Russia Had Wiretap on Tamerlan Tsarnaev

[DonViejo]

Source: AP/TPM

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say Russian authorities secretly recorded a conversation in 2011 in which one of the Boston bombing suspects vaguely discussed jihad with his mother.

Officials say a second call was recorded between the suspects’ mother and a man under FBI investigation living in southern Russia.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the ongoing case.

They say the Russians shared this intelligence with the U.S. in the past few days.

The conversations are significant because, had they been revealed earlier, there might have been enough evidence for the FBI to initiate a more thorough investigation of the Boston bombing suspects’ family.

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/russia-had-wiretap-on-tamerlan-tsarnaev.php?ref=fpblg

[Demeter]

1. And do what, exactly?

Arrest them for thought crimes? Follow them around, 24/7? Summarily shoot as a preventative measure?

There are limits to what even the most nosy government in the world can do.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. There's probably thousands out there just like them

agencies around the world just don't have the personnel to monitor every conversation. I think that there must have been a lot more on that terrorist.

[Auntie Bush]

3. Maybe a red flag would have been raised when they started buying things that can

be used to make a bomb. Also might have helped identify them as possible suspects.

[treestar]

14. How in the hell could that be done

without a total surveillance police state?

[Posteritatis]

17. Which things, and how would you suggest they be tracked? (nt)

[Sunlei]

21. things like the tips from russia and the long trips to russia= a computer FLAG

Then Homeland security and FBI do their jobs and look for signs of threats to kill people, on banking records, phones, computers. They would have noticed the youtubes and facebook postings and membership in the terrorist website. Red flags, red flags these pros, these experts should have noticed.

It took a couple years for the dead brother to twist his religion and personal bitterness- into mass murder.

[wordpix]

26. things like a pressure cooker and nails and batteries?

[Egnever]

12. Pay attention!

Drone strikes of course!

[olddad56]

4. I don't trust the government when they quote anonymous sources.

[KT2000]

5. Oh, I see

it is Russia's fault for not informing the US of the taped conversations.
Something tells me this is a leak to get the US intelligence agencies off the hook for missing this.

[ballardgirl]

9. Yes, blame the Russians

my thought exactly

[KoKo]

10. I got the exact opposite of what you Say. Russia Warned us...we didn't pay attention...

What do you think of my interpretation?

[treestar]

15. Well then why did they not tell our law enforcement?

Why aren't they to blame for that?

But the only one to blame for the attack are Tamerlan and his little brother. Both governments can only do so much. I would think ours is far more efficient than the Russian one.

[itsrobert]

6. I could see the Russians keeping this a secret

while telling the US to watch him. The US had nothing without this recording, so they didn't give it a priority because of resources for this is limited.

[BootinUp]

7. Doh!

[KoKo]

8. Fascinating...K&R..

[SleeplessinSoCal]

11. That mother has some 'splaining to do.

[sybylla]

18. I agree. Neither government entity could do much until a crime was committed. But...

If the mother knew this shit was going down or that there was a likelihood and refused to stop it, then she had lots of splaining to do.

[Wernothelpless]

13. Excuse me but BULLSHIT ...

All of this blame the Russians is nonsense ...

It sounds like some kid saying the Russians ate my homework ...

I don't trust anonymous sources and you can't tell me our FBI needed to get direction from Russia more than once ...

This is starting to STINK ...

[LisaL]

16. Exactly.

Is FBI completely incapable of doing own investigation? They were warned, but claim they found nothing.

[sendero]

23. And they clearly break the rules continuously....

.... about what they are allowed to do vis a vis investigations but they HAD TO close the file after 90 days THAT's the LAW.

What is clear here is that no matter how much money you spend on "terror prevention" and no matter how many folks' civil liberties you are allowed to trample, you can't fix stupid and most of the money spent on "Homeland Security" and the like is money flushed down a toilet. The only "terrorists" they can find are those they create via entrapment.

[John2]

20. So far, it is all ludicrous and

appears to be a wild goose chase after nothing. There are probably thousands and even millions of people have used the word Jihad in private conversations. It means nothing. All it proves is intelligence agencies are going around surveilling private conversations of citizens that have not even committed a crime. What a Muslim mother talks about with her son about religion is private. And the exact words these anonymous sources in the Government are floating around to media sources is vaquely. It is not evidence but a way of floating nasty rumors. It prevents the person's reputation you are damaging from suing them in Court. Of course if it was me, I would direct my lawyer to sue the media, and force them to reveal the sources spreading the information. Either the media put out information they can verify, or don't put it out. The media is not suppose to be the arm of the Government but lately, the American media has been acting that way. Our government and the media have too many political agendas, that don't even serve the American public, like getting us into illegal Wars. All we know is what the survivor has confessed to. He has a lawyer and everything is in the American Courts now. If they want to impeach him in Court, then do so. Everything else is a wild goose chase. The man has a right to prepare his case and have his own witnesses, which may include his own family.

[LisaL]

25. Surveilance would be in Russia on Russian side.

As FBI claims they couldn't find anything.

[dkf]

27. It sounds like she was suggesting he go to Palestine for Jihad.

He made the excuse that he didn't understand the language.

Here:

In the recorded call, Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, reportedly talked about Tamerlan traveling to the Palestinian territories. But the son said he would probably not go there, because he doesn't speak Arabic.

The recording is being cited as a possible reason Russian officials asked U.S. authorities to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev back in the spring of 2011. As we reported last week, the FBI didn't find anything suspicious in its inquiry. The agency evidently received scant details from the Russians.

"The FBI asked Russia for more information. After hearing nothing, it closed the case in June 2011," the AP reports. "In the fall of 2011, the FSB contacted the CIA with the same information. Again the FBI asked Russia for more details and never heard back."

A source tells Newsday that the conversation was "nonspecific" when the idea of jihad came up. But the paper adds that Zubeidat Tsarnaeva's influence over her sons is being investigated further.

"Intelligence officials have also found text messages in which the mother discusses how Tamerlan is ready to die for Islam," Newsday says, citing two anonymous sources.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/04/28/179611079/tamerlan-tsarnaev-spoke-of-jihad-with-mother-reports-say

[rhett o rick]

19. The problem is not that the FBI didnt have enough information but

that they usually have too much information. They call it noise. They cant act on all the information.

[GeorgeGist]

22. Since both mom and Tam were in theUS in 2011 ...

This sounds like anonymous bs.

[LisaL]

24. You don't know that.

Mother was going to Russia and back to US, apparently.

[drm604]

28. Seems funny that there are always people who are willing to break the rules and comment anonymously.

Either these are intentional leaks or the intelligence community has a massive scofflaw problem.

[freshwest]

29. It's all just media speculation until the trial. Lot of them this year.