Breaking: Explosion Reported at Boston Marathon's Finish Line

[Peter Lemkin]

Uhhh....what happened to the 12-person cell being hunted [that was officially stated by the Feds]...they seem to have been forgotten about in the confusion. REAL events do NOT unfold this way. FALSE-FLAG ones often do. I think their mother is right.

[Dawn Meredith]

The mother and father of the brothers talk exclusively to British Channel 4 News about frequent visits and interactions with the FBI.

There's a five minute video at the link. Mrs Tsarnaeva speaks fluent English.

Tuesday 23 April 2013 United States , World

My kids would never do this: Boston suspects' mother

Exclusive: Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, mother of the men accused of the Boston bombings, tells Channel 4 News her children were set up as suspects and that they "have nothing to do with this".

Speaking exclusively to reporter Nick Sturdee, the mother of the two men accused of the Boston bombings said that her son Tamerlan was being monitored before the bombings and that neither son was responsible.

"What happened was a terrible thing. But I know that my kids have nothing to do with this. I know it. I am mother. I know my kids," Zubeidat Tsarnaeva told Channel 4 News.

"My kids would never get involved in anything like that."

Shortly after this on camera interview, Mrs Tsarnaeva told our reporter Nick Sturdee in a phone call that she now accepts that Tamerlan Tsarnaev is dead because her son's widow, Katherine Russell, had called and told her that she had identified the 26-year old's body.

They were monitoring him and I know that because I used to talk to them. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva

"The first day when I got this message, I got really worried. I was kind of... telling that it is a set up and was just really mad and angry at America," she said, speaking from Makhachkala, Dagestan.

"It's just somebody did this, somebody set this up, not my kids."

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving Boston bombing suspect, was charged in connection with the attacks on Monday while lying in his hospital bed in Boston. His elder brother Tamerlan was killed during a manhunt after the 15 April attack.
What did the FBI know?

The authorities are not seeking anyone else in connection with the bombings, which killed three people and injured 200, although questions remain over what the security officials knew about the brothers, and when.

The father of the two suspects told Channel 4 News on 21 April that the FBI had phoned Tamerlan in the days after the Boston marathon bombings.

The FBI did not confirm or deny the phonecall, but said it had interviewed the 26-year-old and his family in 2011 after a request from a foreign government based on information suggesting Tamerlan was a "follower of radical Islam and a strong believer".

In a statement to Channel 4 News, the FBI said it did not find any evidence of terrorist activity at this time.

'FBI rang me before attacks'

The mother of the two suspects also said that Tamerlan, the eldest, was being watched by the FBI before the attacks.

"They were monitoring him and I know that because I used to talk to them," she told Channel 4 News.

"They used to come to our house, like two, three times. And then my son Tamerlan used to tell me that he used to talk to them too, because they called me once and they wanted his number and then at such moments I used to get really worried because, you know, my kids and I'm their mother."

"And then when the agent called me back and he said that you know I have spoken to your son and I really got to understand that he's a really nice boy. You know, very intelligent, very, like, nice boy.

"He asked me: do you think your Tamerlan could get involved into some kind of, because you know, he's like a leader, he's a strong boy, and do you think that he could get involved into kind of like any organisation, you know, like, radical organisation?

"At that time because they told me that they saw whatever he was reading. And I said no, no."
'Fight for justice'

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged by federal authorities with conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction, resulting in death.

The crime does carry the death penalty, although some US media reports suggest that the Obama administration has not yet decided whether to seek that ultimate punishment.

Also speaking from Dagestan, the father of the two suspects told reporter Nick Sturdee that he intends to fight the charges against his sons.

"I'm planning to go to America and fight for justice. Hire lawyers, the press, and reach the truth. Only the truth," he told Channel 4 News.

"Because if this is going to continue, it will end badly for the American people. If my sons are going to be shot without reason... that's going to come to every house if it's not going to be done by law. The law needs to be observed."

A private funeral was held for 29-year-old Krystle Campbell, one of the three victims, on Monday.

"the mother of the two men accused of the Boston bombings said that her son Tamerlan was being monitored before the bombings and that neither son was responsible."

Being monitered by who? why? If there was nothing to moniter after 2011, then ...this is just one more piece of evidence that these boys were being set up. Hell they may have even done some of what they are now accused of on orders, thinking it was a drill. The wall of mirrors just grows. The story of the wife who converted is also bizarre. Has a phony ring to it. Gave up her dreams to have a kid with a loser. Not talking?
That is impossible to believe, but she probably knows less than we do at this point. Unless she, like Marina , was/is "connected" to some milintel.
Dawn

[David Guyatt]

PS David, you're surely not suggesting that the FBI would ever fake evidence are you?:dancingman:

Really Dawn, would I?

