US, Russia missed chances to intercept Tamerlan Tsarnaev

[FarCenter]

The revelation that the main suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings were two Russian citizens of half-Chechen, half-Avar (Dagestani) ethnicity, has prompted Kremlin leaders to dust off a longstanding argument that the US should listen to Moscow's warnings about extreme Islamist terrorists, whether they hail from Chechnya, or Syria, or anywhere else.

The Russians say the US should turn away from its current path of criticizing Russia on human rights issues and embrace greater anti-terrorist cooperation in the name of common civilizational values.

That pitch was made explicitly by President Vladimir Putin in a Saturday telephone conversation with Barack Obama. A brief statement posted on the Kremlin website noted that "both sides emphasized their interest in increasing coordination between Russian and American intelligence services in the fight against international terrorism."

...

"I would not be surprised if these Chechens arrived in the US under some program designed to help Chechen political refugees from 'Russian oppression,'" says Sergei Markov, a former adviser to President Putin.

"It's a pity that the US Congress is under the sway of cold warriors who think Russia should be isolated and punished. This is the main reason our relations have reached such a low point lately," he says.

"I believe both Putin and Obama want to improve things. And it's possible that this tragedy [is] an opportunity to rethink attitudes, to show Russia to the US public in a different light. There is no doubt that Russia stands ready to cooperate in the security sphere," Mr. Markov adds.

http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2013/0421/US-Russia-missed-chances-to-intercept-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev

[Warpy]

1. He's right about the conservative old farts still fighting the Cold War

and it will be great when they finally retire or die off, because it looks like there are enough nitwits out there to keep them in office until that happens.

He's right about ethnic Chechens getting asylum in this country. Most of them are hardworking folks who want to live quietly without being afraid of being shot when they go to the market for a half gallon of milk and a dozen eggs. Asylum isn't the problem.

Remember, the Tsarnaev brothers were kids when they got here and hadn't lived in Chechnya since they were very small. I doubt they were inculcated with terrorism in their cradles. That happened after they'd been here a while and their family had fallen apart.

Yes, Putin and Obama want to improve things. I just hope the old farts in Congress allow it. It's to both countries' advantage to trace the sources of support these lunatics got, whether here or there.

[FarCenter]

2. Tamerlan would have been 18 when he arrived in 2004. He was born in 1986.

But according to US law enforcement officials cited by the Wall Street Journal, the two brothers arrived separately: one with his parents in 2002, the other in 2004. The officials said that one or both of the brothers had returned to the Caucasus for some time after emigrating to the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/apr/19/tamerlan-dzhokhar-tsarnaev-boston-bombings-chechnya

It seems likely he stayed somewhere in the Caucasus to finish the equivalent of high school.

[Warpy]

3. Interesting.

If he was 18, that explains one reason he had trouble relating to Americans and American culture. Kids have an easier time, they're more malleable.

Still, it seems he was only dreaming of jihad until his family fell apart and his parents decamped to Dagestan.

[FarCenter]

4. Failed to become an engineer, dead end of career as boxer, failed marriage, townie in Cambridge

He went two years to Bunker Hill Community college in engineering. He was good as a boxer, but his career had peaked. Got his girlfriend pregenant, married her, but the marriage fell apart.

And it is probably not easy being a townie in Cambridge. I still think that MIT was a target and that Collier interruped their plans.

[Warpy]

5. I think you're right about MIT being a target

but the time of evening suggests they were scoping it out and carried a lot of shit with them just in case they found a crowd somewhere.

All that poor cop had to do was look up from his computer screen and he was dead, if that's the case.

And yes, it sucks being a townie in Cambridge, much more so than in Boston. Cambridge is a total college town between Harvard and MIT. Everybody else is going somewhere. If you're there just working for a living, there is a massive disconnect.