Boston Marathon Bombing

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Boston bombing suspects did not have valid handgun licenses



By Jonathan Allen
Sun Apr 21, 2013 7:46pm EDT

(Reuters) - The two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings, who police say engaged in a gun battle with officers early Friday after a frenzied manhunt, were not licensed to own guns in the towns where they lived, authorities said on Sunday.

In the confrontation with police on the streets of a Boston suburb, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were armed with handguns, at least one rifle and several explosive devices, authorities say.

But neither brother appears to have been legally entitled to own or carry firearms where they lived, a fact that may add to the national debate over current gun laws. Last week, the U.S. Senate rejected a bill to expand background checks on gun purchases, legislation that opponents argued would do nothing to stop criminals from buying guns illegally.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, who was killed in the shootout with police, would have been required to apply for a gun license with the local police department where he lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

But there is no record of him having done so, according to Cambridge Police Department spokesman Dan Riviello.

Even if he had earlier received a gun license from somewhere outside Cambridge, that license would have to be registered with Cambridge police upon becoming a resident of the city, Riviello said. In Massachusetts, gun licenses are issued by municipal police departments.

"There is no record of him having a license to carry," Riviello told Reuters.

Tsarnaev's younger brother Dzhokhar, 19, who was captured alive on Friday after the manhunt, would have been too young to get a handgun license. Under state law, residents under 21 may only apply for a so-called firearms identification card, which allows the holder to own only rifles that hold 10 rounds or less and shotguns.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had no record of a firearms ID card in Cambridge. The police department in Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar was a student, said they had no record of gun licenses or ID cards for either brother.

Police in nearby New Bedford, where the younger brother may have lived in the past, could not confirm on Sunday whether they had issued Dzhokhar Tsarnaev a firearms ID card.

Federal law enforcement agencies have not confirmed a full tally of the brothers' arsenal.

Within hours of their images being released on Thursday, the two brothers are accused of shooting dead a Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus police officer in his car, hijacking at least one car at gunpoint, and of shooting at least one police officer during the gun battle in nearby Watertown.

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The Tsarnaev brothers were double agents who decoyed US into terror trap

DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 20, 2013, 4:39 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags: Boston bombing attack Caucasus Saudi Arabia Terrorism FBI Intelligence

The big questions buzzing over Boston Bombers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev have a single answer: It emerged in the 102 tense hours between the twin Boston Marathon bombings Monday, April 15 – which left three dead, 180 injured and a police officer killed at MIT - and Dzohkhar’s capture Friday, April 19 in Watertown.

The conclusion reached by debkafile’s counterterrorism and intelligence sources is that the brothers were double agents, hired by US and Saudi intelligence to penetrate the Wahhabi jihadist networks which, helped by Saudi financial institutions, had spread across the restive Russian Caucasian.

Instead, the two former Chechens betrayed their mission and went secretly over to the radical Islamist networks.

By this tortuous path, the brothers earned the dubious distinction of being the first terrorist operatives to import al Qaeda terror to the United States through a winding route outside the Middle East – the Caucasus.

This broad region encompasses the autonomous or semi-autonomous Muslim republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Chechnya, North Ossetia and Karachyevo-Cherkesiya, most of which the West has never heard of.

Moscow however keeps these republics on a tight military and intelligence leash, constantly putting down violent resistance by the Wahhabist cells, which draw support from certain Saudi sources and funds from the Riyadh government for building Wahhabist mosques and schools to disseminate the state religion of Saudi Arabia.

The Saudis feared that their convoluted involvement in the Caucasus would come embarrassingly to light when a Saudi student was questioned about his involvement in the bombing attacks while in a Boston hospital with badly burned hands.

They were concerned to enough to send Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal to Washington Wednesday, April 17, in the middle of the Boston Marathon bombing crisis, for a private conversation with President Barack Obama and his national security adviser Tom Donilon on how to handle the Saudi angle of the bombing attack.

That day too, official Saudi domestic media launched an extraordinary three-day campaign. National and religious figures stood up and maintained that authentic Saudi Wahhabism does not espouse any form of terrorism or suicide jihadism and the national Saudi religion had nothing to do with the violence in Boston. “No matter what the nationality and religious of the perpetrators, they are terrorists and deviants who represent no one but themselves.”

Prince Saud was on a mission to clear the 30,000 Saudi students in America of suspicion of engaging in terrorism for their country or religion, a taint which still lingers twelve years after 9/11. He was concerned that exposure of the Tsarnaev brothers’ connections with Wahhabist groups in the Caucasus would revive the stigma.

The Tsarnaevs' recruitment by US intelligence as penetration agents against terrorist networks in southern Russia explains some otherwise baffling features of the event:

1. An elite American college in Cambridge admitted younger brother Dzhokhar and granted him a $2,500 scholarship, without subjecting him to the exceptionally stiff standard conditions of admission. This may be explained by his older brother Tamerlan demanding this privilege for his kid brother in part payment for recruitment.

2. When in 2011, a “foreign government” (Russian intelligence) asked the FBI to screen Tamerlan for suspected ties to Caucasian Wahhabist cells during a period in which they had begun pledging allegiance to al Qaeda, the agency, it was officially revealed, found nothing incriminating against him and let him go after a short interview.

He was not placed under surveillance. Neither was there any attempt to hide the fact that he paid a long visit to Russia last year and on his return began promoting radical Islam on social media.

Yet even after the Boston marathon bombings, when law enforcement agencies, heavily reinforced by federal and state personnel, desperately hunted the perpetrators, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was never mentioned as a possible suspect

3. Friday, four days after the twin explosions at the marathon finishing line, the FBI released footage of Suspect No. 1 in a black hat and Suspect No. 2 in a white hat walking briskly away from the crime scene, and appealed to the public to help the authorities identify the pair.

We now know this was a charade.

The authorities knew exactly who they were. Suddenly, during the police pursuit of their getaway car from the MIT campus on Friday, they were fully identified. The brother who was killed in the chase was named Tamerlan, aged 26, and the one who escaped, only to be hunted down Saturday night hiding in a boat, was 19-year old Dzhokhar.

Our intelligence sources say that we may never know more than we do today about the Boston terrorist outrage which shook America – and most strikingly, Washington - this week. We may not have the full story of when and how the Chechen brothers were recruited by US intelligence as penetration agents – any more than we have got to the bottom of tales of other American double agents who turned coat and bit their recruiters.

Here is just a short list of some of the Chechen brothers’ two-faced predecessors:

In the 1980s, an Egyptian called Ali Abdul Saoud Mohamed offered his services as a spy to the CIA residence in Cairo. He was hired, even though he was at the time the official interpreter of Ayman al-Zuwahiri, then Osama bin Laden’s senior lieutenant and currently his successor.

He accounted for this by posing as a defector. But then, he turned out to be feeding al Qaeda US military secrets. Later, he was charged with Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam.

On Dec. 30, 2009, the Jordanian physician Humam Khalil al-Balawi, having gained the trust of US intelligence in Afghanistan as an agent capable of penetrating al Qaeda’s top ranks, detonated a bomb at a prearranged rendezvous in Kost, killing the four top CIA agents in the country.

Then, there was the French Muslim Mohamed Merah. He was recruited by French intelligence to penetrate Islamist terror cells in at least eight countries, including the Caucasus. At the end of last year, he revealed his true spots in deadly attacks on a Jewish school in Toulouse and a group of French military commandos.

The debate has begun over the interrogation of the captured Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarmayev when he is fit for questioning after surgery for two bullet wounds and loss of blood. The first was inflicted during the police chase in which his brother Tamerlan was killed.

An ordinary suspect would be read his rights (Miranda) and be permitted a lawyer. In his case, the “public safety exemption” option may be invoked, permitting him to be questioned without those rights, provided the interrogation is restricted to immediate public safety concerns. President Barack Obama is also entitled to rule him an “enemy combatant” and so refer him to a military tribunal and unrestricted grilling.

