FBI has images of two persons of interest in Boston bombings

FBI has images of two persons of interest in Boston bombings

A federal law enforcement source told Fox News that investigators are looking for two men that are persons of interest in Monday's Boston Marathon terror attack and have distributed photos for "law enforcement eyes only."

The FBI is not sharing the photos with the public.

A Fox News reporter has seen the photos and called them "clear."  

According to the reporter, one of the men has a backpack that appears to match the bag believed to have been used in the attack. The other man also appears to have a bag of some kind.

The source asked that the images not be made public for fear of jeopardizing the investigation. 

News of the images came as investigators spent Wednesday poring over photos and video footage and piecing together shredded remnants of bombs in an effort to zero in on suspects behind the attack.

Even as amateur sleuths analyzed photos of the finish-line crowd and shared their own conclusions, FBI investigators were believed to be doing the same, and there were reports that they were interested in specific images of a person or persons with heavy backpacks. Investigators believe the bombs, at least one of which was likely a pressure cooker bomb laden with explosives and shrapnel, may have been concealed in such a bag. Monday's attack killed three and injured 176, many critically.

A mangled pressure cooker lid found atop a nearby building is believed to have been part of one bomb, and it and other pieces were being analyzed at an FBI lab. A battery and several pieces of shrapnel were also recovered and undergoing analysis. Fox News learned that the circuit board suspected of being used to detonate at least one of the bombs has been recovered, and that FBI investigators were also analyzing cellphone tower records to identify positive hits for signs of calls that may have been placed to trigger both explosions remotely.

The FBI and Boston Police said no arrests have been made in the Boston Marathon bombing. Earlier, FoxNews.com and several other media outlets, including The Associated Press, reported that a suspect had been arrested in the deadly attack. 

Investigators believe one, or possibly two, pressure cookers were packed with explosives and shrapnel and hidden in backpacks to be left amid the crowd.

According to a FBI and Department of Homeland Security bulletin, the deadly shrapnel that caused the deaths -- including of an 8-year-old boy, and critical injuries to 17 -- included nails, BBs and ball bearings. The other device "was also housed in a metal container, but investigators could not say if that was also a pressure cooker.

Pressure cooker bombs have been used in high-profile bombings in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and have been touted in the Al Qaeda in Yemen's online propaganda magazine Inspire and in the "The Anarchist Cookbook."  

The horror unfolded just before 3 p.m., shattering a festive atmosphere several hours after the legendary race began on the city's 238th annual Patriots' Day. In the aftermath, officials found bomb remnants, shrapnel and shredded backpacks believed to have concealed the deadly payloads.

Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston, confirmed at a press conference investigators had found pieces of black nylon from a bag or backpack and fragments of BBs and nails, possibly contained in a pressure cooker. He said the items were sent to the FBI laboratory at Quantico, Va., for analysis.

The FBI also plans to reconstruct the devices at their headquarters in Quantico, according to MyFoxBoston.com.

Investigators are also examining if the bombs could have been assembled near the scene of the explosions, The Wall Street Journal reports, quoting a law enforcement official. The official says this possibility is being considered because transporting improvised devices over a significant distance could trigger a premature detonation.

The officials also say federal agents are working with local police to canvas local hotels and short-term rentals for clues as to where the bombs could have been constructed.

Dr. Peter Burke, chief of trauma services at Boston Medical Center, said Wednesday 19 patients(six males and 13 females) are being treated at the facility. Seven people had amputations and two remain in critical condition, including a 5-year-old boy. He said there will be eight 're-operations' at the hospital.One or two patients may be released later today. He credited Boston EMS and first responders for limiting the loss of life.

He said beside amputations, doctors have been treating lung injuries, likely caused from the force of the explosion or impact on the ground.

"The major (injuries) ones that were life-treating were tissue injuries and vascular injuries," he said.

Tufts Medical Center said it treated 14 patients, seven of whom have been discharged. None of the patients are listed in critical condition. The hospital said it did not have any amputations nor does it expect any in  the future.

