Orientalism, Islamophobia, and the Tsarnaev Case, Part 3: The Micro, Continued

In this three-part podcast miniseries, Tom "Attorney Dad" Frizzell plays host and invites his daughter Heather to share what she learned in her Master's program in International Studies at the University of Washington. She discusses how writing her academic thesis on Dzhokhar "Jahar" Tsarnaev's case helped her better understand not just the Boston Marathon bombing, but the War on Terror, American foreign policy, and systemic discrimination against Muslims.

In the final installment, she wraps up her discussion of the "micro": how the mainstream media coverage of Jahar's case fanned the flames of misinformation, which aided prosecutors in their bid to sentence him to death in 2015. Topics covered include bias from journalists, particularly from disgraced Boston Globe columnist Kevin Cullen and in the controversial July 2013 Rolling Stone article "Jahar's World;" understanding Jahar's so-called "jihadist rhetoric" as an invention of Western law enforcement; solving the riddle of the boat note, the most damning piece of evidence used against Jahar at trial; why his legal team leaned into Orientalist stereotypes to defend him; how national American politics influenced the Obama administration's stance on pursuing the death penalty for Jahar; the dubious nature of "terrorism experts" and their use by the government at trial; the dangers inherent to private intelligence firms; a hot take on "jihadists" in general, and more.

(Correction: I misspeak in the episode, saying Dr. Matthew Levitt was employed by the Center for Middle East Policy. He was employed by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.)

Read Heather's thesis here: https://usvtsarnaev.org/2019/10/29/regimes-of-truth-why-everything-known-about-the-boston-marathon-bombing-is-wrong/

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Episode music: "The Complex" by Kevin MacLeod
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