Boston Bombing Followup Thread

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 01 May 2013 20:33

More details: Boston Police: 3 more Marathon bombing suspects in custody

Official sources

- Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, and Azamat Tazhayakov, 19, both citizens of Kazakhstan in the United States on student visas
- Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, Mass., was charged with lying to federal law enforcement officials during an investigation of the bombing, according to a criminal complaint charging the men. (My guess about third person's identity turned out to be wrong)

Charges: Conspiring to obstruct justice and destroy evidence for throwing away a laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks belonging to Mr. Tsarnaev.

Meanwhile Karima (Katherine Russell) has stopped cooperating with authorities according to the news reports .. “Her and her lawyer have now clammed up,” one of the officials said.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 01 May 2013 21:00

Few tidbits ....
Today the Kazakh men (UMASS Darmouth) went before a federal immigration judge this morning on the charges that they violated their student visas. They will face immigration charges. (One was expelled from UMASS because of low grades and thus violated his student Visa by still staying here)
At present both are in Jail.

The following is from Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of Chechnya's Instragam: (On Friday April 19th)

Tragic events happened in Boston. As a result of a terrorist attack, people were killed. We already expressed our condolences to the residents of the city and to the people of America.

Today, as the media report, a certain Tsarnaev was killed during a detention attempt. It would be logical if he was detained and an investigation was conducted, all the circumstances and degree of his guilt explained. Apparently, the special forces needed a result at any price to calm society.

Any attempt to make a link between Chechnya and the Tsarnaevs, if they are guilty, is in vain. They grew up in the US, their views and beliefs were formed there. The roots of evil must be searched for in America. The whole world must battle with terrorism.

We know this better than anyone. We wish recover to all the victims and share Americans' feeling of sorrow.

(Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/ap ... an-kadyrov

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 01 May 2013 21:06

Breaking News:
^^^ Looks like, along with the above two, third is also a student, an American citizen
These are UMASS students and does not (according to sources) include the widow... Though I think it is a woman .. (No one is yet saying anything more about it, but one woman was initially connected with this.. so this is my guess.. may be wrong)

(There charges are - among others - making false statements to FBI )

BPD is also saying that there is no immediate danger to public wrt to these arrests.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 May 2013 21:26

CNN reports:

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/01/us/bo ... ?hpt=hp_t1

A Department of Homeland security source with firsthand knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Wednesday that two of the suspects were New Bedford, Massachusetts, students who have been arrested on charges of making false statements and conspiracy to obstruct justice in the bombings case. A third student, a U.S. citizen, also had been arrested.

...
-- Alan Dershowitz, a prominent defense attorney and Harvard law professor, said at least two of the additional three people arrested do not appear "to have been charged with anything relating to the bombing itself."

"If they knew about the bombing, if they were involved in the bombing, the charges would be conspiracy to do the acts for which the other man has already been charged," Dershowitz said. "So it sounds like at this point in time the only evidence they have is actions that took place after the bombing."

...
-- Lawyers for the widow of the dead Boston Marathon bombing suspect said Tuesday evening that "we have just been informed that the Massachusetts Medical Examiner's Office is prepared to release the remains of Tamerlan Tsarnaev." But as of that time, his remains had not been released.

-- When the body is released, Katherine Russell wants it to go to her in-laws -- not her -- her attorneys said in a statement.

Looks like Mrs Tsarneva is returning back form teh dark side.

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 01 May 2013 21:39

Singha wrote:Why did the tsarnaev parents return to dagestan ? Were they denied us citizenship ?

The mother was caught red-handed stealing goods valued about $1600 from a store. Stealing anything above $250 is considered "Grand Theft" (i.e.) classified a "serious crime" category (felony), in the Massachusetts justice system. If a person is convicted of felony level charges, in addition to being jailed for a while, they also lose quite a few privileges (e.g.) right to vote, cannot obtain government welfare money, cannot purchase firearms or ammo, cannot get visa or certain types of jobs, can be discriminated against renting a house, if non-citizen, they can be denied citizenship later etc. The mother left the US before they pinned the charges on her.

The father's business wasn't going too well (a report I posted a little while back on this thread also says that the neighborhood hardware store had caught pops stealing small items here and there as well). Dunno if that influenced his decision to leave. It was also reported that he got cancer and said that he wished to die in Russia.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 01 May 2013 21:52

Looks like UMASS has become hotbed of budding terrorists. Quite dangerous for highly advanced educational institutions.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 01 May 2013 22:00

Now now don't besmirch the education institute. Its the bad students.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 01 May 2013 22:08

I lived four yrs there and didnt even know umass dartmouth existed. I thought dartmouth was a ivy league college in new hampshire. Must be keeping a low profile vs the umass lowell and umass amherst.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 01 May 2013 23:07

ramana wrote:Now now don't besmirch the education institute. Its the bad students.