According to debkafile’s counter terror sources, four questions should top the interrogators' agenda:

a) At what date did the Tsarnaev brothers turn coat and decide to work for Caucasian Wahhabi networks?

b) Did they round up recruits for those networks in the United States - particularly, among the Caucasian and Saudi communities?

c) What was the exact purpose of the Boston Marathon bombings and their aftermath at MIT in Watertown?

d) Are any more terrorist attacks in the works in other American cities?

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Double agents? Like that's more credible than them just being frickin Islamic Terrorists?

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Well...your right, but according to the media they may not be terrorists at all and not linked to jihad.

Watch and learn the Left's Unholy Alliance with Islam to hide and subvert the truth.

They are now spinning the narrative, imagine what these same news outlets would be calling for if it was a Conservative?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Probably Practiced Radical Islam Without Major Terror Connections

By DENISE LAVOIE and EILEEN SULLIVAN
04/23/13 01:07 PM ET EDT

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev communicated with interrogators by writings answers to their questions from his hospital bed.

BOSTON — Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an ardent reader of jihadist websites and extremist propaganda, U.S. officials said Tuesday, adding another piece to the body of evidence they say suggests the two brothers were motivated by an anti-American, radical version of Islam.

As he lay in his hospital bed with a gunshot wound to the throat, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was charged on Monday with carrying out the bombing with his older brother, who died last week in a gunbattle. Tsarnaev could get the death penalty.

Interrogators questioned him at the hospital, letting him write down his replies, and his answers led them to believe he and his brother were motivated by religious extremism but appeared to have no major terrorist group connections, said U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly.

However, the written communication precluded back-and-forth exchanges often crucial to establishing key facts, officials said. They warned that they were still trying to verify what Tsarnaev told them and were poring over his telephone and online communications.

On Tuesday, two officials said the older brother frequently looked at extremist sites, including Inspire magazine, an English-language online publication produced by al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate. The magazine has endorsed lone-wolf terror attacks.

Also Tuesday, family, friends and colleagues gathered to pay their final respects to Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer who authorities say was ambushed and killed by the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. And a private funeral was held for 8-year-old Martin Richard, the youngest of the three people killed in the bombing. In a statement, the boy's family called it "the most difficult week of our lives."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, whose condition was upgraded Tuesday from serious to fair, was charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction. The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth student was accused of joining with his brother in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and wounded more than 260 on April 15.

The brothers are ethnic Chechens from Russia who had been living in the U.S. for about a decade.

The next step in the legal process against Tsarnaev is likely to be an indictment, to which federal prosecutors could add new charges. State prosecutors have said they expect to charge Tsarnaev separately in the killing of the MIT officer.

Federal public defender Miriam Conrad, whose office has been asked to represent Tsarnaev, asked that two death penalty lawyers be appointed to represent Tsarnaev, "given the magnitude of this case."

A probable cause hearing – at which prosecutors will spell out the basics of their case – was set for May 30.

According to a clerk's notes of Monday's proceedings in the hospital, U.S. Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler indicated she was satisfied that Tsarnaev was "alert and able to respond to the charges."

Tsarnaev did not speak during the proceeding, except to answer "no" when he was asked if he could afford his own lawyer. He nodded when asked if he was able to answer some questions and whether he understood his rights.

Conrad declined to comment when contacted by The Associated Press.

The criminal complaint outlining the allegations shed no light on the motive for the attack.

In the criminal complaint, investigators said Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother each placed a knapsack containing a bomb in the crowd near the finish line of the 26.2-mile race. The FBI said surveillance-camera footage showed Dzhokhar manipulating his cellphone and lifting it to his ear just moments before the two blasts.

After the first blast, a block away from Dzhokhar, "virtually every head turns to the east ... and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm," the complaint says. But Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, unlike practically everyone else around him, appeared calm, the FBI said.

He then quickly walked away, leaving a knapsack on the ground; about 10 seconds later, a bomb blew up at the spot where he had been standing, the FBI said.

The FBI did not say whether he was using his cellphone to detonate one or both of the bombs or whether he was talking to someone.

Among the details in the affidavit:

_ Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands when he was captured hiding out in a boat in a backyard in the Boston suburb of Watertown, authorities said.

_ One of the brothers – it wasn't clear which one – told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt: "Did you hear about the Boston explosion? I did that."

_ The FBI said it searched Tsarnaev's dorm room at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on Sunday and found BBs as well as a white hat and dark jacket that look like those worn by one of the suspected bombers in the surveillance photos the FBI released a few days after the attack.



Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Teen Brain May Have Pushed Him to Violence


Alleged Marathon Bomber Reveals Details of Attack

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By SUSAN DONALDSON JAMES (@SusanDJames)

April 23, 2013

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Dylan Klebold, the depressed senior at Columbine High School, had Eric Harris. Washington, D.C., Beltway sniper Lee Boyd Malvo had John Allen Muhammad. And just last week at the Boston Marathon bombings, suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Klebold, Malvo and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev all might be seen as more passive teenagers who were attached to more assertive mentors whose actions had deadly consequences, according to mental health experts.

MORE COVERAGE: Boston Marathon Bombings

On April 20, 1999, Columbine High School 18-year-olds Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold slaughtered 12 students and one teacher in a 45-minute rampage before killing themselves. Post-mortem, experts diagnosed Harris as a psychopath.

READ MORE: Columbine Shootings 10 Years Later: Students, Teacher Still Haunted by Post-Traumatic Stress

During three weeks in October 2002, military veteran Muhammad and 17-year-old Malvo killed 10 people on a rampage throughout Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia. Muhammad, at 41 and a father figure to the teen, had planned to train youths to carry out mass shootings. He was executed by lethal injection in 2003. Malvo is serving six life sentences in prison.

"Very often, these are pairs of perpetrators, one dominant figure who has psychopathic tendencies and the other a dependent figure," said Dr. Igor Galynker, director of the Family Center for Bipolar in the psychiatry department at Beth Israel Medical Center in New York City.

"It's not accidental," he said of the attraction to the stronger figure. "But it's almost opportunistic in the negative."

Attachment issues and the anatomy of the immature teenage brain can create a killer, according to Galynker.

"In terms of attachment, Harris was psychologically a classic psychopath," he said. "And Klebold was a depressed loner who needed a role model and an attachment figure and acceptance. … Harris happened to drag him into his orbit."

In the case of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, it may be too early to know, but Galynker said someone with an insecure attachment would "likely become psychologically dependent on someone who accepted them and loved to get close."

TIMELINE: From Terror to Manhunt to Capture

Teenage behavior, as every parent knows, is marked by impulsiveness and the inability to see the consequences of actions.

Now, science has confirmed that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of 25. The brain develops from back to front – from the emotional limbic system first to the rational frontal precortex last.

As authorities try to find answers as to why the Tsarnaev brothers, both well-educated American citizens with talent and promise, turned to terrorism, online forums have debated young Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's culpability.

New Yorker editor David Remnick painted a sympathetic portrait of the brothers.

"I think this had to do with his older brother," he wrote. "Unless he was some sort of sleeper agent, I think his brother had a pretty strong influence. Tamerlan maybe felt like he didn't belong, and he might have brainwashed Dzhokhar into some radical view that twisted things in the Koran."

Columnist John Nolte was outraged in the conservative Breitbart report.

"It is one thing to never forget, no matter the evil with which we are faced, our own humanity," he wrote, "It is quite another, however, and quite dangerous, to forget that we are dealing with evil. Such a thing not only invites more evil; worse still, it is a cruel slap in the face to the victims of evil."

He called Remnick's essay "poorly timed and even shameful attempt to define evil by something other than evil." He argued the brothers "made a choice" that killed four people and maimed more than 100 more.

But psychiatrists like Galynker said that a 19-year-old like Dzhokhar Tsarnaev would have "difficulty with executive functioning, assessing risk and understanding the consequences of behavior." At 26, Tamerlan, despite his alleged terrorist motives, was "fully matured and [his brain] myelinated."

