.
6/15/13, "FBI knew earlier of Boston bombing suspect," Politico, Josh Gerstein
"Deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to
the attention of the FBI on at least two occasions prior to a Russian
government warning in March 2011 that said he appeared to be
radicalizing, FBI Director Robert Mueller said in Congressional
testimony this week.
The earlier references have led some lawmakers to question whether
the FBI acted too quickly in closing an assessment of Tsarnaev's
potential ties to terrorism done in response to the Russian request.
In a little-noticed exchange before the House Judiciary Committee
Thursday, Mueller acknowledged that the Russian alert was not the first
time the elder Tsarnaev brother crossed the FBI's radar.
"His name had come up in two other cases," Mueller said in response
to questions from Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa). "Those two other cases, the
individuals had their cases closed. So, he was one or two person [sic]
away."
When King asked Mueller if it was reasonable to say that the Russian
letter "refocused" the FBI on Tsarnaev, Mueller replied, "Absolutely."
Mueller did not elaborate on the nature of the prior investigations
where Tsarnaev's name had arisen. However, an FBI official told POLITICO
they were not related to terrorism. The official, who asked not to be
named, also said the agent who conducted an "assessment" of Tsarnaev in
response to the Russian warning in 2011 found the previous references
and was aware of them....
At Thursday's hearing, Mueller defended that inquiry as thorough, even though it resulted in no further action.
"I do believe that when we got the lead on Tamerlan from the
Russians, that the agent did an excellent job in investigating,
utilizing the tools that are available to him in that kind of
investigation," the FBI chief said. "He did all the records checks. He
went out to the interview persons at the college where Tamerlan was
there for a period of time, ultimately interviewed the parents,
interviewed Tamerlan himself, sent the information back to Russia. And
on three separate occasions we asked the Russians for additional
information that might give us indications or evidence that he was a
terrorist."
Other U.S. officials have said the Russians did not respond to those requests for more information.
Mueller suggested that there simply wasn't enough of a legal basis to
do anything else at that juncture. "At that point in time, I do not
know that there was much else that could be done within the statutes,
within the Constitution, to further investigate him," the FBI director
said.
Peter King said local police could have visited Tsarnaev's mosque,
for example, something he said FBI guidelines would not have permitted....
Steve King, who asked Mueller about the FBI's full history of
knowledge of Tsarnaev, said it's important to establish how much of the
early information on Tsarnaev came from Russia and how much was
produced by the U.S. government.
"I thought it was important to ask: 'Who first flagged you?…How did
he first come to our attention?" Steve King told POLITICO Saturday. "The
Russians seemed to know more about Tamerlan than we did, including that
he had traveled to Utah to compete in the Golden Gloves."
The Iowa Republican was among half a dozen lawmakers who traveled to Russia earlier this month
to try to piece together what happened between the Russian intelligence
services and the U.S. in connection with the Boston bombing suspects.
Steve King said his most urgent concern is that Chechens in the U.S.
may be winning asylum without anyone in the U.S. government checking
with Russia about whether the individuals have terrorist ties. "My
concern is how many terrorists are coming into the United States and are
receiving asylum?...What's the total number of others who might have
come in under that same window?" the congressman asked." via Atlas Shrugs
=============================
2/16/13, "Obama's Epic Intel Failure: FBI knew even earlier of Boston jihad bombers," Atlas Shrugs, Pamela Geller
"Obama scrubbed all references to jihad and Islam from counter terror
materials, substituting the homicidal "outreach" approach in accordance
with Islamic supremacist demands from Muslim Brotherhood groups like
CAIR (and their lapdogs in the media like Spencer Ackerman).
All 263 families of the victims of the Boston jihad bombers should
file multi-million dollar lawsuits against the Obama administration.
Redirect some of the blood money he is handing over to the Muslim
Brotherhood in Egypt, the jihadists in Syria and Libya, Hamas in Gaza
....
He is killing American civilians....quite literally -- not just in
the homeland (Boston, Fort Hood), but in Benghazi, Syria,
Afghanistan......"
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