Bad students bring bad reputation. The community could not notice and I thought only in India we dont care who the neighbors are or what they do. FBI was warned and did not follow up. These guys purchase 8 or 10 pressure cookers and wife didnt tell and nobody else not even FBI notices the unusual numbers. Three gets detonated, one creates smoke and five or six found in home. Looks like nobody cared. Well trained and well protected. Internal affairs? Indeed it is bad students which make bad institutions. How many are there> No one knows.

saip · Post by **saip** » 01 May 2013 23:21

These three bozo seem to be more involved than just immigration visa violations. They tampered with evidence, took away the laptop and the back pack - CNN. So just religion is all that binds them to a terrorists? Amazing.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 01 May 2013 23:41

ArmenT wrote:...if non-citizen, they can be denied citizenship later etc. The mother left the US before they pinned the charges on her.

The father's business wasn't going too well (a report I posted a little while back on this thread also says that the neighborhood hardware store had caught pops stealing small items here and there as well). Dunno if that influenced his decision to leave. It was also reported that he got cancer and said that he wished to die in Russia.

The high-lighted part is almost a certainty as one of the conditions for naturalizing is to have "good moral character" whatever that means. I sort of vaguely remember that this was added during w's time. Some people have challenged the wording saying that it is very broad and gives too much power to the Immigration Officer. Probably introduced so that there isn escape clause for denial in extreme cases.

Shiv ji is going to come down on me for saying this, but looks like the parents got caught in a cleft and turned to petty theft due to circumstances and things went downhill from there.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 01 May 2013 23:46

Singha wrote:I thought dartmouth was a ivy league college in new hampshire.

Ivy one is called Dartmouth College, IIRC.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 00:01

More details: Boston Police: 3 more Marathon bombing suspects in custody

Official sources

- Dias Kadyrbayev, 19, and Azamat Tazhayakov, 19, both citizens of Kazakhstan in the United States on student visas
- Robel Phillipos, 19, of Cambridge, Mass., was charged with lying to federal law enforcement officials during an investigation of the bombing, according to a criminal complaint charging the men. (My guess about third person's identity turned out to be wrong)

Charges: Conspiring to obstruct justice and destroy evidence for throwing away a laptop computer and a backpack containing fireworks belonging to Mr. Tsarnaev.

Meanwhile Karima (Katherine Russell) has stopped cooperating with authorities according to the news reports .. “Her and her lawyer have now clammed up,” one of the officials said.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 00:10

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 00:20

matrimc wrote:
Singha wrote:I thought dartmouth was a ivy league college in new hampshire.
Ivy one is called Dartmouth College, IIRC.

Yes.. Also students and buildings are somewhat different ...where a dorm room has a fireplace ..

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 00:22

BTW, check out say the russian facebook page of, say one of the umass student arrested above..
http://vk.com/disya23

These guys looks real characters ..(Dias' VKontakte page , shows an update made on the 19th of April. The same day that of the when the brothers were captured..)...this image

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 00:53

CBS News:

Friends hid damning evidence

Looks like the third guy got lesser charges.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 01:09

I am posting the court document as a temporary pdf link ... as it contains lot of details...
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/181 ... plaint.pdf

Looks like these three did quite a bit of dirty work for the brothers ... Interestingly the FBI did find black bag from the landfill ..even though they discarded it in the dumpster..

Also interesting was one person's visa was expired in Jan 4 yet he was allowed to enter around Jan 20....One of them was not even a student (technically he dropped out/expelled because of flunking)

None of the three were DT's roommate.. they went to DT's room (in presence of the roommate but without telling him why), took the black backpack, computer etc. and dumped them....

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 02 May 2013 01:40

<snip ... Incorrect biased recollection in view of Theo's factual post below ...>

Things will get clear only after some more FBI investigation into their background.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 01:54

matrimc wrote:Just heard on NPR a commentator saying something to the effect (not exact words but maening similar to) that these three kids were being just 19 yr olds and were thikning that they are helping DT not get into trouble. One of the comments one of them made in response to another's tweet(SMS/whatever new fangled social messaging kids are engaging in now a days) that the photo of the Boston Marathon bombers looks like DT is ":lol: ya whatever". I guess, things will get clear only after some more FBI investigation into their background.

May be those NPR "commentators" really read and get full information before coming out with such absolute garbage ...