Myelination is the process by which a fatty layer, called myelin, accumulates around nerve cells. It is a key to healthy brain development.

Teenagers are particularly vulnerable to the influences of others because of the immaturity of the ventromedial prefrontal cortex. That is the part of the brain where social consequences of actions are weighed, where planning and forming of strategies, as well as inhibiting behaviors, are rooted.

The human brain takes 10 to 12 years before it is generally developed. Structural maturation of specific regions and pathways is necessary for properly functioning cognitive, motor and sensory functions. The speed of neural transmission depends not only on the nerve cells or synapses, but also the connection fibers or axons.

Those structural properties include the thickness of the special insulation or myelin around many fibers. These continue to develop throughout childhood and adolescence and post-mortem neurological studies have shown they may not even fully mature until well after adolescence and into adulthood.

While those with psychopathic personalities -- a lack of conscience or empathy -- are beyond help, those with mood and attachment disorders, though vulnerable to the sway of a violent mentor, can be treated, according to Galynker.

"If someone had antisocial behavior at 7, torturing small animals on the weekend on a regular basis, nothing would change," he said. "But someone who is lonely and depressed and wants acceptance from anyone, even a serial killer, that person could change and probably would respond to treatment to some degree."

For that reason, some argue that the death penalty, in states where it is legal, be raised beyond 18, the age of legal adulthood.

Jesse Payne, director of undergraduate education at Corban University in Oregon, has created a high school program to teach young people about the immaturity of their brains to help them with better decision-making.

"We need to teach kids about their brain so they understand themselves," he said.

He is writing a book, "Change Your Brain, Change Your Life Before 25," which will be marketed to 15 to 25 year-olds."

"Bonding, relationships, feelings -- all of those things matter in the teenage years," said Payne. "Not until about the age of 25, and even 28 for boys, do you see executive function, empathy, impulsivity judgment and learning from their mistakes."

"In general, the brain of a 19-year-old is much more susceptible to influence because the prefrontal cortex is not fully developed," he said. "They make stupid decisions and also lack the ability to recognize the feelings of others."

The car industry, which lowers its rates at age 25, understands the risks, he said.

"They figured out long ago that people make smarter decisions late in life," he added.


More Leftist propaganda...

Boston bombing suspect cites U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as motivation, officials say

By Scott Wilson, Greg Miller and Sari Horwitz, Updated: Tuesday, April 23, 11:30 AM

The 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings has told interrogators that the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan motivated him and his brother to carry out the attack, according to U.S. officials familiar with the interviews.

From his hospital bed, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has acknowledged his role in planting the explosives near the marathon finish line on April 15, the officials said. The first successful large-scale bombing in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era, the Boston attack killed three people and wounded more than 250 others.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe an ongoing investigation, said Dzhokhar and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed by police as the two attempted to avoid capture, do not appear to have been directed by a foreign terrorist organization.

Rather, the officials said, the evidence so far suggests they were “self-radicalized” through Internet sites and U.S. actions in the Muslim world. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has specifically cited the U.S. war in Iraq, which ended in December 2011 with the removal of the last American forces, and the war in Afghanistan, where President Obama plans to end combat operations by the end of 2014.

Obama has made repairing U.S. relations with the Islamic world a foreign policy priority, even as he has expanded drone operations in Pakistan and other countries, which has inflamed Muslim public opinion.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has provided limited information to authorities that indicates he and his brother acted independently, without direction or significant influence from Islamist militants overseas. U.S. officials said they are still working to assemble a detailed timeline of a trip the older Tsarnaev took to Russia, but see no evidence that he received instructions there that led to the attack.

“These are persons operating inside the United States without a nexus” to an overseas group, a U.S. intelligence official said.

U.S. officials have said that the FBI questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the behest of Russian authorities who had become concerned that he was becoming radicalized. The request was conveyed to officials at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. U.S. officials said they sought follow-up information from Russia, but that Moscow failed to respond.

Officials also expressed skepticism that Russian authorities were concerned about the elder Tsarnaev’s contacts during his trip to Russia. “The evidence points to the fact that they let him into the country and let him out of the country,” the U.S. official said. “They didn’t take any legal action, which they could have while he was there.”

The Boston Public Health Commission said Tuesday that at least 250 people have sought medical treatment at area hospitals for injuries related to the bombings. The number has gradually increased in the past week as people seek delayed help for minor injuries that didn’t heal on their own or hearing problems, according to a spokeswoman for the health commission.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston said Tuesday that according to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s condition is now listed as “fair.” The office said it was releasing the information at the request of the hospital, where Tsarnaev is being treated.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged Monday with using a weapon of mass destruction and malicious destruction of property, counts that could carry the death penalty if convicted. He made his first court appearance in an unusual nonpublic proceeding in which a federal judge and several lawyers went to his hospital bed in Boston.
The youngest of those killed in the blasts, 8-year-old Martin Richard, was buried Tuesday morning in a private ceremony, his parents said.

“A private Funeral Mass was celebrated this morning with immediate family,” Denise and Bill Richard said in a statement. “We laid our son Martin to rest, and he is now at peace. We plan to have a public memorial service in the coming weeks to allow friends and loved ones from our community to join us for a celebration of Martin’s life.” The couple expressed thanks for a “tremendous” outpouring of love and support over the past week.

The criminal complaint against Tsarnaev, filed in U.S. District Court in Boston, ended a debate over how the case should be handled. Some congressional Republicans had insisted that Tsarnaev be designated an “enemy combatant,’’ which would enable the government to charge him under the laws of war in a military commission or to hold him indefinitely.

White House press secretary Jay Carney rejected that approach Monday, saying that the suspect cannot be tried in a military commission under federal law because he is a U.S. citizen. “We will prosecute this terrorist through our civilian system of justice,’’ Carney said at a White House news briefing.

Three defense lawyers, along with two federal prosecutors, joined Tsarnaev for the court session at his hospital bed, where the suspect is recuperating from gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs and hands, according to a transcript provided by the court.

Federal Magistrate Judge Marianne B. Bowler advised Tsarnaev of his rights and the charges against him, the transcript said.

“How are you feeling?” a doctor, identified as Dr. Odom, asked. “Are you able to answer some questions?”

Tsarnaev “nods affirmatively,’’ said the transcript, which added that the only word he spoke during the hearing was “no,” when asked whether he could afford a lawyer. William Fick, one of the defense lawyers, said he would reserve questions about bail and other matters, according to the transcript. The judge then ended the session, saying she found the defendant “alert, mentally competent, and lucid.”

An affidavit by FBI agent Daniel R. Genck that accompanied the complaint portrayed Tsarnaev as a relatively low-tech operative who was caught on the day of the marathon on multiple surveillance cameras. Genck described how Tsarnaev and his brother were captured on camera walking near the finish line April 15, both carrying large knapsacks. They stood together for several minutes, appearing to watch the race.

Tamerlan broke off and walked toward where the first improvised explosive device would soon detonate, Genck said. Three minutes later, Dzhokhar walked in the same direction, then stopped and slipped his knapsack onto the ground. He then stood looking at his cellphone, and even appeared to snap a picture with it.

About 30 seconds before the first explosion, Genck’s affidavit said, Dzhokhar, standing in front of a restaurant, lifted the phone to his ear as though he were speaking and held it there. The first bomb exploded. “Virtually every head turns to the east [toward the finish line] and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm,’’ Genck said.

Dzhokhar, referred to in the complaint as “Bomber Two,’’ stood out. “[V]irtually alone among the individuals in front of the restaurant,’’ the affidavit said, he “appears calm.’’

He then rapidly walked away from the direction of the first explosion, his knapsack on the ground.

About 10 seconds later, the second bomb exploded where his knapsack had been, Genck said.

