I would like to know if the FBI has spoken to the Uncle yet...

[Tx4obama]

Seems as if the Uncle knows a lot about who the person is that radicalized the older brother.
I keep seeing the Uncle being interviewed on TV, but haven't heard anything about the FBI talking to him to find out what he knows.
----------

-snip-

Saturday, Tsarni said that he suspected that Tamerlan's radicalization began in the United States, citing a family acquaintance who told him of an outside influence over the eldest brother.

“(The acquaintance) said there is someone who brainwashed him, some new convert to Islam,’’ Tsarni said. “I would like to stress (the acquaintance was) of Armenian descent.

“It has nothing to do with Russia, (or) with Chechnya, which he had nothing to do with,’’ Tsarni said. “It started here.”

-snip-

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Uncle-of-Bombing-Suspects-Lives-in-Montgomery-County-203767601.html

-snip-

Ruslan Tsarni tells CNN more about the changing religious outlook of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tsarni noticed changes as far back as 2009. The uncle recalls a phone conversation in which Tsarnaev called him an "infidel." The young man also told his uncle he was not concerned about work or studies because God had a plan for him.

The possible radicalization of Tsarnaev began around that time under the influence of an Armenian man who was a recent convert to Islam, Ruslan Tsarni said he learned from a family acquaintance. Tsarni said his radicalization happened "right there, in the streets of Cambridge."

-snip-

http://kopnomi.blogspot.com/2013/04/boston-bomb-suspect-called-uncle.html

[jberryhill]

1. An Armenian convert to Islam?

That's a hard sell.

[elleng]

2. Don't think a hard sell.

'Islam began to make inroads into the Armenian Plateau during the seventh century. Arab, and later Kurdish, tribes began to settle in Armenia following the first Arab invasions and played a considerable role in the political and social history of Armenia.[1] With the Seljuk invasions of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the Turkic element eventually superseded that of the Arab and Kurdish. The pressures brought upon the imposition of foreign rule by a succession of Muslim states forced many Christian Armenians and Greeks in Anatolia and Armenia to convert to Islam and assimilate into the Muslim community.[2]'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Armenia

[LisaL]

4. But there wouldn't be any pressures here in US to convert.

Furthermore, how can someone just converted himself radicalize someone else?

[jberryhill]

7. Are you familiar with the Armenian genocide?

Indeed while you mention historic invasions, Armenia is an officially "Christian" country, and has its own very old orthodox church dating to the first century. They are something of a Switzerland of the Caucasus, and in general are not fond of their neighbors.

[Tx4obama]

5. I think the first excerpt is the correct one - "...acquaintance was of Armenian decent..."

... not the person that radicalized him. The 'acquaintance' told the uncle of the other person.

I think the second excerpt is wrong.

I heard him on TV and I'm pretty sure it was the Armenian that told the Uncle.
The Uncle didn't say who the other person was.

[jberryhill]

8. Having Alan Arkin as an uncle must be cool

[TwilightGardener]

9. LOL, that's pretty good.

[elleng]

3. Probably imminent, imo.

[markpkessinger]

6. The uncle also said he hadn't seen or spoken to them in over five years . . .

. . . so that, I think, would limit the likely relevance of his thoughts about the boys as regards this case.

[Cleita]

10. After his very public press conference? I'm sure they have and continue to do so. n/t

[MiniMe]

11. The FBI spoke to the uncle for several hours yesterday

It is local to me, and that fact was all over the news. The local reporters were trying to get an interview with the uncle, but the FBI was in the house with him.

[Tx4obama]

12. Thanks for the upate :)