The US promised to double its nonlethal aid to the Syrian rebels; all foreign aid will go through the rebels’ Supreme Military Council. The State Department report on Human Rights Practices for 2012 said the democratic impulses that led to the Arab Spring are at risk of being crushed. The inquiry into the Boston Marathon bombings revealed that slain bomber Tamarlan Tsarnaev was considered a radical Islamist by the FBI, which had investigated him in 2011 at Russia’s request.
