Joe Biden Calls Boston Bombing Suspects ‘Two Twisted, Perverted, Cowardly Knock-Off Jihadists’
Vice President Joe Biden spoke at the memorial service for Sean Collier, the M.I.T. police officer whose slaying last week touched off the manhunt for the two Boston Marathon bombing suspects, and spoke with fiery disdain about the brothers suspected in the killing. Musing about the motives of modern terrorists, Biden launched into a passionate tirade against extremists, “Whether it’s al Qaeda Central, or two twisted, perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadists here in Boston,” an apparent reference to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his deceased brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
After thanking the assembled law enforcement personnel for “standing in line between our families and danger every single solitary day,” the Vice President said, “You know, I get asked, like my colleagues, almost every day since 9/11, why.”
“Why?” he continued, “Why this terrorist phenomenon the beginning of the 21st century, why? People say to me for they surely know they can never defeat us. They can never overthrow us. They can never occupy us. So why? Why? Whether it’s al Qaeda Central, or two twisted, perverted, cowardly knock-off jihadists here in Boston. Why do they do what they do?”
Since being taken into custody, surviving suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators that he and his brother acted without outside support or assistance, and so far, the available evidence bears that out, although the F.B.I. continues to investigate.
Biden added that “I’ve thought about it a lot, because I deal with it a lot, and I’ve come to the conclusion, it is not unique to me, but they do it to instill fear, to have us, in the name of our safety and security, jettison what we value the most, and what the world most values about us, our open society, our system of justice that guarantees freedom, the access of all Americans to opportunity, the free flow of information and people across this country, our transparency.”
“It infuriates them that we refuse to bend, refuse to change, refuse to yield to fear,” Biden said. “The doctrine of hate and oppression, they’ve found out, cannot compete with the values of openness and inclusiveness. And that’s why they’re losing around the world. The irony is we read about these events, we experience them. But the truth is, on every frontier, terrorism as a weapon is losing. It is not gaining adherents. And what galls them the most is that America does remain that shining city on the hill. We’re a symbol of the hopes and dreams of the very aspirations of people all around the world, people who live where they thrive. Our very existence makes a lie of their perverted ideology.”
Here’s that portion of Biden’s remarks, from CNN:
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(h/t Rebecca Schoenkopf)
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
