Megyn Kelly is best known as the hard-edged news anchor who wasn’t afraid to push back on conservative orthodoxy at Fox News Channel. Her new employer, NBC Universal, is trying to trot out a softer side.
As NBC prepares to launch a new morning show led by the much-scrutinized Kelly, it has unleashed a promotional salvo that speaks less about her news chops and instead tries to unveil other facets of her personality. One recent promo shows Kelly shaking hands with people in a supermarket and at a baseball stadium, and suggests her program, Megyn Kelly Today, is “not about us versus them. It’s about us for everyone.” She’s sharing space on an NBCU billboard in Times Square that depicts her offering up a hot cup of coffee. In a video posted on her new show’s Twitter feed, she reveals a fondness for Overboard, the 1987 comedy featuring Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn.
NBC is placing a big bet on Kelly, whose national profile has broadened thanks to a rise at Fox News, a public tangle with President Donald Trump early in the election cycle and her recent move to NBC. NBCU is said to be paying her around $17 million a year. To form a bond with morning-show viewers, however, NBC will have to burnish “the kind of things that aren’t noticeable enough to estrange her existing fans, but will make a newer potential audience go ‘Huh. Who knew she was like that?’” says Rachel Weingarten, a brand strategist.
The new program, whose light-blue logo combines Kelly’s name with part of the “rainbow” that is part of the markings of NBC’s Today franchise, is slated to launch on Monday. But branding experts suggested the task of turning up the lighter aspects of Kelly’s personality won’t end after the first broadcast.
“She’s more of a hard-edged newsperson than a chit-chattering tell-me-about-your-book” type, says Allen Adamson of Brand Simple Consulting. NBC faces a task similar to the one CBS grappled with when it hired Katie Couric, long known for her convivial morning-show personality and tried to use it to shake up the format of the more serious CBS Evening News between 2006 and 2011, says Jeffrey McCall, a professor of media studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. “Kelly is known as the smart and aggressive news interviewer and now she is going to be trying to appeal to a different kind of audience in a calmer, more featurish setting,” he says.
Kelly will be going toe-to-toe with Live, the syndicated powerhouse that Disney/ABC Television Group has enhanced by adding Ryan Seacrest as Kelly Ripa’s co-host. Kelly’s program will be considered part of the overall Today franchise – it’s sandwiched between two hours featuring Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie and a 10 a.m. show led by Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb – and is using that to assuage marketers who might fret over supporting an unproven entry in the schedule. The launch comes after a mixed performance on a Sunday-night newsmagazine that raised some hackles, thanks to an interview with controversial web provocateur Alex Jones.
NBC hasn’t overplayed expectations for its new efforts involving Kelly. “There are very few news organizations adding programs right now. We have a complete reset of the 9 a.m. hour coming with Megyn, and a new offering on Sunday night at 7 p.m.,” NBC News Chairman Andrew Lack told NBC affiliates at a meeting in May. “It’s not going to be perfect on Day One, and we’re not going to be in first place on Day Two – but I’d rather be holding our cards than anyone else’s.”
The company has made the launch of her program a promotional priority in recent weeks. NBCUniversal has aired promos during Sunday Night Football; NBC Nightly News; and America’s Got Talent. The show is being touted in bottom-of-the-screen “snipes” during various programs. In addition to Times Square, Kelly is also being featured on a billboard out on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and on signs at NBCU’s theme parks.
In recent weeks, Kelly has also followed a broadcast-network tradition of pressing the flesh at various network affiliates. It’s a time-honored practice taken up by most TV personalities taking on a big job, whether they be late-night comedians or daytime talk leaders, because the stations can do a lot to connect local viewers to a national program. Pictures on social-media pages for the new Kelly program show her hosting a coffee mug at Orlando’s WESH, meeting staffers at KXAS in Fort Worth, and visiting WRAL in Raleigh. She also found time to take in a Durham Bulls game.
And she’s making the rounds of entertainment-focused talk shows. She appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’ syndicated program on Tuesday, outfitted in a Sumo-wrestler fat suit. “This does not feel like an Edward R. Murrow moment,” she told the host, who put her through a talk-show obstacle course, including cooking tips, exercise, dancing and shaking the hands of audience members. On Thursday night, she’s scheduled to visit Jimmy Fallon’s Tonight Show.
Kelly’s transformation will likely continue, and after her program debuts, more of it will be in the public eye. Weingarten, the brand strategist, expects her to embrace a wardrobe with softer edges and less bold designs, and wonders if focus groups could be employed as her program gets off the ground. “As she hopes to evolve,” she said, “the way we see her is changed.”