The document also provides details about the explosives used in the attack, saying they were “low-grade” and housed in pressure cookers that contained metallic BB’s and nails. Many of the BB’s were encased within an adhesive material, the complaint said, and several explosives discovered in a car the brothers used and at the scene of the shootout with police in Watertown, Mass., were similar.

Authorities were continuing a worldwide investigation of the marathon attack and looking into whether foreign or domestic terrorist groups helped. No evidence of such a connection has emerged, law enforcement officials said.

Authorities are trying to trace a handgun recovered from the suspects. Law enforcement sources said the effort has been delayed because the serial number was removed. Technicians are working to determine the numbers, after which the weapon will be traced by a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives facility in West Virginia.

New information also emerged about Tamerlan’s earlier brushes with the law.

Authorities in Massachusetts confirmed that they are investigating whether the elder brother may have been connected to a triple homicide in Waltham, Mass., in September 2011, prosecutors said. The Boston Globe reported that Tamerlan was friends with Brendan Mess, 25, one of three people found dead in an apartment on the afternoon of Sept. 12.

MaryBeth Long, a spokeswoman for the Middlesex County District Attorney’s Office, told The Washington Post that authorities “will review any new information that may come to light in that case as a result of the investigation” of the marathon bombing.

Court records in Cambridge, Mass., meanwhile, showed that Tamerlan was arrested on charges of assault and battery in July 2009 after slapping a girlfriend. The incident occurred at his apartment on Norfolk Street after an argument between him and Nadine Ascencao over another woman, according to the incident report. The records indicate that the case was dismissed about six months later.

Jenna Johnson in Boston. Kathy Lally and Will Englund in Moscow and Jerry Markon, William Branigin, Greg Jaffe, Julie Tate and Joel Achenbach in Washington contributed to this report.

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UN Official Says Boston Got What It Deserved

AP

UN HUMAN RIGHTS OFFICIAL SAYS BOSTON GOT WHAT IT DESERVED
By ANNE BAYEFSKY, Breitbart.com

UN Human Rights Council “expert” Richard Falk has published a statement saying Bostonians got what they deserved in last week’s terror attack. He quotes W.H. Auden to make his point: "to whom evil is done/do evil in return.”

Richard Falk is the UN’s “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.” He has held the post since 2008, despite exposure as a 9/11 conspiracy theorist.

In his latest rant, published online on April 21, 2013 by foreignpolicyjournal.com Falk repeats the libel that prior to 9/11 President George W. Bush was seeking a “pretext” for war, and that anything Israel is the opposite of “justice and peace.”
And then he attacks Bostonians head-on. The police action in Boston was a "hysterical dragnet." Boston’s dead were "canaries" that "have to die" because of America’s “fantasy of global domination."

Falk explains the attacks as justifiable “resistance.” In his words: “The American global domination project is bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world.”

He minimizes the crime and predicts worse if America doesn’t change its ways to better accommodate the demands of “the Islamic world.” As he puts it: “In some respects, the United States has been fortunate not to experience worse blowbacks, and these may yet happen…”.

For years, Falk has been espousing the worst forms of antisemitism from his UN perch, and for his efforts has been rewarded with repeated opportunities by the Council to lecture others on his world view.

That world view is shared by the 56 member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), who only a week ago at UN Headquarters refused to define terrorism unless an exception clause was created for “legitimate struggle”

The OIC controls the balance of power at the UN’s top human rights body, by holding majorities in both the African and Asian regional groups. Africa and Asia, in turn, control 26 of the 47 seats on the Council. With the backing of the OIC, therefore, Falk has been encouraged and protected.

Read more: http://nation.foxnews.com/boston-mar...#ixzz2RJYbkbRy

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Lindsey Graham: FBI didn’t know Tsarnaev was in Russia because his name was misspelled

04/22/2013 11:47 AM
By Noah Bierman, Globe Staff

WASHINGTON -- US Senator Lindsey Graham said this morning that the FBI told
him it was initially unaware that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had traveled to Russia early
last year because of a clerical error: His name was misspelled.

“He went over to Russia, but apparently, when he got on the Aeroflot plane, they
misspelled his name,” Graham, a South Carolina Republican said on Fox
television this morning. “So it never went into the system that he actually went
to Russia.”

Graham, a member of the Armed Services Committee, said in answer to a
follow-up question that he did not know whether Tsarnaev, the 26-year-old
terrorist suspect who died early Friday following a shootout with law
enforcement, had misspelled his name on purpose.

The FBI “said Aeroflot gave us the information” that Tsarnaev had traveled there,
Graham said, though he did not specify when that occurred. Tsarnaev had been
flagged to the FBI by Russian authorities in 2011.

He also did not say where the name was misspelled and why his passport and US
Customs and Border Protection information did not make it into government
records.

Follow-up questions to Graham’s office were not immediately answered. The FBI
could not be reached for comment immediately either.

There has been at least one other variant spelling of his family name. His uncle
Ruslan, who lives in Maryland, spells the last name “Tsarni.”

Graham, who on Sunday strongly questioned the FBI’s handling of a tip from
Russian officials about Tsarnaev, said he spoke with the agency’s deputy director
Sunday night and is now satisfied with the response.

“Once the Russians made the request, the FBI did a good job at looking at him,”
Graham said.

He said the FBI interviewed Tsarnaev, his parents, and his schoolmates and did a
thorough record search to see if anything came up. The agency found nothing
and then wrote Russian authorities back to see if they had further information,
but did not receive a response, Graham said.

They Lied!!!


Napolitano: US Knew of Boston Bomber Russia Trip





Napolitano: We Knew Tsarnaev Traveled To Russia Despite Name SNAFU

Tuesday, April 23, 2013 PrintEmail Comments (15)

By: Hillary Chabot



Janet Napolitano said her agency was aware Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to Russia in 2011, as the homeland security czar testified today before a Congressional committee on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that is now under a pall cast by the Boston Marathon bombing.

“The system pinged when he was leaving the United States,” said Napolitano, who remained tight-lipped on the investigation saying she plans to brief senators fully on Thursday. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there ... There’s going to be a classified briefing on Thursday for the Senate. What I would recommend we do is have that briefing and see what if any questions arise at that point that may have any relevance at all to immigration legislation.”

The revelation comes as U.S. Sen. Lindsay Graham suggested that security officials weren’t aware of Tsarnaev’s trip because his name was misspelled in a Aeroflot database. Tsarnaev’s trip is seen as key because many believe he underwent further radicalization during his six-month trip before he returned to the United States in July.

“They told me that they had no knowledge of him leaving or coming back so I would like to talk to you more about this case,” Graham said to Napolitano.

Napolitano said that even though Tsarnaev’s name was misspelled, redundancies in the system allowed his departure to be noted by U.S. authorities in January 2012. His re-entry into the country wasn’t noted because the FBI’s investigation on him had wrapped up by the time he returned.

Several members of Congress have questioned whether the Federal Bureau of Investigation properly handled a 2011 investigation into Tsarnaev, which came after Russian officials flagged him as a potential radical Islam follower.

The FBI is expected to brief both the Senate and the House Intelligence Committee in classified meetings today about their 2011 investigation into Tsarnaev.

“What we want to do is to see when the FBI investigated the tip that came from Russia about whether or not bomber No. 1, who came from Russia, was really cleared about what Russia was concerned about,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) told CNN this morning. “We will have a classified hearing about it today at 5 o’clock.”

Napolitano Admits DHS Knew of Boston Bomber’s Russia Trip

Stand With Arizona ^ | 04-23-2013 | John Hill
Posted on Tuesday, April 23, 2013 10:23:55 AM by montag813


Slipped through her fingers: Big sis admits DHS knew Boston jihadist traveled to Russia in 2012.
-

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stunned a Senate panel when she admitted that her agency knew of alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev's trip to Russia last year even though his name was misspelled on a travel document, as she testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on sweeping immigration amnesty legislation.