"This is something I've never seen in my 25 years here," Alasdair Conn, chief of emergency services at Massachusetts General Hospital said Monday night; "this amount of carnage in the civilian population. This is what we expect from war."

An intelligence bulletin issued to law enforcement and released late Tuesday includes a picture of a mangled pressure cooker and a torn black bag, like the one seen below that was first obtained by MyFoxAtlanta.com, that the FBI says were part of a bomb.

It remained unclear if the bombs were the work of a homegrown or foreign threat, but in Washington, both President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called the attack terrorism.

"Any time bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it is an act of terror," Obama said Tuesday morning.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis appealed to the public to come forward with any information or photographic evidence that might help authorities zero in on the killers.

The Pakistani Taliban, which has threatened attacks in the U.S. because of its support for the Pakistani government, denied any role in the marathon bombings Tuesday.

The group's spokesman, Ahsanullah Ahsan, denied involvement in a telephone call with The Associated Press. He spoke from an undisclosed location.

Details also emerged Tuesday on the victims of the attack, as scores of victims remained in hospitals, many with grievous injuries. 

Eight-year-old Martin Richard, who was with his family cheering on runners at the finish line, is among those dead. The boy's 6-year-old sister lost a leg in the attack and his mother suffered a brain injury. 

Krystle Campbell, of Medford, Mass., 29, was also killed in the blast. Her father said she had gone with her best friend to take a picture of the friend's boyfriend crossing the finish line.

William Campbell said his daughter, who worked at a restaurant in nearby Arlington, was "very caring, very loving person, and was daddy's little girl." He said the loss has devastated the family.

The Shenyang Evening News, a state-run Chinese newspaper, identified the third victim as Lu Lingzi. She was a graduate student at Boston University.

The first two explosions occurred at 2:50 p.m. – nearly five hours after the marathon began – about 50 to 100 yards apart, according to Davis. A third explosion occurred near the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum in the Columbia Point section of Dorchester, several miles southeast of the marathon's finish line, at around 4:15 p.m. Police could not say if it was related to the earlier explosions.

Nearly 25,000 people, including runners from around the world, competed in Boston's celebrated 26.2-mile race, attracting huge throngs of onlookers, especially near the finish line.

Obama plans to visit Boston on Thursday to attend an interfaith service in honor of the victims. He has traveled four times to cities reeling from mass violence, most recently in December after the schoolhouse shooting in Newtown, Conn.

Anyone with information on the bombings is being urged to call Boston authorities at 1-800-494-TIPS. 

Fox News' Rick Leventhal, Catherine Herridge and Mike Levine contributed to this report. 

 http://www.foxnews.com/

2014, Barcelona Datangkan Neymar?

Bintang Santos dan Brasil, Neymar, sudah lama menjadi incaran Barcelona. Namun, penyerang 19 tahun belum berniat hijrah ke klub lain sebelum kontraknya berakhir.

Presiden Barca Sandro Rosell baru-baru ini mengungkapkan hasratnya untuk kembali mendapatkan jasa Neymar pada 2014 mendatang.

Neymar baru saja memperbarui kontrak bersama Santos dan tidak akan pergi dari Brasil hingga perhelatan Piala Dunia 2014. Rosell tampaknya tidak keberatan menunggu cukup lama untuk mendapatkan jasa pemain berpostur 174 cm.

"Setelah 2014, ketika kontraknya berakhir, kita akan lihat lagi keadaannya. Saat itulah yang dia inginkan untuk mengambil langkah selanjutnya," tutur Rosell kepada COM Radio.

"Neymar adalah urusan jangka panjang. Setelah itu kami akan berbicara."

Rosell kemudian beralih pada duel panas kubu Blaugrana dengan rival abadinya, Real Madrid, di babak perempat-final Copa del Rey. Rosell mengklaim dirinya tidak akan menghadiri makan siang dengan presiden Los Blancos Florentino Perez sebelum leg pertama di Santiago Bernabeu, Kamis (19/1) pagi, digulirkan.