Please do see the link I gave above to see what these kids told the FBI about what knew and what they did.. (See around pp 7 where these phone calls and txt messages are discussed in detail)

When they got rid of the backpack etc.. by their own admission they were sure that DT was the bomber..the bag contained fireworks (emptied out of their gun-powder).. was the reason they got rid of it. ...in fact, when DT texted them "take what ever you can from my room" they, by their own admission..thought they are not going to see DT as a free man again.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 01:56

Yeah lot of ill informed experts in the media.
Its as bad as DDM.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 02 May 2013 02:13

Probably NPR report was rushed out to score a scoop. Their reporting is uneven - sometimes they are good and some times bad. When they are bad, they are very bad.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 03:16

Was this sotry dissected?

Chilling Story of Cabbie who drove the Boston Terror suspects

It was the day before the Boston Marathon, and Jim Duggan's morning was off to a slow start. He was the only cab hanging around a train station, and was about to pull away and grab a cup coffee, when he spotted two guys in his rear view mirror. One of them wore a white baseball cap, his curly hair sticking out. The other wore a black cap.

"On my mother's soul, those kids were in my cab," said Duggan. "Those kids" would be Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

Duggan got out, and the two men asked to be taken to Cambridge, a city just north of Boston. Duggan said no problem.

"They had two backpacks. I reached out to help them put them in the trunk, and they wanted to put them in themselves," said Duggan.

The two men were adamant about handling those backpacks themselves.

During the ride, Duggan and his passengers talked about a lot of different things. The Boston cab driver asked them if they were from Saudi Arabia. They said they were from Chechnya.

As the cab approached its destination, Duggan pointed to an area over the bridge, and told them that the Boston Marathon would be held there the next day. If they hadn't seen it, said the friendly cabbie, it might be a good experience.

"And the little brother said, 'Oh, Boston Marathon?'," said Duggin. "And then the older brother got real aggressive."

The younger passenger began reassuring Duggan, telling him the fight was just between him and his brother. He told Duggan to pull over.

The two men paid the fare, and got out of the cab. Duggan, without thinking, put the car in drive and started to pull away. The men immediately started screaming, and banging on the trunk of Duggan's cab.

"I get out, and they were angry," said Duggan. The cab driver held his hands up in apology, exclaiming, "Sorry, I forgot! It was a mistake, people make mistakes."

Duggan popped the trunk, and the younger brother reached in and grabbed his bag. The cab driver reached in to get the other bag.

"It was heavier than it should have been," Duggan said.

Days later, when the FBI released the first grainy images of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Duggan recognized that white cap, with that curly hair sticking out. He called the FBI shortly after, and told him his story.

"The thought that I had that kind of evil in my car," said Duggan, "the thought that I picked up what could have been that bag, is terrifying."

Sources confirm to CNN that DHS officials met and interviewed Duggan, and are taking his story seriously.

So they had the stuff ready a day before the Marathon on Sunday and were in Cambridge.
So where did they hang out till the next day?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 03:57

Daily Mail Uk

KSA Ambassador to US now denies nation warned about Tamerlan

Saudi embassy in Washington D.C. issues denial of account of a senior official who talked to MailOnline

A letter to the Department of Homeland Security allegedly named Tsarnaev and three Pakistanis as potential jihadis worthy of U.S. investigation
Red flags from Saudi Arabia to have included Tsarnaev's name and information about a planned explosive attack on a major U.S. city

Saudi foreign minister, national security chief both met with Obama in the oval office in early 2013

and

Bloomberg: Police missed the boat as street was skipped

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 04:05

^^^Ramana - Thanks.. Daily Mail story, I took it even at that time with a grain of salt..

As to cab driver story .. I think this was posted here in brf before ..as for "hanging out" .. Cambridge is just across the river ..Marathon-Finish line may be 15-20 minutes walk from MIT- which is in Cambridge - (Used to go out and eat at places in Newbury street)... Also the T's apartment (Inman square ) is in (or near) Cambridge.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 06:09

Meanwhile: From news sources ...
-- Katherine Russell (Karima Tsarnaev- the wife) told investigators that she spoke to her husband after his picture appeared on national television as one of two suspects being sought in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings ..(Source CNN)

-- An attorney for Dias Kadyrbayev disputed the allegations against his client and said Kadyrbayev did not know items he admitted to discarding "were involved in a bombing."

-- Another of the suspects arrested Wednesday, Azamat Tazhayakov, is "shocked and horrified" to hear that someone he knew was involved in the bombings, attorney Harland Protass said. The attorney said his client has fully cooperated with authorities in the investigation and looks forward to the truth coming out.