The admission that her department was aware of Tsarnaev's six-month trip to Dagestan - a hotbed of radical Islamic activity - surprised two 'Gang of Eight' senators, Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY), who had been using an the hearing to try and establish that the DHS didn't catch his travels under the current visa system, and that their amnesty bill would fix the apparent glitch. This was clearly not the case, raising further disturbing questions about why U.S. security services failed to keep track of the man who went on to kill 4 people in Boston last week.

Both senators had claimed that the misspelling caused the FBI to miss the trip. Graham, told the secretary that it contradicted what he'd been told by the FBI:

"They told me that they had no knowledge of him leaving or coming back so I would like to talk to you more about this case," Graham told Napolitano.

Napolitano said that even though Tsarnaev's name was misspelled, "redundancies in the system" allowed his departure to be captured by U.S. authorities in January 2012:

"The system pinged when he was leaving the United States. By the time he returned all investigations had been closed," Napolitano said.

The Russia trip is now seen as important to determining how and when Tsarnaev, the older Boston bomber who died in a firefight with police, became radicalized, and whether he had ties to others.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev was investigated by the FBI at Russia's request and his name was included in a federal government travel-screening database after that, law enforcement officials have told The Associated Press.

As SWA reported yesterday, Russian security services warned the FBI in November 2012 that Tsarnaev was seen meeting – six times – with a person involved in militant Islamic underground movement in Dagestan. This Islamist leader, Gadzhimurad Dolgatov (who also went by the name Amir Abu Dujana) was killed after a fierce gunbattle with Russian security forces in Dagastan in December 2012

The visit “would lead one to believe that that’s probably where he got that final radicalization to push him to commit acts of violence and where he may have received training” in terrorist techniques, U.S. House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Mike Rogers told NBC.

Yet another claim by the amnesty advocates is exposed, and a new twist to the disturbing story of the "jihadist who got away" emerges which further undermines trust that the DHS can effectively protect Americans from the massive increase of foreigners with visas that the 'Gang of Eight' bill would bring to our shores.

[Phil Fiord]

They lied? OH NOOOOOOO!

Actually, not surprised.

[vector7]

Starting to feel like Benghazi in Boston.

[Ryan Ruck]

Don't bother checking, the link doesn't go to The Onion.

Williams-Sonoma Pulls Pressure Cookers Off Shelves in Cranston

April 23, 2013

If you're in the market for a new pressure cooker to whip up some stew or pulled pork, don't head to the Cranston Williams-Sonoma for the time being.

Williams-Sonoma, the specialty retailer of home furnishings and gourmet cookware with more than 250 stores in the United States, has pulled pressure cookers from their shelves following the Boston Marathon bombing.

It was first reported that Williams-Sonoma pulled pressure cookers from shelves in stores in Massachusetts, but a call to the Cranston location in Garden City Center shows the company has issued a larger company directive.

Cranston store manager Kyle, who asked his last name not to be used, said pressure cookers were taken off the shelves via a company directive because it didn't seem appropriate to sell them in the wake of the marathon bombings. Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev allegedly used pressure cookers to make the bombs used in the attacks in downtown Boston.

The temporary measure will probably not last for too much longer, Kyle said. Pressure cookers will still be available on the Williams-Sonoma website.

[Malsua]

What we need is pressure cooker control. In fact, any vessel that can be sealed should be under strict license from the federal government. Everything from Altoid tins up to mylar bags should be brought under control if it will save just one life.

[BRVoice]

Iran panics over Boston bombing link to Tehran

Nation's media claim Washington behind WND reports

Published: 1 day ago Reza Kahlili




Much of Iran’s media today panicked, attacking WND reports on the Islamic regime’s involvement in the Boston Marathon bombings and claiming Washington is behind the WND reports so the U.S. can attack other countries.

WND’s source for the report regarding Iran’s involvement in the bombings, a member of the regime’s intelligence services, said today regime officials fear a campaign in the United States for a retaliatory attack on Iran similar to what happened to Afghanistan after 9/11.

The fact that the regime’s media reflected the same report shows that panic, said the source, who added that Iranian leaders are furious about the WND reports.

In another sign of panic, another source said, Revolutionary Guard members, fearing a war or uprising, are distancing themselves from their commanders.

The headline “New Accusations by the West: The Boston Bombing Is Work of Iran,” was reflected on hundreds of the regime’s media sites, particularly the official site of the Revolutionary Guards’ Basij forces and Bultannews, which is run by the regime’s intelligence services.

An April 16 exclusive on WND reported that the Boston bombings were tied to the regime’s Quds Forces and the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah. The source added that the regime from its operational centers in South Asia is actively recruiting a new wave of terrorists from non-Arabs and from Islam’s Sunni sect to avoid any trace back to Shiite Iran and Hezbollah and to either present an apparent link to al-Qaida or individuals acting on their own.

Two U.S. officials today told The Associated Press that the preliminary investigation suggests that the Boston suspects were motivated by religion and that it appears they acted alone.

The April 16 report also reflected WND reports of Dec. 11 and Feb. 28 in which sources within Iran said the Quds Forces were preparing for terrorist attacks within six months in the United States in collaboration with al-Qaida factions and that an operational team was on its way to the U.S.

Basij News, in covering the WND reports, said the West is accusing Iran’s highest political figures of ordering the Boston attack, supervised by the Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah.

The “conservative” website WND, Basij News said, cites a Khorasan video one of the bombers had uploaded to YouTube on the ideology of “Mahdaviat,” the Shiite belief in the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the 12th Imam, Mahdi
WND, it said, referred to the hadiths in which Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is the mythical figure who will raise the flag of Islam and hand it over to Mahdi when the 12th Imam returns to Earth at the time of Armageddon.

WND has reported that the clerics ruling Iran are trying to create that environment.

Basij News accused the West and WND of blaming Iran for the bombings so corporate America can benefit from insecurity in the country as Americans buy more guns.

But the bigger intention for blaming Iran, Basij News said, is so the United States has a reason to interfere in other countries, as it did in Afghanistan and Iraq in the aftermath of 9/11.

Basij News said that looking at different dimensions of the Boston bombings and the mercenary behavior of Western politicians, the most logical explanation for WND’s reports is that Washington was aware of the planned attack and is trying to take advantage of it.

According to another source, a former member of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit who defected to a Scandinavian country, Guard members are also panicked as the regime continues to defy international demands to end its illicit nuclear program and continuously prepares for war. The Guard forces believe that war is inevitable, and despite harsh statements by their commanders against the U.S., the source said, many know that in any war the regime will fall and the Iranian people, most of whom resent the regime and the ideology it represents, will take revenge on its loyalists.

Many of the Guard forces are telling family members and neighbors that they do not support the regime any more to remedy their pro-regime status. The regime has also taken steps to stop any high-ranking officers from leaving the country, even on pilgrimage, fearing defection.

The same source reported last year that the Islamic regime’s agents were active in the U.S. and were working to acquire intelligence that might be useful in terror attacks. The agents work on Americans who have converted to Islam with offers of a trip to the Iranian city of Qom, the site of hotbed seminaries and the center of Shiite theology, where they are brainwashed and offered collaboration. The agents also use Islamic centers and mosques in the U.S. and other countries to recruit assets.

Meanwhile, reports surfaced today on another terror plot in which two individuals with links to al-Qaida elements in Iran were arrested. The plot, according to reports, called for attacking a commuter train traveling between Canada and the United States.

[American Patriot]

Glad we got out pressure cooker already..... they can pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

[Ryan Ruck]

Get your pre-ban pressure cookers!

[vector7]

I guess banning Islamic Terrorists from entering the U.S. is illegal according to the Obama Administration...

• Obama Admin invites tens of thousands of radical Muslims to relocate inside the U.S.
• Obama Administration is Quietly Erasing US Borders
• Foreign 'terrorists' breach U.S. border
• Southern Border Chessboard Involves Iran/Venezuela/Russia
• Administration’s program halts 102,000 deportations

[Ryan Ruck]

Seriously though, I just think it's funny that a group of people sat around together and thought this was a rational response with no consideration that they would be ridiculed by normal people nationwide, all the while their cutlery aisle remains completely open.

