A Matter of Character

We're coming up on the anniversary of the 7/7/05 bombings in London. One of the things that really struck me about those bombings is that one of the accused taught disabled kids. I'm the parent of a severely disabled child myself, and I just couldn't wrap my head around that one. I'm not one of those people who automatically assumes that a Muslim-sounding name equals someone who could be a terrorist, despite their other qualities. I looked into the biographies of the other men accused, and I was greatly disturbed by the fact that most were described to be exceptionally good people by their friends and neighbors.

I know a little about psychological profiling. I seriously thought about writing my Master's Thesis on using geographic profiling to catch serial killers (I loved programming Geographic apps and relish a good mystery ... it was a natural fit). I read plenty of books about profiling serial killers and mass murderers (I guess they're not *technically* terrorists ...) and one thing they were most likely to have in common is something they share with George W. Bush -- a history of being cruel to animals (Bush was known to blow up frogs up with firecrackers). The point of what I'm saying is that people are fairly consistent. The willingness to blow up a random group of people doesn't suddenly develop overnight, nor is it especially prevalent in people with unpronounceable names. When I saw the confusion and distress (I actually heard a mentor cry over the phone) of people who knew Jahar Tsarnaev confronted with his supposed acts of terrorism by the press, I knew something was terribly wrong.

I know there are some people out there who think Jahar Tsarnaev is as fake as the Boston Bombings themselves. I'm not willing to totally discount that possibility ... I mean, just the name, "Dzhokhar" conjures up the character of "the Joker" which seems to be a theme for these false flag events, and I'm not sure Adam Lanza was a real person. But Jahar had a twitter account with almost 2,000 tweets, and I'm certain that account belonged to an actual person. Here are some things about him that make me seriously doubt he would be the type to willingly destroy the lives of random people for some ill-defined cause that makes no sense whatsoever:

Boston bombing suspects wanted to fit in, friends say

A Letter From A Former Classmate

"About three semesters back, I took the same philosophy class as Jahar. He sat three chairs away from me on one of further tables of the lecture room. We would frequently get paired up with two other people for group discussions on the course readings. He always contributed more to the discussions than the rest of us although he mentioned he never took a glance at the course textbook. When the other's talked he paid attention to them and always nodded his agreement. This one nerdy girl in our group always wrote down everything the students and the teacher said. She will always ask us if we could repeat something or slow down. Sometimes Jahar and I will give each other knowing looks and stifle a laughter but he was really patient with her and he didn't seem to mind when she asked him to repeat something several times. He was really considerate and laid back."

"Then there was one time when we had to discuss a chapter on ethics and religion and I noticed that Jahar hasn't said anything at all. He was just drawing on the desk. The nerdy girl though passionately voiced her opinion on the topic. She kind of went off track and start talking about how she disapproves of many different religious values and everything and I just stopped listening to her after a while. Then out of the blue Jahar starts adding things to the discussion. At first little stuff then he starts revealing things in a low voice that Muslims do within the privacy of their community. Stuff that they are never supposed to reveal to non-Muslims. He told us that Muslims are actually required to eat bacon with every meal because pork contains spiritual properties that bring them closer to God, and that every Muslim secretly binge drinks on wine during fasting, and that mosque leaders give them private lessons on how to become world leaders and how to begin a crusade against non-believers. I was completely intrigued. He said everything so convincingly and was so sure of himself. The nerdy girl was eating it all up too. She was writing it all down. When the girl finished writing the last of his words, she looked up at him probably expecting him to say more but all he did was look her and said "now, if you believed everything you just wrote, do us a favor and go bury yourself" and just smiled at her. The other person and I just looked at each other in complete shock and start laughing so loud the professor gave us an annoyed look.

"You might think that it is mean that Jahar embarrassed the girl like that but she was so arrogant and actually believed everything he said (okay I admit I did too) that she kind of deserved it. Well that's what I thought. However when we were reaching the end of class and preparing to leave, Jahar was kind enough to approach her before he left to apologize for putting her on the spot. He even made her smile after that.

"Jahar and I were only classmates for that one semester and I never spoke him out of class. but I felt like those moments we had in class told me a lot about his character. More so than what the media could ever tell you about him. That is why I find it so hard to identify the boy from my philosophy class with the one on the news. The one on the news is a monster disguised as him"

This is Jahar's cat, Peep the Furball:

Quotes from Jahar's twitter account:

"15 billion was spent on the olympics, imagine if that money was used to feed those in need all over the world. I'm saying #endworldhunger" (8/16/12)

"I bought a pack of orbit today and the guy at the cash register asked if I wanted a bag. So I made him double bag it" (3/26/13)

"Share the love, the knowledge and the wealth" (2/24/13)

"Evil triumphs when good men do nothing"(3/20/13)

"We try to find ways to kill time but time kills us"

"Ain't no love in the heart of the city, stay safe people"(4/15/13, just after the bombing)

After Jahar's April 13th tweet, one guy replied "i use to play soccer with this guy when we were 12. Hes a nice guy. I doubt he did any of this. fuck the government"

"My last tweets felt too wrong, I don't like to objectify women or judge anyone for their actions" (12/24/12)

"I'll always break for a crossing squirrel" (12/12/12)

"broken iphone = broken heart" (12/7/12)

"i'm surprised that there are no celery related deaths, that's one mean vegetable"(12/5/12)

"A smile isn't just mouth movement, one can distinguish between fake & real smiles by the shimmer of happiness in the persons eyes" (12/4/12)

"you guys know that the suicide rate for active duty american soldiers is at an all time high for 2012, a suicide a day, whats the #problem?"(11/28/12)

"I was going to make a joke about Hamas but it Israeli inappropriate"(11/28/12)

"People that don't know how to apologize will be sorry one day"(11/9/12)

"Foreign to racism, never been a part of it"(10/22/12)

"wish for your brother what you wish for yourself"(10/17/12)

"idk why it's hard for many of you to accept that 9/11 was an inside job, I mean I guess fuck the facts y'all are some real #patriots #gethip"(9/1/12)

"changed majors, boutta try to become a nurse"(6/26/12)

"little kids bring nothing but joy into the house and a lot of noise too"(6/19/12)

"I don't care how poor someone thinks he is if he has a loving family, he is rich beyond measure."(6/1/12)

"i didn't become a lifeguard to just chill and get paid, i do it for the people, saving lives brings me joy #lifeguardoftheyear"(5/29/12)

"my niece is the cutest in the world"(5/24/12)

[Here's a video of Jahar teasing his niece, Tamerlan's daughter]



[Neighbor: Boston Bomber Dzhokhar was a 'lovely kid']