Boston Bombing...The Plot Thickens.

By Jessica Keith
 About a week ago we found out new details about the Boston Bombers.  We learned that while Dzhokhar was stashed away in the boat, he left the authorities a little love note. There was some pretty graphic and unnecessary language, but the gist of it was that America is the great Satan and "when you attack one Muslim, you attack us all."  In said note, he claims that he is not sad about his brother being dead, "because he is a martyr in paradise."  He also states that the victims at the marathon were "collateral damage." (http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/16/us/boston-bombing-investigation/index.html)  This guy gets a top notch defense team yet four families lost their loved ones.  Hardly seems fair to me.

Well, the last time I checked, it was the Muslim fanatics who attacked Americans on 9/11.  You attack one of us, you best believe the full force of America is going to come after you, your children, your children's children, and your children's children's children.  To quote from Independence Day:" We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive!" (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0116629/trivia?tab=qt&ref_=tt_trv_qu).  

You cannot come into our back yard, break our toys and stomp on home and think we won't come after you.  WE WILL COME.  WE ALWAYS COME.

That all having been said, I pose this question, why, if America is so horrible, did you stay here for 15 years Dzhokhar?  Why, in 2012, did you decide to become an American Citizen and take all the rights and privileges given to you?  Why did you immerse yourself in your school and community?  I am sure Chechnya would have loved to take you back.  WHY DID YOU STAY if America is so awful? 

According to NBC Nightly News (http://www.nbcnews.com/video/nightly-news/51971493/#51971493) Tamerlan was allegedly involved in a homicide in a Boston suburb in 2011.  This coming from a suspected terrorist who later attacked FBI agents and was shot and killed, but nonetheless, this guy was serious bad news, and we failed to stop him from inflecting harm on Americans.

Can we go ahead and classify these fanatics as what they are? TERRORISTS. There does not seem to be any gray area here.  He [Dzhokhar] made it very clear what the motives were behind the attack on April 15, 2013.  Stop sugar coating what he is.  Call a spade a spade. Ronald Reagan said "Facts are stubborn things."  You cannot ignore the fact that this was and always will be a terrorist attack.  Plain and simple.

George W. Bush said "Terrorist attacks can shake the foundations of our biggest buildings, but they cannot touch the foundation of America.  These acts shatter steel, but they can not dent the steel of American resolve."( http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_w_bush.html#CpvZv4rtbB2LyLiQ.99  )

To Dzhokhar and Tamerlan, I say this, YOU LOSE.  We cannot be broken.  Americans are resilient people.  We will always come back stronger than before with a resolve to fight on.  We will live to fulfill our dream.  You won't.  America wins again. 

Thank you, President Bush.

By Jessica Keith

Dear Mr. President,

Growing up my parents taught me what to look for in a leader.  Someone who always stands by their word, believed in the greatness of the individual, believed in the founding principles of America and all her greatness and most importantly, someone who never gave up. 

In 2000, I was just a little girl, but I knew there was someone who was a real leader running for the Office of The President.  I was too young then to really understand the politics of it all, but I understood there was a difference between the two candidates running that year.  I watched the debates, listened to the news, and read the papers.  I started to get a taste for the political process.

So on November 7, 2000, I proudly walked into my school with my Bush/Cheney sticker on my shirt and prayed for a win for the good guys.  As the weeks went on after Election Day, I would wake up every morning and ask my mom and dad if you were president yet.  The waiting was killing me.  Finally, they declared you the winner.  I could not have been happier. 

A few months later, things changed.  I will never forget where I was when I heard about what happened on 9/11, and the world stopped.  But, for some reason, I knew that having you and Mrs. Bush in the White House, everything would be okay.  When you declared from Ground Zero that you heard them, that rest of the world could hear them, and the people who knocked those buildings down would hear from all of us, I knew you meant it.  You would do what was right by the American People, and protect us to the core.  And you did just that.

As time went on, I began to really start to look deeper into politics and how it all worked, when it entailed and how I might fit into it all. 

2004.  I had some pretty vocal teachers at this point in my education and they were focused, pretty heavily on this election.  I decided this was my shot.  So, at the age of 16, I had my mom drive me down to the Burbank California official headquarters for your reelection campaign after school so I could volunteer for your campaign.  This was my official start into the political world I am now full immersed in. 

So come November 2, 2004, I marched into school with my Bush/Cheney sticker and again played the waiting game.  I had never felt more a part of something so important in my whole life then I did at that moment.  Even though I was not eligible to vote, I had a small part in helping to elect a President that I truly believed in.

President Bush, I know you had the toughest job on the planet.  You were the leader of the free world.  You were the captain of the shining city on a hill, a beacon of hope.  You were the President for the people.  You did what was best for America at the time.  You put aside your own agenda and fought for America.  

The love and dedication you showed and continue to show, for this country, the men and women who fought to secure our freedoms and the freedom of people all over the world is a true inspiration to us all.  Thank you for respecting what they do, and showing us all just how special and important they are to us.

For eight years I went to sleep every night knowing that you were in the White House making tough decisions to keep me safe.  You were praying for guidance on what to do, and how to keep us safe and to end the terror the world faced.  I never once worried where America stood in the eyes of the world.  You were and are a true leader.  A hero in my heart.  Then and now.