Bt I'll tell you something for free. When I was watching Fox News live during what I can only now call the "false shootout" in the afternoon, when absolutely no one was arrested, no one was killed or injured... but guns were popping off all over the place. Two FBI agents arrived prior to the firearms going bang, bang, bang. They were both grey haired, had buzz cuts and iced eyes peeping through slits. If I opened the door to them, I'd probably feint. :darthvader:

They didn't come to cuddle anyone, that's for damn sure.

[Dawn Meredith]

Gee as fast as I said "photoshopped" lookie here:
(I just saw this piece on fb and copied and pasted it.)

The photo and the FBI lead investigator says that both bombs were in black backpacks -- see below -- BUT TSARNAEV'S BACKPACK IN EVERY SHOT OF IT IS WHITE -- except the shot released by the FBI to identify the "suspects."

Don't underestimate the importance of this.

Will someone watching a lot of news please tell me how this is being explained?

Details and photos establishing this follow:

At 2:49 p.m. EDT (18:49 UTC), about two hours after the winner crossed the finish line,[13] but with more than 5,700 runners yet to finish,[14] two bombs detonated on Boylston Street near Copley Square about 180 yards (170 m) apart,[15][16] just before the finish line.[11] The first exploded outside Marathon Sports at 671673 Boylston Street at 2:49:43 p.m. EDT.[17] At the time of the first explosion, the race clock at the finish line showed 04:09:43.[18] The second bomb was located one block farther west at 755 Boylston Street and exploded at 2:49:57 p.m. EDT,[13][19] about 13 seconds after the first one.[3] fill the sidewalk behind race barricades after the explosions blow metal pellets and nails into victims' legs. Race tents become makeshift trauma units.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation led the investigation, assisted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA);[57] treating the bombings as a terrorist attack and naming two alleged perpetrators officially as suspects.[42][58]

At the site of the explosion, investigators found shrapnel that included bits of metal, nails, and bearing balls,[35] as well as black nylon pieces from a backpack.[61] The lid of a Fagor-brand[62] pressure cooker was found on a nearby rooftop.[63] Investigators also found the remains of an electronic circuit board and wiring, possibly used as a timer of the bomb.[35] Rep. Mike McCaul said "most likely, gunpowder was used in the devices".[64] All evidence was sent to the FBI Laboratory for analysis.[65] Both of the improvised explosive devices are reported to be pressure cooker bombs.[65][66]

Investigators believe the bombs were hidden in black nylon backpacks and housed inside sealable metal pots called pressure cookers. Pressure cooker bombs can help boost the power of relatively small devices by briefly constraining the blast. And when the cookers do explode, they can add large chunks of metal to the shrapnel spray. The IEDs have been popular with terrorists. Al Qaeda published a how-to recipe in an online Jihadi magazine. Several of the bombs were used in the 2006 attack on trains in Mumbai, India.

At a news conference late Tuesday afternoon in Boston, FBI Special Agent in Charge, Richard Deslauriers, indicated that the range of suspect and motive is "wide open," and that the investigation is still in its "infancy." He also mentioned that the FBI had received about 2,000 tips as of noon as agents looked for any photographic or video evidence from witnesses.



Deslauriers also said that both explosive devices appears to have been placed in a black nylon bag or backpack. A law enforcement source told CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton that investigators also found pieces of an electronic circuit board possibly indicating a timer was used in the detonation of the bomb.

Dick Eastman note: The FBI released the ONLY picture in which you cannot tell that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is carrying a white backpack over his shoulder!!!! Now we understand their selectivity and their reluctance to show more pictures to aid the manhunt.



Without an arrest three days after the blasts, investigators at about 6 p.m. publicly release images of the two alleged bombing suspects taken from a Lord & Taylor department store surveillance camera.

The man who became known as "Suspect No. 1" is wearing a black baseball cap, and "Suspect No. 2" has a white baseball cap on backwards and is carrying a black backpack. Authorities say they suspect the dark backpack was left in front of the Forum Restaurant on Boylston Street on Monday and then exploded -- the second blast.



If the second explosion was the black backpack than Suspect 2 Dzhokhar Tsarnaev should not be a suspect at all. His backpack was white.



