Deadly explosions ‘ an act of hate’

Expert says signs point to a terrorist attack

An international security expert at Simon Fraser University said the deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon Monday have “all the signs of a serious terrorist attack.”

SFU history professor André Gerolymatos has written several books on terrorism and espionage, and is a member of Canada’s Advisory Council on National Security.

“It is certainly an act of hate, because it was intended to kill bystanders, innocent people,” Gerolymatos said of the Boston bombing.

“It was not aimed at a military installation or even an installation that has some symbolic significance. ( It was aimed at) people who are running in the marathon.

“By the make of the bombs, and the number of them — now they’re up to four — it is certainly a terrorist strike.

“The question is, who did it? Is it homegrown, is it foreign?”

Gerolymatos said the fact that the explosions were synced, and that there were so many bombs, points to a terrorist act.

“They’ve found ball- bearings among the debris, which means somebody wanted to kill as many people as possible,” he said.

“They’re now calling them bombs and they’re homemade. If that’s not a terrorist attack, what is?”

Gerolymatos thinks it won’t take long for authorities to figure out who was responsible for the explosions.

“I would imagine ( it would take) a couple of hours, at most,” he said.

“They’ve locked down Boston, they’ve locked down everything in sight. They may even know ( who did it) already and they’re not releasing it.”

He said a big event like the Boston Marathon is “a target of opportunity” for a would- be terrorist.

“It’s easy to attack something as public as a marathon, which has the least amount of security, for obvious reasons.”

How do guard against an event like this? “You really can’t,” he said. “You can prepare as much as you can, ( but) the only way to guard against something like this is to shut everything down, not to have a marathon.

“That would not be possible, ( but) you have to be as vigilant as possible.”

In fact, he said it was the vigilance of Boston authorities that probably kept the casualties to a minimum.

“The other two bombs did not detonate, ( and) they were able to defuse them.”