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California

Muslim leaders emphasize bombing suspects are acts of extremists

by Canan Tasci and Brenda Gazzar

Local Muslim leaders called for unity among all Americans on Friday and denounced the violent behavior of two Boston Marathon bombing suspects identified in media reports as Muslims of Chechen origin.

Southland Muslims said they were shocked and heartbroken over the recent news, emphasizing the behavior by the two men are acts of extremists and not that of the Islamic community.

"It's very disturbing to us all that our faces are being dragged into the mud by Muslim extremists and how we have to explain to our children what Islam is really about, and we have to explain to the American public what Islam is really about," said Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Los Angeles-based Muslim Public Affairs Council.

"We're not responsible for what happened in Boston but we are responsible for speaking out against violent extremism. "

Muslim leaders discussed security issues with U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials on Friday and hosted a prayer service and news conference with civic and community leaders of all faiths at the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles, Al-Marayati said.

This went on while the manhunt continued Friday as authorities identified two brothers in Boston's Muslim community as the apparent suspects in the Monday bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev wasn't a devout practicing Muslim, "but just recently, maybe two years ago, he started praying five times a day, according to a family member. Tamerlan was killed Thursday night during a shootout with police. Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev described his world view online as "Islam." He was captured Friday.

Muslim leaders said their religion means peace and submission to the will of God, and an individual who calls themselves Muslim and who does not create peace within society is not a true believer.

Imam Shamshad Nasir of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Mosque in Chino said the persons who are creating such crimes are hijacking the religion.

"All Muslims are not terrorists, the majority are peace-loving people. I feel sad there is an association and how the name of Islam is taken by some people who think all Muslim are terrorists," he said.

"There is no prophet or religion that teaches to kill innocent people, and there is certainly no room for this type of activity in Islam. "

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee, cautioned Friday that it's too early to tell whether religion was a motivating factor in the Boston Marathon attacks or not.

"If it turns out that it was a motivating factor, then I think we need to re mind ourselves that this is a corruption of faith and inconsistent with the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of practitioners of any of the great faiths, including the Muslim faith," Schiff said.

Brian Levin, director Cal State San Bernardino's center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, said this kind of aggression is seen across all ideologies and faiths.

"It is the fanatic, not the faith," he said.

And obliviously, Islamophobes will have a field day with this, but the fact of the matter is statically these kind of cases, while are a cause of concern, they are a tiny sliver of the Muslim community.

"Not only that, we don't even know what the motivation of these guys are, was it personal, nationalistic, religious or personal setback?" Levin said.

Aaron Abdus-Shakoor, chairman of the Masjid al-Taqwa mosque in Altadena, said it was "heartbreaking" to hear the initial reports that the suspects were Muslim.

"Here we go again with something that an individual does that's so extreme and professes to be Muslim," he said. "It gives people ammunition to say something negative about Islam.

Abdus-Shakoor, who converted to Islam about four decades ago, said he's never known a Muslim that has talked about being violent or destroying anything.

"All the individuals I've been associated with all my life as a Muslim have never condoned any such act like this," he said.

http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_23065899/muslim-leaders-emphasize-bombing-suspects-are-acts-extremists

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The story behind the two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombing

by JEFF DONN and JOCELYN NOVECK

BOSTON (AP) - Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an amateur boxer with muscular arms and enough brio to arrive at a sparring session without protective gear. His younger brother Dzhokhar was popular in high school, won a city scholarship for college and liked to hang out with Russian friends off-campus.

Details of two lives, suddenly infamous, came to light Friday. Overnight, two men previously seen only in grainy camera images were revealed to be ethnic Chechen brothers suspected in a horrific act of terrorism. Tamerlan was dead; his 19-year-old brother would be captured after a furious manhunt that shut down much of Boston.

But the details of their lives shed precious little light on the most vexing question: Why would two brothers who came to America a decade ago turn on their adopted home with an attack on a cherished tradition, the Boston Marathon?

The Tsarnaev family arrived in the United States, seeking refuge from strife in their homeland. "Why people go to America? You know why," the father, Anzor Tsarnaev, said in an interview from Russia, where he lives now. "Our political system in Russia . Chechens were persecuted in Kyrgyzstan, they were problems." The family had moved from Kyrgyzstan to Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim republic in Russia's North Caucasus that has become an epicenter of the Islamic insurgency that spilled over from Chechnya.

