"Brief Tsarnaev hearing attracts supporters, bomb victims" by Milton J. Valencia and Patricia Wen, Globe Staff December 18, 2014
The brief hearing demonstrated the building anticipation for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial.
*********
At the end of Thursday’s proceedings, one of Tsarnaev’s supporters stood and shouted at him in Russian — she later said it had been a message of support.
Elena Teyer then said in English with a thick Russian accent, “Stop killing innocent people, don’t kill innocent boy, please.”
She was quickly escorted from the courtroom.
Teyer, a retired US Army pharmacy specialist from Georgia, is the mother-in-law of Ibragim Todashev, who was shot and killed by an FBI agent in May 2013. The FBI has said that Todashev attacked the agent during an interrogation in his Orlando, Fla., home. Todashev had allegedly just confessed that he and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had participated in the September 2011 murder of three people in Waltham.
She must have met the man who killed Todashev, and is it just me or are those connections very strange indeed?
Outside the courtroom, a Stoneham man who lost the lower part of his right leg in the bombings confronted one of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s supporters, who had held a “Got proof?” sign. Marc Fucarile, who has regularly attended Tsarnaev’s court hearings, held up his prosthetic leg to argue that he was living proof that the bombings had occurred.
See: The Boston Marathon Bombings: Fully Exposed
Now maybe you think it's funny that I'm a "conspiracy theorist," but I would advise you to look at links again.
Later, Fucarile said he was thankful for the support he received from friends before attending the hearing.
“Like I said, they’re all welcome to their opinions,” he said of the Tsarnaev supporters. “There’s supporters for him, and then there’s supporters for us.”
He added: “Just grateful I’m alive, and happy to be here.”
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How's the security for the trial?
"FBI director says Boston well-prepared for Marathon trial; Bureau priority is battling terrorism abroad, at home" by Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff November 18, 2014
FBI Director James Comey was in Boston to meet with local law enforcement officials Tuesday, as part of a tour of the FBI’s 56 field offices nationwide and the dozens of others around the world. Afterward, he gave local reporters a half-hour briefing on the agency’s law enforcement efforts.
“Our top priority is counterterrorism,” Comey said, describing the effort on two fronts: The battle against extremist groups that have replaced Al Qaeda in the Middle East and in North Africa – specifically the Islamic State group – and the “homegrown” terrorists who have been recruited online.
“These are people who will never meet Al Qaeda, or [the Islamic State], but have access to their propaganda from the Internet . . . all from within their basements while in their pajamas,” Comey said.
How did they know that is how I work?
Related: The Terrorists Among Us
Seriously, folks, my response to Comey when I read such nonsense was a "f*** you!" in the margin of my newspaper.
You guys know where I am: here every damn day (thanks for coming).
Investigators believe at least 150 Americans have joined the Islamic State, “a significant number of them to fight.”
“We’ve taken the fight to [the Islamic State] in a significant way,” he said, adding that he believes that US forces have “stalled” the terror group’s growth.
They are creating more, but whatever.
Despite indictments over the last several years of suspected terrorism supporters in Boston, including Tsarnaev, and Ahmad Abousamra, who is wanted for supporting Al Qaeda in Iraq, Comey said there is no evidence of a terrorism pipeline in New England. He said, however, “the homegrown, violent extremism problem is not a D.C. thing, it’s not a New York thing, it’s an everywhere thing.”
I'm glad I never go anywhere.
Comey urged people to report suspicious activity in their communities, and cited a recently formed coalition of local law enforcement officials that has been tasked with better community outreach.
I never did like that damn guy across the street and the cars coming and going. Think I'll make a call.
He said in nearly every case of domestic terrorism over the last 15 years “somebody saw something.”
Yeah, they saw government operatives carrying out their false flag missions.
“We’re trying to find them . . . but we also need the help of good people,” Comey said. “If you see somebody act in a certain way, just say something.”
