CIA report: FBI reacts poorly on Russia’s warnings about Tsarnaev’s extremist background

The FBI could show a better reaction on reports from Russian secret services saying that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who together with his brother Dzhokhar is believed to be the mastermind of the blasts at Boston marathon in April 2013, is a follower of radical Islam.

This says an inspector general report by CIA, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice, which partly has been obtained by local media.

Meanwhile, the report notes it was in 2011 when Russian secret services warned their American colleagues that Tsarnaev was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer and that he intended to leave the USA and join some unnamed extremist groups.The document that has been reviewed by US congressmen on Thursday particularly notes that the FBI employee, who was instructed to estimate whether Tsarnaev posed any threat to the national security, did not communicate on that matter with local law enforcement authorities, did not talk to his friends and wife, neither he visited the mosque where Tamerlan Tsarnaev used to go.

“The US should not be reliant on Russia to provide domestic security”

Meanwhile, the authors of the document say that the Russian side did not answer to a number of informational requests from the FBI, which could help the USA to find out more about Tsarnaev and understand that he posed a threat. However, the report does not specify what information the American intelligence services were interested in.

One of senior officials from the US administration said: ““Had they (the FBI) known what the Russians knew they probably would have been able to do more under our investigative guidelines, but would they have uncovered the plot? That’s very hard to say.”After the terrorist attack in Boston, Russia provided the USA with additional data on the suspects, in particular, the recording of a conversation, in which Tsarnaev was discussing the jihad with his mother.

“The US should not be reliant on Russia to provide domestic security,” said congressman William Keating (Democrat representing Massachusetts), member of the House of Representatives’ Homeland Security Committee, commenting on the report.