jhonsondavid18: April 2013

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Laser welding as an engine of innovation

Apr. 29, 2013 ? Can lasers perform welds precisely and reliably in the midst of thundering machinery? The prototype of a new laser welder developed by an international team of researchers has now withstood the worst. At INTEGASA and ENSA, two companies in Spain that produce heat exchangers for heavy industry, the prototype proved itself precise and reliable under the difficult conditions of routine daily use.

"Manufacturers of heat exchangers were skeptical of laser anything until now," confirms Patrick Herwig from the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS in Dresden. TIG-welding guns have traditionally been employed in assembly operations for welding thousands of tubes to the perforated tube sheets. This process, which is based on arc-welding technology, is very time-intensive however. The gun must be manually inserted into every hole and removed again after welding. As a result, the fabrication process is tedious, prolonged, and expensive. European manufacturers can hardly hold their ground today against competition from countries with low labor costs. Materials researchers, software specialists, production engineers and numerous users joined forces in the EU ORBITAL Project to jointly search for a cost-effective alternative. And found one.

Engineering that meets the most demanding requirements Instead of conventional TIG-welding guns, a laser does the job -- tube sheets and tubes are welded to one another rapidly, precisely and accurately. In seconds, the tube is circumferentially welded in place and the robotic arm transporting the welding head can move on to the next hole. The welding head is designed so it anchors itself in the holes and is seated there so firmly than not even vibrations of the shop floor can disrupt the welding process. Precise guidance of the optical beam is handled by software-controlled mirrors that continuously direct it to the right location. Engineers and users from Italy, Spain, France, and Germany have been fine-tuning the process for two years. "The prototype we are exhibiting now at LASER 2013 facilitates the production of heat exchangers, and not just through its speed, but through its flexibility as well. It can even melt materials together that were considered difficult to weld until now," according to Herwig, who was responsible for designing and testing the welding head during the EU project.

It is exactly these exotic combinations of materials that are needed by manufacturers of heat exchangers. They have to withstand extreme conditions in actual use. Heat exchangers are used in the chemical industry, ship engines, and power plants to remove heat from high-temperature, aggressive solutions of liquids. The tubing these liquids are passed through must therefore be corrosion-resistant. However, the liquid in the tank outside the tubing that absorbs the heat is chemically inert. Cost-effective materials can be employed here. Where tank and tubing meet, differing materials must be joined. "Traditional welding techniques hit their limits here, whereas the job can be handled with the laser," says Herwig. The researchers are confident that laser welding can be implemented so effectively in production that European companies remain competitive internationally.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/k362lLXD22c/130429095048.htm

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Mississippi man to appear in federal court in ricin letters case

TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - A Mississippi martial arts instructor is expected to appear in a federal court on Monday to face charges in connection with the mailing of letters containing the deadly poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other U.S. officials.

Everett Dutschke, 41, was arrested on Saturday in Tupelo, Miss., after authorities searched his former business and home. He was held in custody over the weekend and will make his first court appearance before a U.S. magistrate in Oxford on Monday.

His arrest came about two weeks after suspicious letters intended for Obama and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi were intercepted in Washington. Tests showed they were tainted with ricin, a highly lethal poison made from castor beans. Another such letter was sent to a Mississippi state judge.

Authorities initially arrested another Mississippi man, Kevin Curtis, in the case but dropped the charges last week after a search of his house failed to turn up any evidence of his involvement.

Dutschke's name surfaced at a court hearing when Curtis' attorney suggested someone had framed her client and mentioned a running feud between the two men.

Authorities said Dutschke was charged with "developing, producing, stockpiling, transferring, acquiring, retaining and possessing a biological agent, toxin and delivery system, for use as a weapon, to wit: ricin."

He faces a possible life sentence if convicted.

Dutschke's attorney, Lori Basham, did not return calls seeking comment. She said last week that Dutschke had denied having anything to do with the ricin letters and had said he was cooperating with federal officials during their searches.

The ricin-tainted letters were discovered just days after the bombings of the Boston Marathon and during the massive police manhunt for those responsible, helping to fuel anxiety in the United States, especially in the capital.

