Bomb Investigation Shifts To Suspect’s Russian Trip
By ERIC SCHMITT, MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT and ELLEN BARRY
Published: April 20, 2013 92 Comments
WASHINGTON — With one suspect dead and the other captured and lying grievously wounded in a hospital, the investigation into theBoston Marathon bombings turned on Saturday to questions about the men’s motives, and to the significance of an overseas trip one of them took last year.
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Federal investigators are hurrying to review a visit that one of the suspected bombers made to Chechnya and Dagestan, predominantly Muslim republics in the north Caucasus region of Russia. Both have active militant separatist movements. There are concerns in Congress about the F.B.I.’s handling of a request from Russia before the trip to examine the man’s possible links to extremist groups in the region.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died early Friday after a shootout with the police in Watertown, Mass., spent six months of last year in Dagestan.
Tamerlan’s father, Anzor, said his son had returned to renew his passport, but his stay was prolonged and, analysts said, may have marked a crucial step in his path toward the bombing of the Boston Marathon.
Kevin R. Brock, a former senior F.B.I. and counterterrorism official, said, “It’s a key thread for investigators and the intelligence community to pull on.”
The investigators began scrutinizing the events in the months and years before the fatal attack, as Boston began to feel like itself for the first time in nearly a week .
Monday had brought the bombing, near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, which killed three and wounded scores, and the tense days that followed culminated in Friday’s lockdown of the entire region as the police searched for Mr. Tsarnaev’s younger brother from suburban backyards to an Amtrak train bound for New York City.
The motivations of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, who was taken into custody Friday night and is still too wounded to speak, are as yet publicly unknown. Of Chechen heritage, they lived in the United States for years, according to friends and relatives, and no direct ties have been publicly established with known Chechen terrorist or separatist groups.
The significance of the trip was magnified late Friday when the F.B.I. disclosed in a statement that in 2011 “a foreign government” — now acknowledged by officials to be Russia — asked for information about Tamerlan, “based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.”
The senior law enforcement official said the Russians feared he could be a risk, and “they had something on him and were concerned about him, and him traveling to their region.”
But the F.B.I. never followed up on Tamerlan once he returned, a senior law enforcement acknowledged on Saturday, adding that the bureau had not kept tabs on him until he was identified on Friday as the first suspect in the marathon bombing case.
President Obama and Republican lawmakers devoted their weekly broadcast addresses to the Boston attack, with both sides finding a common voice.
Russia and the United States have since 1994 routinely exchanged requests for background information on residents traveling between those countries on visa, criminal or terrorism issues. It was unclear Saturday whether Russia makes requests of any American traveler of Chechen origin to Russia, or if the Russian government offered the F.B.I. specific evidence in the case of Mr. Tsarnaev.
The bureau responded to the request by checking “U.S. government databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history,” the statement explained.
In January 2011, two agents from the bureau’s Boston field office interviewed Tamerlan and family members, a senior law enforcement official said on Saturday. According to the F.B.I.’s statement, “The F.B.I. did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign,” and conveyed those findings to “the foreign government” by the summer of 2011.
As the law enforcement official put it, “We didn’t find anything on him that was derogatory.”
The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the father of the Tsarnaev brothers recalling the F.B.I.’s close questioning of his elder son, “two or three times.”
He said they had told his son that the questioning “is prophylactic, so that no one sets off bombs on the streets of Boston, so that our children could peacefully go to school.”
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This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: April 20, 2013
An earlier version of this article misidentified the office held by Tim Scott of South Carolina. He is a senator, not a representative.
92 Comments
Most "terror cases" (tho not all) have been sting operations, after all.
Even if the general public believes the official story, it would be useful to really show due diligence to head off the conspiracy therories.
"Tamerlan’s father, Anzor, said his son had returned to renew his passport"
1. How come that he is still in possession of a Russian passport? After the asylum being granted, he should be issued a refugee travel document (RTD).
2. As people already pointed out, why cannot he renew the passport at the consular department of the Russian embassy in DC?
It at least has the appearance that he is trying to keep his RTD from the asylum status while gaming the local authorities in Dagestan for a Russian passport.
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that. —George Carlin
As for the complaints about government overreach and martial law, would it be better to have more innocent citizens wounded or killed by stray bullets in a firefight, or blown up when IEDs were tossed because they were moving freely about? I love America, but the complaining for its own sake by some of my fellow Americans boggles my mind.
Our dedicated public servants risked their lives to prevent additional carnage. They deserve our appreciation, not our criticism. Stop speculating, and trust that the facts will be uncovered in the investigation.
The official narrative of the Boston marathon bombing presents inconsistencies with facts on the ground. If you plan a bomb attack -- not one of self immolation -- the first thing to do is to plan an exit strategy.
You don't go back to your hood, rob a seven eleven store, do a carjacking and engage cops in a firefight. The word entrapment comes to mind immediately.
Terrorists may be crazy but they are not stupid.
For people distrustful of government, the Boston bombing has all elements to create another urban legend conspiracy. Just wait for the first book to come up during summer vacations.
The big questions should be asked of the Dept. of Homeland (In)security. Why don't we deport men that commit violent acts against women? Older brother easily could have maimed or killed a young American woman instead of blowing up 100 people. Either way, he should never have been here.
Also, DHS should be deporting dangerous people. Maybe the FBI wrote them a memo and it was ignored.
I guess that domestic violence is not a serious matter, is it?
when being forced to chauffeur the terrorist brothers.
A lesson and a code of behaviour to all concerned citizens.
Wanna crash your own car? Go ahead. Just let other innocent people know before you do so they can stay out of your way.
I'd also like to commend the FBI, police and the public for identifying and capturing these guys as quickly as they did. Remember it took authorities 7 YEARS to capture Eric Robert Rudolph, the so called "pro-life" Olympic Park Bomber. With cameras and videos everywhere it makes carrying out and getting away with one of these attacks for more difficult (though certainly not impossible).
What I truly hope does not occur is for people to use what happened this week as an excuse to rail against immigrants and legal immigration to this country. Or for there to be a backlash against Muslims. I teach kids who come to this country with their families for a better life, much as the Tsarnaev family apparently did, and I am concerned about the effect this week's events will have on them. They are about the same age the Tsarnaev boys were when they arrived here, and I can only imagine what my students must be thinking now. I hope I can reassure them on Monday that they have a bright future in America.
Explain your system for singling out the ones who will go over the line.
Who made the bombs? Where were they tested?
Who picked the target? Why this target?
The cameras that caught the images were a huge benefit, but without trained eyes to be able to sort through the information, useless. I for one am astonished at how, with all the people, police were able to find these two unremarkable guys in the crowd. That the authorities made the difficult choice to quiet the streets so that movement was all but impossible, I applaud. This kid, even near death, was clearly a danger - ask anyone who met him in the last 36 hours.
I'm so pleased that the police brought him in alive and hopefully we can find out what spurred this insanity. And just maybe figure out ways to be better as a nation so that people don't get radicalized from perceived slights intended or not.