The father set up as an auto mechanic, and the two boys (there were two sisters, too) went to school. Dzhokhar, at least, attended the Cambridge Rindge and Latin school, a prestigious public school just blocks from Harvard Yard.

From there, the boys' paths diverged somewhat - at least for a while.

Tamerlan, who was 26 when he was killed overnight in a shootout, dropped out after studying accounting at Bunker Hill Community College for just three semesters.

"I don't have a single American friend. I don't understand them," he was quoted as saying in a photo package that appeared in a Boston University student magazine in 2010.

He identified himself then as a Muslim and said he did not drink or smoke: "God said no alcohol." He said he hoped to fight for the U.S. Olympic team and become a naturalized American.

As a boxer, he was known for his nerve. "He's a real cocky guy," said one trainer who worked with him, Kendrick Ball. He said the young man came to his first sparring session with no protective gear. "That's unheard of with boxing," Ball said. But he added: "In this sport, you've got to be sure of yourself, you know what I mean?"

More recently, Tamerlan - married, with a young daughter - became a more devout Muslim, according to his aunt, Maret Tsarnaeva. She told reporters outside her Toronto home Friday that the older brother had taken to praying five times a day.

In 2011, the FBI interviewed Tamerlan at the behest of a foreign government, a federal law enforcement official said, speaking anonymously. The officials would not say what country made the request or why, but said that nothing derogatory was found.

Albrecht Ammon, 18, lived directly below the apartment of the two suspects. He said he recently saw Tamerlan in a pizzeria, where they argued about religion and U.S. foreign policy. He quoted Tsarnaev as saying that many U.S. wars are based on the Bible, which is used as "an excuse for invading other countries."

During the argument, Ammon said, Tsarnaev told him he had nothing against the American people, but he had something against the American government. "The Bible was a cheap copy of the Koran," Ammon quoted Tsarnaev as saying.

Ammon quoted Tamerlan as saying that many U.S. wars are based on the Bible, which is used as "an excuse for invading other countries." Tamerlan told him he had nothing against the American people, but he had something against the American government.

Tamerlan traveled to Russia last year and returned to the U.S. six months later, government officials told The Associated Press. More wasn't known about his travels.

According to law enforcement records he was arrested, in 2009, for assault and battery on a girlfriend; the charges were dismissed. His father told The New York Times that the case thwarted Tamerlan's hopes for U.S. citizenship.

Meanwhile, the mother of the suspects, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, was heard from only in an audio interview broadcast on CNN, defending her sons and calling the accusations against them a setup. She said she had never heard a word from her older son about any thinking that would have led to such an attack. "He never told me he would be on the side of jihad," she said.

Her younger son was described by friends as well-adjusted and well-liked in both high school and college, though at some point in college, his academic work reportedly suffered greatly.

"I'm in complete shock," said Rose Schutzberg, 19, who graduated high school with Dzhokhar and now attends Barnard College in New York. "He was a very studious person. He was really popular. He wrestled. People loved him."

In fact, Schutzberg said, she had "a little crush" on him in high school. "He's a great guy," she said. "He's smart, funny. He's definitely a really sweet person, very kind hearted, kind soul."

Dzhokhar was on the school's wrestling team. And in May 2011, his senior year, he was awarded a $2,500 scholarship from the city to pursue higher education, according to a news release at the time. That scholarship was celebrated with a reception at city hall.

The New Bedford Standard-Times reported that Dr. Brian Glyn Williams, who teaches Chechen history at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, said he had tutored Dzhokhar in the subject when he was in high school.

"He was learning his Chechen identity, identifying with the diaspora and identifying with his homeland," Williams said, adding that Dzhokhar "wanted to learn more about Chechnya, who the fighters were, who the commanders were."

Dzhokhar went on to attend UMass-Dartmouth, according to university officials. He lived on the third floor of the Pine Dale dormitory. Harry Danso, who lives on the same floor, told the AP he saw him in a dorm hallway this week.

"He was regular, he was calm," said Danso.

The school would not say what he was studying. The father of the suspects, Anzor Tsarnaev, told the AP his younger son was "a second-year medical student," though he graduated high school in 2011.