The case rekindled memories of the 2001 U.S. anthrax attacks that killed five people and puzzled investigators for years. The Justice Department later said that a U.S. scientist who committed suicide was responsible.

(Reporting by Robbie Ward; Writing by Brendan O'Brien; Editing by David Bailey and Paul Simao)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mississippi-man-appear-federal-court-ricin-letters-case-100352159.html

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Monday, April 29, 2013

Boston suspects' father postpones trip to US

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) ? The father of the two Boston bombing suspects said Sunday that he has postponed a trip from Russia to the United States because of poor health.

"I am really sick," Anzor Tsarnaev, 46, told The Associated Press. He said his blood pressure had spiked to dangerous levels.

Tsarnaev said at a news conference Thursday that he planned to leave that day or the next for the U.S. with the hope of seeing his younger son, who is under arrest, and burying his elder son, who was killed. His family, however, indicated later Thursday that the trip could be pushed back because he was not feeling well.

Tsarnaev confirmed on Sunday that he is staying in Chechnya, a province in southern Russia, but did not specify whether he was hospitalized. He is an ethnic Chechen and has relatives in Chechnya, although he and his family spent little time in Chechnya or anywhere else in Russia before moving to the U.S. a decade ago.

He and the suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, returned to Russia last year and settled in Makhachkala, the capital of neighboring Dagestan, where Tsarnaeva's relatives live.

During the past week, they were both questioned extensively by U.S. investigators who had traveled to Makhachkala from Moscow. They also were besieged by journalists who staked out their home.

Tsarnaev's family said last week that he intended to get to the U.S. by flying from Grozny, the Chechen capital, to Moscow. He and Tsarnaeva left Dagestan on Friday, but their whereabouts were unclear.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/boston-suspects-father-postpones-trip-us-124041600.html

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Mac Miller And Corey Feldman's 'S.D.S.' Beef, Frame By Frame: Watch!

Co-stars (and fictional enemies) break down Miller's latest video for MTV News.
By Rob Markman, with additional reporting by Katie Atkinson

Mac Miller and Corey Feldman in the video for "S.D.S."
Photo: Rostrum

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1706497/mac-miller-corey-feldman-sds-video.jhtml

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Lawmakers: Syria chemical weapons could menace U.S..

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Syria's stockpile of chemical weapons could be a greater threat after that nation's president leaves power and could end up targeting Americans at home, lawmakers warned Sunday as they considered a U.S. response that stops short of sending military forces there.

U.S. officials last week declared that the Syrian government probably had used chemical weapons twice in March, newly provocative acts in the 2-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. The U.S. assessment followed similar conclusions from Britain, France, Israel and Qatar ? key allies eager for a more aggressive response to the Syrian conflict.

President Barack Obama has said Syria's likely action ? or the transfer of President Bashar Assad's stockpiles to terrorists ? would cross a "red line" that would compel the United States to act.

Lawmakers sought to remind viewers on Sunday news programs of Obama's declaration while discouraging a U.S. foothold on the ground there.

"The president has laid down the line, and it can't be a dotted line. It can't be anything other than a red line," said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich. "And more than just Syria, Iran is paying attention to this. North Korea is paying attention to this."

Added Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga.: "For America to sit on the sidelines and do nothing is a huge mistake."

Obama has insisted that any use of chemical weapons would change his thinking about the United States' role in Syria but said he didn't have enough information to order aggressive action.

"For the Syrian government to utilize chemical weapons on its people crosses a line that will change my calculus and how the United States approaches these issues," Obama said Friday.

But Rep. Jan Schakowsky, an Illinois Democrat, said Sunday the United States needs to consider those weapons. She said that when Assad leaves power, his opponents could have access to those weapons or they could fall into the hands of U.S. enemies.

"The day after Assad is the day that these chemical weapons could be at risk ... (and) we could be in bigger, even bigger trouble," she said.

Both sides of the civil war already accuse each other of using the chemical weapons.

