FBI Under Fire, Didn't Tell Boston PD About Bombing Suspects - East Idaho News
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FBI Under Fire, Didn’t Tell Boston PD About Bombing Suspects

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GETTY 41613 BMarathonFBI?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1368116222617Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The FBI never told the Boston police or the Massachusetts State Police about possible Russian terror connections of the suspected Marathon bombers until three-and-a-half days after the attack, law enforcement officials testified Thursday before the House Homeland Security Committee.

“My fear is that the Boston bombers succeeded because our system failed,” said committee chairman Rep. Mike McCaul (R-Texas).

Boston police commissioner Ed Davis told McCaul that his department was not told before the bombing that the FBI had opened an investigation into Tamerlan Tsarnaev, or that Tsarnaev had traveled to the North Caucasus, even though he had three detectives and a sergeant assigned to the Joint Terror Task Force with the FBI.

“Would you have liked to known that?” asked McCaul.

“Yes,” said Davis, although he said later it was not clear that the knowledge would have prevented the bombings.

The Boston police commissioner also revealed that not a single student at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth called police after surveillance pictures of the other suspected bomber, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a student at the school, were made public.

Authorities believe Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were responsible for detonating a pair of bombs near the finish line at the Boston Marathon April 15, killing three, including an 8-year-old boy, and injuring more than 260 others. Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police days after the attack, while Dzhokhar was injured and later captured.

While the hearing in Washington was underway, police in Worcester revealed that the body of Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been removed from the city “and is now entombed” at a location that was not disclosed.

Investigators are now looking into whether a distant cousin of the Tsarnaev’s may have influenced the older brother in his radicalization. The cousin, Magomed Kartashov, is allegedly the founder of a group called The Union of the Just, which reportedly promotes the application of strict Islamic Sharia law and has been known to be anti-American.

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

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