Some timeline:

While police hunted for suspects, and loved ones grieved their loss, University of MassachusettsDartmouth sophomore Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who would later be identified as a bombing suspect, spends the day working out in a gym, going to a party and sleeping in his dorm room that night, according to the Boston Globe.

A student quoted by the paper said that Tsarnaev had been at a party Wednesday night that was attended by some of his soccer friends. "He was just relaxed," the female student said.

5:10 p.m. Thursday: The FBI releases photos and videos of two suspects investigators believe are behind Monday's Boston Marathon bombing.
10:30 p.m. Thursday: An MIT campus police officer was found shot in his vehicle in the area of Vassar and Main Streets. According to authorities, the officer was found with multiple gunshot wounds. He was transported to Massachusetts General Hospital and pronounced dead.
Moments later, police received reports of an armed carjacking by two males in the area of Third Street in Cambridge. The victim was carjacked at gunpoint by two males and was kept in the car with the suspects for approximately a half hour. The victim was released at a gas station on Memorial Drive in Cambridge. He was not injured.
Authorities said the suspects threw explosives from the car as police followed it into Watertown, just west of Cambridge. The suspects and police exchanged gunfire, and one of the suspects was critically injured. A transit police officer is seriously injured.
1 a.m. Friday: Gunshots and explosions are heard in Watertown. Dozens of police officers and FBI agents converge on a Watertown neighborhood. A helicopter circles overhead.
2 a.m. Friday: The FBI releases a new photo of Suspect #1 and Suspect #2 on its website.
4 a.m. Friday: Boston Police and Cambridge Police Chief confirmed that the two men involved in the fatal shooting of an MIT campus police officer, and a shootout-chase scene into Watertown were the same suspects believed to be involved in the Boston Marathon bombing.
The Middlesex County D.A. confirmed that Suspect #1 has died while Suspect #2 escaped.
Police release a new image of Suspect #2, apparently taken from a surveillance photo at a 7/11 convenience store that was robbed several hours earlier. He is wearing a grey hoodie-style sweatshirt.
4:30 a.m. Friday: Massachusetts state and Boston police hold a short outdoor news briefing. They tell people living in that section of eastern Watertown to stay in their homes.
5:30 a.m. Friday: Gov. Deval Patrick suspends all public transit service on the MBTA system.
People living in a number of communities were ordered to stay inside homes. The communities included Watertown, Waltham, Belmont, Newton, Allston-Brighton and Cambridge.
MIT, Harvard and other local colleges cancel classes.
6:45 a.m.: The surviving Boston bomb suspect is identified as 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who has been living in Cambridge, Mass.
8:40 a.m.: A U.S. law enforcement official and the uncle of the suspects confirmed that the name of the slain suspect is Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's older brother.
10:20 a.m.: Connecticut State Police say a gray Honda CRV believed to be linked to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been recovered in Boston.
10:35 a.m.:University of Massachusetts Dartmouth says it closed its campus and ordered an evacuation after confirming that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is registered there. The school says it closed the campus "out of an abundance of caution" as the search continued.
Noon: State police in Watertown say officers are searching door-to-door but still have not found the bombing suspect.
7 p.m. ET: Police surround a home in Watertown where they believe the suspect is holed up in a backyard boat
8:50 p.m. ET: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is captured and taken into custody. Boston police soon announce via Twitter: CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody."
Related:

http://www.fromthetrenchesworldreport.co...thon-bombi...

2 days ago It appears that a backpack may have been photo-shopped out by someone of the 2nd Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect running away from

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Hmmmmmmmm. Can it get any fucking weirder?

Dawn

[Dawn Meredith]

I guess it can. And in the poison ricin letters dept:
Grab a shot of whiskey for this one:

ormer GOP Candidate Reacts After Man He Allegedly Framed For Ricin Poisoning Is Released

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HUNTER WALKER APRIL 23, 2013, 3:22 PM 16036
A former Republican candidate for Mississippi's House of Representatives named J. Everett Dutschke expressed disbelief and dismay Tuesday shortly after a man he was accused of framing for mailing letters that tested positive for the poison ricin to President Barack Obama and other officials was released from jail. Dutschke has not been charged in the ricin case and has denied any involvement.

The FBI originally focused on Paul Kevin Curtis, a Mississippi Elvis impersonator, due to his initials and similar language to his many online writings that appeared in the poisoned letters. Curtis was released from jail on bond Tuesday and his attorneys have a joint press conference with federal officials scheduled for 5 p.m. Central time.

On Monday, Curtis' lawyer, Christi McCoy, said she believed Dutschke could have been responsible for mailing the letters noting he had argued with Curtis over email.