The deadliest such alleged attack was in the Khan al-Assal village in the Aleppo province in March. The Syrian government called for the United Nations to investigate alleged chemical weapons use by rebels in the attack that killed 31 people.

Syria, however, has not allowed a team of experts into the country because it wants the investigation limited to the single Khan al-Assal incident, while U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged "immediate and unfettered access" for an expanded investigation.

One of Obama's chief antagonists on Syria, Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz., said the United States should go to Syria as part of an international force to safeguard the chemical weapons. But McCain added that he is not advocating sending ground troops to the nation.

"The worst thing the United States could do right now is put boots on the ground on Syria. That would turn the people against us," McCain said.

His friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., also said the United States could safeguard the weapons without a ground force. But he cautioned the weapons must be protected for fear that Americans could be targeted. Raising the specter of the lethal bomb at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, Graham said the next attack on U.S. soil could employ weapons that were once part of Assad's arsenal.

"Chemical weapons ? enough to kill millions of people ? are going to be compromised and fall into the wrong hands, and the next bomb that goes off in America may not have nails and glass in it," he said.

Rogers and Schakowsky spoke to ABC's "This Week." Chambliss and Graham were interviewed on CBS's "Face the Nation." McCain appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press."

___

Follow Philip Elliott on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Philip_Elliott

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-syria-chemical-weapons-could-menace-us-154735931.html

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Sunday, April 28, 2013

Team of rivals: Italy, finally, forms new government (+video)

Center-left leader Enrico Letta will be Italy's new prime minister, after his party formed a coalition government with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives.

By Frances D'Emilio,?Associated Press / April 27, 2013

Italian Premier-designate Enrico Letta speaks at the Quirinale Presidential Palace in Rome, Saturday, April 27, 2013. Italy has finally has a new government, a coalition of Berlusconi's forces and center-left rivals who forged an unusual alliance.

(AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

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Center-left leader Enrico Letta forged a new Italian government Saturday in a coalition with former Premier Silvio Berlusconi's conservatives, an unusual alliance of bitter rivals that broke a two-month political stalemate from inconclusive elections in the recession-mired country.

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The daunting achievement was pulled off by Letta, who will be sworn in as premier along with the new Cabinet on Sunday at the presidential Quirinal Palace.

Letta, 46, is a moderate with a reputation as a political bridge-builder. He is also the nephew Berlusconi's longtime adviser, Gianni Letta, a relationship seen as smoothing over often nasty interaction between the two main coalition partners.

Serving as deputy premier and interior minister will be Berlusconi's top political aide, Angelino Alfano. He is a former justice minister who was the architect of legislation that critics say was tailor-made to help media mogul Berlusconi in his many judicial woes.

The creation of the coalition capped the latest political comeback for Berlusconi, a former three-time premier who was forced to resign in 2011 as Italy slid deeper in to the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

On Monday, Letta is expected to lay out his strategy to Parliament, ahead of required confidence votes from the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate.

"We negotiated for the formation of the government without throwing up any stop signs," Berlusconi to told one of his TV networks. "That's how we contributed to forming a government in short time" after Letta was tapped Wednesday.

Berlusconi, a fervent anti-Communist, views Italy's left as a personal nemesis, and Letta's Democratic Party has some of its roots in what was the West's largest Communist Party.

Letta expressed "sober satisfaction over the team we put together and its willingness" to form a coalition.

Only a few weeks earlier, the head of the Democrats, Pier Luigi Bersani, resigned from the party post in humiliation and he refused Berlusconi's offer for a "grand coalition" and futilely tried to form a government without the center-right. Letta was a Bersani loyalist.

Bersani hailed the coalition formula as a "necessary compromise" that gives the country "freshness and solidarity."

The No. 3 bloc in Parliament, the anti-establishment 5 Star Movement, is led by comic Beppe Grillo, who ruled out any alliance with the largely sullied political class that has ruled Italy for decades.

President Giorgio Napolitano, who tasked Letta with creating a government out of bitter rivals, called upon the coalition partners to work "in a spirit of absolute, indispensable cohesion" as they work for sorely needed political and economic reforms.

