DID the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) miss out on an opportunity to prevent the Boston Marathon terror attack from happening?
This was the question raised by CBS, when it broke the news that the FBI was able to interview Tamerlan Tsarnaev (one of the two bombing suspects, the other is his brother, Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev) two years ago, as part of an intelligence investigation after a request was made by Russia.
Russia reportedly suspected that Tsarnaev “was a follower of radical Islam.”
As CBS News Senior Reporter John Miller reported: “The investigation likely consisted of running checks of FBI and US intelligence community databases to determine if Tsarnaev had been in contact — online or by phone — with any known terrorist hubs, websites, or chat rooms.”
“If he had traveled to any countries that could be ‘nodes of radicalization.’ In a typical investigation, those checks are followed by interviews with friends and family, and then the suspect himself.”
Following protocol, the FBI’s investigation of the elder brother Tsarnaev was characterized as an intelligence investigation, which, Miller said, is “not necessarily geared toward a violation of law, but to determine if a threat existed.”
The results of the FBI investigation showed no information was found to indicate that Tsarnaev had any connection to known extremist or terrorist groups. There was also no proof of any imminent threat for a prescribed period of time.
As Miller explained: “Under FBI DIOG and US Attorney General guidelines, there are strict prohibitions about running open-ended investigations into American citizens, or those legally in the United States, in the absence of a clear indicator of criminal activity or association with terrorism.”
Unfortunately, as many analysts pointed out, Miller noted that records showed that Tsarnaev did not break any laws, prior to the Boston bombing.
Miller said that “American citizens still have rights” that should be be respected, as do legal permanent residents (LPR).
Tamerlan was a green card holder while his younger brother, Dzhokhar is already a US citizen.
As CBS News reported, this has case has highlighted how the FBI has to walk the line between preserving an individual’s rights and doing everything it can to head off a potential attack.
But as authorities look to prevent future attacks in the investigation on the Boston marathon bombings, CBS News said the US intelligence agencies will have to take what Miller calls a “second look” at two possible scenarios that allowed Tamerlan and any possible associates to remain under the radar.
“Were there things going on in Tamerlan’s life that were so far beneath the surface that they didn’t come up in his communications, his travels, or his associations and does that need another look?” Miller asked. “Or, did his radicalization on US soil start later than [the FBI investigation] in 2011?”
The FBI and other law enforcement officials briefed lawmakers behind closed doors about the way investigations were executed, including how the US intelligence agencies tracked Tsarnaev when he traveled to Russia last year.
Senators wanted to know whether a failure to share intelligence may have contributed to the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings.
What could the different agencies have done better and what changes should be made to help prevent another terror attack?
“The ball was dropped in one of two ways,” Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN, warning that the FBI needs to improve its performance.
“The FBI missed a lot of things, is one potential answer, or our laws do not allow the FBI to follow up in a sound solid way.”
“It’s people like this that you don’t want to let out of your sight, and this was a mistake,” Sen. Graham added. “Either our laws are insufficient or the FBI failed, but we’re at war with radical Islamists and we need to up our game.”
Congressman Peter King, chairman of the House sub-committee on counter-terrorism and intelligence accused the FBI of having a track-record of failure in monitoring potential terror threats.
On Fox News, Rep. King said: “This is at least the fifth case I’m aware of, where the FBI has failed to stop someone.”
He cited cases including that of Anwar al-Awlaki (who planned terrorist attacks as part of al Qaeda) and Nidal Malik Hasan, who opened fire at Fort Hood, Texas in 2009, killing 13 people.
King pointed out: “This is the latest in a series of cases like this…where the FBI is given information about someone as being a potential terrorist; they look at them, and then they don’t take action, and then they go out and commit murders.”
In the online opinion poll of The Filipino Channel’s daily newscast, Balitang America, a majority (58 percent) said they believe the FBI could have prevented the Boston Marathon bombing.
Some wondered why the government did not continue to monitor his actions more closely, if the FBI had already been tipped by Russia about his probable radical leanings since 2011.
When asked if the prosecutors should seek the capital punishment for detained younger brother Dzhokhar (who is suspected and charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction resulting in death and one count of malicious destruction of property by means of an explosive device resulting in death, our voters voted overwhelmingly), 85 percent of those who voted in the Balitang America online poll favored the death penalty as punishment.
The investigation continues to unfold and more new information is being revealed.
As the US continues to be a target of radical extremists groups, may the tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombing remind us of the lessons of 9/11, and help us introspect on how we can keep our country safe at the same time, protect the rights of our citizens, especially when the threat comes from one of our own.
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go to www.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