Dutschke denied any involvement in the ricin case in an interview with a local newspaper, though he admitted he spoke with FBI agents on Thursday and allowed them to search his home. TPM spoke with Dutschke Tuesday shortly after the news of Curtis' release.

"I'm alive," Dutschke said when asked how he was.

Dutschke expressed disbelief when told of Curtis' release.

"What did you just say?" he asked.

We repeated that Curtis had been released.

"You're kidding me," said Dutschke. "For what?"

We told him we were unsure and asked whether he knew if officials were still investigating him in the case.

"I really can't answer that question at this exact second," he said.

Dutschke then said he had to go. Subsequent attempts to speak with him were unsuccessful. Less than an hour later FBI agents arrived at Dutschke's house and he told local reporters on the scene they were there to question him.

This is not Dutschke's first brush with the law. Earlier this year, Dutschke, who operates a taekwondo studio in Tupelo, Miss., was charged with one count of child molestation for a case involving a 7-year-old female. He was then released on bond. TPM attempted to speak with his attorney in that case, Lori Nail Basham, but her office said she was in court and unavailable to speak with us. Basham's office would not comment about whether she was representing Dutschke in the ricin investigation.

We also contacted the Tupelo Police Department to inquire about Dutschke and were referred to the FBI. Neither the FBI or the Lee County Sheriff have responded to requests for comment. McCoy has also not responded to a request for comment. In an interview with CNN Tuesday, McCoy said the case against Curtis had not yet been dismissed but she was confident he is "100 percent" innocent and "absolutely" certain he had been framed.

Dutschke had many interests in addition to taekwondo. In 2007, he ran for a seat in Mississippi's House of Representatives as a Republican. He lost to incumbent Democrat Daniel Holland.

Along with President Obama, ricin-tainted letters were sent to a local judge named Sadie Holland and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS). Judge Holland is the mother of the man who defeated Dutschke in his 2007 campaign.

A Myspace account linked to Dutschke shows his campaign posters and photos of him with other politicians including former President George W. Bush, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), who received one of the ricin-tainted letters. Dutschke also posted political statements on a YouTube account where he used the same internet alias that appears in his email address. He was also the frontman of a "loop oriented rock" band called Dusty and the Robodrum.

Everett Dutschke, Mississippi

HUNTER WALKER
Hunter Walker is a national affairs reporter for TPM. He came to the site in 2013 from the New York Observer. He has also written for New York Magazine, Gawker, the Village Voice, Forbes, The Daily, and Deadspin. He can be reached at hunter(at)talkingpointsmemo.com

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[Jeffrey Orling]

Hard to know what is going on. Pictures can be fakes and photo shopped but with so much crowd sourced images this may turn out to be a hard one to pull off.

It looks like these guys are bring framed... and of course the MSM, and the sheeple believe everything they say. But don't let the facts get in the way. This has the classic (is there such a thing?) sings of a sting where intel (CIA or JTTF or FBI?) was conducting exercises and someone decided to use a real (small bomb) and grab them a convenient couple of patsies to blame it on. The crowd sourced evidence shows that most of the *evidence* is fabricated including the number of casualities. Virtually every *fact* released has been retracted, replaced, contradicted, revised... or swept down the memory hole.

The narrative is so transparent... Crazy islamo fascists try to kill Americans because they don't like us for X,Y & Z and the DHS et al have been too lenient and need to get tougher or else this sort of thing will be happening more often.

They tested the marshal law scenario and the people accepted it without a pip.

They can make up anything and the story sticks...

Mission Accomplished

[Lauren Johnson]

April 23

[Magda Hassan]

Another Ignored Russian Warning

April 23, 2013

Exclusive: One year after the Cold War ended, Russia tried to cooperate with a U.S. national security investigation into possible treason by senior American officials only to see the information ignored. Two decades later, Russians feel their warning about a Boston Marathon bomber was ignored again, Robert Parry reports.
By Robert Parry
The distrust between U.S. and Russian intelligence services has become an issue in the Boston Marathon bombing case, but that history dates back to shortly after the Cold War ended when Russia supplied evidence to a major U.S. national security investigation and later learned that the material had been unceremoniously discarded.
In that 1992-1993 investigation, Rep. Lee Hamilton, then the incoming chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, asked his counterpart in the Russian Duma, Sergei V. Stepashin, for any evidence that Moscow might have about allegations that Republicans secretly collaborated with Iran in 1980 to delay the release of 52 U.S. hostages and thus torpedo President Jimmy Carter's reelection bid.
A photo of Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the minutes before the April 15, 2013, explosions near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police three days later. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, was apprehended on April 19 and is now facing federal terrorism charges.

