"US had Tsarnaev on watchlist" by Bryan Bender | Globe Staff, April 24, 2013
WASHINGTON — Russian officials alerted the Central Intelligence Agency about their concerns over the potential radicalization of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in late September 2011, and a US intelligence official says the agency nominated Tsarnaev for inclusion on a government terror watchlist.
“In late September 2011, the CIA received information from a foreign government on Tamerlan that was nearly identical to the information the FBI received in March 2011,” a US intelligence official said Wednesday in a written statement.
The information was transmitted to the CIA by Russia’s Federal Security Service.
“The CIA then nominated him for inclusion in the watchlisting system and, given his status as a U.S. person, shared the information with the appropriate Federal Departments and Agencies specifying that Tamerlan may be of interest to them,” the official said.
They really are actors.
While Tsarnaev’s name was added to a database of 540,000 people that should be monitored as potential terrorist threats, the listing expired after a year.
News of the CIA’s involvement adds further evidence to the growing pile of information that was available to US authorities about a potentially dangerous and potentially radicalized individual residing in Cambridge. Member of Congress are raising questions about whether the FBI had sufficient information to keep Tsarnaev under greater scrutiny, and whether the Boston Marathon bombings could have been prevented if it had.
Members have said the United States continues to suffer from poor sharing of intelligence information about potential terrorists.
Yeah, sure. Translation: THESE GUYS WERE THEIR OPERATIVES, the blogs are full of the stuff, I've already provided links myself, and 'round and 'round we go.
The US intelligence official appeared to seek to deflect any blame from the CIA, stating that the agency properly shared the information it received.
“The CIA shared all the information provided by the foreign government including two possible dates of birth, his name and a possible name variant as well. No information was incorrectly entered in the watchlisting system, all the information was shared precisely as the foreign government provided it,” the official said.
The official added that Russia warnings about Tsarnaev, which were nearly identical, included two possible dates of birth, his name in Cyrillic letters, and a possible variation of his name.
Tsarnaev, who died after a shootout with police on Thursday, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who is in fair condition at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, are suspected of planting the bombs that killed three and injured more than 200 people near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15.
He's talking, he's not talking, talking before he is read his rights, clamming up after. Whatever they say he said, I'm not believing it.
The FBI provided more information Wednesday about its handling of the Russian information. The agency undertook an investigation of Tsarnaev in 2011 which did not uncover terrorist activity.
“The request [from Russia] stated that it was 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,” said Supervisory Agency Jason J. Pack.
“In response to this 2011 request, the FBI checked 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 FBI also interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and family members. The FBI did not find any terrorism activity.”
Because he was working for them. They came back, said he's clean. There's nothing.
--more--"
"Suspect returned from Russia ‘with a willingness to kill people,’ Kerry says" by Tracy Jan | Globe Staff, April 24, 2013
WASHINGTON – Secretary of State John Kerry said on Wednesday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev returned from a six-month stay in Russia last year “with a willingness to kill people.”
In impromptu remarks on terrorism made in Brussels, Kerry said in response to a question about disillusioned young people in other parts of the world that similar problems exist in the United States.
If there is anything we have learned about the guy over the last decade, it is that he's not good off the cuff.
If there is anything we have learned about the guy over the last decade, it is that he's not good off the cuff.
“We just had a young person who went to Russia, Chechnya, who blew people up in Boston,” Kerry said. “So he didn’t stay where he went, but he learned something where he went and he came back with a willingness to kill people.”
It remains unclear precisely what Tsarnaev did during his trip to the Russia, although it is known that he went to Dagestan, a region neighboring Chechnya, and relatives have said he visited Chechnya as well during part of his extended visit. US officials have said they are not yet certain whether the 26-year-old, accused of carrying out last week’s Boston Marathon bombings with his brother, received any formal training by terrorist organizations.
Kerry made his comments during an informal question-and-answer period following his meeting with Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders.
“The Secretary was simply expressing broad concern about radicalism rather than indicating any new information or conclusion about the individuals involved,” a senior State Department official told the Globe Wednesday.
He's really been stepping in it lately.
He's really been stepping in it lately.
Russian authorities had alerted the US government multiple times of their concerns about Tsarnaev. The FBI had interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 but said it found no evidence that he was a threat. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has said the agency told him it was not aware of Tsarnaev’s travels to the Russian provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya, where he spent more than half of 2012, because his name had been misspelled on an airline passenger list.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano said Tuesday that Homeland Security was aware of the trip, raising concerns about the level of communication between the FBI and Homeland Security.
Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police last Friday. His 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has told investigators from his hospital bed that the two acted alone because they were upset over US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The brothers are ethnic Chechens who immigrated to the US from Kyrgyzstan.
Blah, blah, blah.
Blah, blah, blah.
Kerry on Wednesday also spoke about terrorism and challenges in places like the Congo and the Middle East, saying that protecting citizens and reducing terror in the world will come “not just with strong security” but with “strong relationships that we build outside the military but within our societies, so that young people have an opportunity looking forward to the future.”
“I think the world has had enough of people who have no belief system, no policy for jobs, no policy for education, no policy for rule of law, but just want to kill people because they don’t like what they see,” Kerry said. “There’s not room for that . . . We need to, all of us, do a better job of communicating to people what the options of life are.”
It sure has John. Maybe you can transmit that to your drone-firing boss and his Israeli masters -- rather than being their errand boy in the region.
It sure has John. Maybe you can transmit that to your drone-firing boss and his Israeli masters -- rather than being their errand boy in the region.
--more--"