"[Makan siang] akan berlebihan, cara ini lebih baik. Kami akan bertemu di Bernabeu untuk minum anggur dan saling mengucapkan selamat tahun baru," tandasnya.

Winter Tryouts 2013

The United team is combining with the Glens and preparing for the President's Cup in March. It is not having open tryouts but interested families should email the coach and set up to attend winter practices. The Tigre team has several openings. It will be having tryouts on Feb 9th at Crocker in the morning, exact time TBD. In its first year in CCSL Prep, it took 2nd place, and is playing some very nice soccer. Tigre has been to one tournament so far on its own but many players have guested for other teams at tourneys.

In Search Of Johan Cruijff…

If Rinus Michels and his men instigated the rise of ‘Total Football’, then surely Johan Cruijff was the total footballer. As complete a player as you will ever lay eyes on, Cruijff was a creature of sublime footballing beauty, ability and creativity, ghosting around the pitch when without the ball and floating past opposition defenders with a consummate ease and a panache that only he has ever mastered when with it. A footballer with an unprecedented and since unrivalled blend of passing ability and range, positional awareness, finishing ability and breath-taking close control and technique, he became the living embodiment of a footballing philosophy that would come to define a nation and an era.

On the 15th November 1964, a handful of dedicated AFC Ajax Amsterdam supporters would make the trek back from Groningen with a glimmer of hope in their hearts. They had witnessed the first moments of the fledgling career of the maverick that was and is the great Hendrik Johannes Cruijff. A 17 year old prodigy on the cusp of greatness would cross the white line for the first time that day as a boy and hear the final whistle as a man. He netted what proved to be a mere consolation in a 3-1 defeat to their northern opposition but it was plain for all to see Ajax were going places if they could harness his ability. They soon would.

Ajax would finish that campaign at their lowest ebb for a generation but a year on, under the new stewardship of visionary head coach Rinus Michels and with an invigorating brand of almost telepathic football being forged at De Meer, the Amsterdam side would be well on the way to their eleventh Eredivisie title. Michels’ masterstroke was to reintroduce and evolve a tactical system previously known as ‘Organised Disorder’ that was first utilised by the great Boris Arkadiev and his team three decades before.

The idea was that each player was technically and tactically able and aware enough to occupy any position on the pitch. Players would constantly rotate, making them virtually impossible to mark. Whereas Arkadiev perfected an early version of the back four during his time at the helm of Dinamo Moscow, Michels chose to set up his side in a fluid 3-4-3 formation not too dissimilar in initial shape to that which Wigan manager Roberto Martinez has used to great effect in cementing Wigan’s top-flight status in the last year or so on British shores. I should be careful, however, not to compare that great Ajax side too heavily to today’s pride of Lancashire – Michels’ creation was a system relying far more heavily on individual flair and footballing awareness.

For the tactic to truly work, quality personnel was essential in all areas of the pitch and Ajax finally starting to reap the rewards of their youth setup, of which Cruijff was the cream of the crop, coupled with some shrewd acquisitions, allowed Michels’ new-look Ajax to hit the ground running.

Cruijff was at the centre of it all. He was the pivot, the crux, the man who pulled all the strings. He could operate as anything or anyone from a false 9 to a metronomic presence in front of the defence if ever required to. He could use his stinging pace out wide and was as natural a finisher as the best centre-forwards of the day.

He truly epitomised the side that came to rely so heavily on him and it came to pass that six Eredivisies, four Dutch Cups and three consecutive European Cups after Cruijff’s debut, Ajax’s transformation was complete with Cruijff running the show throughout. He and Ajax were forever immortalised, even before the total footballer’s eventual move to Catalonia was ever even mooted.

