U.S. intelligence agencies are investigating a potential link between the Boston terrorists and the extremist group the Caucasus Emirate, led by Dokka Umarov.
It has not yet been possible to interrogate the younger Tsarnaev. Perhaps it will not be. Because of the injury, the boy could have lost forever the ability to talk. Meanwhile, messages on social networks speak eloquently about him and his brother.
In the U.S. they continue to investigate the details of the lives of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. U.S. intelligence agencies suspect that the brothers are connected with the leader of the Caucasian Front, Dokka Umarov.
Right now investigators are checking the e-mails of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died during the shooting with police, as well as the circumstances of his trips to Dagestan and Chechnya. According to Fox News, the investigation has begun following Tsarnaev’s trips to the Caucasus as well as his activity on YouTube. The FBI has been interested in the suspect’s YouTube account, where there is a playlist called “Terrorists” and also numerous Muslim videos under the headline “One of the signs of Allah.”
Some sources say that videos that have been deleted from Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s account on YouTube include a “terrorist’s playlist” and links to a group connected to the Caucasian Emirate, says the broadcaster.
As a reminder, the leader of the Caucasus Emirate is Dokka Umarov, who previously claimed responsibility for a number of terrorist attacks in Russia, including the bombing of the Domodedovo airport in 2011. Experts say that the deleted extremist videos from Tamerlan’s account on YouTube and links to speeches by Feiz Muhammad, a Lebanese man living in Australia who preaches Islamic fundamentalism and calls for jihad, may refer to a possible connection between Tsarnaev and the Dagestan military front, reports the Echo of Moscow.
Meanwhile, the Daily Mirror quoted a source close to investigation who reported that the FBI and the U.S. police are looking for terrorists who taught the suspects of the Boston terror attack how to use explosive devices.
“We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people can learn from Google … Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were,” said a source to the Daily Mirror.
FBI agents think that the Tsarnaevs were part of a so-called “sleeper cell” of terrorists that had been planning for years and waiting for the right moment to act. According to the Vzglad newspaper, about a thousand FBI agents are working to find this supposed group, which may consist of about ten people. According to people close to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he became a follower of the radical Islam movement during his last years in the U.S. According to the New York Times, he spent half a year in Dagestan, where he could have been recruited by terrorists.
“Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in Watertown, Massachusetts on Friday during a shoot-out with police, spent six months in Dagestan last year. His father, Anzor Tsarnaev, says that his son came back to Russia to renew his passport but for some reason was delayed,” Vzglad reported. According to analysts “it was an important step on his way to the terror act in Boston,” says the publication.
The Tsarnaevs, however, were not among the most religious members of the Islamic Society of Boston in Cambridge, even though they lived not far from the mosque, just a few minutes drive, says RIA news. Both brothers were members of the mosque in Cambridge, but they were not active and visited only occasionally, said mosque spokesperson Nicole Mossalam. Mosque members added that during their visits the Tsarnaevs were never aggressive or violent, otherwise, they would have informed the FBI immediately.
Dzhokhar’s school friend Dirayer told RIA News that Tamerlan was very religious and his younger brother was under his influence. “The older brother used to tell us: ‘Pray, do this and don’t do that, don’t drink and don’t smoke weed’ … Unfortunately, Dzhokhar got into religion because of his brother,” this friend told the agency’s correspondent. On Dzhokhar’s Russian-language Twitter page, next to his religious views (marked as Islam), was the status: “I’m going to die young.”
Because of the heavy injuries that he sustained during the police manhunt, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev still cannot talk with investigators.
As was earlier announced by Vzglad, on Friday evening after almost a day of searching, the 19-year-old ethnic Chechen was found in a boat behind a house in Watertown and was soon arrested. He was taken to the Beth Israel Medical Center in Boston, where he is kept under police guard. Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said that the suspect’s condition is stable but he cannot talk at the moment. The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group, which specializes in interrogating terrorism suspects, is waiting for the moment when Dzhokhar Tsarnaev can speak.
Tsarnaev has gunshot wounds to the leg and neck and has lost a lot of blood, so it may take a long time before he can be interrogated, says the BBC.
Meanwhile, Republican lawmakers have demanded that the suspect be assigned the status of “enemy combatant” against the U.S. and put in prison at Guantanamo Bay. They think these measures will expedite the interrogation, because Tsarnaev is likely to have information about upcoming terror acts.
The official charges will be brought against him in the near future. The question now is where he will be tried, because the law in the state of Massachusetts does not allow the death penalty. If the case is taken to the federal level, this type of penalty is possible and quite likely.
The doctors are afraid, however, that because of the serious neck injury sustained in the shoot-out with police, Dzhokhar may lose his ability to speak.
The names of the suspects in the terrorist attacks during the Boston Marathon were revealed on Friday. The supposed terrorists are the immigrant Tsarnaev brothers from Russia, Tamerlan (26) and Dzhokhar (19).
It is known that the brothers were raised in Kyrgyzstan in the town Tokmok. In 2002 they moved to the U.S. They graduated from high school in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The younger brother, Dzhokhar, is in his second year at a medical institute at the University of Massachusetts. He had a $2,500 scholarship.
The older brother, Tamerlan, was a boxer, participated in amateur competitions and dreamed of being on the U.S. boxing team. According to his messages on social media networks, he was a follower of some extremist ideas. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was married and has a daughter in the U.S.
As a reminder, two explosions at the finish line of the international marathon, just 12 seconds apart, rocked Boston on Monday. Three people died: one citizen of China and two Americans, one of whom was an eight-year-old child. The number of injured people has reached 183. The FBI has started an investigation of the incident.
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