We documented earlier today that the American government has squandered huge sums of homeland security and defense spending on useless tasks that increase – rather than prevent -terrorism.

Indeed, the head cross-country track coach at the University of Mobile – Alastair Stevenson – told Alabama’s Press-Register:

“At the starting line this morning, they had bomb sniffing dogs and the bomb squad out there,” he said. “They kept announcing to runners not to be alarmed, that they were running a training exercise.”

He added, “I’ve run a lot of races like this one, but I never saw bomb dogs at the starting line of any running event.

Stevenson provided additional details in an interview by local 15 tv news:

University of Mobile’s Cross Country Coach, who was near the finish line of the Boston Marathon when a series of explosions went off, said he thought it was odd there werebomb sniffing dogs at the start and finish lines.

“They kept making announcements to the participants do not worry, it’s just a training exercise,” Coach Ali Stevenson told Local 15.

Stevenson said he saw law enforcement spotters on the roofs at the start of the race. He’s been in plenty of marathons in Chicago, D.C., Chicago, London and other major metropolitan areas but has never seen that level of security before.

All of the marathon runners – including Stevenson – started the race hours before the bombs exploded.

As one of our readers notes:

All of America’s security forces were there.  Spotters.  Bomb sniffing dogs.  The whole array.  They even ran a drill beforehand.

Comparisons to 9/11 are inevitable.