The KGB keeps better track of extremists in the US than the FBI does.

[dkf]

The significance of the trip was magnified late Friday when the F.B.I. disclosed in a statement that in 2011 “a foreign government” — now acknowledged by officials to be Russia — asked for information about Tamerlan, “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 senior law enforcement official said the Russians feared he could be a risk, and “they had something on him and were concerned about him, and him traveling to their region.”

But the F.B.I. never followed up on Tamerlan once he returned, a senior law enforcement acknowledged on Saturday, adding that the bureau had not kept tabs on him until he was identified on Friday as the first suspect in the marathon bombing case.



A Russian intelligence official told the Interfax news service on Saturday that Russia had not been able to provide the United States with “operatively significant” information about the Tsarnaev brothers, “because the Tsarnaev brothers had not been living in Russia.”

Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist who specializes in Russia’s security services, said he believes that Tamerlan may have attracted the attention of Russian intelligence because of the video clips he had posted under his own name starting in 2010, which were included on a list of banned materials by the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B.

At that point, the agency had just begun routinely scrutinizing materials posted on social networks, and would most likely have sent a request to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said Mr. Soldatov, the author of “The New Nobility: The Restoration of Russia’s Security State and the Enduring Legacy of the K.G.B.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/us/boston-marathon-bombings.html?pagewanted=2&_r=0&hp

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I'm not sure I want the FBI to be too much like the KGB.

[emulatorloo]

2. +1

[dkf]

4. True but there is a happy medium somewhere.

[pampango]

17. Agreed. The OP may say more about the KGB than it does about the FBI. n/t

[dkf]

36. Putin is a hard ass on Chechnya for sure.

[FarCenter]

3. Any communications between Boston and foreign web sites could be collected by NSA

The are probably analysing their databases. They may not find much if the Tsarnaevs' communications did not trip some indicator to cause them to be filed.

[Hekate]

5. Probably because the KGB works for a REAL police state

Just mentioning that because of the anguish of a coterie of DUers wringing their hands over the "police state actions" and "Marshall law" in Boston and Watertown.

There is no question the KGB is good at what they do, which is to be an arm of a totalitarian government the likes of which we do not have here.

[dkf]

8. It's curious that they watch US citizens though.

I'm surprised they let him in to Russia. They had a point when they expressed their concern.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Some facts

The older brother had a green card, was not a citizen

The older brother travelled to Checnya

The Ruskies have a few troubles in Checnya.

The older brother was a Russian citizen.

Oh and the US tracks US citizens abroad as well.

[hlthe2b]

6. They keep track of those that may have Chechnyan ties, certainly...

For obvious benefit to Russia.

That has hardly reflected a climate of cooperation in terms of sharing info with us, however. Putin will use this as an opportunity to blast US (and international) concerns re: Russia's human rights violations in its actions towards Chechnya and others.

To the extent he offers improved cooperation on this, great, but I would hardly be painting Putin as the altruistic benefactor of the US intelligence community.

[FarCenter]

9. One country's "freedom fighters" are another country's "terrorists"

Thank you Ronnie Reagan.

[LisaL]

16. That's very clear.

[cali]

7. This is looking increasingly serious

for the administration.

[Jenoch]

10. There are 8 year old children

on the 'do not fly' list, but the FBI wasn't concerned enough about this guy to even follow up on him once he returned to the U.S.

[JackN415]

30. Exactly... FBI didnot even find him in their seach data base for days after the attack.

[BlueStreak]

11. We spend more twice the FBI budget staffing border patrols

and that is despite the facts that:

1) The past 4 years we have had net-zero immigration. As many people leaving as coming across the Mexican border.

2) The vast majority of undocumented Mexicans got here by traveling under a perfectly legal visa, and then simply overstaying the visa. And that has nothing to do with border enforcement.

The GOP has us fixated on border patrol instead of real protection for our citizens. Just like they have the country fixated on austerity when the real problem is jobs. The Democrats have been utterly inept at managing the message.

