Obama to speak at memorial for Boston bombing victims
By Tim McLaughlin and Mark Felsenthal | Reuters
President Barack Obama on Thursday was set to speak at a memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing amid a manhunt for suspects seen on video taken before two blasts struck near the finish line on Monday.
His remarks at the interfaith service were set to come
amid a manhunt for at least two men seen on video taken before two
blasts struck near the finish line on Monday, killing three and wounding
176 in a crowd of tens of thousands.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed on Thursday that the FBI was searching for people seen on a video taken near the finish line.
Dozens of uniformed police officers in bright yellow
vests formed a security line around the church. City officials used
buses to block access to nearby cross streets.
"There is some video that has raised the question of
those that the FBI would like to speak with," Napolitano said in
Congressional testimony on Thursday. "I wouldn't characterize them as
suspects under the technical term. But we do need the public's help in
locating these individuals."
Boston Mayor Tom Menino, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and Cardinal Sean O'Malley were also scheduled to speak at the service.
Menino was one of the first to speak.
"This is Boston,
a city with courage, compassion and strength that knows no bounds,"
said Menino, who was rolled to the podium in a wheelchair but stood for
his remarks despite breaking a leg over the weekend. "We love the brave
ones who felt the blast and still raced through the smoke with ringing
in his ears ... to answer cries of those in need."
Obama was also due to meet families of victims of the bombing and first responders while in Boston, a White House spokesman told reporters aboard Air Force One.
The service comes the day after the FBI arrested a
Mississippi man in connection with letters believed to have contained
the deadly poison ricin and sent to federal officials, including Obama.
In a separate incident on Wednesday, an explosion at a Texas fertilizer
plant killed as many as 15 people.
The FBI said there was no indication of a connection
between the ricin letters and the Boston bomb attacks, but they reminded
Americans of anthrax mail attacks in the wake of the September 11
suicide hijackings 12 years ago.
Hundreds of people crowded outside the Cathedral of the
Holy Cross in Boston's South End, about a mile from the bombing site.
"President Obama
knows how important the city of Boston is to the nation and the world,"
said 55-year-old John Snyder, who had joined the line before sunrise.
"He is bringing his light to us for much-needed healing."
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Investigators believe the Boston bombs were fashioned
out of pressure cookers and packed with shrapnel. Ten victims lost
limbs, and emergency room doctors reported plucking nails and ball
bearing from the wounded.
Police had considered making an appeal to the public
for more information at a news conference on Wednesday, a U.S.
government source said, but the FBI canceled it after a number of
delays.
Boston Police and FBI officials said on Thursday that
they had not determined whether they would publicly release more details
of the investigation.
The bombs in Boston killed an 8-year-old boy, Martin
Richard; a 29-year-old woman, Krystle Campbell; and a Boston University
graduate student and Chinese citizen, Lu Lingzi.
Ahead of his visit, Obama declared a state of emergency
in Massachusetts, a move that makes federal funding available to the
state as it copes with the aftermath of the bombing.
The crowded scene along the race course in central
Boston on Monday was recorded by surveillance cameras and media outlets,
providing investigators with significant video footage of the area
before and after the two blasts.
Based on the shards of metal, fabric, wires and a
battery recovered at the scene, the focus turned to whoever may have
placed homemade bombs in pressure cooker pots and taken them in heavy
black nylon bags to the finish line of the world-famous race.
Tens of thousands of people turn out to watch and run
in the marathon, which comes on a state holiday and is one of New
England's best-attended sporting events.
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