Comey also discussed other topics with local law enforcement officials, such as the region’s growing opioid abuse epidemic. He said the FBI has worked closely with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Oh, so that's who is helping them bring in the stuff (they struggle to explain it because it is being trafficked by government intelligence agencies and benefiting money-laundering banks, thus the attention has to turn to treatment for the poor users -- unless they need medical treatment).
While speaking of Boston’s growing tech industry and the region’s academic institutions such as Harvard University and MIT, Comey said the FBI also plans to focus on cybersecurity threats and espionage by outside countries.
How very prescient and odd.
The FBI’s Boston office warned local companies earlier this year that Russian investment firms may be looking to steal high-tech intelligence to give to their country’s military.
Comey would not speak of any possible threats but said the concern of espionage is ongoing.
Related: The Russian-Israeli Mafia: Off-limits to FBI, US intelligence
The FBI has warned that local entrepreneurs could unwittingly be drawn into industrial espionage.
“Boston is a center . . . of tremendous innovation for people who would rather steal ideas than invent them,” Comey said.
Related: THE BUGGING OF THE APEC IN SEATTLE
He added that the FBI is “making sure we’re equipped right, we’re deployed right,” in combating cybersecurity threats, because, “all of us have connected our entire lives to the Internet.”
Federal officials in Boston have been criticized for overzealously prosecuting computer crimes, specifically in the case of free-Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who later killed himself. But Comey said generally that the FBI will pursue an investigation when someone crosses the line from activism to “criminal intent.”
He committed an organized crime.
Comey refused to comment on the Boston Marathon bombing investigation or say whether anyone else might face charges, citing the pending trial, and he would not address the FBI’s handling of the investigation. He added that “we’re constantly trying to find a way to improve” relationships between local and federal law enforcement officials.
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Time to start rounding up witnesses:
"Russian authorities say Tsarnaev defense team claimed to be FBI; Disagreement on Nov. 3 trial date" by Travis Andersen and Milton J. Valencia | Globe staff September 12, 2014
Russian authorities have notified the US government that three members of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s defense team falsely identified themselves as FBI employees when they traveled to that country to investigate the case, prosecutors said Friday.
The allegation was made in a legal filing in US District Court in Boston, where Tsarnaev, 21, faces a possible death penalty for his alleged role in the April 15, 2013, bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260.
“While conducting interviews in Russia, the members of the defense team reportedly refused to produce documents confirming their legal status and identified themselves as employees of the FBI,” prosecutors wrote. “As a result, the Russian government . . . expelled them.”
Miriam Conrad, one of Tsarnaev’s lawyers, declined to address the allegations in detail during a brief phone interview on Friday. “We don’t agree with the government’s characterization of what happened,” she said. “And we’ll be responding further at an appropriate time, in writing or in court.”
Russian authorities also said that Tsarnaev’s defense team members told officials that the purpose of their recent visit was tourism.
The filing did not identify the members of the defense team or when the visit to Russia occurred, and an FBI spokesman referred questions to the office of US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz. A spokeswoman for Ortiz had no comment.
No one answered the phone at the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., on Friday evening.
Prosecutors mentioned the trip to Russia in a filing in which they opposed a pending defense request to delay the start of Tsarnaev’s trial to Sept. 1, 2015, at the earliest. The trial is currently slated to begin in November of this year.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers are scheduled to return to court for a status conference on the case on Thursday.
The parents of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev live in Russia, and Tamerlan, the elder brother, spent six months in the country in 2012. Russian intelligence had alerted US authorities to Tamerlan’s alleged attempts to contact Islamic militants there.
Tamerlan, who was also suspected of being involved in the Marathon bombings, was killed in a confrontation just days after the Marathon attack.
Separately on Friday, lawyers and prosecutors agreed on plans for the jury selection process in the trial.
Both sides have agreed that the court should seat 12 jurors and six alternates, and that 2,000 potential jurors should be summoned beginning six weeks in advance of the trial.