The 87-year-old head of state sounded almost breathless as he expressed confidence the rivals could work together "without conflict or prejudices to find the right solutions" to the country's pressing economic and political problems.

Napolitano didn't name the challenges, but they include fighting unemployment, especially for young people, and corruption sullying much of the political class.

Napolitano said: "It was and is the only possible government," and one "whose formation couldn't be delayed further, in the interest of our country and of Europe."

He reluctantly agreed to be re-elected by Parliament earlier this month for another seven-year term because of the political instability.

Italy's economy is No. 3 among eurozone members, and financial markets have been anxiously watching to see if an effective government could be formed to carry on with outgoing Premier Mario Monti's efforts to keep the country from sliding into the eurozone's sovereign debt crisis.

Some Italian political observers have predicted such a hybrid government might last only a few months of Parliament's five-year term, before collapsing in squabbling.

But the fear of elections, especially after the lightning-quick rise of comic Grillo's grassroots movement, could prove to be strong glue.

Giovanni Orsina, deputy director of LUISS university's school of government in Rome, ventured that Letta's new coalition could "last more than we expect, 18 to 24 months, more or less."

The history professor cited "lack of alternatives, and because I believe Parliament's members are not particularly eager to get back to the polling booth and face new elections."

Voters, fed up with new and higher taxes, including a despised property tax revived by Monti, rejected his severe austerity policies.

The small centrist party created in time for the election by Monti, an economist and former European Union commissioner, will participate in the coalition, although Monti won't be in the Cabinet, which is heavy on two novelties ? a large presence of female ministers and Italy's first black minister.

A native of Congo, Cecile Kyenge is a doctor who will serve as minister of integration. Proposals to make it easier for Italy' growing immigrant population to become citizens have gone nowhere in Parliament amid fierce opposition from the anti-immigrant Northern League party. The party, a Berlusconi ally, isn't in the new government.

Prominent among the women in the Cabinet is Emma Bonino, a former EU commissioner and Radical Party leader who will serve as foreign minister. Olympic gold medal kayaker Josefa Idem was tapped as minister of equal opportunity and sports.

Letta comes from a moderate wing of the left-rooted Democratic Party that is close to the Vatican. Since Parliament always includes an array of lawmakers enjoying good ties to the politically influential Catholic church in Italy, this was one more qualification on Letta's bridge-building resume.

The father of three sons, he lives in Rome's working-class Testaccio neighborhood. When he was tapped by Napolitano on Wednesday, he drove his own car to the Quirinal Palace, in what was seen as a photo opportunity gesture to Italian taxpayers who widely despise the huge fleet of luxury cars that shuttles around ministers and lawmakers.

In 1998, when he was 32, Letta became the youngest minister in Italy's history when he served as minister for European policy for then-Premier Massimo D'Alema, an ex-Communist leader. Letta seemed a natural for that post. He spent his childhood in Strasbourg, home to the European Parliament, and studied international law before jumping into politics.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/WJ77Gys4ack/Team-of-rivals-Italy-finally-forms-new-government-video

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Iraq suspends Al-Jazeera and 9 Iraqi TV channels

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, center right, Iraqi acting Defense Minister Sadun al-Dulaymi, center left, government officials, and parliament members, attend the funeral procession of five slain soldiers at the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 28, 2012. Gunmen killed 10 people in Iraq, including five soldiers near the main Sunni protest camp west of Baghdad on Saturday, the latest in a wave of violence that has raised fears the country faces a new round of sectarian bloodshed. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Security forces escort the coffins of five slain soldiers at the headquarters of the Iraqi Ministry of Defense in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, April 28, 2012. Gunmen killed 10 people in Iraq, including five soldiers near the main Sunni protest camp west of Baghdad on Saturday, the latest in a wave of violence that has raised fears the country faces a new round of sectarian bloodshed. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

BAGHDAD (AP) ? Iraqi authorities suspended the operating licenses of pan-Arab broadcaster Al-Jazeera and nine Iraqi TV channels on Sunday after accusing them of escalating sectarian tension. The move signaled the Shiite-led government's mounting worries over deteriorating security amid Sunni unrest and clashes that have left more than 180 people dead in less than a week.