This marks the first post of my upcoming series of posts on Israel. As I’m typing away and recalling what we’ve done a couple of weeks ago, I’m also savouring the Israeli snacks I bought in Jerusalem at the same time. Sam and I just did ‘We Tried Israeli Snacks!’ video on Youtube last night and you can watch it right here!
So our adventure started off at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv after emerging from the rickety old plane of El-Al Israel airline. I only managed to catch about 5 hours of sleep onboard the night before and that day, we had a full day itinerary planned for us.
Our group is accompanied by a church leader as well as a tour guide from Israel. So it turns out that the tour agency in Israel which our church has engaged with is Sar-El tours. We had Kiki onboard as well as a big burly driver who turns out to be the nicest guy I’ve met in Israel.
We were pretty happy with the air-conditioned bus. It was huge enough to have all 46 of us seated comfortably. It not only has wifi but it also has USB power sockets for us to charge our phones. How awesome!
How was the weather like in March during springtime? It is cooling throughout the day but it can get rather warm if the sun is beating down hard. It’s windy most of the time and in the night, the temperature can drop below 10 degree Celsius. You would need to prepare extra layers of clothes where you can take it off easily during the day.
Once we settled in for a bit, our guide handed out the Whisper headsets to us. It is like a personal audio device for us to listen what the guide was saying through her microphone. As such, our guide wouldn’t need to raise her voice while talking to us. How ingenious! I would love to have such ‘whisper’ devices where I could use it for school learning journeys.
What comes next is a bunch of welcome gifts given by SAR-EL. They distributed free backpacks, a cap, a selfie stick and a map of Israel to us. That’s a really nice gesture of them. Toda!
Enroute from the airport to our breakfast place, Kiki started sharing with us about the geography of Israel. She even handed down 3D maps, laminated posters and charts to illustrate her sharings and explanations on Israel. It turns out that Kiki was once a teacher so that explains for all those ‘teaching tools’ which she had created.
Breakfast was at the city of Joppa (or Jaffa) where we had a simple but delicious cheese bagel in an eatery along the main road. Jaffa is one of the oldest harbour in the world and today it is still functioning as a harbour for small fishing boats.
We actually visited this place again during the last day of our trip. I must say that it is a charming city to explore and walk about on your own.
I had no idea what’s the name of this bagel place is called because I can’t read Hebrew. If you do know about this place, do let me know in the comment box below! They sell really delicious Israeli cheese bagels.
Each of us was served a large bagel toast together with some slices of fresh cucumber and tomatoes. It’s our very first meal in Israel, and it was very delightful. They also served us a small cup of black coffee too.
Beth Shemesh means the house of the sun. It belongs to the Canaanites who probably worship the sun even though the Bible warns against it. It lies on the road leading to the Valley of Elah where the story of David and Goliath took place. Tel Beth Shemesh was also mentioned in connection to the return of the Ark of the Covenant by the Philistines in the bible.
The Valley of Elah is the site of the legendary battle between Israel and the Philistines where David fought with Goliath mentioned in 1 Samuel 17 of the bible. It was a glorious battle where David, who was only a shepherd boy, killed Goliath the giant with five smooth stones and a slingshot in the name of the Lord. His faith has kept him well. It reminded us that the battle is the Lord’s – no matter how small or weak we are, we can defeat anything with God standing right beside us.
Throughout our 9 days in Israel, we had similar Mediterranean-style buffets such as this for most of our meals. It was lovely to enjoy different types of salad each day but after 7 days of eating cold salads with hummus, we all started to crave for warm Asian food. Here’s how our typical meal looks like – some rice, vegetables, potatoes and meat.
After lunch, we visited Yad Hashmona Biblical Garden. It is a village enclave run by Messianic Jews and Finnish Christians. They also have a guesthouse there for visitors to live in.
We had a tour of the place there by a lady from Finland. The tour gave us a good understanding of the customs and traditions of the ancient Israelites, agriculture and way of life. We saw an ancient wine press, an olive oil press, a “Mikve” (ritual bath), a burial cave and even an agricultural watchtower there – all of which provided us with a glimpse of how the ancient Israelites lived.
Finally, we got to check-in at our hotel, Grand Court Hotel (Jerusalem), which is located along Saint George Street in Jerusalem. We stayed there for eight nights, and this was also where we had our breakfast and dinner at.