-- Attorney Raymond A. O'Hara, who reportedly was appointed to represent Robel Phillipos, told CNN that RP has retained private counsel.

-- Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov and Phillipos were ordered Wednesday to return to court on May 14 for an evidentiary hearing, at which time a bail application is expected to be made.

-- About a month before the marathon attack, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had told Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov "that he knew how to make a bomb.

"Kadyrbayev knew when he saw the empty fireworks that Tsarnaev was involved in the marathon bombing," the affidavit states.
-- The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth issued a statement ...According to the university, Kadyrbayev and Phillipos are not enrolled currently, and Tazhayakov is enrolled but has been suspended pending the outcome of the case.
-- Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $250,000 fine. Phillipos faces a maximum sentence of eight years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
-- Kadyrbayev, Tazhaykov, Phillipos and Tsarnaev began attending Umass Dartmouth at the same time in 2011.. (Facebook page listing of them as student of MIT is not correct)

-- Kadyrbayev,.... The car had a decorative license plate reading "Terrorista #1.

-- Dias Kadyrbayev was first handcuffed and taken in for questioning by FBI agents April 19, hours before police captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
-- One of the reasons Kadyrbayev was of immediate interest involved activity on his Facebook page. .... Kadyrbayev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev both changed their Facebook photos early Friday morning within 15 minutes of each other.

saip · Post by **saip** » 02 May 2013 06:20

In 2007 Katherine was arrested for shop lifting and her mother in law was arrested for shop lifting in 2011. Very strange. So who converted whom?

Mail

jash_p · Post by **jash_p** » 02 May 2013 06:38

Probably NPR report was rushed out to score a scoop. Their reporting is uneven - sometimes they are good and some times bad. When they are bad, they are very bad.

NPR is American DDM period. They are most leftist loons. One of them told on radio that wish bomber be White before TT and DT caught, so they can redicule Republicans.

Vayutuvan · Post by **Vayutuvan** » 02 May 2013 08:34

I have no love lost with NPR other than just to get the news, but saying that they are leftist looneys is going a bit too far, I think. Are you sure they said on air something similar to (if not literally) "... so we can redicule Republicans"? If so, that would have been as a big news as the bombing proceedings.

Theo_Fidel · Post by **Theo_Fidel** » 02 May 2013 10:42

Actually Sorry that is not what NPR said. One should put the words together in the same sequence or it comes out all wrong.
What NPR said is these guys were NOT directly involved with the bombing but had concealed evidence for which they will be charged and sent to jail almost certainly.
The corollary which is most important from NPR POV is that Boston Police could then say, "the people were not in danger."

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/201 ... in-custody

Three 19-year-old men — two of them University of Massachusetts Dartmouth college students from Kazakhstan who were friends with Boston bombings suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev — were taken into custody Wednesday by authorities in Boston. The third individual, an American citizen, was also a student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where Tsarnaev was enrolled.

Law enforcement sources told NPR and other news outlets that the three are not suspected of having taken part in the , which killed three people and wounded more than 250. Rather, they're accused of having given Tsarnaev help afterward by trying to dispose of damning evidence. They're also accused of having lied to the FBI. Court documents released at mid-afternoon painted a picture of young men who did not play a part in the bombings but allegedly removed a laptop and some empty fireworks (from which powder may have been removed to make bombs) from Tsarnaev's dorm room.

According to those documents, Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov of Kazakhstan, and Robel Phillipos of Cambridge, Mass., knew on April 18 that Tsarnaev was suspected in the bombings and Tazhayakov, at least, believed his friend was one of the bombers. But the next morning, after it had been widely reported that Tsarnaev was on the run and that his brother Tamerlan had died after a gun battle with police, at least two of the three young men were allegedly involved in throwing away a backpack containing the empty fireworks and laptop that they had reportedly taken from Tsarnaev's dorm room. The young men agreed to dispose of the evidence, the criminal complaint says, in order to help their friend "avoid trouble." Authorities later found the evidence in a nearby landfill.

BTW picture of stuff in the recovered back pack. Those fools are going away for a looong time.. Terrorista#1 indeed.. ..maroons(sic)...

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 02 May 2013 11:56

What ethnic origin is Robel Phillipos?

ArmenT · Post by **ArmenT** » 02 May 2013 12:31

Amber G. wrote:BTW, check out say the russian facebook page of, say one of the umass student arrested above..
http://vk.com/disya23

These guys looks real characters ..(Dias' VKontakte page , shows an update made on the 19th of April. The same day that of the when the brothers were captured..)...this image

The guy is wearing an Iron Man mask. Is there something I'm missing here?