The matter, known as the October Surprise case, was extremely sensitive at the time of Hamilton's request on Oct. 21, 1992, because the clandestine meetings between Republicans and Iranians in 1980 allegedly involved Americans who, in 1992, included the sitting president, George H.W. Bush, and the sitting CIA director, Robert Gates.
But Russia seemed willing to cooperate, especially after Bush lost his own reelection bid in November 1992. So, just one year after the Soviet Union collapsed, the Supreme Soviet's Committee on Defense and Security Issues prepared a summary of internal Soviet-era intelligence files and sent the report to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow on Jan. 11, 1993, for delivery to Hamilton.
The Russian Report, matter-of-factly, identified Bush, Gates and William Casey (who in 1980 was Ronald Reagan's campaign director and later became CIA director) as having participated in a meeting with Iranians in Paris in October 1980 at which the Republicans promised Iran military assistance if Iran kept the hostages until after the U.S. presidential election.
"William Casey, in 1980, met three times with representatives of the Iranian leadership," the six-page report stated. "The meetings took place in Madrid and Paris."
At the Paris meeting in October 1980, "R[obert] Gates, at that time a staffer of the National Security Council in the administration of Jimmy Carter, and former CIA director George Bush also took part. … In Madrid and Paris, the representatives of Ronald Reagan and the Iranian leadership discussed the question of possibly delaying the release of 52 hostages from the staff of the U.S. Embassy in Teheran."
The Russian Report also described President Carter's parallel offers to Iran to get the hostages freed before the Nov. 4, 1980, election. One key meeting occurred in Athens in July 1980 with Pentagon representatives agreeing "in principle" to deliver "a significant quantity of spare parts for F-4 and F-5 aircraft and also M-60 tanks … via Turkey," according to the Russian Report.
In return, Iranians "discussed a possible step-by-step normalization of Iranian-American relations [and] the provision of support for President Carter in the election campaign via the release of American hostages," the report said.
The Russian Report observed that both the Reagan campaign and the Carter administration "started with the proposition that [Iran's leader] Imam [Ruhollah] Khomeini, having announced a policy of neither the West nor the East,' and cursing the American devil,' imperialism and Zionism, was forced to acquire American weapons, spares and military supplies by any and all possible means."
The Republicans simply won the bidding war. However, the legal difference between the rival efforts was that President Carter had the constitutional authority to conduct negotiations with foreign powers. The Republican campaign did not.
Tracing the Weapon Flow
The Russian Report also described how the Reagan administration fulfilled its debt to Iran. "After the victory of R. Reagan in the election, in early 1981, a secret agreement was reached in London in accord with which Iran released the American hostages, and the U.S. continued to supply arms, spares and military supplies for the Iranian army," the report said.
The deliveries were carried out by Israel, often through private arms dealers, the report said. Spares for F-14 fighters and other military equipment went to Iran from Israel in March-April 1981 and the arms pipeline stayed open into the mid-1980s, the report said.
"Through the Israeli conduit, Iran in 1983 bought surface-to-surface missiles of the Lance' class plus artillery of a total value of $135 million," the report said. "In July 1983, a group of specialists from the firm, Lockheed, went to Iran on English passports to repair the navigation systems and other electronic components on American-produced planes."
In other words, according to the Russian Report (and other evidence from U.S. and Israeli officials), the Reagan administration sanctioned U.S. weapons shipments to Iran before the Iran-Contra deals, which also moved through Israel in 1985-1986.
In early 1993, when the Russian Report arrived at the U.S. Embassy, it was still under the control of the Bush administration. So, the report was translated and topped with a dismissive preamble, questioning the quality of the Russian information and noting that the Russian government had not responded to a request for more details.
The embassy's preamblespeculated that Moscow's report might be "based largely on material that has previously appeared in the Western media," though that supposition was not supported by any evidence. The classified cable containing the translation of the Russian Report was then forwarded to the House October Surprise Task Force, which Hamilton was chairing. [For the text of the Russian report, click here. To view the U.S. Embassy cable that contains the Russian report, click here.]
The Report's Odd Journey
Though the Russian Report corroborated sworn testimony of a Republican-Iranian deal that the task force had already heard, the report arrived after the task force had decided in the wake of Bush's loss to Bill Clinton to simply say there was "no credible evidence" to prove that Bush and other Republicans had struck a deal with Iran in 1980.
Indeed, the task force's dismissive findings had already been sent to the printer and some reporters were being briefed on the negative conclusions when the Russian Report arrived. Then, instead of disclosing the contrary Russian information, Hamilton's task force just went ahead with a press conference to clear Bush, Gates, Casey, Reagan and other Republicans of a political dirty trick that bordered on treason.
The task force's chief counsel, Lawrence Barcella, then stuck the Russian Report into a plain cardboard box along with other boxes of non-published material from the investigation. The boxes were subsequently moved to some auxiliary office space located in the Rayburn House Office Building's parking garage and there the boxes were dumped on the floor of an abandoned Ladies Room.
In December 1994, after congressional elections that ended the long-time Democratic control of the House, I gained permission to examine the unpublished files and was led to the boxes in the Ladies Room. I was told that I could only copy a dozen pages and that I would be under the supervision of a congressional staffer.
However, given the chaos of a party changeover in the House and the fact that it was just before Christmas, I was pretty much left alone with the boxes. When I opened them, I discovered that they contained a number of classified documents, including the U.S. Embassy cable with the Russian Report.