Thankfully, the hotel rooms were generally clean but we suspected that they did not change our towels because there were some stains on it. But bedding-wise, it was all good. The bed and pillows were very comfortable and I was able to sleep comfortably on the beds for the past 8 nights.
The rooms were all air-conditioned but since the temperature usually dropped below 10 degree Celsius in the evenings, we decided to turn off the air-con. We weren’t sure if there’s a heater but we still felt rather cold in the room. Since they do have extra blankets stored in the wardrobe, I took the extra blanket to warm myself up. It really helps.
Our twin rooms came with a bathtub and all bath amenities were provided, including shower cap and body lotion. There’s also a hair dryer installed in the bathroom.
They do have a swimming pool, but it wasn’t open that day. According to the map of the hotel found in the lift lobby area, there’s supposed to be a gym in the hotel as well, but we can’t find it.
Hotel Breakfast usually starts at 7 am, and as you can see, the Olive restaurant is rather expansive because this hotel tends to host large tour groups.
Food is decent. Occasionally, they would try to switch up the dishes for dinner. For instance, there was one night where they serve french fries and burgers. Another evening, they prepared sushi rolls. Otherwise, their dinner menu is pretty standard for the rest of the evenings.
For breakfast, I like to eat their warm oatmeal with some fruits and muesli. The breakfast spread is good as they have quite a large variety of breakfast items.
Legal prostitution in Nevada: "It's like you sign a contract to be raped" - Deep Green Resistance Great Basin
There is only one place in the US where brothels are legal, and that’s Nevada – a state in which prostitution has been considered a necessary service industry since the days when the place was populated solely by prospecters. There are at least 20 legal brothels in business now. Not so many, you might think, but these state-sanctioned operations punch above their weight in PR terms.
Take HBO’s hit documentary series, Cathouse, which features the most famous of the Nevadan brothels, the Moonlight Bunny Ranch. Tune in and you’d be forgiven for thinking that all prostitutes in Nevada are on to a good thing. The women speak coyly about loving their work, their customers, their bosses. “The series sheds light not only on the numerous joys and challenges of working at a legal brothel,” says the HBO website, “but on the therapeutic benefits that customers take with them after a stint at the Ranch.”
Given such great PR, a new book – Prostitution and Trafficking in Nevada: Making the Connections – makes interesting reading. During a two-year investigation, the author, Melissa Farley, visited eight legal brothels in Nevada, interviewing 45 women and a number of brothel owners. Far from enjoying better conditions than those who work illegally, the prostitutes she spoke to are often subject to slave-like conditions.
Male Supremacy, Prostitution, Women & Radical Feminism Nevada, Nordic Model, 4: Civilization is based on hierarchy. permalink.
Lawyers for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev asserted Friday that his older brother and alleged accomplice had been encouraged by the FBI to be an informant and to report on the Chechen and Muslim community, according to court records.
“We seek this information based on our belief that these contacts were among the precipitating events for Tamerlan’s actions during the week of April 15, 2013, and thus material to the defense case in mitigation,” the lawyers said in their court filing.
“We base this on information from our client’s family and other sources that the FBI made more than one visit to talk with Anzor [his father], Zubeidat [his mother] and Tamerlan, questioned Tamerlan about his Internet searches, and asked him to be an informant, reporting on the Chechen and Muslim community.
“We do not suggest that these contacts are to be blamed and have no evidence to suggest that they were improper, but rather view them as an important part of the story of Tamerlan’s decline. Since Tamerlan is dead, the government is the source of corroboration that these visits did in fact occur and of what was said during them.”
The lawyers suggested that Tamerlan Tsarnaev could have misinterpreted his interactions with the FBI as pressure from the agency, and that they could have “increased his paranoia and distress.”
The defense wants to investigate those factors as it seeks to portray Tamerlan as a dominating family figure who may have pushed the younger Dzhokhar to take part in the April 15 bombings last year. Tamerlan was killed days after the bombings in a confrontation with police in Watertown.
The lawyers’ allegation, based on conversations with family members and other sources, was made in a 23-page court filing Friday in which the lawyers sought a court order forcing prosecutors to turn over more evidence in the case.
Specifically, they want additional evidence about Tamerlan’s radical views, which would be useful in the lawyers’ defense against the death penalty.
Lawyers argued that, now that prosecutors have declared they will seek capital punishment, Dzhokar should be allowed to present evidence of mitigating factors that would tilt a jury against the death penalty.
