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April 16th, 2013 
Peter Nolan
A domestic terrorist could also have worked out how to make them using the
internet. An
article in Inspire, al-Qaeda’s English-language online magazine,
in 2010 instructed readers on how to “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your
Mom”, which employed a pressure cooker.
Bill Daly, a former FBI investigator, said: “I don’t think the use of pressure
cookers points to any particular group or individual.”
On Tuesday a solemn President Obama prepared America for a potentially long
wait to find those responsible.
“What we don’t yet know is who carried out this attack or why, whether it was
planned and executed by a terrorist organisation, foreign or domestic, or
was the act of a malevolent individual. We will find whoever harmed our
citizens and we will bring them to justice,” he said.
There was no claim of responsibility. Richard DesLauriers, head of the Boston
FBI office, said: “This will be a worldwide investigation. We will go to the
ends of the earth to find the subject or subjects responsible for this
despicable crime.”
Mr DesLauriers said the bombs had been carried to the site inside of black
nylon bags and that fragments of the explosives would be sent to a crime lab
in Virginia to be reconstructed.
He said no one had claimed responsibility and that “the range of suspects and
motives remain wide-open”.
The White House also announced Mr Obama would travel to Boston on Thursday to
take part in a service for the victims.
For the next two days police will search the 12-block crime scene for
explosives residue, the remnants of a detonator and wires that could help
them reconstruct the devices. The FBI and CIA are trawling databases for
dangerous individuals with a link to Boston, and listening centres are
searching for “chatter” about the attack among Middle East terrorist groups.
The National Security Agency is examining calls through mobile phone towers
near Copley Square in the city centre, especially those to abroad. They are
also looking for calls made at the moment of the explosions in case the
devices were detonated by phone.
A third strand of the investigation involves an appeal for photographs and
videos to create a visual timeline of the scene.
Two explosives sweeps were carried out near the finish line, one early in the
morning and the other an hour before the first runner finished, meaning the
bomber had a three-hour window to plant the devices.
Early analysis suggested the devices were crude with no high-grade explosives.
The clouds of smoke and lack of structural damage to buildings also indicate
simple devices. Doctors said the nails appeared to have had the heads
removed. Some victims had more than 30 pieces of shrapnel in their bodies.
FBI agents on Tuesday visited the home of a 20-year-old student from Saudi
Arabia. He had been injured and was questioned in hospital but not arrested.
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