Boston Marathon

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Originally Posted by trish

It's a delicate balance between Federal surveillance of a citizen and the expectation of privacy. In the U.S. people can have extreme beliefs about all sorts of things including religion and governance and still retain the rights accorded to all citizens by the Constitution.

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Tamerlan was not a citizen. He applied but the application was "delayed" due to his FBI interview.

My question is how the Russians even came to know anything about this guy, since he had been in the U.S. from about 2002.

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Originally Posted by flabbybody

After the tipoff from Russian authorities why did the FBI conclude this guy was not a threat ? They interrogated him on 3 occasions. as well as family members. Why did Russian intelligence see his connection with Islamic extremism yet we closed his file? It's only great police work if you catch bad guys before they commit their crime, not afterward.

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The FBI way very well have thought him a threat, or a potential threat. But we don't imprison people for 'being threats'. We only imprison them for committing crimes.

I think you can still say it was great police work. The bombers still had plenty of bombs on them when apprehended. They still had plenty of bombs left. They could have, but didn't leave the area. Their work wasn't done. But the police caught them first.

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Originally Posted by nysprod

Tamerlan was not a citizen. He applied but the application was "delayed" due to his FBI interview.

My question is how the Russians even came to know anything about this guy, since he had been in the U.S. from about 2002.

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Didn't he travel to Chechnya for six months just a few years ago? Apparently for terrorism training? The KGB keeps track of foreigners who do that.

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Originally Posted by Queens Guy

Didn't he travel to Chechnya for six months just a few years ago? Apparently for terrorism training? The KGB keeps track of foreigners who do that.

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The KGB no longer exists, but yeah.

~BB~

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Originally Posted by nysprod

Tamerlan was not a citizen. He applied but the application was "delayed" due to his FBI interview.

My question is how the Russians even came to know anything about this guy, since he had been in the U.S. from about 2002.

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Thanks for the correction.
Perhaps the Russians keep a closer eye on the internet chatter of Chechyan extremist groups and discovered Tamerlan via that activity.

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Originally Posted by trish

I happen to think the FBI and the various Boston law enforcement agencies did a great job over the past few days after the shit hit the fan. Whether the FBI did a good job prior to the tragic event is a judgement that is at present difficult to make.

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I concur. The remained calm, did not spend too much or too little time in front of the media.

Once they concluded the had good photographic IDs on both suspects, brought the citizens into it. That pretty much smoked out the brothers who were clowns and had no viable plans.

They shut down large parts of the city, including the suspected are in Watertown and the got their man.

The state and local authorities worked their drill well. The only question that seems to able to get any traction is did the FBI blow off the intelligence regarding the older brother?

So far I think America has done OK. We did not freak out like we did in 2001 and so far Obama has not suggested we get in a conventional war with Iran.

Terrorism is part of the world landscape and IMO we took the body blow without freaking out and had the bad guys of the street in less than 100 hours.

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Originally Posted by Queens Guy

Didn't he travel to Chechnya for six months just a few years ago? Apparently for terrorism training? The KGB keeps track of foreigners who do that.

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I want to know what the father's involvement in this is...I mean, he lives in the U.S. for like 10 years, then decides to leave his sons here to go live in a dangerous place where civil war has been going on for years?

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Originally Posted by BellaBellucci

The KGB no longer exists, but yeah.

~BB~

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KGB, FSB, to-may-to, to-mah-to

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Originally Posted by trish

Thanks for the correction.
Perhaps the Russians keep a closer eye on the internet chatter of Chechyan extremist groups and discovered Tamerlan via that activity.

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So essentially Russian LE is more thorough at anti-terrorist surveillance than its American counterpart. Why is that? Who at the FBI made the horribly wrong judgement call to close the file on this guy? Someone needs to answer for that

The London Marathon passed without incident, but with a minute's silence at the start and many moving tributes paid by both star athletes and those running for charity.