Those factors include evidence about his age at the time of the bombings, which was 19, his lack of criminal history, and the possible influence of others, specifically a radical older brother, court records said.
“The underlying data concerning the brothers’ activities, state of mind, and respective trajectories is critical,” the defense said. “Evidence that shows Tamerlan to have had a substantially longer and deeper engagement than his younger brother with extremist and violent ideology is mitigating for the light that it sheds on their relative culpability.”
Prosecutors did not immediately respond to the defense request, though defense lawyers conceded that they have a March 14, 2014, letter in which prosecutors said they had “no evidence that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was solicited by the government to be an informant.”
Although the FBI does not comment on court matters, the bureau cited a statement Friday that it made Oct. 18, 2013, which said, “The Tsarnaev brothers were never sources for the FBI, nor did the FBI attempt to recruit them as sources.”
Dzokhar Tsarnaev, now 20, faces a 30-count indictment in his alleged role in the bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 260. He and Tamerlan also allegedly shot and killed an MIT police officer before the confrontation with police in Watertown.
Tsarnaev is being held at the federal prison at Fort Devens in Ayer. He is slated to go to trial in November.
Prosecutors have described him as a young Muslim extremist who wanted to carry out jihad, or holy war, against the United States. They alleged the brothers learned to build the bombs through websites that supported Al Qaeda.
In court requests filed late Friday, the defense lawyers sought a court order to force prosecutors to turn over a list of records, including reports related to the fatal shooting of MIT police Officer Sean Collier, the Watertown confrontation, and any evidence that an MBTA police officer was shot by fellow officers, rather than by Dzokhar Tsarnaev, who the lawyers say was unarmed.
One of the court requests asked for any information prosecutors collected under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act including any surveillance of Tamerlan’s return visits to Dagestan and the Chechnya region before the bombings.
A recent US House of Representatives homeland security report indicated FBI officials in Moscow may have collected “electronic communication” between Tamerlan and a jihadist named William Plotnikov.
“Any surveillance, evidence, or interviews showing that Tamerlan’s pursuit of jihad predated Dzhokhar’s would tend to support the theory that Tamerlan was the main instigator of the tragic events that followed,” the defense lawyers argued.
The lawyers are also seeking the immigration records of Tsarnaev’s family members, including his mother, father, and brother.
His father, Anzor, sought the family’s asylum in fleeing torture in Kyrgyzstan close to two decades ago, and the defense lawyers argued that the records would illustrate Tsarnaev’s family history.
They also said that Tamerlan’s immigration records could yield more evidence about his encounters with federal authorities, specifically after his visits to Dagestan that caught the attention of Russian officials.
The lawyers said they plan to argue that the unknowns about Tsarnaev’s “formative environment and relative moral culpability” and the possible “psychological domination” by his brother would support their case against the death penalty.
I’ve been saying this for almost a year. So now there should be little doubt that FBI knew exactly who blew up Boston before they released his pics to the public.
Lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, accused of planting one of the bombs at last year’s Boston Marathon, said Friday that repeated contacts by the FBI were among “precipitating events” leading up to the bombings.
In court documents filed Friday, defense lawyers asked the judge overseeing the case for an order requiring the government to turn over all records of the FBI’s contacts with Tsarnaev’s older brother, Tamerlan. He was interviewed by FBI agents in response to a concern expressed by the Russian government that he might become radicalized.
“We seek this information based on our belief that these contacts were among the precipitating events for Tamerlan’s actions during the week” of the bombings, the lawyers aid.
They wrote that the Tsarnaev family and “other sources” have said that the FBI made more than one visit to talk to Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his parents, during which agents “questioned Tamerlan about his internet searches, and asked him to be an informant, reporting on the Chechen and Muslim community.”
The court filing quotes prosecutors as saying they have no evidence that the older Tsarnaev was asked to be an informant.
Nonetheless, the defense lawyers say they believe that Tamerlan misinterpreted the visits by the FBI as pressure, increasing his paranoia and distress.
“We do not suggest that these contracts are to be planed and have no evidence to suggest that they were improper,” the lawyers say.
The court document makes clear that his lawyers will stress the age difference between the younger Tsarnaev and his older brother, who were 19 and 26 at the time of the bombing. The lawyers say they will resist any attempt to persuade the jury “that the brothers were equally culpable, despite the marked differences in their ages, personalities, and levels of prior involvement in violent activity.”
