A Bellevue University expert on intelligence and international security believes Monday’s terror attacks in Boston were the work of either a domestic or a hybrid group.
Three people were killed and more than 100 injured in Monday’s bombings along the Boston Marathon route. The FBI has taken over the investigation.
Matthew Crosston, Director of Bellevue University’s International Security and Intelligence Studies program, says whether the attacks were the work of foreign or domestic terrorists doesn’t matter strictly from an investigative standpoint.
"I think it has an impact being domestic or foreign simply from the way we view some of our constraints, some of our efforts to deter terrorist actions from taking place. If this is, in fact, something that turns out to be more domestically-oriented, it just requires a whole set of different investigative approaches, because you’re not going to be dealing in a global arena and you’re not going to be dealing with people who had to first gain access to the United States, they likely were already in the United States."
Crosston says a hybrid group would be one with foreign terrorists who’ve been in the United States for a while and didn’t train overseas before coming to the U.S.
No group has claimed responsibility yet for Monday’s terror attacks in Boston.