Boston bombing report shows ‘missed chances’ by US law enforcers
29 March 2014 4:39 AM IST
The report by the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee outlined what it called ‘missed opportunities’ that potentially could have prevented the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260. Two Chechen brothers who lived in the Boston area, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are suspected of carrying out the bombings last 15 April at the Boston Marathon. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 23, died after a gunfight with police while he and his brother were trying to flee Boston several days after the attack.
The younger Tsarnaev was wounded and later arrested and is awaiting trial in November on charges that could result in the death penalty if he is convicted. The report investigated the US probe of Tamerlan Tsarnaev following a warning to the FBI by Russian authorities in 2011 that he had become radicalized and might return to Russia to join extremist groups there.
After the Russian warning, a task force of federal, state and local authorities launched an investigation that included checks of government databases and interviews with Tsarnaev and his parents. It found no evidence of terrorist activity. A memo was also sent to the Customs and Border Protection database called TECS that would trigger an alert whenever he left or re-entered the United States. But when Tsarnaev went to New York’s JFK airport in New York in January 2012 to board a flight to Moscow, he did not receive the requested screening.
The younger Tsarnaev was wounded and later arrested and is awaiting trial in November on charges that could result in the death penalty if he is convicted. The report investigated the US probe of Tamerlan Tsarnaev following a warning to the FBI by Russian authorities in 2011 that he had become radicalized and might return to Russia to join extremist groups there.
After the Russian warning, a task force of federal, state and local authorities launched an investigation that included checks of government databases and interviews with Tsarnaev and his parents. It found no evidence of terrorist activity. A memo was also sent to the Customs and Border Protection database called TECS that would trigger an alert whenever he left or re-entered the United States. But when Tsarnaev went to New York’s JFK airport in New York in January 2012 to board a flight to Moscow, he did not receive the requested screening.
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