[American Patriot]

hahaha... better get your butcher knives, those will be next.

[vector7]

Details Emerge on Religious Motives of Boston Bomb Suspects and Recent Interest in Chechnya – A ‘Hub’ of Extremist Saudi Wahhabism

Apr. 24, 2013 2:44pm Tiffany Gabbay

New details are emerging about the religious motivations of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and their recent interest in Chechnya, which experts say has become a hub for the extremist Saudi sect of Islam known as Wahhabism.

The brothers are ethnically Chechen, though Dzhokhar was born in the Russian republic of Dagestan while his deceased older brother Tamerlan was born in the neighboring Russian republic of Kalmykia. Their parents confirmed that Tamerlan visited Dagestan and Chechnya last year, but denied reports that he did so to engage in militant Islamist training.

University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Professor Brian Glyn Williams, who mentored the younger Tsarnaev brother via email for his class on the War on Terror, noted the brothers’ growing sense of Chechen identity.
Williams also posited that Tamerlan Tsarnaev became radicalized during his trip to Russia and also helped influence his younger brother.


Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, left, and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19.Credit: AP

“That kid [Dzhokhar] and his brother identified with the Chechen struggle,” he said in an email to Steve Urbon of South Coast recently.

“He was learning his Chechen identity, identifying with the diaspora and identifying with his homeland,” Williams said of Dzhokhar.

“He wanted to learn more about Chechnya, who the fighters were, who the commanders were. I sort of gave him background.”

Chechnya and Dagestan, separate Russian republics nestled in the North Caucasus, have majority Muslim populations that have long been influenced by Wahhabism, described by the U.S. Congressional Research Service as a “puritanical” form of Sunni Islam whose practice is centered in Saudi Arabia.

U.S. officials maintain that the Tsarnaevs acted on their own and were not connected with any other groups — taking pains to affirm the innocence of two Saudi students questioned in Boston on the day of the bombings. One of those Saudi students, Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, was initially a person of interest in the bombings and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano confirmed Tuesday that he was placed on a terror watch list after the attack. An event file created by federal law enforcement agents on April 16 called for his visa to be revoked, citing a terrorism threat, and indicated he was not properly vetted before being admitted to the U.S.

While no current evidence links Alharbi to the Tsarnaev brothers, preliminary statements from the interrogation of Dzhokhar suggests the brothers were motivated by Islam. Additionally, the brothers appear to have been driven by a radical brand of Islam — although U.S. officials claimed they do not seem connected to any Muslim terrorist groups.
That raises this question: Just how influential is Islam, and Saudi-Wahhabism in particular, in Chechnya and Dagestan?
Background on the region

Chechnya and Dagestan lost their independence to Russia some 200 years ago at the hands of Tsar Nicholas I and have been, in some way shape or form, fighting ever since.

In fact, Dr. Andrew Bostom, author of the scholarly volume, “The Legacy of Islamic Jihad,” told TheBlaze that Chechnya, which first adopted Islam in the 7th Century, is indeed “the hub” for all jihadist activity in the entire Caucasus region. What’s more, he also said it has also become a hub for the extremist sect of Sunni Islam known as Wahhabism.

According to Ksenia Svetlova, an analyst for Israel’s Channel 9 who holds a doctorate in Middle Eastern Studies from the Hebrew University, Chechnya and Dagestan became a hotbed of Wahhabism from the early 1990s.

“Mosques and madrasas were opened; training camps for young combatants were established to prepare them for the ‘jihad against the infidels,’” Svetlova wrote in an article explaining the region’s bent towards radical Islam. According to the scholar, the teachings of Wahhabist jihadi Said Buryatsky “are among the most downloaded files in Chechnya.”

Svetlova also notes that Wahhabists “send money to religious institutions around the world, including in Chechnya and Dagestan.” By the late 1980s, Saudi Arabia also began sending clerics, scholars and “jihadist combatants” to the Caucasus, according to Svetlova.

Also worth noting is that Saudi Arabia has, according to Bostom, long been known to fund projects as simple as providing language-translations of the Koran and Hadiths, ensuring that people of all walks can digest Islamic sacred texts regardless of their mother tongue.

“That is often one of their most simple and legal forms of propaganda,” Bostom told TheBlaze. ”To get Koran and Hadith into every population and I am sure they did this in Caucasus, just as I’m sure they funded the jihadists against the Soviets just as they did in Afghanistan.”

Wahhabism in the North Caucasus

Wahhabism, which originated in the Arabian peninsula during the 18th century, was meant as a return to a purer form of Islam by adopting a literal interpretation of the Koran and Hadiths. It is the predominant sect of Sunni Islam practiced in Saudi Arabia.

“Wahhabism became an attractive alternative to the complicated mystic ideology of ‘normative’ Sufi Islam for a certain segment of Chechen believers,” noted Emil Souleimanov, author of “An Endless War: The Russian-Chechen Conflict In Perspective.”

“It [Wahhabism] especially appealed to the militarized and–owing to the war–radicalized youth.”

Souleimanov notes the irony in Chechen youths’ adoption of Wahhabism as a form of personal freedom, given the sects ultra-conservative restraints.

“Yet in post-war Chechnya the egalitarian and militant spirit of Wahhabism seemed to be a desirable alternative to the rigid social structure.” The author goes on to note that despite the Wahhabists strict, extremist bent, Chechens by and large will not renounce the sect nor even openly criticize it. Rather, Chechens applaud young ideologues for being honorable enough to refrain from drugs, alcohol and for allowing themselves to be martyred for their cause.

This, coupled with the fact that Wahhabi emissaries, according to the author, have often provided Chechens with charity, has gone a long way in creating a society that will likely refrain from acting out against the Wahhabi influence.


Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov (C) wearing the national dress walks to take part in the Chechen language Day holiday in Chechnya’s capital Grozny, on April 28, 2012.Credit: AFP/Getty Images

What is perhaps most interesting about Chechnya, is that one would expect the republic’s current pro-Putin government, led by Sufi president Ramzan Kadyrov, to soften the Islamic influence in the North Caucasus.

Rather, Kadyrov, while an opponent of Wahhabism, is no moderate and has been outspoken in his desire to implement Sharia law in Chechnya.

This perhaps underscores the radical elements present even within the “moderate” sects of the North Caucasus.

Wartime and Wahhabism

While the first and second Chechnya Wars of the 1990s were characterized by many as simply “nationalistic” struggles for independence against the Russian Federation, experts note it was more about the establishment of an Islamic caliphate some Chechens have been after.

The first Chechnya War began before the collapse of the Soviet Union and lasted nearly two years, during which time thousands of civilians on both sides perished. The Soviets inevitably prevailed, but it was not before long an even more radicalized Chechen populace, under the banner of the Islamic International Brigade, challenged Moscow again, this time by invading Dagestan.

The pretext for Islamists was that Chechnya would overtake Dagestan and declare the two republics as a single, unified, independent Islamic state.

In 1997, ethnic Avar (the predominant tribe in Dagestan) and Wahhabist Bagauddin Magomedov, who served as ”Emir of the Islamic Jamaat of Dagestan,” fled to Chechnya to woo neighboring Wahhabi-leaders. Soon, an “Islamic Legion” was formed and by the Spring of 1999, Magomedov, according to Souleimanov, made an appeal to the “Islamic patriots of the Caucasus” to “take part in the jihad” and help in “liberating Dagestan and the Caucasus from the Russian colonial yoke.”

Needless to say, the Russians weren’t having any of it and, like the last time, they reigned victorious. What resulted was the installment of a pro-Moscow government in Chechnya (now led by President Ramzan Kadyrov) and a steady stream of low-level internal insurgencies coupled with more serious terror cell activity conducted by international jihadists who have used Chechnya as a base of operations.