[pampango]

12. Is that really true? I had no idea. The other points in your post are definitely true.

One irony of the Boston bombing is that elements in the GOP will certainly paint it as a failure of border security and lobby both to kill immigration reform and to spend even more on border security that had nothing to do with this.

[BlueStreak]

13. See these links

http://www.aol.com/video/the-surprising-costs-of-immigration-enforcement/517633133/

http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/01/10/10000-to-Nab-One-Illegal-Annual-Cost-18-B.aspx#page1

[seabeyond]

14. now we are complaining cause we are not russia? wow. lol. hm. nt

[pinboy3niner]

20. Luckily, we still have moose and squirrel on the job!

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Lmao.

[seabeyond]

27. cute. lol. nt

[LisaL]

15. Yep. Sure looks like it.

FBI interviewed him, decided he was no threat.
And the rest is history.

[JackN415]

26. This is how FBI interviewed him...

"Hi, we are the FBI, do you currently have or do you intend to have any terrorism activities?"

...

"Oh, you don't?"
...

"OK, bye. This is our card, whenever you think of engaging in terrorism, give us a call, will ya? Thanks."

[jakeXT]

19. Maybe the FBI protected and cultivated him and the FSB just saw his legend

reported it and the FBI closed both eyes

[jakeXT]

35. Sounds like a bad X-Files Episode...

He said they had told his son that the questioning “is prophylactic, so that no one sets off bombs on the streets of Boston, so that our children could peacefully go to school.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/us/boston-marathon-bombings.html?hp

[Barack_America]

21. The KGB and FBI have different political agendas.

And different concerns, particularly regarding the activities of Chechens.

[LisaL]

22. But one would hope that safety of citizens should be on the agenda for US and Russia.

[randome]

24. But...but...POLICE STATE!

[JackN415]

25. That's why Putin called to offer help immediately after the bombing...

their data base probably had Tsarnaev living in Cambridge and it might pop that up as soon as they input their query. If it were the Russians, they might have gone to Norfolk street first instead of that Revere apt Monday night. They might be laughing how long it took for the FBI to figure that out.

If you have a sexual assault, you look up sex offender map in a 50 mile radius
If you have a terrorist bombing, you look up potential trouble makers living nearby.

FBI is negligent.

[LisaL]

28. I am also surprised that LE had to release the photos.

In order for public to identify the suspects. FBI interviewed the older brother. Shouldn't FBI have already known who he was? He looks exactly the same as in some older photos of him.
He didn't use any disguises. Sounds like the ball was really dropped here.

[JackN415]

29. I have worked with US Dept of Homeland Security and a little with DoJ (FBI belongs to DoJ)...

I am very disappointed at the dysfunctional level at these agencies.

If they are 1% competent at using the wonderful computer science & technology available for what we call data analytics that Google, Amazon, and even Facebook & other advertisers use to track our online behavior to direct ads at us, these guys should have popped up on the list within 5 minutes after bombing.

As a tax payer and a citizen, I am very frustrated to see how DHS and DoJ work.

[LisaL]

32. ITA.

They had photos of the suspect. They had interviewed the suspect previously on an unrelated issue. Yet it appears they couldn't even make a connection.

[JackN415]

33. failure to connect the dots was what bring us 9/11

DHS & DoJ spent $B to talk about center of data fusion that better connect the dots...

They were very incompetent because of turf war, fiefdom, and bureaucracy.

Facebook software connects the dot between you and your potential friends and associates better than what DoJ (FBI) has.

[JackN415]

34. Do you know they spent $100 M or more on facial recognition software and data base?

and can't look up a guy that they had a record on.

[JackN415]

31. It is a failure to search for information, not spying on citizen...

DoJ (FBI belongs to DoJ) is very bad at technology in spite of $B that should make them better than Facebook to search who your potential friends are and make suggestion.

If they are 1% as competent as facebook, they should enter Boston bombing info and the software will pop out the usual suspects, that should include the Tsarnaev living in Cambridge as potential "Friends" of the bombing.