In court papers, the lawyers also agreed:
At one point before the trial, both sides will agree on a questionnaire that the jurors would have to fill out so their backgrounds can be screened. If both sides cannot agree, the judge will finalize the questionnaire.
At least three business days before jury selection begins, the court will furnish the names of potential jurors for both sides.
Both sides will begin reviewing questionnaires as soon as they are completed. After the parties have had a week to review the questionnaires, they will submit a list of jurors who they jointly agree should be eliminated from the list. Then the court can begin interviewing individual jurors.
The interview process will continue until 70 jurors have been qualified to serve, meaning they have no bias or hardships. Both sides will have at least 20 chances to dismiss jurors for strategic reasons.
Gerard T. Leone Jr., a former state and federal prosecutor who helped secure a guilty plea for Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, said the legal teams will have to contend with “complicated human dynamics” in seating a jury for the Tsarnaev trial.
“One of the hardest things to do is to ferret out when somebody wants too badly to be on a jury,” said Leone, now a law partner at Nixon Peabody. “You do need to consider [potential jurors who] want to serve for the wrong reasons.”
Like what, acquitting the framed fool?
Leone added that prospective jurors should know that because Tsarnaev faces a federal trial, the proceedings will not be televised.
I wouldn't be watching anyway.
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"Tsarnaev defense rejects claim it posed as FBI in Russia; Lawyers say claim is ‘preposterous’" by John R. Ellement and Martin Finucane | Globe staff September 15, 2014
Defense lawyers for accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev rejected allegations Monday that they had posed as FBI employees while investigating their client’s background in Russia.
“Let us be clear: At no time have members of the defense team misrepresented themselves or lied about their work,” Tsarnaev’s lawyers wrote in papers filed Monday in US District Court.
The allegation was made by prosecutors in a legal filing last week in US District Court in Boston, where Tsarnaev, 21, faces a possible death penalty for his alleged role in the April 15, 2013, bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 260.
The defense attorneys called the claim of misrepresentation “false and facially preposterous.” They said the prosecutors were making “reckless allegations” and had disseminated an “absurd charge.”
“Leaving aside that such conduct is a federal crime punishable by up to three years’ imprisonment, the defense has no motive to lie or impersonate FBI agents and every reason not to,” the defense said.
I thought this sounded strange. The government just made it up, huh?
The defense attorneys said that in countries where “truly independent appointed defense counsel is an unfamiliar concept,” defense attorneys and investigators have to work hard to convince witnesses that the defense team is actually working to help the defendant, rather than assisting the government in executing him.
The filing included a plea by the defense to push back the trial, which is currently slated to begin Nov. 3, saying the defense team needs more time to prepare.
“We have done our best to complete the work required of us in the 8½ months allotted by the court when it set the November 3, 2014, trial date,” the defense team said.
“We must now report that the job has proven too large and the time too short,” the lawyers said. “An extraordinarily aggressive pace of preparation work will still be required, and this case still will be tried much more quickly than the average federal capital case, even with the additional 10 months we have requested. And this case is far from average.
“More time is needed to ensure basic fairness to the accused,” the defense said. “It is also needed to serve society’s interest in the fullest possible accounting of what happened in Boston during the week of April 15, 2013, and why it happened.”
We are never going to get that.
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Related:
Prosecutors want Tsarnaev in court for jury selection
Judge denies Tsarnaev request for change of venue
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev getting what he’s due
He's already been convicted.
Cambridge mosque distances itself from terrorism suspects
They went to morning mass.
Judge rejects Tsarnaev request for dismissal of charges
Tsarnaev attorneys balk at naming witnesses before trial
They are suggesting the government could seek to influence the witnesses and dissuade them from testifying.
Tsarnaev sister’s plea averts jail time
Court will cast wide net for bombing trial’s jury
That was when the trial was moved to January.
