2nd FBI case where they investigated suspect prior to incident.
Under FBI DIOG and U.S. Attorney General guidelines, there are strict prohibitions about running open-ended investigations into American citizens, or those legally in the United States, in the absence of a clear indicator of criminal activity or association with terrorism.
This is not the first act of terrorism that has highlighted the FBI's attempt to walk the line between preserving an individual's rights and doing everything it can to head off a potential attack.
The agency interviewed Carlos Bledsoe, who opened fire at an Arkansas Army recruiting station in 2009, multiple times before his attack. FBI agents questioned Bledsoe in Yemen, twice in Pittsburgh -- where they also asked him to submit to a polygraph test -- and again in Little Rock, Ark., where he moved after ducking appointments with the FBI.
It later emerged that Bledsoe developed his extremist leanings in his trips to Yemen and spent countless hours before the attack watching internet videos of American-born terrorist leader Anwar al Awlaki. Authorities also found an AK-47 and 1,400 rounds of ammunition in his vehicle following the attack, and a search warrant revealed "Google maps searches on U.S. and Jewish targets from Little Rock to Philadelphia," Miller said.
Yet before the attack he "hadn't broken any laws," Miller noted. "Absent his committing a crime, we're still a free country and he's still an American citizen entitled to his rights."
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57580580/did-the-fbi-miss-a-chance-to-stop-tamerlan-tsarnaev/
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