The suspensions, which took effect immediately, appeared to target mainly Sunni channels known for criticizing Prime Minister Nouri al-Malik's government. Apart from Al-Jazeera, the decision affected eight Sunni and one Shiite channels.

The government's action comes as Baghdad tries to quell rising unrest in the country that erupted last week after Iraqi security forces launched a deadly crackdown on a Sunni protest site in the central city of Hawija, killing 23 people, including three soldiers.

Since then, more than 180 people have been killed in gunbattles with security forces and other attacks. The recent wave of violence follows more than four months of largely peaceful protests by Iraq's Sunni Muslim minority against Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's government.

Iraqi viewers will still be able to watch the channels, but the suspensions issued by Iraq's Communications and Media Commission state that if the 10 stations try to work on Iraqi territory they will face legal action from security forces. The decree essentially prevents news crews from the stations from reporting on activities in Iraq.

Sunni lawmaker Dahfir al-Ani described the move as part of the government's attempts "to cover up the bloodshed that took place in Hawija and what is going on in other places in the country."

Al-Jazeera, based in the small, energy-rich Gulf nation of Qatar, said it was "astonished" by the move.

"We cover all sides of the stories in Iraq, and have done for many years. The fact that so many channels have been hit all at once, though, suggests this is an indiscriminate decision," it said in an emailed statement. "We urge the authorities to uphold freedom for the media to report the important stories taking place in Iraq."

The channel has aggressively covered the "Arab Spring" uprisings across the region, and has broadcast extensively on the civil war in neighboring Syria. Qatar itself is a harsh critic of the Syrian regime. The nation is a leading backer of the rebels and is accused by many supporters of the Iraqi government of backing protests in Iraq too.

Newspapers and media outlets sprang up across Baghdad after the fall of the Saddam Hussein regime in 2003, yet Iraq remains one of the deadliest countries for reporters with more than 150 killed since 1992, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Iraq and other governments across the Middle East have temporarily shut down Al-Jazeera's offices in the past because they were disgruntled by its coverage.

The other nine channels whose licenses were suspended by the Iraqi media commission are al-Sharqiya and al-Sharqiya News, which frequently criticize the government, and seven smaller local channels ? Salahuddin, Fallujah, Taghyeer, Baghdad, Babiliya, Anwar 2 and al-Gharbiya.

The Baghdad-based Baghdad TV said the decision was politically motivated.

"The Iraqi authorities do not tolerate any opposite opinions and are trying to silence any voices that do not go along with the official line," said Omar Subhi, who directs the news section.

He added that the TV station was concerned about the safety of its staff, fearing that security forces might chase them.

In a statement posted on its website, the government media commission blamed the banned stations for the escalation of sectarian tension that is fueling the violence that followed the deadly clashes in Hawija.

Iraq's media commission accused the stations of misleading and exaggerated reports, airing "clear calls for disorder" and "launching retaliatory criminal attacks against security forces." It also blamed the stations for promoting "banned terrorist organizations who committed crimes against Iraqi people."

Osama Abdul-Rahman, a Sunni government employee from northern Baghdad, said the government is adopting a double-standard policy regarding media outlets by turning a blind eye on several Shiite channels that he claims also incite violence.

"The channels close to main Shiite parties and even the state-run television also broadcast sectarian programs promoting violence all the time, yet, nobody stops them," he added.

Erin Evers, a Mideast researcher for Human Rights Watch, called the government's claim that it moved against the channels because they were inciting sectarianism suspicious given its "consistent history of cracking down on media ? particularly opposition media ? during politically sensitive times."

"The cancellation of these stations' licenses is further evidence that the government seeks to prevent the coverage of news they do not like," she said.

She accused the Iraqi media commission of confusing coverage of a speech with sectarian overtones with the active promotion of sectarian violence. "These are two completely different things and the first is protected under international and Iraqi law," she said.