US team refutes Tsarnaev defense
Related:
"Brendan Mess, 25, of Waltham; Erik Weissman, 31, of Cambridge; and Raphael Teken, 37, of Cambridge, were discovered dead in Mess’s apartment in a two-family house on Sept. 12, 2011. Their throats had been slashed and marijuana was sprinkled on the bodies. Presumed to be a drug-related crime, the case went cold. A month after the Marathon bombing, Ibragim Todashev, 27, was fatally shot by an FBI agent in Florida after he allegedly confessed on tape to helping Tamerlan Tsarnaev kill the three men in Waltham. Tamerlan died in a confrontation with police four days after the bombings. In June, Tsarnaev’s attorneys asked the government for Todashev’s statements writing that the manner in which Tamerlan Tsarnaev “induced Todashev to participate in [the Waltham triple slaying]."
I heard they were some real entrepreneurs.
Related: US judge refuses Tsarnaev request for evidence
In the end must never forget what was lost.
Tsarnaev lawyers must disclose witness list before trial, judge rules
Prosecutors, defense lawyers spar over jury selection in Tsarnaev trial
Tsarnaev trial: Let’s not relive the Marathon bombings
"US District Court Judge George A. O’Toole Jr. rejected an earlier request to move the trial, saying Tsarnaev’s lawyers failed to show that an impartial jury could not be found. But Tsarnaev’s lawyers argued in their new motion Monday that the ongoing media coverage of the case and law enforcement leaks of non-public information to the media are further spoiling the jury pool. The request for the change of venue would mean moving the trial out of Eastern Massachusetts; Tsarnaev’s lawyers have argued that too many potential jurors from this part of the state have been saturated by the ongoing media coverage of the case, including the coverage of the cases of three of Tsarnaev’s friends, who were convicted of lying to investigators."
Speaking of his friends:
Judge denies venue change for Tsarnaev friend
Tsarnaev friend was ‘intoxicated,’ lawyer says
Former classmate a key witness in trial of Tsarnaev friend Robel Phillipos
Looks like Tazhayakov was turned or coerced.
Tsarnaev friend incriminates other in obstruction case
Robel Phillipos made stupid mistakes that any kid could make
??
"Phillipos’s lawyers say he smoked marijuana about a half-dozen times that day, and was simply unable to reconstruct his actions during a series of high-pressure interviews with federal agents. While a marijuana defense is not unheard of, legal analysts are divided on whether it is a winnable strategy in the case against Phillipos. “I don’t think people see marijuana like they see heroin and cocaine and seriously mind-altering substances,” said former state and federal prosecutor Gerard T. Leone Jr., who is a partner at Nixon Peabody."
All of a sudden marijuana is not that bad.
Friend says Phillipos was stressed after Tsarnaev was identified
Phillipos was ‘extremely out of it,’ witness says
Michael Dukakis testifies in defense of Tsarnaev friend
Robel Phillipos defense focuses on marijuana’s effects
He smoked weed with the Duke? That's his alibi?
Jury begins deliberations in bombing obstruction case
No verdict yet for bombing suspect’s friend Robel Phillipos
In Robel Phillipos case, maximum sentence would be unjust
"Phillipos now becomes the third of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s college friends convicted of crimes related to the removal of an incriminating backpack from Tsarnaev’s dorm room days after the deadly explosions."
Phillipos jurors say acquittal never close
Judge delays sentencing in Tsarnaev friends’ cases
"A man convicted of lying to FBI agents who were investigating the Boston Marathon bombings on Tuesday asked a federal judge to acquit him of the charges or grant a new trial. Lawyers for Robel Phillipos, 21, a friend of alleged bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, filed a motion Tuesday for a judgment of acquittal or a new trial in federal court in Boston. Phillipos was convicted in October of two counts of lying to investigators and faces up to 16 years in prison when he is sentenced on Jan. 29. Phillipos was not charged with playing any role in the bombings."
I'll bet he's wishing he never heard of the Tsarnaevs.
