A Comparison Of The 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing

This paper will examine the ideology, targets, tactics, as well as the government and citizens reactions to the 1996 Centennial Park Olympic Bombing and the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing. It will discuss similarities and differences that the two attacks have in common, with one being a domestic attack and the other an international attack. (This event hit close to home for myself due to the fact my father a member of the Indiana National Guard at the time was at the Olympics as part of the security detail for the games.)

When comparing attacks it is imperative that background information is provided on each of the two attacks, so that is where comparing the 1996 Centennial Olympic Park Bombing in Atlanta, Georgia, and the

The first thing that was noticed was the tactics used in both attacks. In both attacks the tactic was placing an improvised explosive device (IED) in a large group of people to cause as many casualties as possible. The bomb in Atlanta was similar with the pressure cooker bombs in Boston in a couple of ways. In that both contained shrapnel mainly “nails and screws” (CNN Library, 2016) to cause as many casualties as possible. The second similarity in tactics that both bombs were disguised as backpacks and placed by the bombers in their locations. One tactic that was different between the two attacks was that once the bombs were placed in the case of the Olympic Bombing bomber Eric Rudolph made a call from a pay phone letting them know the bomb would go off in thirty minutes. This was not the case in Boston as the brothers placed the bombs, and simply walked off from the

This is often explained by the ideology of the terrorists. The ideology used by Eric Rudolph in the Olympic Bombings was based around political ideology. “Although Rudolph embraced attitudes and ideology from Christian extremists, militant anti-abortionists, and survivalists, he was not formally a member of any organization, and acted alone from his own convictions”. (Acts of War and Terror, 2006) Rudolph was driven by the anti-abortion movement and committed the act in spite of the U.S. Governments sanctioning of abortion. The Tsarnaev brother’s ideology was completely different than that of Rudolph’s. They used more of a religious ideology involving radicalism of the Islamic Religion. The older of the brothers Tamerlan, “the deceased Boston Marathon Bombing suspect was identified by a foreign government as a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer" whose personality had changed drastically in just a year”. (Tangle and Powers, 2013) These ideologies are similar as they were both in a way protesting against things the U.S. Government had