May 13, 2013

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva’s Texts Raised Red Flags

Author(s): 
Erin Smith

Russian agents intercepted text messages showing Tamerlan Tsarnaev wanted to join up with militant jihadists, according to a new report — a revelation that could have put the Boston bomber under closer federal watch, experts say, if it was shared with U.S. officials.

“That could have been the trigger that put him under surveillance,” said Cedric Leighton, former deputy director of training at the National Security Agency.

“Although in and of itself each text message may not have shown anything, it’s still important to put all the pieces together. Some little snippet of information could make all the difference.”

Although the Russia government alerted the FBI about Tsarnaev in 2011, the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday it did not share with U.S. authorities the reason for their concerns: text messages between his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva and a Russian relative that suggested Tsarnaev wanted to join militant Russian groups and general discussions of jihad without a mention of specific terrorist plots.

The revelation comes after reports that Russian intelligence agents also secretly recorded the mother and son vaguely discussing jihad in a 2011 phone call.

The FBI looked into Tsarnaev after the Russian government’s request but closed the case when they found no evidence of terrorist activity.
“The FBI is a law enforcement agency, so even dealing with terrorists, you still need additional evidence to open up an investigation and look into people’s lives,” said Bradley Schreiber, a former senior adviser at the Department of Homeland Security. “They could have kept the case open or dug deeper if they had those texts.”

The FBI declined comment yesterday.

“The Russians may have thought the text messages showed off their collection capabilities too much, but those fears are unfounded because United States is well aware they have ability to collect text messages,” Leighton said. “They should have erred on the side of providing more information rather than less.”

Meanwhile, Boston Police Commissioner Edward F. Davis sought to downplay controversy surrounding his congressional testimony last week that the FBI never alerted local police about Tsarnaev until the terrorist was killed. The testimony prompted finger-pointing between Boston cops and the FBI, but they buried the hatchet Friday, reaffirming in a joint statement from Davis and FBI Special-Agent-in-Charge Richard DesLauriers the “long-standing collaboration” between the two agencies.

Yesterday, Davis reiterated that point.

“Everybody concentrates on the fact that I was not told the name of this individual beforehand. I wasn’t. That’s the truth. But it’s not an indicator that there was a problem and as I said, we have to look at all the facts,” Davis said. “There’s going to be a very comprehensive review of this.”

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