Another college kid in trouble:
"College student charged in fatal accident; Dedham woman killed on Friday" by John R. Ellement, Globe Staff December 08, 2014
A Mount Ida College soccer player pleaded not guilty Monday to a charge of leaving the scene after his car fatally struck a 54-year-old woman who was crossing Washington Street in Dedham Friday night.
J. Thomas Kerner, attorney for Nicholas A. Rivas-Vasquez, a senior at the Newton college and a forward on its soccer team, said in a telephone interview that his client had allowed police over the weekend to examine his car, an older Ford Escape.
Kerner said Rivas-Vasquez recalls driving on Washington Street Friday night when winds were gusting amid falling rain. As he was driving in a 40-mile-per-hour speed zone, Rivas-Vasquez’s vehicle was struck by some object that he believed had been blown into his car by the winds, Kerner said.
“Something hit his car on the right side, and he stopped after he was hit. He didn’t see anything in his rearview mirror,’’ Kerner said. “He had to go a few blocks so [he] could [legally] circle back. When he came to the area where his car was hit, he didn’t see anything except for some debris on the street.’’
“He didn’t see a person. There wasn’t a person in the street,” Kerner said.
Kerner said that, based on police reports, it appeared Heppler’s body had come to rest between the sidewalk and the guardrail.
Kerner said Rivas-Vasquez had a valid Connecticut driver’s license and no prior criminal history. His parents, grandmother, and sister were in the Dedham courthouse Monday and were “horrified about what happened to this poor woman.’’
At the same time, they were concerned about Rivas-Vasquez’s circumstances and were hoping to post the $5,000 cash to bail him out.
“My client is not running from responsibility. He realizes what he did now,’’ Kerner said. “He didn’t realize it on Friday night. He wishes he could undo what happened, but he can’t.’’
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He should have taken a taxi:
"Matanov, friend of Tsarnaev, gets new lawyer" by Milton J. Valencia, Globe Staff November 20, 2014
A federal judge agreed on Thursday to appoint a new lawyer for Khairullozhon Matanov, a Quincy cabdriver and friend of the accused Boston Marathon bombers who has been charged with destroying evidence.
Matanov, 24, told US District Judge William G. Young that he felt more comfortable with an attorney he had worked with before his arrest in May, Paul Glickman. Matanov says he has been subjected to harsh treatment at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility, where he was being held in solitary confinement.
In other words, he is being tortured.
“He may not have been well treated there,” Glickman told reporters outside the courtroom, though he would not elaborate. Glickman has previously said that Matanov’s mental health was deteriorating while he was being held in solitary confinement.
Matanov has told supporters in letters that he has been beaten by corrections officers and ridiculed and harassed, and he watched another inmate attempt suicide.
Two suicides have occurred at the jail in recent weeks.
A spokesman for the Plymouth jail referred questions to the US Marshals Service, which is responsible for Matanov’s detention. Kevin Neal, a deputy Marshal, would not comment on security matters but said that Matanov has been transferred to the Donald Wyatt detention center in Central Falls, R.I.
Matanov’s previous lawyer, Edward Hayden, said he did not oppose the assignment of a new lawyer.
Hayden was appointed after Matanov’s arrest because Matanov could no longer afford to pay Glickman, whom he had retained while he was under investigation by the FBI.
Glickman is not on a list of lawyers who represent indigent clients in US District Court, and Young rejected an earlier request for him to be assigned at taxpayer expense. The judge agreed to appoint Glickman after Matanov renewed the request.
Glickman said he has been following the case and will be prepared for the scheduled June 2015 trial.
Matanov could face 15 years if he is convicted of destroying evidence.
Authorities allege that, despite realizing that the FBI would want to interview him about his friendship with the Tsarnaev brothers, Matanov deleted files from his computer and tried to get rid of his cellphones.
Authorities also allege that Matanov lied to investigators about his encounters with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother Tamerlan in the days after the bombings. Among those contacts: He allegedly had dinner with the Tsarnaev brothers the night of the Marathon.