Cruijff was more than just a footballer, though. He was a character – there was and has never been another Johan Cruijff in that or any respect. That’s probably for the best. A man with an opinion on anything and everything, Cruijff seemed to have an allure, a gravitas that transcended football. He had an irresistible knack of coming out with hilarious quotes and nuggets for journalists and fans alike to chew over. He could enchant thousands of people not only with his feet, but also with the conveyer belt of sound bites that was his mouth. Despite this, Cruijff never seemed to revel in the limelight. He was not a man of great education and his grasp on his mother tongue, although quirky, left much to be desired. He was not cut out for the media attention he garnered and he soon started to grate with football supporters in the Netherlands.

Often derided from the terraces as greedy during his time at Ajax and even overthrown as club captain by his own teammates there, the illusion of him as the perfect man faded as his football became more and more cultured. That is not to say that he was a wholly unpopular character, quite the opposite. He still had that unexplainable pull amongst his core supporters worldwide.

His international stock grew along with his brand and every time the world caught a glimpse of his talents on the international stage, the mystery and intrigue grew in every country. Cruijff grew to become a cult figure, his famous turn – amongst other things moves of his – now has its place in football folklore, and although memories of Cruijff the player slowly fade, the memories of Cruijff the man will never be forgotten.

Although it was Ajax that gave Cruijff his break, it was at Barcelona where he started to lay the foundations for his footballing legacy. Although he was unable to match his freakish Eredivisie goal scoring record in the famous colours of the Catalan giants, he grew to become a true legend of the game during his time there. A first and only La Liga players’ medal and a third Ballon d’Or in his first season immediately helped endear him to the Blaugranes faithful.

Reunited with Rinus Michels in 1976, Cruijff continued his excellent form. The two developed an almost symbiotic relationship over the course of many years. Cruijff was convinced Michels was the main contributor to his footballing education and development, “I always greatly admired his leadership. Both as a player and as a coach there is nobody who taught me as much as him. He was a sportsman who put the Netherlands on the map in such a way that almost everybody still benefits from it. There is no one I learnt more from than Rinus Michels. I often tried to imitate him, and that’s the greatest compliment one could give,” he once said of the great teacher.

Michels was unable to bring home any titles during his second stint at the helm of Barcelona but his influence was indisputable. Total football was to blossom in Spain for the first time and when Cruijff and Michels departed in 1978, with the goodbye gift of a Copa del Rey, the wheels had already been set in motion for the unprecedented success Barca would experience in years to come. Johan Cruijff would himself return to the Camp Nou in a managerial guise a decade later.

He would use the in-vogue 4-3-3 formation as the catalyst to develop his ‘tiki-taka’ vision – a high intensity, possession based system which Barcelona still faithfully use to this day. Providing the basis on which Barca’s great teams of the twenty-first century now under Tito Vilanova and in recent years Pep Guardiola and Frank Rijkaard have flourished is just another feather in Cruijff’s cap and one for which he is not given enough credit. The jury is out on whether his legacy is his greatest achievement but what is certain is that the footballing landscape today would be unrecognisable were it not for him and his brilliant footballing vision and ingenuity.

After two uninspiring years chasing the dream in the land of the free, Cruijff’s career seemed to be petering out. As the North American Soccer League began to crumble around him, you could have been forgiven for believing the sun was setting on his playing days. After negotiations with Leicester City collapsed at an advanced stage, Cruijff eventually made his return to Europe with Spanish second tier outfit Levante.

However after an injury plagued spell with the side, he was given the chance to make an emotional return to his boyhood club Ajax and begin a renaissance of his career. Two more Eredivisie titles followed, with the undoubted enduring image of his second stretch in Amsterdam his outlandish penalty routine with teammate Jesper Olsen in 1982.

