Boston terror timeline: Bombing & manhunt landmarks

I t has been a traumatic few days for the US city of Boston. Two terror blasts struck at its landmark marathon on Monday killing 3, including a child, and injuring more than a hundred.

The attack was followed by an intense man-hunt for two suspects through the city’s suburbs. It eventually saw one of the alleged bombers killed and the other wounded and taken into custody.

Boston terror timeline: Bombing & manhunt landmarks

RT’s Anastasia Churkina looks back at the bitter events.

Boston bomber arrested: Tamerlan Tsarnaev was questioned by FBI in 2011

One of the two brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing was questioned by the FBI two years ago but dismissed as being no threat, it was disclosed on Saturday.

It emerged that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been interviewed by US officials in 2011. The 26-year-old was released after the FBI assessed he had no connection to terrorist activity.
The disclosure came just hours after the manhunt for Tamerlan’s younger brother Dzhokhar, one of the biggest in US history, had culminated in a suburban back garden.
The FBI was facing urgent questions over the extent of its knowledge of the two brothers, immigrants from the Caucuses.

Tsarnaev brothers’ mother: My sons are innocent, this is a setup

Their mother and father both claimed on friday that US federal agents had kept the brothers under watch for at least three years.

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said FBI agents had told her they feared her son Tamerlan was an “extremist leader”. The FBI confirmed yesterday it had interviewed Tamerlan in 2011.
The questioning did not produce any “derogatory” information and the matter was put “to bed”, a US law enforcement source said.
The FBI’s contact with Tamerlan was described as “a sit-down interview where they asked him questions about contacts and surroundings”.

They are also likely to have conducted a standard background check on him, running his name through databases, checking on his communications and any overseas travel.
The FBI said in a statement: „The request stated that it was based on information that he 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 country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.“

The matter was not pursued further, however, because interviews with Tamerlan and family members „did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign“.
Michael McCaul, the Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said: „It’s new information to me and it’s very disturbing that he’s on the FBI radar screen.“

Boston bombings: Suspects’ mother says they were setup

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva said: „They (the FBI) used to come to our home, they used to talk to me. They were telling me that he (Tamerlan) was really an extremist leader and that they were afraid of him. They told me whatever information he is getting, he gets from these extremist sites.

They were controlling him, they were controlling his every step and now they say that this is a terrorist act. Never, ever is this true, my sons are innocent“.
She added: „I am 100 per cent sure that this is a set-up. It’s impossible for both of them to do those things. If there was anyone who would know, it would be me.“

RF/RT/Telegraph

Schlagwörter # Barack Obama, Empire, FBI, Geheimdienste, Imperial War, Imperium, Terror, USA