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Boston Marathon Bombing Anniversary: A WhoWhatWhy Retrospective

Editor’s Note:

Dear Reader:

I started WhoWhatWhy because throughout my career, I often broke stories that were so far from the mainstream reporting consensus that they were either ignored or ridiculed — until they no longer were. Once everyone else caught up, it became a point of pride for them to simply act like my reporting had not existed. With WhoWhatWhy, that pattern continues.

Fortunately, however, we are growing as an independent voice with our own distribution networks, not dependent on the rest of the media for approval or amplification.

Here’s yet another story where we were very early — and were variously View article …

Robert Mueller Obama Briefing

Boston Marathon Bombing Cover-Up: A Conversation with Michele McPhee

For nearly four years, WhoWhatWhy has written repeatedly about the Boston Marathon bombing. In dozens of investigative articles, we have shown how the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) official version of the tumultuous events of April 2013 did not make sense.

 

Now, longtime Boston investigative journalist Michele McPhee argues persuasively in her new book, “Maximum Harm,” that the feds have been keeping important information about this tragedy from the public.

 

In this week’s WhoWhatWhy podcast with Jeff Schechtman, McPhee fingers Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an FBI informant gone rogue. She talks about compelling evidence that the Tsarnaev brothers were not the View article …

Why “Je Suis Charlie” May Be Clouding the Boston Marathon Bombing Trial

“Je Suis Charlie” and “Boston Strong” are too close for comfort for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team.

The recent media-drawn parallels between the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris and the Boston Marathon Bombing could re-inflame passions among potential jurors in Tsarnaev’s trial, his attorneys argued in a motion asking U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr. to suspend jury selection for at least View article …

BOSTON WRONG: The Boston Marathon Bombing “Evidence” That Wasn’t

As-Seen-On-TVThe story of the Boston Marathon Bombing is rife with contradictions, canards, misconceptions and blatant untruths. Boston Wrong is part of WhoWhatWhy’s attempt to set the record straight. This is the first in an occasional series of articles debunking the faulty stories and “facts” which persist, despite evidence to the contrary.

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Verbal intimations by government officials and a TV re-enactment have given some potential Boston Marathon bombing jurors the mistaken belief they have seen a video of suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev setting down a bomb-laden backpack in front of a restaurant.

There’s just one problem: that View article …

FBI’s ‘Smoking Gun’ Video of Boston Marathon Bombing Doesn’t Exist

What do former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, an appeals court justice, several potential members of the Boston Marathon bombing jury and thousands of regular Americans have in common?

They all believe that they’ve seen a video of accused bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev dropping a deadly backpack behind victims at the marathon on April 15, 2013—a video his defense said “does NOT actually exist.”

In a pre-trial hearing yesterday, Tsarnaev View article …

Boston Marathon Bombing: A Primer

Explosions At 117th Boston MarathonAs the defining domestic national security event since 9/11, the Boston Marathon Bombing has played a major role in expanding the power of the security state. Although the media quickly accepted the government’s assertions that it had captured the culprits, that the culprits were “lone wolves” and that there was nothing more to the story, an ongoing exclusive investigation by WhoWhatWhy, launched the week of the event, suggests otherwise.

In the course of our inquiries, we have found and documented a veritable mountain of dubious official claims, inconsistencies and outright View article …

Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect’s Alleged Boat Confession May Not Float

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is alleged to have confessed twice to the Boston Marathon bombing. Yet both “confessions”—although widely mentioned in the media—are so fraught with problems that neither may be entered into evidence at the upcoming trial.

“Confession” #1

The problem with the first confession has to do with what’s known in legal jargon as “chain of custody.” According to law enforcement officials, Tsarnaev scrawled a series of self-incriminating notes on View article …

A Landslide for Guilty at the Boston Marathon Bombing Trial?

The pre-trial results are in from a straw poll of prospective jurors in Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s capital felony case.
Not suprisingly, it’s a landslide for guilty.

The defense team argues that out of 1,373 prospective jurors, 68 percent believe Tsarnaev is guilty of taking part in the Boston Marathon Bombing. (more…)

Boston Marathon Bombing: U.S. Rep. Keating Demands Answers from New FBI Director

In a scathing letter, Massachusetts Congressman William Keating has demanded “forthright information” about the Boston Marathon bombing from the newly confirmed director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Keating, a Cape Cod Democrat, sent the three-page letter to James Comey on Wednesday afternoon, two days after he was confirmed by the Senate to replace Robert Mueller as head of the agency.

“Open questions remain, particularly in regard to inadequate information-sharing, restrictive investigative guidelines/protocols, and an inability to follow up on View article …

Will the Boston Marathon Bombing’s Original ‘Star’ Witness Testify?

The federal government’s case in the Boston Marathon Bombing hinges on the allegation that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was an equal to his elder brother, Tamerlan, in plotting and executing the attack.

Yet there’s a witness out there who said otherwise, and on a widely-viewed national TV broadcast at that: the still-anonymous carjacking victim “Danny.” The shadowy “Danny” told NBC interviewer Matt Lauer that Dzhokhar appeared to be a follower—an errand boy even—dominated by his older View article …

Why the Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect Is Silent

Were accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev imprisoned in another country and barred from speaking to the outside world, he’d doubtlessly be described as “being held incommunicado.”

Yet since he’s an accused terrorist being held in the United States, the Justice Department-ordered gag on him has barely been noticed. And were anyone to ask why he’s forcibly been kept silent, they’d be told he’s been subjected to “Special Administrative Measures.”

Don’t be fooled by the innocuous sound of that. The phrase refers to View article …