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alisarae 's review for:
The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy
by Masha Gessen
My memory of what actually happened at the Boston Marathon bombing was fuzzy and missing large chunks of information. I felt like I never got the true account in the first place because there was so much media saying so many things and no one was hearing actual facts from law enforcement.
This book straightened up the story. It is fascinating and more about the history of the entire family than about the bombing. But there is a reason I had so many gaps in my memory: there are a lot of lingering unknowns in the history. The FBI in particular has remained silent on inconsistencies reported by the agency itself, and had been purposefully vague and loose with the facts throughout the investigation. Key witnesses are either dead, “disappeared,” or are in prison and under gag order because of special rules that only apply to terrorism-related cases. Fertile soil for conspiracy theories to thrive in.
The FBI, like the DEA, is notorious for baiting “potential terrorists” into involving themselves in a terrorism plot. Nearly all domestic terrorism-related arrests and “uncovered plots” since 2001 originated with an FBI informant baiting and supplying the target with information, ideas, and weapons. Indeed, 40% of their budget is dedicated to domestic terrorism. The most likely scenario is this: the FBI were baiting the Tsarnaev brothers, but somewhere along the way they lost control. Usually the FBI supplies fake bombs in these sorts of cases, so it is unlikely that the FBI is 100% responsible for the Boston bombings. But it is equally unlikely that the brothers created multiple successful bombs and did so without leaving any trace of the very fine fireworks gunpowder dust in their homes and cars, nor in the homes and cars of their 3 “accomplices.” The story is plagued with doubts like this and it is infuriating that we will never know the truth of the situation.
The subtext of the book is that the US government’s foreign and domestic policies are a mirror of Russia’s. Two sides of the same coin. For most of us, the deliberate unfairness and injustice goes unnoticed. But if you come from a group that’s in the crosshairs of either government (or both governments, in the Tsarnaevs’ case), your life will become a dystopian hell.
This book straightened up the story. It is fascinating and more about the history of the entire family than about the bombing. But there is a reason I had so many gaps in my memory: there are a lot of lingering unknowns in the history. The FBI in particular has remained silent on inconsistencies reported by the agency itself, and had been purposefully vague and loose with the facts throughout the investigation. Key witnesses are either dead, “disappeared,” or are in prison and under gag order because of special rules that only apply to terrorism-related cases. Fertile soil for conspiracy theories to thrive in.
The FBI, like the DEA, is notorious for baiting “potential terrorists” into involving themselves in a terrorism plot. Nearly all domestic terrorism-related arrests and “uncovered plots” since 2001 originated with an FBI informant baiting and supplying the target with information, ideas, and weapons. Indeed, 40% of their budget is dedicated to domestic terrorism. The most likely scenario is this: the FBI were baiting the Tsarnaev brothers, but somewhere along the way they lost control. Usually the FBI supplies fake bombs in these sorts of cases, so it is unlikely that the FBI is 100% responsible for the Boston bombings. But it is equally unlikely that the brothers created multiple successful bombs and did so without leaving any trace of the very fine fireworks gunpowder dust in their homes and cars, nor in the homes and cars of their 3 “accomplices.” The story is plagued with doubts like this and it is infuriating that we will never know the truth of the situation.
The subtext of the book is that the US government’s foreign and domestic policies are a mirror of Russia’s. Two sides of the same coin. For most of us, the deliberate unfairness and injustice goes unnoticed. But if you come from a group that’s in the crosshairs of either government (or both governments, in the Tsarnaevs’ case), your life will become a dystopian hell.