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 02 May 2013 12:47

phillipos name sounds greek in ethnic origin.
but phillipose could be a kerala christian name as well...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05 ... cial-says/

one of students entered through JFK on a invalid student visa.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 19:21

saip wrote:In 2007 Katherine was arrested for shop lifting and her mother in law was arrested for shop lifting in 2011. Very strange. So who converted whom?

Mail

Charges were dismissed after paying fine and community service so there is no conviction. Please take that into account.
The judge should have been asked to expunge the record.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 19:23

Lots of holes in DHS immigration section. Looks like they are good at harassing Hispanics at borders and welcomging "terroristas" at the airports.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 19:35

ArmenT wrote:
Amber G. wrote:BTW, check out say the russian facebook page of, say one of the umass student arrested above..
http://vk.com/disya23

These guys looks real characters ..(Dias' VKontakte page , shows an update made on the 19th of April. The same day that of the when the brothers were captured..)...this image
The guy is wearing an Iron Man mask. Is there something I'm missing here?

What I was pointing is the date (April 19th) of the update..

It turns out that within minutes of each other both (Dzhokhar and Dias Kadyrbayev) updated their facebook page.. (both removed a photo of them together) which actually brought attention to Dias Kadyrbayev ... as FBI after just discovering the identity of the brothers happened to notice that..Sources say that that was the first data point to bring Dias Kadyrbayev name into equation.

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 19:48

Singha wrote:phillipos name sounds greek in ethnic origin.
but phillipose could be a kerala christian name as well...

Robel Phillipos is of Ethiopian Descent, He is an American citizen but his parents immigrated from Ethiopia.

(BTW, Apostle Philip went to Ethopia and hence many there have this name)

Amber G. · Post by **Amber G.** » 02 May 2013 19:53

^^^ Also he (Robel Phillipos) lives (with his mom) literally yards (<100) away from the gas station where the car-jacking victim escaped.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 02 May 2013 21:09

From NYPost surprisingly!

Connecting dots

Woulda.. Coulda... Shoulda...

Starting with 9/11, Washington has been quick to holler “no one’s connecting the dots!” whenever there’s been an attack. But when it comes to ensuring those dots are collected, it’s another story.

Now we have the bombings in Boston, and we are seeing the same dynamic. Of all the questions, surely the most salient are these: What could the FBI have learned, when could it have learned it — and would it have made a difference?

Many Americans seem to have the impression that our federal agents are Jack Bauers who do as they please as they pursue the bad guys. But the FBI follows the law, as interpreted by the attorney general and distilled into the Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide.

For example, to get a wiretap for Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a technique that falls under the “very intrusive” category, the FBI would have had to go to a judge with evidence it does not appear to have had.

As a green-card holder, Tsarnaev enjoyed the constitutional protections of a US citizen. And one reason his case expired is that there’s a time limit if investigators don’t turn up any evidence.

Let’s recall too that the FBI guidelines have been under fierce attack from the American Civil Liberties Union and Muslim groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations (echoing the attacks on the NYPD for its intelligence collection in Muslim communities).

Before this, we had a Bush administration besieged for every initiative aimed at collecting those dots — whether it was the terrorist surveillance program, the interrogation of al Qaeda operatives or finding out whether, say, people connected to a terror investigation were checking out books on bomb-making.

In an ideal world, our politicians would find out what prevented us from uncovering the Tsarnaevs’ plans and fix it.

But we don’t have an ideal world.

We have Washington, where the likely answer to the Boston bombings will be even more rules governing, more bureaucracies involved in and more lawyers overseeing our intelligence investigations.

We don’t blame Boston on President Obama. But when we hear him talking — as he did this week — about “additional protocols and procedures,” we’d like to hear someone ask a question posed by Carrie Cordero, a former Justice official who now serves as Georgetown Law’s director of national-security studies:

Was our failure to connect the dots in Boston due to the lack of protocols, procedures, agencies and lawyers — or the overabundance of them?

They need to do a true root cause analysis and seek corrective actions. There will be more of these type of self-radicalized bombers rather than gun toting terrorists.

rajanb · Post by **rajanb** » 02 May 2013 21:20

Well, I am glad that the FBI is getting somewhere. And I admire the US and its systems to protect their people.

But I question their morality when it comes to the thousands that they have been responsible for putting in harms way. Non US citizens. I hate retribution of the life taking kind.

Such an attitude in a civilisation, is actually its death knell.

Sorry chaps. Put yourself in other people's shoes.