Cops are allowed to lie to suspects, so I imagine the FBI/MSP team told Todashev that they knew he did it, because they have DNA evidence that linked Todashev to the scene. Todashev probably had to give a DNA sample when he was arrested in May after that fight at an Orlando shopping mall. He was charged with aggravated battery causing great bodily harm, a second-degree felony. Felony arrests in Florida and about 20 other states require a DNA sample during booking and processing. So, they told Todashev that they matched his DNA. Maybe they did actually get his DNA and matched it. Either way, that’s what they told him.
By the way, last year when I initially read the police report of that Orlando shopping mall fight (it’s online), I sensed that the fight was staged by FBI/MSP. It just seemed strange, because I knew they had to be following and surveilling Todashev, but yet they allowed the fight to continue and never intervened. A regular Orlando or Orange County sheriff had to be dispatched to apprehend and arrest Todashev who was driving off after beating the guy senseless. There is no way FBI/MSP were not there. If they weren’t constantly surveilling him that would be gross incompetence as he was already connected to Tamerlan and who knows what. And actually, the Orlando sheriff happened to be in the area, which made me think the sheriff was likely part of the surveillance detail. I only mention all that because, Susan, you should find that police report and read it. It seems contrived. I will link it if I can find it. Having trouble finding it now. Can’t remember if I saw it on Orlando County’s site or a Florida newspaper’s site. Report and addendum. It was strange because the alleged “victims” spoke no English, so the sheriff “translated”.
So back to the DNA trap. So, the cops tell him they have DNA evidence from his recent DNA sample and the Waltham crime scene and Todashev believes he’s in serious trouble, and he wants to know if he confesses will he get less time, and of course the cops tell him they will tell the prosecutor and judge that he cooperated and so the sentence might be reduced, knowing full well that they will throw the book at him for a triple-homicide. So reluctantly Todashev confesses, but he wants a reduced sentence so he proceeds to tell a story that is less horrific than saying they both went up there, drew a gun, pistol whipped them, beat them up and slit their throats. Once Todashev realized he was getting to the part of the confession that detailed the throat-slitting, he must’ve known that would get him locked up for a long time, so he never got around to mentioning the knife. Perhaps the knife was there. But my guess is that they brought a knife or 2 with them to make it a quieter robbery/murder than several gunshots. There’s another reason the knives and throat-slitting fit so well. There is an old saying in Chechen culture: “A man is not a man, unless he carries a knife”. It’s a traditional saying in Chechnya, going back centuries. And if you have the stomach for it, google Chechen Massacre or Dagestan Beheading Massacre. Knives are the preferred MO in the old country.
So I don’t find it that odd that Todashev would confess to a lesser and different set of facts than the actual crime. Remember, if they did steal a much larger amount of money, then it was a robbery. They stole the much larger amount of cash that was there, which Hiba Eltilib stated she believed to be there. The scattered drugs and money are not that surprising, as this occurred on 9/11/11. Tamerlan liked his symbolisms. Tamerlan needed cash to return to Dagestan/Chechnya, Todashev needed a Benz.
I don’t much doubt that Todashev was involved in the Waltham murders. But why didn’t FBI-Boston and Middlesex DA Gerry Leone pursue Tamerlan with more tenacity in 2011. Leone was a long-time member of Boston’s JTTF, Joint Terrorism Task Force. There is no way a triple homicide with near decapitation flies under the radar of Boston JTTF, FBI-Boston, Leone, and even the CIA, especially when it happens on 9/11/11, and when a close friend of Mess has a name like Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is Muslim and hails from Chechnya. Just ain’t possible. Just wouldn’t happen. Not once. Do you know where the name Tamerlan comes from? Tamerlane, Timur, Sword of Islam . Google it. There is no way Tamerlan didn’t ring a bell for Leone, the FBI, or JTTF, especially when Russia had warned them about him. Tamerlan Tsarnaev. A good-sized boxer from Chechnya, mother from Dagestan. The story that FBI, Leone et al didn’t know Tamerlan after Waltham and after the Marathon and before they released his pics to the public is utter nonsense. So why didn’t they pursue him back in 2011? The answer to that question will shed light on Todashev’s sudden demise.
The CIA did not false flag the Boston Marathon, but they were definitely running around Ukraine, Georgia, Chechnya, Dagestan, Armenia and Azerbaijan recruiting anyone and everyone they could to fight the good fight. Their first recruit was Uncle Ruslan Tsarni, who changed his name from Tsarnaev to Tsarni after attending Duke Law. Tsarni was Fuller’s chief recruitment officer. Tamerlan rebelled and got out of control. Remember Safwan? Look up the co-defendants in the case Safwan “Sammy” Madarati is involved with. Remember Uncle Tsarni disparaging Armenians? Remember the elusive Misha?
