Note From Boston Bombing Suspect: Attack Was Retribution for Iraq, Afghanistan Wars

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev note calls marathon bombing victims 'collateral damage' like the Muslims who've died in US-waged wars

The remaining suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings left a note written on a wall in the boat where he was hiding justifying the attack as retribution for the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, CBS reported on Thursday.

"When you attack one Muslim, you attack all Muslims," the note read. It called the marathon victims "collateral damage" just as Muslims have been "collateral damage" from U.S.-waged wars.

CBS has video:

Police in Massachusetts also told ABC News that the note included the phrase "F*** America" and "several anti-American screeds, including references to Iraq, Afghanistan and 'the infidels'."

CBS adds that "the wall the note was written on was riddled with bullet holes from over one hundred rounds fired into the hull of the boat."

The 19-year-old was hiding in the boat in Watertown, Mass. as police were pursuing him.

The whole text of the note has not yet been published.

Dzhokhar may have made the same or similar statements while being interrogated without being read his Miranda rights, but they would not be admissible in court, as the New York Times reports:

Dzhokhar came out of the boat and was captured in Watertown, Mass., on the evening of April 19. Later, in his hospital room, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was questioned extensively by law enforcement officials about whether other potential threats existed, all without having his Miranda rights read to him. But unlike those statements, the note scrawled with a pen inside the boat may constitute a plainly admissible statement of Dzhokhar's motivation for his alleged participation in the April 15 attack near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The other suspect in the bombing was Dzhokhar's 26-year-old brother Tamerlan, who was shot by police.

____________________________

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.