Matanov is not accused of playing any role in the April 15, 2013, Marathon bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 260 people at the finish line.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, now 21, faces the death penalty if convicted of charges in the bombings.
Tamerlan, 26, was killed days after the bombing during a violent confrontation with police in Watertown.
The brothers are also accused of shooting and killing Sean Collier, an MIT police officer.
That's the official story, anyway.
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What happens when you do not cooperate:
"US court won’t hear appeal by terror plotter Mehanna; Father calls ruling a ‘sad day’" by Travis Andersen | Globe staff October 06, 2014
The US Supreme Court declined Monday to hear an appeal from Tarek Mehanna, the Sudbury man convicted in 2011 of federal terrorism-related charges.
The decision against Mehanna — who was convicted in federal court in Boston of conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, conspiring to kill in a foreign country, and of lying to authorities in a terrorism investigation — was hailed by law enforcement officials but condemned by his father.
Mehanna, now 31, is serving a 17½-year sentence in a federal prison in Illinois.
“I’m disappointed to see even the highest court still submissive to the executive branch’s fabrication of charges,” Mehanna’s father, Ahmed Mehanna, 64, said in a phone interview.
“So that’s my view. What do you expect me to say? It’s clearly the First Amendment [at issue], and they refused to even look at it.”
But US Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz, whose office prosecuted Mehanna, said in a statement that justice was served by the high court’s denial.
“As evidenced at trial, Mr. Mehanna radicalized to think violence was an acceptable response to his grievances, and then he acted, first, by exploring how he and others could participate in that violence, ultimately choosing to go overseas to do so, and then by using the Internet to encourage others to support terrorism,” Ortiz said.
So what is the U.S. government and its mouthpiece media's excuse for starting all the wars with lies?
Prosecutors said Mehanna traveled with an associate, Ahmad Abousamra, to Yemen in 2004 to join a terrorist training camp and to ultimately attack American soldiers in Iraq, but the plan failed.
Abousamra, who grew up in Stoughton, was also charged and remains at large.
When Mehanna returned home, prosecutors said, he began translating Arab-language materials into English and posting them online to promote Al Qaeda’s ideology and inspire others to violent jihad.
Lawyers for Mehanna, who has said he was threatened with prosecution after refusing to serve as an informant, argued at trial that he traveled to Yemen to pursue religious studies and that his translations were protected under the First Amendment.
***********
Abousamra recently made headlines when ABC News reported that officials believe he may be using his computer skills to support ISIS, or the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, the terrorist group that is trying to establish an Islamic caliphate and has claimed responsibility for the beheadings in recent weeks of two American journalists.
He also claimed to possess chemical weapons.
On Monday, Mehanna’s father said his family did not have “one iota of hope” that his son would get a hearing before the high court, in light of the news reports on ISIS.
“Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is affected by such a saga and such media frenzy,” Ahmed Mehanna said. “It is a very, very sad day.”
Vincent Lisi, the FBI special agent in charge in Boston, said in a statement Monday that the case against Mehanna was always strong. “From his travel to Yemen to receive training to kill American soldiers to his material support for terrorism at home, it was clear Mr. Mehanna trained to be a terrorist,” Lisi said.
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See what happens when you won't become an FBI informant?
Related: The Truth About Tariq Mehanna
You won't find that in the Globe.
Also see: Businesses can’t claim Marathon loss
It was not terrorism for insurance purposes.
Martin Richard foundation announces Marathon team
Time to stop running.
UPDATES:
Tsarnaev lawyers want ‘supporters’ moved away from courthouse
His defense lawyers are working for the government!!!!!!
Judge orders inquiry on media leaks in case of Tsarnaev friend
The prosecution does it all the time. It's part of their strategy.
Lawyers for Tsarnaev again seek delay in trial
Judge in Tsarnaev case has no-nonsense reputation
