Unanswered questions in Boston bombings
Tuesday, 23 April 2013 00:00
Bill Van Auken
THE Boston Marathon bombings last week, which killed three and wounded over
170, were seized on to implement a far-reaching attack on democratic rights,
including a police lockdown of an entire city.
As with previous incidents, much remains unknown, including the motive of
those who allegedly carried it out, whether others were involved and what
connection the FBI and other government agencies had to them.
In a televised statement immediately after the capture of 19-year-old
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the bombings, President Barack
Obama told the American public: Obviously, tonight there are still many
unanswered questions. Among them, why did young men who grew up and studied
here, as part of our communities and our country, resort to such violence?
How did they plan and carry out these attacks, and did they receive any
help?
However, it is the government that has released very little information
about what it knows. Moreover, the Obama administration has decreed that
Dzhokhar will be denied his Miranda rights, allowing CIA, FBI and military
interrogators to question him without the presence of an attorney, thereby
further limiting any information surfacing outside of what is vetted by the
government and its intelligence agencies.
In addition to the questions raised by Obama, there are a number of others
that bear serious scrutiny.
· How did the two brothers obtain the explosives used in the
bombings?
· What relationship existed between the Tsarnaev brothers and the
FBI and other US intelligence agencies?
· Did US authorities have any knowledge about the Boston bombing
plot before it was executed?
· What role did US policy in relation to Russia and the separatist
movements in Chechnya and other parts of the North Caucasus play in the US
governments attitude toward the Tsarnaevs?
While much remains murky about these and other issues, one thing is clear:
the Boston bombing, like virtually every other major terrorist incident,
real or invented, since the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City and
Washington, was carried out by someone who was known to and under
surveillance by US intelligence agencies.
There have been increasing questions raised concerning the FBIs handling of
a request from a foreign government, presumed to be Russia, that it
investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev on suspicion of involvement in Islamist
terrorism.
The request came in advance of a six-month visit that Tamerlan made to
Russia beginning in January of last year, during which he stayed with his
father in Dagestan and visited Chechnya, where several members of the family
live. In a statement released in the wake of the Boston bombings, the FBI
acknowledged that Russian authorities had determined that Tamerlan Tsarnaev
was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had
changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for
travel to the countrys region to join unspecified underground groups.
The FBI said that in response to this request it checked US government
databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory
telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the
promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest,
travel history and plans, and education history.
The statement concluded that the FBI did not find any terrorism activity,
domestic or foreign, and those results were provided to the foreign
government in the summer of 2011.
The Russian media have reported that Russian security services again
contacted the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev in November of last year. Both of
the parents of the two suspects have provided accounts of the FBIs role
that contradict the agencys public statement.
The mother of the two brothers, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, a naturalised US
citizen, told Russia Today that the FBI agents had told her that Tamerlan
was an extremist leader and they were afraid of him. They told me whatever
information he is getting, he gets from these extremists web sites.
It is a set-up. He was controlled by FBI for three to five years. They knew
what my son was doing. They knew what actions and what sites on the Internet
he was going . . . So how could this happen? How could they, they were
controlling his every step, and they are telling today that this is a
terrorist act.
In an interview with the Reuters news agency, the young mens father, Anzor
Tsarnaev, said that the FBI had visited the familys home in Cambridge,
Massachusetts at least five times looking for Tamerlan.
He said: They said there were doing preventive work. They were afraid there
might be some explosions on the streets of Boston.
The father said that he had been present at one FBI interrogation in which
agents had told his son, We know what sites you are on, we know where you
are calling, we know everything about you. Everything.
Like the mother, he insisted that his sons had been framed up.
Russian sources reported that both parents had subsequently been questioned
by Russias Federal Security Service, after which they cut off further
contact with the Western media.
Reports of FBI involvement with Tamerlan Tsarnaev have led to criticism by
US lawmakers, including South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham,
who has called for the younger brother to be treated as an enemy combatant
and turned over to the US military. He said in a Sunday television interview
that the ball was dropped by the FBI.
There have been no explanations forthcoming about how the ball was
dropped.
And without either of the two suspects or anyone else providing a motive for
the bombings, much is unclear. wsws
Thé Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni and Dr. Kiiza Besigye Uganda is in anarchy"
Kuungana Mulindwa Mawasiliano Kikundi
"Pamoja na Yoweri Museveni na Dk. Kiiza Besigye Uganda ni katika machafuko"
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