I volunteered to copy the material on an old Xerox machine and kept the number of pages at a dozen so as not to arouse attention to the fact that some of the documents were stamped secret. I then left with the Russian Report and several other classified documents. (Before the Republicans formally took control of the House in January 1995, I repeated the trip twice more.)
Yet, because the mainstream U.S. news media had swallowed the official debunking of the October Surprise allegations and because the story of Reagan's apparent skullduggery was considered "old news" I couldn't find any major publication interested in the documents that I had uncovered. To get the material to the American people, I eventually founded the Internet site that became Consortiumnews.com.
Confused Russians
I also did the best I could to check with Russian officials to get their reaction to the silence that had followed their extraordinary report apparently the first time that Moscow had cooperated with Washington on an intelligence-related investigation since the end of the Cold War.
In the weeks after discovering the Russian Report, I contacted a well-placed government source in Europe who had close ties to senior Russian officials. At my request, the source inquired through his Moscow contacts about the basis for the Russian Report.
The source called back and said the Russians were insisting that the intelligence in the report was their own and that the information was reliable. The source chuckled at the notion that the Russians would just repackage some Western news clips and palm them off on Congress.
Noting the Russian need for U.S. financial assistance in early 1993, the source added that the Russians "would not send something like this to the U.S. Congress at that time if it was bullshit." Instead, the source said, the Russians considered the report "a bomb" and "couldn't believe it was ignored."
Only after I published articles about the fate of the Russian Report did Moscow learn that not only did the House task force ignore the report, but actually stuck it in a box that was piled unceremoniously on the floor of a former Ladies Room off a congressional parking garage.
I also spoke directly with a senior Russian diplomat who was familiar with the report. Although the diplomat had not seen the documents upon which the report was based, he confirmed that the Soviet Union had its own well-placed sources in key governments connected to the U.S.-Iranian maneuvering. "There's no doubt the report is true," the diplomat stated.
Other intelligence sources have said the Soviet KGB was quite adept at collecting intelligence about countries near their borders, such as Iran, and had penetrated many Western intelligence services, especially in Europe but also in the United States. The general weakness of the KGB, according to these sources, was in analyzing the information, but the sources said often the raw data was accurate, frequently gleaned from wiretaps that are more common in authoritarian states than in democracies.
Years later, I discovered that the events surrounding the Russian Report were even more curious. While interviewing Lee Hamilton about a related issue, I broached the question of why he had not released the Russian Report to the public. He seemed baffled by my question. "I don't recall seeing it," Hamilton said.
So, I e-mailed Hamilton a PDF copy of the report, which he insisted he had never read before. I also contacted Barcella, who acknowledged in an e-mail that he doesn't "recall whether I showed [Hamilton] the Russian report or not."
In other words, the Russian Report containing Soviet-era intelligence that implicated two U.S. presidents (Reagan and Bush-41) and two CIA directors (Casey and Gates) in what could be regarded as treason apparently was not even forwarded to the member of Congress who had requested it. [For more on the October Surprise case, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege and America's Stolen Narrative.]
The Boston Bombings
While there are many differences between the case of the Russian Report and the case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the elder brother who has been identified as one of the Boston Marathon bombers, there are also some similarities.
According to published reports and my own intelligence sourcing, the Russians became suspicious that, by 2010, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, whose family came from war-torn Chechnya, had become a radical Islamist who might join up with militants in the Russian Caucasus region. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, militant secessionists had clashed with Russian troops and terrorists had struck repeatedly at civilian targets in Moscow and elsewhere.
One source close to Russian intelligence told me that the Russians had monitored Tsarnaev's communications with family members, some of whom Moscow also regarded as possible security risks. The Russians then passed a summary of their findings to the FBI, but withheld the details.
The FBI has reported that it checked databases on Tsarnaev and turned up no derogatory information, prompting a request for more information from the Russians. However, much as the United States hesitates to share sensitive sources and methods with foreign intelligence services, so did the Russians.
There also remains a measure of distrust between the two Cold War rivals. Daniel Benjamin, the State Department's former top counterterrorism official, told the New York Times that "a culture of wariness" still exists more than two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed.
Beyond wariness, the two sides view the other with some disdain. I have spoken with former U.S. intelligence officials who disparage the quality of Moscow's intelligence analysts and I've talked with sources close to Russian intelligence who decry the foolish arrogance of the Americans.
To a degree, the experience of the Russian Report is illustrative of the misunderstanding and mistrust that still permeate this bilateral relationship. In 1993, Russian officials believed they were making an important contribution to an American national security investigation into whether senior U.S. officials had engaged in something close to treason only to have their dramatic evidence ignored, shunted aside and dumped in a women's bathroom.
Now, the Russians are wondering why the FBI didn't take more seriously their warnings about a young exile from the Chechen conflict whom the Russians had concluded was veering dangerously close to radical militancy.
http://consortiumnews.com/2013/04/23/ano...n-warning/

