Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is known to have made only two statements after the marathon bombing, both in writing.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is known to have made only two statements after the marathon bombing, both in writing.
What is the difference between a screed and a lament? A manifesto and a prayer? In the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is standing trial in the Boston Marathon bombings, it is all in the reading.
During testimony last week, the defence cross-examined an FBI agent about the Twitter accountTsarnaev kept. In the sincere reading of Special Agent Steven Kimball, the tweets painted a portrait of a young Muslim who quoted al-Qaida and who was in the process of self-radicalisation. During cross-examination, however, public defender Miriam Conrad pointed out that the sinister-sounding tweets (including one that said, in Russian, "I shall die young") were a hodgepodge of quotes from popular songs and television shows - which made them consistent with the rest of Tsarnaev's Twitter life, dedicated to girls, burgers and sleep habits.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's handwritten note found inside the boat where he was captured. Photo / AP
Aside from a few tweets, Tsarnaev is known to have made only two statements after the marathon bombing, both in writing: his responses to law enforcement questions written while he was in the hospital, in pain and under sedation (he had a tracheal tube, so he could not speak), and the note he penciled on the sides of a dry-docked boat in Watertown, Massachusetts, where he hid for hours after his older brother, Tamerlan, had been killed.
The note from the boat was released to the public in parts over the past year and a half, and Tsarnaev's indictment included citations from it that the prosecution likely continues to see as the most damning: "The U.S. Government is killing our innocent civilians"; " I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished"; "we Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all"; "Now I don't like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [unintelligible] it is allowed"; and "Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop."
Months later, however, the phrases appeared in fuller context in a prosecution filing:
"I'm jealous of my brother who ha[s] [re]ceived the reward of jannutul Firdaus [highest part of paradise] (inshallah) before me. I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive. God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions. I ask Allah to make me a shahied to allow me to return to him and be among all the righteous people in the highest levels of heaven. He who Allah guides no one can misguide. A[llah Ak]bar!
"The US Government is killing our innocent civilians but most of you already know that. As a [illegible] I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished, we Muslims are one body, you hurt one you hurt us all. Well at least that's how muhhammad (pbuh[1]) [peace be upon him] wanted it to be [for]ever, the ummah [community of people] is beginning to rise/[illegible] has awoken the mujahideen, know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven, now how can you compete with that. We are promised victory and we will surely get it. Now I don't like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [illegible] it is allowed. All credit goes [illegible].
"Stop killing our innocent people and we will stop."
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's handwritten note found inside the boat where he was captured. Photo / AP
In the interim, ABC News obtained an image of the inside of the boat and added one more passage to the note: "I bear witness that there is no God but Allah and that Muhammad is his messenger. [bullet hole] actions come with a [me]ssage and that is [bullet hole], in'shallah."
Readers of the ABC Web site thus learned that "unintelligible" and "illegible" actually mean "bullet hole" - created, as the defense team will probably point out repeatedly, as law enforcement kept shooting at the boat where 19-year-old Tsarnaev huddled, unarmed and bloodied.
It's not clear why the government did not include those phrases in its filing. Some of the earlier omissions make more sense - for example, "but most of you know that" suddenly makes the note sound more like an earnest explanation than a unilateral manifesto.
The day before the trial began, the defence asked that the jury be shown not the pictures of the note but the boat panels themselves. The prosecution opposed the motion, and with good reason: the ability to conjure the physicality of Tsarnaev's hours in the boat could help the defense's case.
On Monday, however, the defense prevailed, and members of the jury traveled to an undisclosed location not far from the federal courthouse in Boston to see the boat, the bullet holes and the writing - some of which, contrary to earlier reports, was not penciled but scratched into the side of the boat.
As the trial goes on, the prosecution will likely return to the boat note as evidence of Tsarnaev's fervent radical beliefs and lack of remorse. The defense will point to it as a terrified teenager's effort to explain what had happened to him. This is most certainly a false distinction - the surviving bomber could have been radical, resolved, lost, and terrified all at the same time - but Tsarnaev's life may well depend on the interpretation the jury chooses.
