NOVANEWS
A number of lawmakers are going after the FBI, questioning if the agency failed to notice red flags surrounding one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The lawmakers are demanding answers on why the FBI declined to scrutinize Tsarnaev more closely, following a lengthy trip the alleged bomber took last year to Chechnya and Dagestan in Russia’s volatile Caucasus region.
The combination has left some lawmakers practically incredulous that the FBI wasn’t tracking Tsarnaev more closely in the lead up to Monday’s tragedy in Boston.
“I have great regard for the FBI and for Director [Robert] Mueller, but this is the latest in a series of cases like this … where the FBI is given information about someone as being potential terrorists, they look at them, and then they don’t take action,” Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), a member of both the Homeland Security and Intelligence committees, said during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”
“I don’t want to run Monday morning quarterback – they did a great job of resolving the case,” King added, referring to the bombings’ aftermath. “But as far as getting information in advance and not seeming to take proper action, this is the fifth case I’m aware of where the FBI has failed to stop someone who ultimately became a terrorist murderer.”
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, also wondered if the agency could have done more to monitor Tsarnaev and, possibly, prevent the Boston bombings from ever happening.
“If he was on the radar and they let him go, if he was on the Russian’s radar, why wasn’t a flag put on him, some sort of customs flag?” McCaul asked in an interview with Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Sunday that the FBI’s failure to detect trouble in Tsarnaev doesn’t quite rise to the level of “alarm,” but he conceded the episode raises many questions the agency will have to account for in the coming weeks and months.
“I have a lot of faith in the FBI and I wouldn’t jump to conclusions, but there are a lot of questions that have to be answered,” Schumer said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “This man was pointed out by a foreign government to be dangerous. He was interviewed by the FBI once. What did they find out? What did they miss? … Why wasn’t he interviewed when he came back either at the airport when he was returning or later?
“Certainly when a foreign government points out that something is wrong or something might be wrong,” Schumer added, “he ought to be interviewed again.” The Hill
Tsarnaev, 26, and his brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar – ethnic Chechens who had both lived in the United States for a number of years – are suspected of orchestrating the Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 170 last Monday. The Hill
The elder Tsarnaev, a permanent resident of the U.S. who was seeking citizenship, was killed early Friday morning in a shootout with police outside Boston. The Hill
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was captured roughly 19 hours later after leading law enforcement on a tense manhunt that shut down much of Greater Boston. He is being treated in a Boston hospital for injuries suffered during several shootouts with the police. The Hill
Dzhokhar is so seriously injured that investigators may struggle to interrogate him effectively, it was suggested on Sunday. The Raw Story
Boston mayor Tom Menino told This Week on ABC that he was so seriously ill that agents might never be able to interrogate him. “We don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual,” he said. The Raw Story
Also, Dan Coats, a Republican member of the Senate intelligence committee, said it was unclear whether Tsarnaev would be able to talk again. “The information that we have is that there was a shot to the throat,” Coats told ABC. “It doesn’t mean he can’t communicate, but right now I think he’s in a condition where we can’t get any information from him at all.” The Raw Story