[Peter Lemkin]

Boston Bombings: FBI Agent at Center of Case is Under Investigation for Ties to Mafia Boss Accused of Heroin Dealing & Multiple Murders
By Alex Constantine / Constantine ReportApril 23rd,

Photo: The FBI's Richard DesLauriers, who led the local investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings.
In a stunning reprise of Boston's James "Whitey" Bulger/FBI revelations, the Bureau's Richard DesLauriers stands accused by state police and a congressman despite official assurances that the FBI has severed all ties to the Mafia (see second article below) of a very Bulgerian connection to Mark Rossetti, a local capo.
Rossetti was, until his arrest by state authorities, an FBI "informant" to DesLauriers, who led the FBI investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings. Rossetti's crew dealt heroin. And they reportedly killed while DesLauriers and his agents looked the other way.
The FBI has exonerated itself, claiming that any contact with the mobster ended when his organized crime connections surfaced. But Mark Rossetti has a history of mob-related convictions. And if DesLauriers' FBI office had obtained evidence that Rossetti was involved in local Mafia activity, why wasn't he placed under arrest, or at the very least investigated, given the severity of crimes for which he is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence?
Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-Mass., 8th District) told the Boston Globe in August 2012 that the heroin-dealing Mafioso's relationship with the FBI was "questionable."
"In my estimation, at least what we've seen so far, what Rossetti was doing should have triggered a [halt] in his status as a confidential informant," Lynch said, contradicting the FBI's public disavowal. "He should have been brought in, should have been found to be unsuitable, and that's it."
Rep. Lynch initiated the probe of Rossetti's covert tie to DesLauriers and the FBI "after it was exposed last year that the gangster, suspected by State Police of participating in murders, was all along working as an informant."
The FBI further claims (see second story below) that it cooperated with the state police investigation, but Rep. Lynch again condtradicts the FBI's self-serving public pronouncements:

"Lynch said he has not made a determination as to the appropriateness of the relationship because the FBI's internal review has not been completed, but early indications show the relationship was questionable. The congressman said that the FBI already has acknowledged that it failed in communicating with State Police, who were investigating Rossetti, and that the upcoming trials could further detail not only what Rossetti was doing, but what the FBI knew of it."

Ironically, not only has the Bureau maintained covert Mafia ties and lied about it shades of J. Edgar Hoover it is lauded for arresting a terrorist charged with killing four, while the mob boss with FBI oversight is suspected of murdering at least as many.
Moreover, the DesLauriers-Rossetti relationship would have never come to light had Rep. Lynch and a state police investigation not exposed it. Only then did Bureau officials openly confess. Past FBI cover-ups of the Rossetti connection render the veracity of an internal investigation doubtful. That should be left to an independent agency.
Meet the FBI agent at the heart of the Boston Marathon bombing investigation:

FBI's Richard DesLauriers becomes familiar face

By Milton J. Valencia

Boston Globe, April 22, 2013

Richard DesLauriers was one of several law enforcement officials at Fenway Park Saturday afternoon, invited by the Red Sox to honor the officials for their handling of the Boston Marathon bombings and the capture of one of the suspects.