After being unable to keep the dream going due to a contractual wrangling in 1983, Cruijff took a gamble and signed with Ajax’s arch-rivals Feyenoord, sparking anger and dismay amongst the Amsterdam side’s supporters and officials. The gamble paid dividends as he enjoyed a dream final season, helping Feyenoord to their first title in a decade and a Dutch Cup to boot. Johan Cruijff only ever played 48 games in brilliant orange but he bowed out of the glare of the professional game as a thirty-seven year old and as one of the few great men to grace the hearts and minds of every one of the crazy gang that is the footballing fraternity.

After the glory and the fun and the games of Johan Cruijff’s playing and managerial years, the man himself has somewhat slipped into the shadows. His public contributions to the beautiful game are growing few and far between and unlike many of his contemporaries, such as the exquisite libero of the 1970s Franz Beckenbauer, he has not continued to remain at the forefront of people’s minds – notwithstanding his role on Ajax’s supervisory board.

However, perhaps, this is understandable. Cruijff is not a man who feels the buzz of fame. He does not feed off the lifeblood of cut and thrust football in the same way he used to. To this end, he took up the leisurely managerial post of the Catalonia side in 2009 – a commitment that means one match a year to oversee and a peculiar undertaking in so much as he has some of the most gifted and well-known players of our time – Iniesta, Xavi, Puyol, Valdes and Bojan to name but a few – at his disposal, yet he cannot even begin to trouble public consciousness with them.

Maybe this is the perfect job for him – lurking outside the bubble of fame. However, even mystery surrounds him in Catalonia with sporadic reports of his resignation appearing a few weeks ago. Despite hopes that he will return for one last hurrah, it appears, “The tooth of time has done its work,” as he himself put it.

He is no longer the man he once was. The world has probably seen the last of Johan Cruijff and how gut-wrenching that is. It would have relished the chance to have seen an awful lot more.

By Jack Chatterton

Goal of the day

Prior to last night’s visit of Stoke City, a well-drilled West Ham defence had only conceded one goal from a set-piece so far this season. That changed with this cleverly worked goal from Jonathan Walters. Note the decoy run by Peter Crouch and the subtle NFL-style block by Charlie Adam. Not exactly a thing of beauty but one has to admire the attention to detail.

Here’s the goal reviewed and dissected by Gary Neville

Coming to a head

The strained relationship between Fernando Llorente and Athletic Bilbao deteriorated further on Monday as player and club differed in their accounts of his failure to attend a scheduled press conference.

Relations between Llorente and club president Josu Urrutia have deteriorated since the striker declined to extend his contract last summer.

He had been due to appear at the regular post-training press briefing alongside teammate Jon Aurtenetxe, but the left-back faced reporters alone.

Athletic used their official Twitter account to announce that “as well as Aurtenetxe, Fernando Llorente should have appeared, but Llorente refused to go out”, but the player said he had already agreed to do a TV interview at that time and could not be in two places at once.

The incident happened after Llorente had been criticised by some Bilbao fans and journalists for acknowledging cheers from Real Madrid fans during Saturday’s 5-1 defeat at the Bernabeu. That came as Madrid’s Ultras directed anti-Basque chants at Athletic players.

The striker was also criticised on Twitter for posing for a photo with international teammate Iker Casillas in the dressing-room after the game.

“It is all nonsense,” he told Telebilbao. “When I came out to warm up, the stand where I was gave me a big round of applause. I wanted to make a gesture of appreciation because they know that things are not going well for me at the moment.

“They know me from the national team, and it was a gesture of affection. The insults to Gurpe and Susaeta came from a different area of the stadium. I am totally against those chants – no team-mate deserves them.

Unlikely peace maker?

On the subject of the Israel-Palestine conflict, advice on the issue has come from an unlikely source. Joey Barton, last seen berating the “sad little men” running the FA after they refused to include the first game Marseille played after he moved to France on loan from QPR as part of his 12-match ban, has shared his thoughts on the current situation.

More surprisingly is the fact that he retweets some politically sensitive comments, name-checking the likes of Noam Chomsky, and questioning the western media’s conventional wisdom on the issue.

“Yes, one does find the Israelis’ position highly hypocritical…” he tweets