The
Daily Mail did some news reporting beyond tabloid stuff and claim in a new article that Saudi Arabia warned the US, in writing, last year about Tamerlan Tsarnev and that he was going to attempt to bomb a US city. The Saudi's had previously rejected his application for a visa so he could visit Mecca. For them to do that, they must have had some very serious suspicions about the guy which is why they passed them along. If this is true, and the US was warned about him specifically and the FBI was supposedly watching him, then how did he manage to pull off the bombings?
makes me wonder who's minding the store..?
ReplyDeleteSo who drop the ball??
ReplyDeleteI heard a blurb about this on NPR a couple of days ago, that we were warned clearly that he was a problem and to keep an eye on him. The agency's reponse was, well it's hard to make the jump from someone thinking and talking about terrorism, to knowing if someone's actually going to do it. They said, hindsight's 50/50, you don't know they're going to do it until they do. That's a scary thought. Shouldn't you just be keeping a close eye on anyone suspected or talking about it? At least now all us paranoid pot heads can relax knowing the government can't even keep an eye on known terrorists, let alone care about little stoners like us.
ReplyDeleteHave a friend who used to work for FBI. He said these tyoes of threats and near misses go on EVERYDAY, and fbi very inept at monitoring the activity. He finally left, disgusted. He said no matter what u wld report to your superiors, they wld pooh pooh it and no one wld take action.
DeletePreach it auntliddy!!
DeleteIn the list of sources I consider credible, neither the Daily Fail nor Saudi Arabia make the top seven hundred.
ReplyDeleteMy guess is, the only information the FBI could find was what they found after the Russian warnings: that Tamarlin liked Jihadi YouTube videos. (Remember in September, when Right-Wingers were scornful of the idea that YouTube videos could inspire violence or terrorism?)
Isn't this a lot like saying that the police should watch every kid who watches "gangsta rap" vids on YouTube in case one of them ends up killing a cop?
Hmmmm, i like daily mail.
DeleteSo that's TWO nations that warned the US about TT.....glad we're spending a zillion dollars harassing everyone at airports and not following up on shit like this.... SMH!
ReplyDeleteThe Saudis have already denied this. If you're going to write about politics, stop treating the Daily Mail as a credible source please.
ReplyDeleteI gots my popcorn!
ReplyDeleteHolding off any opinion on this until I hear it from a credible news source.
ReplyDeleteSo we now assign a cop to chaperone every person Russia says is iffy?
ReplyDeleteThe reason he wasn't flagged when he came back into the U.S. was that he had timed out of the watch list. The FBI doesn't have the resources to keep track of everybody - they have to prioritize their threats. If you don't like that, stop fighting tax increases.
ReplyDeleteAnna ^^ makes a good point. Maybe if there was a "paper trail", like Internet orders for explosive powders, it might've been preventable, but that's a big Maybe.
ReplyDeleteThis is a pure guess, but it sounds like these bombs were made out of stuff you can buy in regular stores - pressure cookers, BB's and nails, explosive powder from fireworks they bought legally, etc. Unfortunately, it seems that even if someone was on a terror watch list, they could make the same thing without even having to show an ID to get most of the supplies. That in itself would make it difficult for someone watching them to prevent them from building bombs.
I heard today on the news that there are over 700,000 people on the terrorist watch list. I can't imagine that they can keep track of everyone, especially those who self-radicalize. And frankly, if I ran Saudi Arabia, I'd deny this story too. Don't want the populace thinking they're in cahoots with the US. Denial doesn't necessarily mean they're telling the truth.
ReplyDeleteWhat Jonathan Andrew Sheen said. Neither the Daily Mail nor the Saudi government are even remotely credible.
ReplyDeleteAgree with a lot of the comments here. The intelligence service has an enormous volume of information on an endless number subjects to sift through, and the brothers didn't fit any of the existing typical terrorist profiles. I'm sure that's changed now though.
ReplyDeleteThanks Brooke, same idea with meth, how do you stop people from buying readily available items? Enty's never pretended to be a serious news journalist, this is just a casual gossip blog, we are in his house so to speak, he is the host, and introduced a topic. Its not like we need to second guess his source, it's a topic, let's just discuss it.
ReplyDeleteAnd, honestly, who among us would want to live in an America that would target and track people, in the absence of hard evidence, on the say-so of a foreign government?
ReplyDeleteSometimes, bad guys get away with something. The Boston bombings killed three and injured a few dozen. James Holmes did more damage in Aurora, Adam Lanza did vastly more damage in Newtown, and, frankly, gang kids do more damage in inner cities all over the country all the time.