"My son is a true angel ...," he said by telephone from the Russian city of Makhachkala. "He is such an intelligent boy. We expected him to come on holidays here."

Still, The New York Times reported that a college transcript revealed that he was failing many of his college classes. In two semesters in 2012 and 2013, he got seven failing grades, including F's in Principles of Modern Chemistry, Intro American Politics, and Chemistry and the Environment.

Dzhokhar's page on the Russian social networking site Vkontakte says that before moving to the United States, he attended School No. 1 in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, and he describes himself as speaking Chechen as well as English and Russian. His world view is described as "Islam" and he says his personal goal is "career and money."

Deana Beaulieu, 20, lives two blocks away from the suspects' home on Norfolk Street, went to high school with Dzhokhar and was friendly with his sister.

Beaulieu says she doesn't recall Dzhokhar expressing any political views. "I thought he was going to branch off to college, and now this is what he's done. ... I don't understand what the hell happened, what set him off like this."

Florida Addy, 19, of Lynn, Mass., said she lived in the same college dorm with Dzhokhar this year and was on the same floor last year. She called him "drug" (pronounced droog), the Russian word for friend, a word he taught her.

Addy said she saw Dzhokhar last week, when she bummed a cigarette from him. They would occasionally hang out in his room or at the New Bedford apartment of Russian students he knew. He generally wore a hoodie or a white t-shirt and sweatpants, and spent a lot of his time with other kids from Russia.

She described him as down to earth and friendly, even a little mysterious, but in a charming way. She had just learned that he had a girlfriend, although she did not attend the university.

"He was nice. He was cool. I'm just in shock," she said.

Tim Kelleher, a wrestling coach for a Boston school that competed in 2010 against Dzhokhar's team, said the young man was a good wrestler, and that he'd never heard him express any political opinions.

"He was a tough, solid kid, just quiet," said Kelleher, now a Boston public school teacher.

Dzhokhar's uncle, too, was surprised by his suspected involvement in the attack - much more, he said, than by his brother's. "It's not a surprise about him," Ruslan Tsarni, who lives in Maryland, said of Tamerlan. "The younger one, that's something else." He said the family had placed all its hopes with Dzhokhar, hoping he would be a doctor.

Tamerlan was more defined by sports, namely boxing. USA Boxing spokeswoman Julie Goldsticker said Tamerlan registered with the group as an amateur boxer from 2003 to 2004, and again from 2008 to 2010. He competed as a heavyweight in the National Golden Gloves competition in Salt Lake City on May 4, 2009, losing his only bout.

In photographs that appeared in the student magazine, including one in which he posed with his shirt off, Tamerlan has the muscular arms of a boxer, and is dressed in flashy street-clothes that he said were "European style."

In another window onto his personality, his Amazon wish list - traced by the AP using an email address on his public record report - includes books on organized crime, document forgery, the conflict in Chechnya, and two self-help books, including Dale Carnegie's "How to Win Friends & Influence People."

Gene McCarthy, who trained Tamerlan at the Somerville Boxing Club, described him as a "nice kid" who already was a good fighter before he showed up at the gym years ago.

"He never lost a bout for me," McCarthy said. "He had some skills from his father before he showed up in my gym." McCarthy described the young man as "very intelligent" and recalled that he also played classical piano.

In Kyrgyzstan, the former Soviet republic where the family lived before it moved to Dagestan, Leila Alieva, a former schoolmate, remembers an educated family and a nice boy.

"He was ... a good student, a jock, a boxer. He used to win all the (boxing) competitions in town," she said. "I can't believe they were involved in the explosions, because Tamerlan was a very positive guy, and they were not very Islamist. They were Muslim, but had a secular lifestyle."

In a local news article in 2004, Tamerlan spoke about his boxing and his views of America.

"I like the USA," Tamerlan was quoted as saying in The Sun of Lowell, Mass. "America has a lot of jobs. That's something Russia doesn't have. You have a chance to make money here if you are willing to work."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_23066280/story-behind-two-brothers-suspected-boston-marathon-bombing

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Privacy vs. security: Boston frames surveillance debate

by STEVE FRIESS and JESSICA MEYERS

Americans hate Big Brother — until moments like this.

