Respond to the situation as it unfolds. and i ve directed the full resources of the federal government to help state and local authorities protect our people, increase security around the united states as necessary, and investigate what happened. i ve spoken to fib director muller and secretary of homeland security no paapolitanapolitano. they re utilizing the appropriate resources to investigate and to respond. i ve updated leaders of congress in both parties. we reaffirmed on days like this there are no republicans or democrats. we are americans united in concern for our fellow citizens. i ve also spoken with governor patrick and mayor menino and made it clear they have every single federal resource necessary to care for the victims and counsel the families. and above all, i made clear to them that all americans stand with the people of boston. we still do not know who did this or why. and people shouldn t jump to conclusions before we have all the facts.
We were at the lennox hotel which is right at the corner of boylst boylston and exiter, a half block from where the bombs exploded. we were waiting for my friend who ran the marathon to meet up with us. me and a girl friend were having lunch. at 2:50 this massive explosion occurs. we could feel the ground shake below us and everything on our table shook. ten seconds later a second blast hit and we looked outside and saw a plume of smoke up in the air. we saw the building across from the spectator stands which was a mirrored tall office building shakes. and that s when panic struck everyone in that restaurant. that was alicia layne from knbc in los angeles who was in town here in boston to cheer on a friend running the marathon today. the investigation began today
Almost immediately. federal agents joining local law enforcement in trying to fig wrur out what happened and who did this. earlier tonight, not long ago here outside mass general i spoke with congressman bill keating. congressman keating represents the suburb south of boston. he s also a member of the house homeland security committee. he s also a former district attorney in massachusetts which gives him a good perspective on what happened here today. you are a new congressman. you are not new to massachusetts politics and to public service. and am i right that you serve on the homeland security committee? that s correct. can you shed any light from your perspective as somebody on the homeland security committee in terms of how this incident should be characterized, how we should be thinking about this investigation going forward? it s hard to separate yourself out from being someone that s represented boston before and being here. the city is just has a somberness tonight that i
This appears to be is clearly an act of terror and will be approached as an act of terror. however, we don t yet know who carried out this attack and a thorough investigation will have to determine whether it was planned and carried out by a terrorist group, foreign or domestic. now, i can tell you, rachel, that is really the key question here tonight. was this carried out by a terrorist group homegrown, or a foreign terrorist group? and, rachel, the white house just simply does not know. i ve heard you sort of discussing this as well. there s still a lot of questions about who is responsible for what happened today in boston. the president was made aware of the events at about 3:00 this afternoon. he was briefed on this situation. as he pointed out in his remarks, he did make phone calls to mayor tom menino as well as governor deval patrick. i have been here really all afternoon. i can tell you moments after those blasts went off in boston, pennsylvania avenue outside of the white ho
Very carefully examined for forensic evidence by both the boston police department and the fbi. now that s, of course, potentially important to a future prosecution, but right now much more importantly, it s important that evidence is not contaminated so you can do good forensic analysis and try to track it back in a way that you can identify who did this, where it came from, what sorts of materials were used, whether or not there s a certain signature associated with these bombs that the fbi or alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives, atfe, has seen in the past. so, you know, it s an enormous area that they have to cordon off, and they will probably need to have it closed for a period of 12, 24, 36 hours to do this sort of investigation. mr. leiter, was listening for a time today to the boston emergency police scanner, which is the publicly accessible scanner that anybody can listen in on if you bother fenagling