Jihadi links with Chechnya and Dagestan

Chechnya has long been an outpost from which jihadists have operated.


Zacarias Moussaoui’s booking photo. Source: U.S. District Court Eastern District of Virginia

Consider the fact that 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden openly backed the Chechens in the 1990s during their wartime struggles against Russia, and 9/11 hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui was, according to the Wall Street Journal, “a recruiter for al-Qaeda-backed rebels in Chechnya.”

Chechen militants fought with al-Qaeda and Taliban forces against the U.S.-backed Northern Alliance in late 2001.

Even German al Qaeda operative Christian Ganczarski went on to Chechnya after becoming radicalized in Saudi Arabia, which has reportedly furnished thousands of international scholarships to young men in an effort to provide al Qaeda with a steady stream of new recruits.

Other Chechen-related jihadist attacks include the 2002 incident in which 40 terrorists — mostly women in hijabs dubbed the “Black Widows” — took more than 700 hostages at a Moscow theater demanding Chechen independence. In the end they blew themselves up in a suicide mission, claiming 100 other movie-goers.

Then, in 2004, jihadists demanding Chechen independence infamously set siege to a school in Beslan,
North Ossetia, taking 1200 hostage. While they were defeated in the end, the Islamists killed 334 hostages, including 186 children.


This image taken from video and released Monday, Feb. 7, 2011 by The Kavkaz Center, a website affiliated with Chechen rebels, shows insurgent leader Doku Umarov speaking in a video in which he claims responsibility for deadly suicide bombing at Russia’s largest airport.Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS

What’s more, Chechen jihadist Doku (Dokka) Umarov leads the Caucasus Emirate, a group designated by both the Russian Federation and the United States as a terrorist organization.

Umarov, who fought in both Chechnyan wars against Russia, is known as the Chechen Osama bin Laden.

He has claimed credit for ordering the Moscow airport bombing in January 2011 that killed 36 people and injured 180 others, and the March 2010 suicide bombings that targeted the Moscow subway system and killed 39 people. He also reportedly ordered the November 2009 bombing of a train to St. Petersburg from Moscow that killed 26 people, according to the BBC.

The Caucasus Emirate, which was linked to on Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s reported YouTube page, is aligned ideologically and through its members, with al Qaeda and seeks the establishment of an Islamic State in the Caucasus.

Former CIA operative and senior fellow with the Center for Security Policy, Clare Lopez, told TheBlaze that there are many al Qaeda-Chechen ties.

“It’s not all about Russia,” Lopez said in an email. “It’s about international jihad where Chechens can be found on every jihad battlefield…and now here in the U.S. too.”

[vector7]

‘Armed and Dangerous’: Beck’s Latest Revelations on Saudi National Once a ‘Person of Interest’ in Boston Bombings

Apr. 24, 2013 11:04am Erica Ritz

For the past week, Glenn Beck has been investigating a Saudi national once identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing. The story has taken a number of alarming twists and turns, but on his radio program Wednesday, Beck released some of the most interesting information yet.

But first, here are a few background points on how the case developed:

• A Saudi national originally identified as a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing was set to be deported under section 212, 3B — “Security and related grounds” — “Terrorist activities” after the bombing on April 15
• TheBlaze received word that the government may not deport the Saudi national — identified as Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi — as the story gained traction on April 18.
• Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano refused to answer questions on the subject by Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC) on Capitol Hill on April 18, saying the inquiry was “so full of misstatements and misapprehension that it’s just not worthy of an answer.”
• An ICE official said April 18 that a different Saudi national is in custody, but that he is “in no way” connected to the bombings.
• Key congressmen of the Committee on Homeland Security request a classified briefing with Napolitano on April 22
• New info provided to TheBlaze reveals Alharbi’s file was altered on the evening of April 17 to disassociate him from the initial charges
• Sources say April 22 that the Saudi’s student visa specifically allows him to go to school in Findlay, Ohio, though he appears to have an apartment in Boston, Massachusetts. A DHS official told TheBlaze Alharbi properly transferred his student visa to a school in Massachusetts
• TheBlaze sources reveal April 22 that Alharbi was put on a terror watchlist after the bombing, and Napolitano confirms he was on a “watchlist” April 23.

A photo allegedly of Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi in the hospital.

On his radio program, Beck began with an overview of how the case unfolded, noting that Alharbi has rapidly gone from “person of interest, to witness, to victim, to nobody.”

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano even said yesterday that Alharbi was just “in the wrong place at the wrong time” and was “never a subject,” after ridiculing inquiries into the matter last week.

But Wednesday, Beck presented new information after a Blaze source directly read the original event file, and multiple government sources with knowledge of the case and files contributed their knowledge.

Napolitano could serve “jail time for perjury,” Beck declared, and she will be “the first to fall.”

Here are a couple of new points, as Beck related them:

• At the time the event file was created for Abdul Rahman Ali Alharbi, it indicated he was “armed and dangerous”​
• Alharbi was admitted into the country under a “special advisory option,” which is usually reserved for visiting politicians, VIPs, or journalists. The event file cover page indicates he was granted his status without full vetting.
• One of the first excuses given by law enforcement when confronted about Alharbi’s pending deportation was an expired visa. But according to the event file, his visa is good until 11-NOV-2016.
• The event file indicates he entered the U.S. on 08/28/12 in Boston, MA but says he is a student at the University of Findlay, in Findlay, Ohio. He has an apartment in Boston, and doesn’t seem to have been a full-time student in Ohio.
• When a file is created in the system the author(s) are notified via email when it is accessed, and given the email address of the person accessing, so there is a record within the government data system of who deleted them. It was amended to remove the deportation reference, then someone later went in and tried to destroy both the original event file and an amended versions. Copies had already been made.
• The original event file was reviewed and approved by two high level agents – Chief Watch Commander Maimbourg and Watch Commander Mayfield.

Here is the text of the cover of the event file, which reveals still more:

Subject,
ALHARBI, ABDULRAHMAN ALI E
DOB 03/12/1993
COC SAUDI ARABIA

Subject is an exact match to NO FLY TPN# 1037506192. Derogatory information reviewed by W/C Mayfield and CW/C Maimbourg was found to be sufficient to request Visa revocation. NTC-P is requesting revocation of Foil# e3139541. Subject is inadmissible to the U.S. under INA 212(a)(3)(B)(i)(II). SAO was not completed prior to Visa issuance. Subject is currently in the United States, admitted F1 student, at Boston POE on 08/28/2012. Subject is a student at THE UNIVERSITY OF FINDLAY, 1000 NORTH MAIN STREET FINDLAY, OHIO 45840-3695. Subject has One (1) prior event #1648067, Fins promoted, NT record in place, No scheduled found at this time. [Emphasis added]

And here is a photo of the page:


(Photo: TheBlaze)

Beck explained: “Subject is an exact match to that no fly order. That means, we have been presented bad information…and it was reviewed, and found to be sufficient. Subject has One (1) prior event...When they opened this when he was at the hospital, they found he’s already in the system!”

“A 212, 3B is from the Patriot Act…It is the biggest warning we can put on anybody,” he explained for those unfamiliar with the term. “You do not put people’s name on there easily…this is a terrorist designation, and there is a panel of agencies that you have to go and make your case to. It’s not like you’re standing in the hospital room and they say: ‘Make him a 212,3B.’ And if they ​are, they’re abusing their power….It is so rare that somebody’s name is taken off outside of death, that none of ours sources can tell us that it’s ever happened. It is laughable what Janet Napolitano said yesterday.”

Certainly, a litany of questions remain.

Was Alharbi considered “armed and dangerous” before the Boston bombing, or at it? Was it related to something they found at his apartment? Was his prior “event” from the days prior, at the bombing, or was it from an earlier period in his life?

Moreover, how was he admitted into the country under a “special advisory option?” How many students receive that privilege, particularly without property security clearance?

