Samstag, 18. Juli 2015

FireDogLake bans Boston Bombing News

- by Woody Box 

 "Boston Bombing News" is the working title for a series of articles mainly observing the development in the judicial case Tsarnaev, until now hosted by the website firedoglake.com

The embryonic stage of BBN started two years ago on E. F. Beall's firedoglake account. "EFB" was a retired philologist and physicist and skeptical to the official Marathon bombing story from the beginning. His skepticism got a huge boost when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev pleaded not guilty in all counts in July 2013, and the comment section attached to his blog soon developed into a community of people who more or less surmised that DT was innocent. I was one of them. 

EF Beall was a perfect host and spent a lot of time for responding to guests and lurkers. At one point he suggested to split the authorship for the Marathon Bombing-related contributions, but to keep them under a common label which was basically the birth hour of "Boston Bombing News". Sadly, he himself didn't experience the begin of BBN because he died in January 2014 after being hospitalized for a couple of weeks. 

The first BBN was then written end of January 2014 by Lauraw, author of the new booklet Confessions of a conspiracy nut, a very personal approach that intensely describes the roller-coaster journey between the engagement for Tsarnaev and the "lingering doubts" that he was maybe guilty of the terror acts, despite ample lack of evidence and a smorgasboard of oddities. 

Finally the team consisted of four writers, Lauraw, Pbszebra, Jane24 and me. We managed to cover the pre-trial phase nearly continuously by rotating. The comment section was busy, the tone mostly civilized, and the various contributions helped to clarify the state of the art. The series was most popular on firedoglake's user platform myfiredoglake and regularly earned a lot of recommendations. 

Maybe the most important input in the long run have been the reports of Jane24, who, as a Boston resident, was able to attend the pre-trial hearings. Many little things, short remarks etc. that were telling with regard to the defense strategy or other aspects would not have seen the light without her. My notorious optimism in the case is in big part based on these subtle details she observed. 

Just with the beginning of the trial, firedoglake suddenly suffered technical problems which was the preliminary end also for BBN. The site was re-established after a few weeks, but on a different platform and under different technical conditions. Jane24 continued with the BBN by covering the actual trial, and the importance of her reports even increased with regards to the seemingly "crazy" defense strategy - because they fixated important details which otherwise soon were flushed down the irrecoverable twitter abyss. The mysterious photos presented by the defense are a paramount example. How many people know about this incident? 

I myself wrote one BBN post via Jane24's account. But firedoglake has meanwhile changed its policy and deleted the article, after having it online for weeks. Here's an authorized statement: There is more than enough evidence that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is guilty of playing a role in the Boston Marathon bombing. Posts, which suggest otherwise and ignore the facts, are not acceptable at Firedoglake. 

It is clear that under these circumstances BBN, which germinated with Dzhokhar's seven-fold "not guilty" at his arraignment, can't stay with firedoglake and has to look for another place, which is found here. I myself will continue to publish technical issues on my original blog, and political issues on BBN, as I always used to do. Jane24 has announced to contribute when occasion occurs.

The first article on this new platform - apart from this "opener" - named An appeal triggered by insuffient evidence was originally meant to be published on firedoglake, but it obviously doesn't fulfill the above conditions and triggered the ban as well as the deleting of the former article.




9 Kommentare:

  1. Thank you, WB, for enabling the continuation of "Boston Bombing News", mention of the history behind "BBN", and your reference to our founder, E. F. Beall.

    Whilst it is sad to see "Firedoglake" discourage those who would question, I now see a positive coming out of what was, initially, seemingly a negative!

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  2. Thank you for this site WB! What a nice surprise. Banning BBN on FDL shows the world that they are not open-minded enough to allow ALL views. Imo, FDL only wants "approved" viewpoints and that is censorship. There will always be those that believe another person's view is "out there" while another person's view is believable.

    The backers and influential people behind FDL obviously don't want to hear anything questionable. They, too, apparently believe all that is told to them by the government and media. There is no opening their eyes at this point. I say it is a blessing in disguise for BBN, as we will move forward towards finding truth and uncovering the lies surrounding the Boston Marathon Bombings.

    Thank you again WB!

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  3. Dieser Kommentar wurde vom Autor entfernt.

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  4. Woody, thank you so much for setting up this new blog spiot where we may continue the important discussion concerning this case. I look forward to lively and interesting discussions as we're had in the past before the leather fist of FDL censored what could be said on their site. Well, their loss and our gain. Thanks again, WB

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  5. A short You're welcome to all of you and let's see how things will unfold.

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  6. Hello Woody Box
    through your reports and the reports of Jane24 we learn many important things, is not reported in Germany.
    I want to say something to the statement from Dzhokhar. Although he said that there isno longer any daubt, he was it with his brother. Was this really his own words? That's what I got doubt- Such words as he in his confession says not a 21 year old boy. Even while he in the process was so impassive, this is very strange.
    But that>'s just my own opinion.
    Woody Bos, we send you warm greetings from Germany for you and all in this new forum.

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    1. Hello Gabriele,

      Jane was there when he spoke, so there is no doubt it was his own words, and they were prepared by the defense.

      At the moment we can only speculate why the defense instructed him to "confess". But to consider the case as "solved", as FDL obviously does it, is way premature. The facts don't go away.

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  7. I echo everyone's thanks for starting this forum up again, wb. I've missed these discussions. And thanks so much for plugging my book!

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    1. Also looking forward to some lively discussion on this forum as the appeals process progresses!

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