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AP

Al Qaeda Link ProbedAl Qaeda investigated in Boston blasts

BY: Bill GertzFollow @BillGertz

April 16, 2013 3:11pm

Law enforcementand intelligenceauthoritiesinvestigating theBoston terror

bombings suspectal Qaeda terrorists

were behind theblasts that killed

three and injuredscores although sofar there is nofirm evidence.

A U.S. official familiar with briefings on the probe into the blast said investigatorsremain stymied in determining who was behind the bombings near the finish line ofthe Boston Marathon Monday.

So far there has been no claim of responsibility, something that in the past was acharacteristic of al Qaedas attack methodology. Senior jihadists monitored by

Western intelligence agencies on the Internet remained silent in the hours after thebombings, officials said.

Investigators also are checking recent departures from Bostons Logan airport forclues.

Richard DesLauriers, FBI special agent in charge in Boston, said in an an afternoonpress conference that among the items recovered form the bombing were fragmentsand BBs possibly contained in a pressure cooker device.

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The devices were placed in a dark-colored nylon bag or backpack.

At this time there are no claims of responsibility, he said. The range of suspectsand motives remains wide open.

Asked if al Qaeda was behind the attack, a U.S. government spokesman said it wastoo soon to tell.

However, initial reports indicate the bombs were fashioned from pressure cookersand designed to avoid detection by bomb-sniffing dogs. Investigators believe thedevices were delivered in duffle bags and are now searching surveillance video ofBoston for clues. An al Qaeda magazine in 2010 directed terrorists to use kitchenmaterials to make bombs, including pressure cooking bombs, for killing tens ofpeople.

The bombs contained metal pieces designed to increase their lethality.

The official said the use of a pressure cooker bomb device also is an indication thatmore than one person was involved in the attacks.

Pressure cooker bomb from the 2010 al Qaeda journal Inspire under a section Open Source Jihad: Make A bomb in the

Kitchen of Your Mom.

A review of recent jihadist web postings show that several al Qaeda affiliatedterrorists stated attacks on U.S. soil were coming.

For example, an al Qaeda weapons specialist, Abdallah Dhu-al-Bajadin, wrote in anonline jihadist website last month that al Qaeda remains capable of conducting

spectacular attacks against the United States. He dismissed U.S. intelligenceassertions that al Qaeda is in decline.

If your reports say the organization is a danger, we strike you on your own turf andshow ourselves to be more dangerous than you expect, with operations that dazzle

your security experts, Dhu-al-Bajadin stated, according to a translation of the report.

Dhu-al-Bajadin is known as a key al Qaeda weapons specialist who in the pastpresented information to jihadists on how to conduct chemical or conventionalattacks. He predicted in 2010 that al Qaeda would conduct a poison gas attack on the

United States.Another online report from April 1 quoted an Ahmad Bin Laden who posted aYouTube video urging the White House to withdraw all U.S. troops from Saudi Arabiaby May 31. The jihadist announced plans for a thunderous war against all the vitalsectors in America.

You are forcing us to escalate and destroy your country and its people, the videostated.


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Also, some analysts speculated the recent video message from al Qaeda leader Aymanal Zawahiri contained subtle clues that an attack was coming.

Al Qaedas first issue of Inspire magazine published in July 2010 contained an articleon how to construct a bomb in a kitchen that will be undetectable to sniffer dogs.

The article, headlined Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom, urges jihadists in

the United States and Europe to work inside the West such as the operations ofNidal Hassan and Faisal Shazadthe Islamist attacker in the U.S. military whoconducted the Fort Hood shooting and the failed Times Square bomber, respectively.

Inspire

My Muslim brother: We are conveying to you our military training right into yourkitchen to relieve you of the difficulty of traveling to us, the article states, adding thatall that you have to do is enter your kitchen and make an explosive device that woulddamage the enemy.

The article notes ingredients for kitchen-made bombs are readily available and do notraise suspicion and can be easily disposed if authorities conduct a search.

The Inspire article says gunpowder placed in a pressure cooker can be used as abomb.

The pressurized cooker is the most effective method, the article said. Glue shrapnelto the inside of the pressurized cooker then fill the cooker with inflammablematerial. A small light bulb can be used as a detonator, it said.

Place the device in a crowded area, the article said. Camouflage the device withsomething that would not hinder the shrapnel such as cardboard.

You need to also include shrapnel, the article said. The best shrapnel are thespherical shaped ones.

Also, sniffing dogs are not trained to recognize them as bomb making ingredients,the article says.

In one or two days the bomb could be ready to kill at least 10 people, the article

said. In a month you may make a bigger and more lethal bomb that could kill tens ofpeople.

The article went on to explain that two types of explosions can be made from kitchenmaterials, chemical and mechanical blasts, and revealed how to make a pipe bombfrom match heads and sugar.

In other developments, FBI official DesLauriers told reporters in Boston that therewere no known additional threats of further bombing attacks. The FBI is followingleads.


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President Barack Obama, who on the day of the attack did not identify the bombingas a terrorist strike, appeared before reporters on Tuesday to say the blasts were anact of terror.

What we dont yet know, however, is who carried out this attack or why, whether itwas planned and executed by a terrorist organization, foreign or domestic, or was theact of a malevolent individual, he said.

The president denounced the attack as a heinous and cowardly act and said, TheFBI is investigating it as an act of terrorism.

Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror, thepresident said.

The Tehrik-i-Taliban (TTP) terrorist group in Pakistan, which has been linked to the2010 bombing plot in New York City, denied it was behind the Boston explosions.

We believe in attacking US and its allies but we are not involved in this attack,(TTP) spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told Agence France Presse.

A review of jihadist web sites and Twitter feeds revealed that many Islamistscelebrated the Boston bombings, noting that security of a major sporting event had

been breached by the attacks.

Authorities in London, meanwhile, are increasing security for that citys marathon,set for April 21, fearing an attack similar to the bombing in Boston.

One jihadist identified on Twitter Nasir Qaidat al-Jihad said the attack was

significant for breaching security at a major event in the United States and thatwhoever was behind the attack was not as important.

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