheless, below is an EXCELLENT piece that comes very close. We encourage everyone to read it and keep it in mind, because you’ll be hearing lots of explanations, blatherings, excuses and coulda-woulda-shouldas in the weeks/months to come, about everything except the real threat we face (and have been facing since 9/11, going all the way back to 1979).

We cannot fight, much less win a war without NAMING our enemy.

Who’s Going to Keep More Teenage Muslims from Becoming the Next Boston Marathon Terrorists? Nobody

By Barry Rubin

http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2013/04/20/whos-going-to-try-to-keep-more-teenage-muslims-from-becoming-the-next-boston-marathon-terrorists-nobody/
Photo courtesy: usnews.com

The lesson from the Boston Marathon bombings could not possibly be clearer. Yet few people, due to various complications, will address that real issue.

Part of the problem is this. Most powerful institutions and people say that Islam is a religion of peace. There’s no problem, except for a few mysterious extremists who just seem to pop up either at random or due to American and Western sins.

The next largest segment says that Islam is an inherently violent and extremist religion so since the problem is Islam there’s nothing to do but to combat it directly in some form.

Both of the main Western responses, then, deny the importance of waging a real and serious battle within Islam.

Yet where do the terrorists come from? In the case of these two brothers, they were Muslims all of their lives and yet suddenly they became—without any major direct experience—radical terrorists.

The cause, of course, was revolutionary Islamist propaganda, especially but by no means exclusively, from al-Qaida. There are literally hundreds of Internet sites, videos, preachers, books, and everything else you can think of that promote revolutionary Islamism. They tell Muslims that they should and must be revolutionaries and terrorists; they cite holy works to do so.

What the heck is there on the other side?

www.geraldahonigman.com Warning: This analysis is not for the fainthearted, politically correct, nor moral relativists. Okay, now let’s begin… The Boston Marathon bombings should be yet another wake-up call close to home here in America, not that this should really be necessary. Of course, with truth being deliberately suppressed these days, the need becomes more understandable. […]