The decision to suspend the stations came as al-Maliki made a rare appearance at an official funeral for five soldiers killed on Saturday by gunmen in Sunni-dominated Anbar province. Local police in the province said the soldiers were killed in a gunbattle after their vehicle was stopped near a Sunni protest camp.

Authorities had given protest organizers a 24-deadline to hand over the gunmen behind the killing or face a "firm response." No one has been handed over and the deadline passed.

Wrapped in Iraqi flags, the five caskets were loaded on military trucks next to flower bouquets, as soldiers held pictures of the deceased and grieved families gathered outside the Defense Ministry building in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

In Saturday violence, gunmen using guns fitted with silencers shot dead two Sunni local tribal leaders in two separate drive-by shootings south of Baghdad.

___

Associated Press writers Adam Schreck and Sinan Salaheddin in Baghdad contributed.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-28-Iraq/id-ee5cf76251ec4669b843df1f18ecd03f

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What's in the Internet videos posted by Tamerlan Tsarnaev?

The videos do not show ties to any specific group, but do hint at a deeper yearning in the alleged Boston Marathon bomber for a heroic jihadi persona.

By John Thorne,?Correspondent / April 28, 2013

Among the videos?Tamerlan Tsarnaev?apparently posted on YouTube is a one-minute and 39-second clip of a chameleon on a tabletop, described by a tagline in Russian as ?one of the signs of Allah.?

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As an Islamic supplication to God is sung in Arabic, hands place different pairs of sunglasses beside the chameleon to make it change color. ?There is no God but you, and we have not worshiped you as we should!? The chameleon turns pink. ?Praise to God, alone in your sovereignty!? It turns aquamarine.

It?s unclear what drove Mr. Tsarnaev allegedly to bomb the Boston marathon with his younger brother, Dzhokhar, and it?s too late to ask him; he was killed in a shootout with police. But investigators hope his Internet habits might shed light on who he was ? and who he became.

The YouTube channel under his name is a puzzle. Popular songs in Russian and dance-trance music are interspersed with videos about Chechnya ? where his family origins lie ? Islam, and the concept of?jihad?as Islamic holy war. But rather than indicate direct links to a specific group, the videos seem to hint at a deeper yearning for a heroic?jihadi?persona.

That would fit with reports that the Tsarnaevs followed the teachings of Anwar al-Awlaki, an American Al Qaeda propagandist who was killed in Yemen by a US drone strike in 2011, say analysts. Mr. Awlaki specialized in simple rhetoric and avoided ideological hair-splitting to focus on armed struggle.

Jihadi crooner

Tamerlan Tsarnaev grew up in Kyrgyzstan and the Russian?republic?of Dagestan. But the family feared the repercussions of fighting in neighboring Chechnya and moved to the US, seeking asylum. Tamerlan arrived in 2004.?He was reportedly unhappy in the US and recently became more religious.

Nothing indicates the marathon bombing was linked to Chechnya?s?jihad-tinged campaign for independence. But interest in Chechnya may have?exposed?Tsarnaev to jihadist thinking, says Dr. Gary Bunt, a specialist in online Islam at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David.

?Chechen Islamic radical groups have always had a strong presence online,? he says. ?I?m not suggesting that?s part of the cause. But radical language and ideas could have been engendered by looking at some of that content.?

The YouTube channel suggests that kind of cross-pollination. One video is a song about jihad by Timur Mucuraev, a popular Chechen singer. Two videos posted under the heading ?Terrorism? have been removed ? it?s not clear by whom ? but according to The Washington Post they concerned a Dagestani?jihadi?named Gadzhimurad Dolgatov who was killed in December.

English and Russian videos?

Tamerlan?s Internet surfing apparently went beyond Chechnya. The YouTube channel has Russian and English-language videos, plus a few in Arabic with Russian subtitles, that address questions of Islamic piety from a conservative perspective.