Police state paranoia has long stoked angst and outrage, until an incident like the Boston Marathon bombings takes place and the nation heaves a sigh of relief that security cameras gazed unblinkingly upon Beantown's streets and sidewalks.

Eyes in the sky — cameras that keep tabs on possible red-light runners, peer out at ATM users and stand sentry for commercial businesses — provided investigators key intelligence that led to identifying suspects in the attack. A department store camera held the much-viewed footage released by the FBI.

The developments have once again pitted personal rights against public safety. Politicians at every level — from the sheriff in Tampa to members of Congress — are urging the deployment of more surveillance and law enforcement access to captured material. Civil libertarians and privacy advocates, just as predictably, are preaching restraint.

“There is going to be more of a push to have more cameras on the streets, and it will be difficult to resist that push,” said Neil Richards, a privacy advocate and law professor at Washington University in St. Louis. He authored a Harvard Law Review paper last month titled “The Dangers of Surveillance,” where he wrote that the amount of observation these days “should give us pause.”

“The difficult balance is to have them [cameras] there for extraordinary efforts such as what we've seen this week but not for us to live in an emergency situation all the time,” he said.

Security cameras began popping up in American subways and on government buildings en masse soon after the Sept. 11 attacks and have remained a point of controversy since. But they've become background noise in places like London, which pioneered the installation of public cameras to fend off IRA attacks. Israel has had systems in place for years.

Bombings on American soil in recent years — like the 2008 Times Square incident — have only spurred public support for more surveillance.

“If you are not safe in your home and if you are not safe in the street then your privacy becomes kind of a hollow concern,” said Jim Pasco, the executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, who noted smaller outcry from civil liberty groups this time.

While some suggest that muted response reflects a growing comfort among Americans with the idea of being watched, privacy advocates worry that that complacency and the comfort of surveillance in trying times is eroding rights.

“I don't know any civil libertarian who is seriously arguing that cameras are not valuable in these high-risk events,” said Jonathan Turley, a George Washington University law professor. “But even police states can't deter all attacks. So that's the kind of dialogue we need but that won't occur.”

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the former Homeland Security chairman, joined a parade of officials post-Boston calling for increased surveillance.

“I do favor more cameras,” King told MSNBC on Tuesday. “They're a great law enforcement method and device. And again, it keeps us ahead of terrorists, who are constantly trying to kill us.”

Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who was in England during the 2005 London subway attacks, marveled to Bloomberg News on Friday about the city's vast network of cameras and its subsequent ability to name suspects in hours. London has “a much more efficient system than even they have in New York today,” he said.

Others echoing that view included Hillsborough County, Fla., Sheriff David Gee, who told a Tampa TV station: “Even if it intrudes on some of our personal liberties, we're not going to allow these things to happen and we're going to subject ourselves to whatever security measures we need to make sure we're safe and our children are safe."

Those fearing overreach point out that security cameras may enable capture but haven't prevented attacks.

“The only way to use these cameras to prevent crime is to have blanket surveillance, to have someone monitoring every intersection and nook and cranny, and that's where we have problems,” said Hanni Fakhoury, an attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The deterrent effect of cameras remains blurry. A 2011 study by the Department of Justice found that cameras installed in public spaces reduced violent crime by 38 percent in Baltimore but had almost no effect in Washington, D.C.

The Boston area has about 150 cameras operated by government entities. By contrast, downtown Manhattan has more than 3,000.

Fakhoury and others would like to see Congress create more guidelines on surveillance's public role and officials' access to it. In most cases, these decisions are made at the local level by cities and police departments. That lack of uniformity opens people up to wildly varied expectations of privacy.

In coming years, those cameras are likely to get enhanced by artificial intelligence, and imbued with face-recognition ability and algorithms that can tell them what to look for in an effort to prevent crime. Field tests are already under way on the MUNI system in San Francisco, a prospect that creates the possibility of automated racial profiling, Fakhoury said.

Pasco said local law enforcement already struggles daily with the balance between privacy and safety.

“Nobody is more mindful of it,” he said. “But we're also mindful of the fact that technology moves at a warp speed and provides a unique opportunity to enhance public safety in a time when resources are strained and communications and transportations are so sophisticated. It's easier to be a criminal than a law-abiding citizen.”