On November 20, 2009 I watched you and Mrs. Bush board Marine One for the last time, and with tears in my eyes, uttered the words “Thank you President Bush” in the hope that you felt the thanks and love we have for you. 

Watching the dedication of your Presidential Center, I again had tears in my eyes as I listened to you speak about your time in office and the tough decisions you were forced to make.  So many years later, I am still beyond grateful you made those decisions and kept your promise to keep America safe, and that shining city on a hill.

Thank you will never be enough, Mr. President.  I can never truly express to you the love and respect I have for you.  I am honored to call you my President.  Privileged to have chance to tell people that I volunteered for your campaign.  And eternally thankful to you.

May God continue to bless you and your family President Bush. 

Boston Marathon Bombing.... Where Did We Go Wrong

By Jessica Keith

9/11, America is attacked, and we were violated.  We retaliated.  We got Saddam.  We got bin Laden.  We thought we were done being attacked, hurt, violated, rocked to the core, being taken advantage of. 

Monday April 15, 2013, Boston Massachusetts.  Everything changes.  This was supposed to be a regular day, minus it being Tax Day.  This was the day of the Boston Marathon.  A time honored tradition in Boston, where people from all over the world come to participate; to be a part of something bigger then themselves.

Instead, this turned into tragedy, which ended with the deaths of four innocent people. 

There are a lot of questions that are still unanswered, and for the questions that we get an answer to, there are ten new questions being asked. 

I would like to take you back to the early 2000s.  A family from Dagestan by the name of Tsarnaev comes to America claiming asylum from their homeland.  They bring with them four small children, two boys and two girls.  This family is immediately given assistance from the government.  They receive welfare (cash money for people with young and dependent children) and food stamps.  The father did not have a job and the mother did home facials.  If we fast forward a couple of years, this family had made trips back to the homeland they were allegedly fleeing from.  I am not sure about you, but if, hypothetically speaking, I was seeking asylum from another country, I would not be traveling back to said country. FOR ANYTHING.

This is where the questions begin.  Were these people really in need of political refuge?  Why, if they were in such desperate need of freedom, did they return home?  Should this have been given a second look? 

As time went on and the family remained in America, the children were able to get an education here, be provided for, with assistance from Massachusetts, and really have all the freedoms they claimed they were being persecuted for back in Dagestan.

While living in Boston the mother of these two bombers was caught shop lifting from a Lord & Taylor store.  This is mighty ironic, seeing as how her sons were identified off a camera at a Lord & Taylor store in the days following the bombing.  (Mama Tsarnaev has outstanding larceny charges against her.) 

Eventually, post theft, the parents decide to return to Dagestan.  Which again begs the question, why the need to claim political asylum?

Enter Mother Russia.  Our comrades in the frozen tundra of the former Soviet Union gave us a ring and informed us they were concerned that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, bombing brother number one, had some radical terroristic tendencies and should be watched. So the FBI does a little investigation and can’t seem to come up with anything to warrant any concern.  So in 2011 Tamerlan decides to take a six month trip to the homeland. RED FLAG. RED FLAG. RED FLAG.  Does no one else seem to see the problem with this.  Mother Russia made a call, we don’t usually chat with the Soviets.  Our relationship would be classified as “it’s complicated”, so if they are taking the time to warn us about this guy, we should probably take it seriously.

The FBI put Tamerlan and his mother on a terror watch list, called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE for short.  So bomber number one was on a watch list here, on the radar of Mother Russia for possible ties to terrorist organizations, yet he somehow takes a six month trip to a terrorist hotbed region of the world and nobody notices? Not only were they added to TIDE, but the Russians have a recorded conversation between Tamerlan and Mama Tsarneav, where Tamerlan talked about jihad.  Now there are reports coming out that the Saudi’s warned us of possible terrorist tendencies from Tamerlan.

So Tamerlan comes to America, gets on welfare, travels back to the country he was allegedly fleeing from, gets put on a terrorist watch list, is being watched by not one, but three countries, and yet, still travels freely in and out of the United States.  Does anyone else see the problem here?

Our younger suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarneav is a different story, one that is still unfolding.  He was a kid when the family came here.  He was part of school sports teams, and was just a party kid; pot smoking, booze drinking, college kid.  As he is living in America, partaking of all the greatness she has to offer, he decides to become an American citizen; on September 11, 2012.  Oh the irony.  Dzhokhar had every advantage afforded to him, yet he killed 4 innocent people, and injured hundreds. 

There are so many questions that still need to be answered.  The ones that are sticking out in my mind all surround why these people were even allowed to stay in this country, when clearly, they were not really seeking political asylum when they were traveling back and forth, as if it were a normal everyday thing.  Another question is what did our intelligence community know?  Did they drop the ball?  What is the purpose of all these national security precautions that were put in place post 9/11?   Why did someone with known terrorist tendencies get what seems like a free pass, yet grandma Betty is stripped searched in the middle of the airport by TSA?

Where did we go wrong?  Who gets held accountable to the proverbial dropping of the ball?  Do we need more precautions put in place to stop something like this from happening again?  Where were all the precautions that were supposed to be there?

Did we jump the gun in not classifying Dzhokhar as an enemy combatant?  Are there more people involved?  Could there be international ties? 

Like I said, there are too many questions that need to be answered, and we deserve the answers to these questions.