It’s the same guy, with a little name change, just like Ruslan, Nikolay’s nickname too, that’s what organized criminals, and nobody is more organized and less transparent than the CIA. Chechen Obshina and CIA tighter than Mujahideen and CIA ever could’ve dreamt. Chechen oil is of such a high quality that it burns in the Vatican. Remember Sen. Lindsey Graham stating that he wants to put a democratic noose around Russia? That wasn’t his idea, but he certainly understands and supports it. Why people from South Carolina are always talking about war, rebellion and nooses when they were responsible for the largest slaughter of Americans ever is a topic for another post.
Anyway, it’s not a rope that encircles Russia, it’s the CIA and every Central Asian gangster, jihadist and terrorist who will help them. Sometimes the worst laid plans backfire, or worse. But nobody is really watching the CIA and they answer to nobody, as the FBI proved in Orlando. Sometimes I think it’s our democracy that has a rope around its neck.
A bit long, but this whole situation bothers me. My mother and father would’ve been at the Boston Marathon last year, as my mother volunteers every year since she stopped running it about a decade ago, but fortunately she had a doctor’s appointment that day, which is where she was with my father when I called her that day after watching the at first unexplainable explosion on Boylston, and I used to live and work a few blocks from there and I probably would’ve been there if I still lived in Boston. So, yeah, if the truth is that boneheaded machinations of the CIA, Graham Fuller, Lindsey Graham, McCain and the rest of the war and chickenhawks created the conditions that induced the bombing, yeah, I want accountability and the truth. At the very least, the Tsarnaev family of criminals was allowed into this country because of Uncle Ruslan Tsarni’s CIA connection to Fuller and Ruslan’s marriage to his daughter. Research Graham Fuller. He wasn’t just a random CIA stiff. He was at the very top. Most likely he still is as the very top never truly leaves the CIA.
The medical examiner’s office said it completed the autopsy report on Ibragim Todashev, a friend of suspected Boston Marathon bomber c, on July 8 and that the report was “ready for release.” The agent shot and killed Todashev on May 22 in his Orlando apartment during an interrogation related to the Boston Marathon bombings.
The medical examiner’s office said it would check with the FBI every month for permission to release the autopsy report, and that such delays most frequently happen with homicide cases.
Tagged as Boston, boston marathon, FBI, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Florida, Justice Department, Massachusetts State Police, Todashev
Updated: Here is the link to a Russian site containing the most complete set of photos available online. Warning: Graphic Content. The following images were originally published on the website Кавказская политика Kavkazskaya Politika (Politics of the Caucasus).
These are the currently available online photos of Ibragim Todashev after his death by multiple FBI gunshots. Correction: See above link for most complete set of photos.
Note: Apparently, these photos were taken in the morgue, but it is not clear whether or not they are the official autopsy photos as a caption at the Ottawa Citizen newspaper states that the photos were taken by Todashev’s friend, Khusen Taramov.
Ibragim Todashev torso autopsy wounds and apparent gunshot wounds (left), head gunshot wound (right)
Shot 7 times, once in back of head? And Ibragim was unarmed? Really? I suppose you can argue that the gunshot was to the top of Ibragim’s head, not the back, but still. Excessive Force does not even begin to describe what happened here. Excessive Force would be Rodney King; this appears to be felony murder.
Florida, though. Stand Your Ground law? George Zimmerman meets FBI? But in the victim’s home? At midnight or soon after? Florida’s law enforcement would never challenge FBI. Not once.
And, apparently, the FBI did send Taramov away from the scene of Todashev’s death. I had been wondering if Taramov was just standing outside for hours while FBI questioned Todashev and whether or not Taramov heard the gunshots. FBI sent Taramov to a nearby cafe:
On the day of Ibragim’s death, Taramov was questioned by the FBI separately on the street, and was refused entry back into his friend’s house, Todashev’s father claimed. He was “sent off” to wait in a nearby café on the grounds that Todashev was still being questioned and that “the interrogation would take a long time.” After some eight hours passed since the start of interrogation and his Todashev’s phone still was not answering, Taramov returned, only to find the street cordoned off with police cars and an ambulance.
“They tortured a man for eight hours with no attorney, no witnesses, nobody. We can only guess what was going on there, until there is an official investigation,” Abdulbaki Todashev said.