The Boston case, Richards said, serves as an example of that balance struck “remarkably well. Boston police have been being very respectful of civil liberties.” He said the debate over the existence of cameras is probably moot and may require re-examination.

“I don't know whether there are enough cameras or too many cameras, but I know the cameras that were there and helped the Boston Police to solve this crime in a matter of days,” he said. “Maybe we need better cameras. I don't think we would tolerate more cameras on every corner any more than we would tolerate police officers on every corner.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/cameras-frame-debate-security-versus-privacy-90356.html?hp=t1

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From the White House

President Obama: "We've Seen the Character of Our Country Once More"

by Matt Compton

After a daylong manhunt that saw police searching door-to-door through Boston, law enforcement officials captured the remaining suspect believed to be responsible for Monday's bombing at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. He was ultimately found in Watertown, Massachusetts.

In a statement from the James Brady Briefing Room after the arrest, President Obama commended the response from the state and local police and federal investigators.

"We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all our outstanding law enforcement professionals," he said. "These men and women get up every day, they put on that uniform; they risk their lives to keep us safe -- and as this week showed, they don't always know what to expect. So our thoughts are with those who were wounded in pursuit of the suspects and we pray for their full recovery."

While tonight's arrest closes one chapter in this tragedy, we're still left with many questions about these young men. President Obama pledged to put the full weight of the federal government behind finding answers.

"I've instructed the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and our intelligence community to continue to deploy all the necessary resources to support the investigation, to collect intelligence, and to protect our citizens," he said. "We will determine what happened. We will investigate any associations that these terrorists may have had. And we'll continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe."

It's been a long week, and the events in Boston have in some ways overshadowed another tragedy -- the explosion that took the lives of at least 14 people in West, Texas and wounded more than 200. Before the President closed, he made sure to remind the people of that community that they hadn't been forgotten.

"Our thoughts, our prayers are with the people of West, Texas, where so many good people lost their lives; some lost their homes; many are injured; many are still missing," he said. "I've talked to Governor Perry and Mayor Muska and I've pledged that the people of West will have the resources that they need to recover and rebuild. And I want everybody in Texas to know that we will follow through with those commitments."

Statement by the President

10:05 P.M. EDT

THE PRESIDENT: Good evening. Tonight our nation is in debt to the people of Boston and the people of Massachusetts. After a vicious attack on their city, Bostonians responded with resolve and determination. They did their part as citizens and partners in this investigation.

Boston police and state police and local police across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts responded with professionalism and bravery over five long days. And tonight, because of their determined efforts, we've closed an important chapter in this tragedy.

I've been briefed earlier this evening by FBI Director Mueller. After the attacks on Monday, I directed the full resources of the federal government to be made available to help state and local authorities in the investigation and to increase security as needed. Over the past week, close coordination among federal, state, and local officials -- sharing information, moving swiftly to track down leads -- has been critical to this effort.

They all worked as they should, as a team. And we are extremely grateful for that. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to all our outstanding law enforcement professionals. These men and women get up every day, they put on that uniform; they risk their lives to keep us safe -- and as this week showed, they don't always know what to expect. So our thoughts are with those who were wounded in pursuit of the suspects and we pray for their full recovery.

We also send our prayers to the Collier family who grieve the loss of their son and brother, Sean. "He was born to be a police officer," said his chief at MIT. He was just 26 years old. And as his family has said, he died bravely in the line of duty, doing what he committed his life to doing -- serving and protecting others. So we're grateful to him.

Obviously, tonight there are still many unanswered questions. Among them, why did young men who grew up and studied here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence? How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any help? The families of those killed so senselessly deserve answers. The wounded, some of whom now have to learn how to stand and walk and live again, deserve answers.

And so I've instructed the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security and our intelligence community to continue to deploy all the necessary resources to support the investigation, to collect intelligence, and to protect our citizens. We will determine what happened. We will investigate any associations that these terrorists may have had. And we'll continue to do whatever we have to do to keep our people safe.

One thing we do know is that whatever hateful agenda drove these men to such heinous acts will not -- cannot -- prevail. Whatever they thought they could ultimately achieve, they've already failed. They failed because the people of Boston refused to be intimidated. They failed because, as Americans, we refused to be terrorized. They failed because we will not waver from the character and the compassion and the values that define us as a country. Nor will we break the bonds that hold us together as Americans.