In Beck’s estimation, the entire situation at the least amounts to an alarming lack of transparency, and at the worst, an abuse of power and cover-up.

“This is not about this one guy,” Beck noted, “but by the way — where is this extraordinarily dangerous man? Ask that question, you’re not going to like the answer.”

“That’s what TheBlaze is releasing today,” he continued. “Once they explain away all of this, if you want to continue to discredit me, you will discredit yourself but more importantly, you will put the citizens of this country at stake.”
–
Related:

• Janet Napolitano’s Major Admission: Saudi Student Was Put on Watchlist
• Beck Breaks Exclusive Information on Saudi National Once Considered a Person of Interest in Boston Bombings
• Exclusive: Key Congressmen Request Classified Briefing on Saudi ‘Person of Interest’ in Boston Bombing

SMOKING GUN ON SAUDI NATIONAL

http://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-r...isitor-records

Abdul Rahman Al-Harbi has visited the White House several times since 2009.

[vector7]

Are These Pictures of Michelle Obama Visiting the Saudi Student Put on a 2123B (Armed and Dangerous) Watchlist Last Week? Even Though He Had Never Been Cleared To Enter The Country. How Did SS Allow This?

Apr. 24, 2013 12:25pm Mytheos Holt

Photos of a visit Michelle Obama is alleged to have had with Abdul Rahman Alharbi — the Saudi national previously considered to be “person of interest,” “armed and dangerous,” and worthy of inclusion on a watch list — may have appeared on a Facebook page associated with an English language school in Boston or students who share a common bond of going to English schools in the area.


Photo Credit: Facebook


A close-up of the alleged photo.

The above photo montage, which was posted at FreeRepublic today, originally appears on the Facebook page for “EC Boston Saudi’s.” EC Boston most likely refers to the EC Boston English Language School. The Arabic caption on the photo reads: “اخونا عبدالرحمن الحربي مع ميشيل أُباما واصاحبة”

Filtered through Google Translate, this comes out to: “Brother Abdul Rahman Alharbi with Michelle [untranslatable] and Asahabh.” The photos were originally posted by Facebook user Yazeed Salem, who appears to be pictured with Alharbi in the top-left photo.


Salem (left) and Al-Harbi (right) (Photo Credit: Facebook)

The individual photographs give every appearance of being genuine. There is no obvious sign of Photoshopping. Moreover, the business card in the photos belongs to an actual White House Staffer — namely, Robert Schmuck, Special Assistant to the President and Traveling Aide (although his title appears to have changed in the last year). The First Lady is also pictured in the outfit she wore to visit Boston area hospitals last week.


Michelle Obama visiting Boston-area hospitals (Photo Credit: CBS Boston)

First Lady Michelle Obama was laso reported to have visited with Alharbi on Thursday, after arriving in Boston with President Obama to visit victims of the bombings being treated in three separate hospitals, according to the well known Saudi Arabian news site Ozak.com.

When TheBlaze contacted the White House last week to comment on the First Lady’s alleged meeting with Alharbi after the first reports surfaced, they declined to comment, sending only the original press report issued on Thursday. The visits to the hospitals were closed to reporters.

“The First Lady visited with patients, their families and hospital staff at Boston Children’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Hospital,” the White House spokesperson emailed. When we asked about the visit again now that alleged photos have surfaced, we were again pointed to the general pool report noting Obama’s visit to the hospitals.

It should be noted that because the photos have only been discovered in montage form thus far, it is difficult to tell whether they all come from the First Lady’s alleged visit to Alharbi. The business card photo gives no indication of who it is being handed to, and the photo of the First Lady leaving a hospital room (bottom right) does not show any sign of who is in that hospital room.

And even if the pictures turn out to be genuine, it should be noted that it is unlikely that the First Lady was specifically visiting Alharbi. Rather, this visit almost certainly took place during the course of her and the president’s visits to victims of the bombing last Thursday that were well documented by the press, even though reporters were not allowed to tag along. On the surface, it would not be odd that Alharbi would have been one of many victims to receive a visit. Moreover, the visit appears to have taken place after Alharbi was already cleared as a suspect (Blaze sources indicate Alharbi was cleared on Wednesday).

Nevertheless, given that the visit took place before the apprehension of the Tsarnaev brothers, one might wonder about the First Lady’s willingness to be in the same room as a recently acquitted “person of interest,” especially one about whom her husband’s administration had been so concerned about to have put him on a watchlist.

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Obama: Don’t form opinions on Boston attacks until government decides

3:03 PM 04/20/2013
Neil Munro
White House Correspondent

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Americans should not decide their opinions about the Boston terror attacks until the government decides its own opinion, President Barack Obama told the nation late Friday night.

“There’s a temptation to latch on to any bit of information, sometimes to jump to conclusions,” Obama warned during his 10:05 p.m. EST speech from the White House.

“But when a tragedy like this happens … it’s important that we do this right,” he claimed.

“That’s why we have investigations … That’s why we have courts. And that’s why we take care not to rush to judgment — not about the motivations of these individuals; certainly not about entire groups of people,” Obama insisted.

According to video, witnesses and one of the bomber’s own statements, the bombs were placed by two immigrant Muslims with ethnic roots in war-torn Chechnya.

Chechens are an ethnic group whose homeland is in the Caucasus Mountains, south of Russia. The area was conquered by Russia armies in the early 1800s. Most Chechens are Muslims and want their own independent country.

The region’s history of brutal ethnic warfare was put into overdrive when the Soviet empire lost control of the region after 1989. For example, in 1994 and 1995, the capital city of Chechnya was largely leveled in a Stalingrad-like battle between Chechen rebels and the Russian army.

Since then, the area has been subject to numerous religious and ethnic wars, all of which have been extensively displayed on the Internet and jihadi websites, described in news accounts and debated by Americans.

The U.S. media and the growing array of social media sites are now aiding public debate about why the two Muslim men came to the United States, and why they decided to position their deadly bombs at the Boston marathon and then shoot at police.

Three Americans were killed by the bombs. Numerous Americans lost limbs to shrapnel from the homemade weapons.
The Boston drama dominated the national debate in the same week that Obama’s political allies in Congress presented a far-reaching bill to rewrite the nation’s immigration laws.

The pending law would provide an amnesty for at least 11 million people, quick entry to 4.7 million foreigners now waiting for green cards, and also increase the annual influx of immigrants and company workers.

The first hearing of the bill, however, was swept off the TV screen by the Boston drama, and was linked by opponents to the post-1980s influx of Muslims, some of whom have launched failed or destructive attacks against Americans.

Obama, however, warned the public against being critical of immigration.

“One of the things that makes America the greatest nation on Earth, but also, one of the things that makes Boston such a great city, is that we welcome people from all around the world — people of every faith, every ethnicity, from every corner of the globe,” he declared.

The number of Muslims attackers is a tiny percentage of all Muslims in the country.

But Obama has tried to downplay the evidence that Muslims are more likely to launch terror strikes than are other immigrants or Americans. For example, his deputies have classified the attack in November 2009 by a U.S. Army Muslim in Fort Hood as a crime, not a jihad attack, despite Major Nidal Hasan’s screams of “Allahu Akbar!” as he opened fire on his fellow soldiers.

The attack killed 13 Americans soldiers and civilians, and wounded 30 more. Because it is deemed an ordinary crime, the wounded soldiers do not get the Purple Heart medals normally awarded to soldiers wounded in combat.

Obama has also sought to strengthen ties between the Democratic party and the relatively small number of Muslims in the United States.

Although they comprise only about 2 percent of the population, Muslim voters are concentrated in a few areas, including Michigan, New Jersey and Virginia. That concentration boosted their electoral clout in 2008 and 2012.

The “American spirit includes staying true to the unity and diversity that makes us strong,” Obama expressed Friday night.

“So as we continue to learn more about why and how this tragedy happened, let’s make sure that we sustain that spirit,” he insisted.