It was the Red Sox' first home game since the Marathon, and the law enforcement officials were welcomed as heroes. …

In what was perhaps Boston's most intense week of law enforcement activity, DesLauriers, a Massachusetts native who grew up in Longmeadow, was at the center his trademark calm and "bookish" personality set the tone for the 100-hour-long investigation: the painstaking analysis of the crime scene, the scouring of countless video and photo images.
He was the local FBI leader during the arrest of reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger in 2011. And he announced on the 23d anniversary of the notorious Gardner Museum art heist in March that the FBI has determined the identity of those involved in the theft, and that agents had traced the paintings to Philadelphia, where they may have been as recently as a decade ago.

Despite successes, his office has also faced criticism.
The FBI is conducting an internal investigation and Congressional inquiries have been made into a controversial relationship between the agency and Mark Rossetti, a violent Mafia leader and suspected killer who was secretly working for the FBI as an informant, possibly in violation of the agency's guidelines. …

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04...story.html

About Mr. Rossetti and his relationship with DesLauriers' FBI office:

Mark Rossetti sentenced to 12 years in prison

By Milton J. Valencia and Boston Globe Staff

March 16, 2013

Mark Rossetti, the once-feared captain of the New England Mafia, appeared before a Suffolk Superior Court judge in jogging pants and handcuffs Friday and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, effectively punctuating a sweeping case that charged him with running a violent criminal enterprise across Eastern Massachusetts.

Rossetti, now 53 and silver-haired, had a controversial secret relationship with the FBI. He had pleaded guilty to usury and extortion, to lending money at exorbitant interest rates to a gambler, and to using threats to collect gambling debts for bookies.

He will serve the sentence concurrently with sentences for recent convictions of selling *heroin and of breaking and entering to rob a *rival drug dealer.

With the sentence Friday, the third and final punishment stemming from an indictment in 2010, Rossetti is sure to remain in prison until he is in his 60s, the latest blow to La Cosa *Nostra in New England.

"Mark Rossetti was the leader of an extensive and violent criminal enterprise that for *decades threatened the safety of our community," said Attorney General Martha Coakley, whose office sought indictments of Rossetti and about 30 other Mafia members and associates in October 2010 for running a vast enterprise known as the Rossetti organization.

"This sentence today is an important step in our efforts to combat organized crime," Coakley said, adding that "Rossetti and many of his asso*ciates have been taken off our streets and are no longer threats to public safety."

Rossetti, after telling Superior Court Judge Jeffrey A. Locke that he worked in construction and never went past the ninth grade, said he understood the charges and his decision to plead guilty.

His attorney, Michael Doolin, said that his client was glad to resolve the case and "looks forward to putting these *issues behind him and getting on in his life."
Rossetti has a history of convictions, for robbing an armored vehicle and having guns, and he once chose to serve jail time rather than testify about organized crime. He had been identified by State Police as a suspect in several murders.
But the indictment of him and his associates in 2010 after an investigation initiated by Essex County authorities and the State Police also helped to expose his secret work for the FBI as a federal informant, a questionable relationship, given his history of crime and his continuing role as a Mafia leader. The FBI had enacted guidelines banning similar relationships in the wake of its corrupt handling of James "Whitey" Bulger.
The FBI said after the relationship with Rossetti was exposed in court records that it had ended its work with the Mafioso once it realized he had been engaging in organized crime and that it assisted with the State Police inquiry.

The bureau has admitted to no wrongdoing and said it is conducting an internal review of the relationship.

Several of Rossetti's associates sought dismissal of their cases, arguing they could not be convicted for conspiring with Rossetti because he had been a government informant, but their requests were denied.

A recent tally showed that nearly 20 of *Rossetti's associates have been convicted and are serving either prison terms or probation for a variety of crimes, including gambling, bookmaking, loansharking, drug dealing, and extortion

Assistant Attorney General Dean Mazzone had asked Locke for the 12-year prison sentence for Rossetti, citing his history as a Mafia leader.

"His record is a horrendous one," Mazzone said. "The defendant was a capo in the Boston area Mafia. He directed various crimes over the course of several years."

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/03...story.html

[David Guyatt]

2 days ago It appears that a backpack may have been photo-shopped out by someone of the 2nd Boston Marathon Bombing Suspect running away from

Dawn

Dawn, which photo is said to be photoshopped. Just for clarity please...