That American spirit includes staying true to the unity and diversity that makes us strong -- like no other nation in the world. In this age of instant reporting and tweets and blogs, there's a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions. But when a tragedy like this happens, with public safety at risk and the stakes so high, it's important that we do this right. That's why we have investigations. That's why we relentlessly gather the facts. That's why we have courts. And that's why we take care not to rush to judgment -- not about the motivations of these individuals; certainly not about entire groups of people.

After all, one of the things that makes America the greatest nation on Earth, but also, one of the things that makes Boston such a great city, is that we welcome people from all around the world -- people of every faith, every ethnicity, from every corner of the globe. So as we continue to learn more about why and how this tragedy happened, let's make sure that we sustain that spirit.

Tonight we think of all the wounded, still struggling to recover. Certainly we think of Krystle Campbell. We think of Lingzi Lu. And we think of little Martin Richard. Their lives reflected all the diversity and beauty of our country, and they were sharing the great American experience together.

Finally, let me say that even as so much attention has been focused on the tragic events in Boston, understandably, we've also seen a tight-knit community in Texas devastated by a terrible explosion. And I want them to know that they are not forgotten. Our thoughts, our prayers are with the people of West, Texas, where so many good people lost their lives; some lost their homes; many are injured; many are still missing.

I've talked to Governor Perry and Mayor Muska and I've pledged that the people of West will have the resources that they need to recover and rebuild. And I want everybody in Texas to know that we will follow through with those commitments.

All in all, this has been a tough week. But we've seen the character of our country once more. And as President, I'm confident that we have the courage and the resilience and the spirit to overcome these challenges -- and to go forward, as one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much, everybody.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/04/20/president-obama-weve-seen-character-our-country-once-more

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Weekly Address: America Stands with the City of Boston

WASHINGTON, DC— In his weekly address, President Obama spoke to the American people about the act of terror at the Boston Marathon that wounded dozens and killed three innocent people on Monday, and said that through it all, Boston's spirit remains undaunted and Americans have proven they refuse to be terrorized. This past week, first responders, race volunteers, doctors and nurses, and the good people of Boston joined together to show the world how Americans respond to evil: with resilience and resolve, and without fear. And that's the way Boston and America will move forward together.

The audio of the address and video of the address will be available online at www.whitehouse.gov at 6:00 a.m. ET, Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Remarks of President Barack Obama
Weekly Address
The White House
April 20, 2013

On Monday, an act of terror wounded dozens and killed three innocent people at the Boston Marathon.

But in the days since, the world has witnessed one sure and steadfast truth: Americans refuse to be terrorized.

Ultimately, that's what we'll remember from this week. That's what will remain. Stories of heroism and kindness; resolve and resilience; generosity and love.

The brave first responders – police officers, firefighters, EMTs, and National Guard – who ran toward danger to help their fellow citizens.

The race volunteers, spectators, and exhausted runners who rushed to help, including troops and veterans who never expected to see such scenes on the streets of America.

The determined doctors and nurses at some of the world's best hospitals, who have toiled day and night to save so many lives.

The big-hearted people of Boston – residents, priests, shopkeepers – who carried victims in their arms; delivered water and blankets; lined up to give blood; opened their homes to total strangers.

And the heroic federal agents and police officers who worked together throughout the week, often at great risk to themselves, to keep our communities safe. As a country, we are eternally grateful for the profound sacrifices they make in the line of duty – sometimes making the ultimate sacrifice to defend the people they've sworn to protect.

If anyone wants to know who we are; what America is; how we respond to evil and terror – that's it. Selflessly. Compassionately. And unafraid.

Through days that would test even the sturdiest of souls, Boston's spirit remains undaunted. America's spirit remains undimmed. Our faith in each other, our love for this country, our common creed that cuts across whatever superficial differences we may have – that's what makes us strong. That's why we endure.

In the days to come, we will remain vigilant as a nation. And I have no doubt the city of Boston and its surrounding communities will continue to respond in the same proud and heroic way that they have thus far – and their fellow Americans will be right there with them every step of the way. May God bless the people of Boston and the United States of America.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/04/20/weekly-address-america-stands-city-boston

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