“A foolish faith in authority is the worst enemy of the truth”. — Albert Einstein
The recent FBI and other law enforcement investigations in the United States, which have resulted as a consequence of the Boston bombings, have been puzzling and literally incredulous, to say the least. It is as if we are watching a movie and due to editing, scenes have been cut out, and viewers are left to imagine and fill in the gaps of the deleted scenes in order to grasp the entire meaning of the movie. This would be fine if it were a movie.
In reality, what has been happening are real and tragic events involving real lives and real deaths and an incredibly hazy picture of the law enforcement agencies in what is being told to the public, which only raises many questions as to what really is going on. If one were to go entirely on the basis of what we are being told (which is all we have to go by) , Djohar Tsarnaev who is currently in solitary confinement in a federal prison hospital, potentially awaiting a death sentence, had planted one of the bombs that exploded at the Boston Marathon. The proof against him was the fact that there is video footage of him placing a book bag at the scene of one of the explosions. However, what is highly disturbing here is that the photographs of the book bag with the explosives shows that it was black and the one that Tsarnaev was carrying was light-coloured.
There are also some photographs of Tsarnaev running away from the explosion with the rest of the crowd seemingly clutching a strap on his shoulder…the strap of his book bag, perhaps? Then came the incredible accounts of what happened on the night the Tsarnaev brothers were allegedly involved in a shootout with the police. We were told that they had shot and killed in cold blood the police officer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). However, it was later declared that there really was no concrete proof that the brothers had done this. After this came the account of the mysterious carjacking victim who was allegedly threatened at gun point and to whom they had confessed that they were the marathon bombers. To this day, more than one month after the marathon bombings, we know practically nothing about this carjacking victim. There was also a man who was arrested naked (to make the story even more far-fetched) who had uncanny resemblance to Tamerlin Tsarneav, who seems to have just vanished into thin air. We were told he was not actually Tamerlan. Fine. So who was he? Where is he? Some members of the Tsarnaev family claim without a doubt that this person was Tamerlan, alluding that he was shot by law enforcement officers after being captured, thus challenging the latter’s accounts of the shoot out in which he was allegedly killed.
The United States is the land where lawsuits are abundant for any reasons big or small. Why then would someone who was so humiliated in being arrested in the nude not make any public appearances to speak about his account of the events or at least sue the law enforcement agencies for this humiliation?
During the shoot out at Watertown we were told that Djohar, a 19-year-old, all by himself, without having any food or water for at least a day and injured, was taking on the entire army of law enforcement officers, which was dispatched to take him in. Consequently, we were told that he was unarmed. Why the first version then? The photograph of him coming out of the boat clearly shows no visible blood stains on his clothing and no real injuries. The next couple of photographs released of him are those of him injured and bleeding and lying on the ground. He had apparently tried to take his own life by shooting himself in the neck thus causing his neck injuries and inability to speak. How he shot himself when he was unarmed is anyone’s guess!
As if these conflicting, incredulous accounts are not puzzling enough, the FBI had interrogated him for 16 hours without reading him his Miranda rights intentionally in order to not allow him the opportunity to not incriminate himself and to remain silent. No defence lawyers were present to assist him, either although some accounts allege that he had insisted on having defence lawyers present but this was ignored. It had come to the point where a Federal magistrate went to Djohar’s hospital room to read him his rights, which permitted him to cease incriminating himself further and established his rights to a defence lawyer. Whatever happened to his constitutional rights as a US citizen? Or do we invent the laws as we go along?
It has been suggested that Djohar had confessed to the bombings in writing (in a gravely critically injured state) and that he had also left a written confession in the boat before being arrested. There is no proof of this except for the FBI’s word.
Similar accounts of the FBI obtaining a confession transpired more recently when a friend of Tamerlan’s, Ibragim Todashev, apparently confessed in writing to murdering along with Tamerlan the three victims in the Waltham murders of 2011. However, he was killed by an FBI agent before the confession was actually signed. Surprise! He had allegedly attacked the FBI agent with a knife. One cannot help but wonder why he was not frisked thoroughly by seasoned FBI agents before questioning, and furthermore, why was this interrogation taking place in the comfort of his home and not the FBI premises?
What is clear is this: there are many more holes and inconsistencies related to the Boston Marathon bombing investigations, and now to the Waltham murders than there are certainties. What has been heard time and time again in the United States since 9/11 occurred are the words ‘conspiracy theories’ if any theories are put forward other than those put forth by law enforcement agencies. This pattern is being repeated once again. Since when was it unwelcome or illegal for Americans to question their law enforcement agencies and justice system without being branded as subscribers to conspiracy theories? Have we chosen to forget and to ignore blatantly legal procedures just to be able to place the blame? Have we chosen to forget how utterly serious the death penalty is? All other industrialised countries have abolished it on the grounds that it is a cruel and an unusual punishment. Is it unreasonable to state that before we can even utter such words we must be sure without the slightest shred of any reasonable doubt that all the proof is irrefutable? Does questioning the irresponsible practices of law enforcement in this case have any bearing on one’s patriotism? Why does this brand people as believers of conspiracy theories? What is this form of democracy or lack of it?
It is not ‘guilty until proven innocent’, and yes, we as free and fair citizens do have every right to question the practices of law enforcement. This is no way attempts to establish guilt or innocence but rather demands that a fair and just investigative process in doing so be applied. Surely that is not too much to ask.
The writer is an English and French professor and columnist residing in the USA and France. She can be reached at [email protected]