One video condemns Sufism, or Islamic mysticism. Another trumpets female modesty. As a slideshow plays of women in gowns and face-veils, a man?s voice speaking English with an American accent gives context:

?Woman in the street look in the mirror, she looking to be sure she has the best style, she looks good, she can attract a man,? the voice says. But a Muslim woman uses the mirror to ?make sure she?s dressed appropriately ? that she?s covered to please Allah [the glorious and exalted].?

Then there?s Sheikh Feiz?Muhammad, an Australian preacher. In a video elsewhere on the net he attacks Harry Potter. In this one he lectures an audience on the importance of following not only the Quran, but the?sunnah, or personal example of the prophet Mohamed.

Those who disregard the?sunnah??are not Muslims, even though they claim to be Muslims,? he warns. His argument is the kind of argument often used by extremists to justify attacks in Muslim countries. For most Muslims, by contrast, questioning another?s faith is strictly forbidden.

Sheikh Feiz?s video appears under the heading ?Likes.? So does ?The Ultimate Muhamed Al-Luhaidan Video,? which shows men praying in a mosque while English text cites the Battle of Uhud in 625 AD to illustrate the value of martyrdom.?The prophet Mohammed led his followers from Mecca, his home city, to Medina. But a Meccan army?pursued them there?and nearly wiped them out ? a test of their faith, says the video.

?Think not of those killed in the way of Allah as dead. Nay, they are alive, with their Lord, and they have provision,"?say?the video captions.

Similarly, the English language-video ?The Emergence of Prophecy: the Black flags from Khorasan? depicts a prophetic tradition of an unstoppable Muslim army surging out of central Asia.

?The prophet said, ?When you see the black flags coming from the direction of Khorasan, you will join their army?,? begins the narration, to scenes of horsemen pounding over desert. Next the men are holding AK-47?s over their heads as they ford a stream. ?That army has already started its march.?

Awlaki's discourse

Those scenes of struggle and solidarity align with Awlaki?s discourse, say analysts. As a recruiter for Al Qaeda, his goal was broad appeal. And as a native English-speaker, he was well-suited to reaching a global audience.

Awlaki ?didn?t focus on the sectarian dimension of belief,? says Rashad Ali, a researcher with CENTRI, a counter-terrorism consultancy in London, and former member of the international Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir. ?Rather, he sought a middle ground to frame his ideology without drawing attention to the heresy presented by terrorism, which goes against tradition.?

Awlaki?influenced?Maj. Nidal Hasan, a US Army officer who shot dead 13 fellow soldiers at Fort Hood, in Texas, in 2009. Faisal Shahzad, who tried to set off a car bomb in New York?s Times Square in 2010, also cited Awlaki as an inspiration. ?

Awlaki?s message apparently reached the Tsarnaevs, too. Dzhokhar told FBI investigators they were influenced by?his teachings?and learned to make pressure-cooker bombs from?Inspire, an Al Qaeda magazine Awlaki was involved with, according to ABC News.

?His material, his sermons, are still obtainable online,? says Dr. Bunt. ?The same is true of?Inspire?magazine.?

Trance and dance

The YouTube channel could offer a glimpse into Tsarnaev?s state of?mind. But it also presents oddities, incongruencies, and unanswered questions.

Alongside Timur Mucuraev?s song about?jihad?are ?Vocal Trance Pure Essence V. 13? and ?Trance and Dance Mix 2012.? There are also two goofy songs by Russian singer Vasya Oblomov; one video shows him drinking vodka, the other shows Russian police in awkward situations.

So far everything suggests the Tsarnaevs acted alone. But while ideas and information can be found online, most?jihadis??have some sort of guidance, be it tactical, organizational, or simply moral support,? says Mr. Ali, citing his own observations and the 2011 book ?The Al Qaeda Factor.?

The YouTube channel was created last August, and only 15?different?videos appear to have been uploaded and seven ?liked.? But why an aspiring bomber might have left even a few digital footprints is a mystery.

Moreover, ?if he only started this account last year, he must have been active online before then,? says Bunt. ?If there?s a digital footprint out there it?s going to be on laptops and servers.?

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/vqu4Op03aQQ/What-s-in-the-Internet-videos-posted-by-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev

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