Hi. Terrorism professor here. If you're wondering why I haven't commented on today's attempted bombings, it's because we don't know enough yet. The only thing I can say with confidence is some of you speculating and accusing are crawling out onto limbs that'll get sawed off soon.
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Enough public info now for early analysis of the attempted bombings. THREAD--Will update as more info becomes public. First, this fits the definition of terrorism: Non-combatant targets, violent (at least one device confirmed active), almost certainly political. 1/x
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Terrorism, by definition, is political. By contrast, criminal violence is for personal reasons. Violence by drug traffickers trying to make money, angry person seeking revenge, etc. aren't terrorism. 2/x
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Targeting a political figure is not necessarily terrorism. For example, Jared Loughner targeted Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed a judge. But he was schizophrenic and attacked Giffords because he believed she snubbed him at a rally years ago. Personal, not terrorism. 3/x
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But simultaneously attacking multiple political figures (Clintons, Obamas, Soros, John Brennan and others) indicates a clear political motive. That makes it terrorism. And at least some of the bombs have the same design, which indicates they have the same maker. 4/x
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Nicholas Grossman Retweeted Jim Acosta
Here's photos of the bomb sent to CNN. A few things jump out: 1) No postmark. Packages sent through the mail are required to have a postmark on the side with the address. Could be an error, but likely indicates package hand-delivered, not mailed. 5/xhttps://twitter.com/Acosta/status/1055147149158219778 …
Nicholas Grossman added,
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2) On bomb package sent to CNN, "Florida" misspelled in return address, "Brennan" misspelled in address, and Brennan contributes to MSNBC, not CNN. There's a widespread assumption that terrorists are smart--basically supervillains with elaborate plots--but often they're not. 6/x
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Replying to @NGrossman81
Could also indicate English as second language, or just someone who doesn't spell check their typos.
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Replying to @Dave_DelFavero
Perhaps. Though that doesn't explain addressing a package to Brennan and sending the package to a place Brennan doesn't work. Most likely just a mistake.
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Replying to @NGrossman81
Brennan appears on CNN all the time, and he collaborated with CNN to release the "Piss Dossier", so it's not surprising that someone who doesn't study who pays the talking heads was confused about who currently employs him.
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My point is most professionals would've double checked that sort of thing.
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Replying to @NGrossman81
One other interesting point. Someone at CNN OPENED the package addressed to Brennan and then photographed the 'weapon'. I wonder why they didn't just mark it "return to sender" like happened with the Holder package.
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