In any emergency we tend to respond with narrowed focus, details become background and survival preeminent. The remarkable feat of the security apparatus in identifying and apprehending (killing in the process one of them) the supposed authors of this crime seems amazing. News media and Sunday talk shows were filled with praise for the operations and omniscience of American intelligence services. That is, until it was noted that Russian security had warned American CIA sources about one of the two brothers (http://www.abc.net.au/...). Commentators began to ask embarrassing questions Sunday morning about why the elder Tsarnaev brother was not under surveillance. If the authorities are so able why did they not stop the bombing? Answers were all over the place.
What is important is to consider the options this case provides. Who benefits from the act? It is certainly characteristic of Americans to round up the usual suspects, and it provides a certain degree of relief in the national psyche to settle such cases with a punishable individual or organization. Unlike the Reichstag fire, we do not always find out the true culprits identities. In this case one might wonder how it was that the identity of the brothers was produced so quickly. Were they convenient fall guys? The citizen whose car was hijacked is the source for a "confession" from the now dead older brother and the younger one, now in custody cannot talk as yet. Over 200 rounds were fired during the "fire fight" with the elder brother according to CNN (http://search.yahoo.com/...).
We should keep in mind that bombings like this one also can provide political distractions as when J.P. Morgan was to be investigated for financial manipulation in 1920 and a bomb exploded just before the investigation was to take place out side the J.P. Morgan offices (http://www.dailykos.com/...). It was immediately blamed on "anarchists" but no proof was ever presented. J.P. Morgan's investigation, however, was quietly cancelled as the outrage over his manipulations gave way to outrage over the bombings.
One interesting bit of information comes in the form of a video on the web used by many news outlets that shows the two brothers walking before the bombing. When one focuses in on each of their backpacks it is curious that you cannot see the bulky contours of a pressure cooker (http://abcnews.go.com/...). If you go to any website for pressure cookers and backpacks and then assess the type of volume available in the brother's two backpacks it is evident that neither can be carrying such a bulky object. This is especially significant as we are told that one of the victims, stated he saw someone leave a backpack near the site and the FBI has provided video of the backpack at the site before the explosion (http://www.today.com/...). The backpacks in the video of the two brothers walking looks nothing like the backpack or "garbage bag" the FBI asserts was at the site.
Should we consider that the CIA knowing that a quick resolution is necessary, both for its image, and to relieve the public, simply pick out of their bag of names two local individuals they have knowledge of who might fit the bill? One has to recall that the 9/11 bombers entered the US legally on student visas, were considered potential terrorists to Israeli intelligence and were on foreign lists of terror suspects. I am not saying that authorities do not have any case against the brothers, but that Americans used to be skeptical we now seem to be able to swallow any story the government feeds us. There are other potential explanations of why and who would profit from the bombing (http://www.dailykos.com/...). Every possible lead should be followed.