(And, don't even start on how it's "douchey" or "insensitive" to compare death tolls. No it isn't. There's nothing that's more important in assessing a tragedy or an atrocity than to look at how many lives were taken, and how many ruined. I'm from Boston, and I'm here to tell you, worse crimes have been committed in the city, and worse crimes will.)
The price of liberty isn't eternal vigilance, it's that, when we live up to our values of freedom and liberty and diversity, it means that sometimes a bad guy gets through, and people die. The only way to prevent it is surrender our values, surrender our freedom, and make our government into a dictatorship.
Not a trade-off I'm willing to make.
I can guarantee you that if Bush was president everyone here would be blaming his inadequacy. This has been a massive fail on most American government levels. It is not just the Daily Mail reporting it by the way. The Saudi's gain nothing from lying about this-we give them billions of dollars every year to prop up the royal family. We need them there or else the whole country falls into fundamentalist hands.
ReplyDeleteEven if this is not true, the RUSSIANS warned us about him and knew about it before it happened. Putin called obama hours after it happened to offer KGB support-before any information was released about the suspects even being Chechen.
NO ONE from the terrorist watch list should be allowed in or out of the country. Once they are in, they should DEFINITELY not be allowed out. This guy was allowed back to Russia. His mother is also on the list.
Do not defend what has happened, it is indefensible-just like Benghazi (which does have a "paper trail" by the way) , and in many ways, just like 9/11.
Its like no one on earth can control or count on the FBI. Betwn them snd secret service hiring and stiffing hookers, u dint know what to think. Mb just in general people have evolved into assholes?
Delete@Katie - My paper trail is exclusive to this situation. Benghazi is a completely different topic.
DeleteThe fact that The Craft was there oh sorry what did they call them this time, CTS or something like that. Well lots of pictures show they were there doing bomb drills and running around with radiation detectors. That should tell you that they did have some intel that there was a bomb threat that day. The Craft are a expensive independent merc group that is hired all over the world-they werent there by accident.
ReplyDeleteAccording to what I've read, that Daily Mail report is highly suspect. The reporter who wrote it has been caught reporting what turned out to be complete fabrications several times before. That's not to say this isn't true, but at this point I'd take it with a grain of salt.
ReplyDeleteWe're going to hear a lot of talk about turning America into a surveillance state in the wake of the Boston bombing. More laws and more money for policing and surveillance. (See, e.g., Sandy Hook.) Just like after any tragic event, the pols have to make it about them and how more government is going to solve all our problems. Don't be fooled, it's all bullshit and designed to deflect attention away from the fact that the government failed in this instance and allowed this to happen. These two little morons were on the radar. Bomb mom was on the terrorist watch list. Two nations, with reason to know, warned us. I don't expect perfection. That would be unreasonable and the point that our gov has to be right all the time and the terrorists only have to be right once is a good one. OTOH, I cannot let f*ck-ups pass. This was a f*ck up.
ReplyDeleteArm, what annoys me is we have these govt agencies in place and funded. They just not doing their job.
DeleteHad no idea daily mail so unreliable. Bummer!
ReplyDeleteSkipping over the credibility of the Daily Mail ad Saudi Arabia, I think the intelligence services of US are lacking, I also agree that shit happens, life is filled with accidents. I'd pay taxes for services but the different branches have to get together instead of squabbling amongst themselves.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile the police arrested 3 more students who are suspected of helping the brothers after the fact.
Katie Cunningham:
ReplyDeleteYou say, "The Saudi's [sic] gain nothing from lying about this"
Yet, as Chris points out, the Saudis have already denied this.
So, the Saudis, who have nothing to gain from lying on this topic, say they did not warn the American authorities.
The Russians, did, and the FBI investigated, and found that the sum total of actual evidence was that Tamarlin Tsarnaev liked YouTube videos.
Do you think that's sufficient evidence to pick somebody up? To watch their every move? If so, does that apply to urban kids who might be in gangs who like rap vids on YouTube, or is it only Muslims who should be criminalized for watching videos in which idiots glorify violence?
The fbi is supposed to be trained to make and evaluate these situations. Not just bliw it off.
DeleteJonathan, you're my new favorite commenter. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, just as you could have guessed, we're still talking about the bombers but no one is talking about West, Texas. Terrorists are so much sexier than regulation failures. And you can bet your life no one wants to talk about paying four times as much for our clothing to keep hundreds of people from dying in overseas sweatshops.
ReplyDeleteI care about all these issues, but its very depressing. I think thats why people dont say much about them; besides calling/emailing your reps, and voting fir people u think will help, what else is one to do????
DeleteBut Mooshki, JAS is considered a troll for heavens sakes. Not by me though.
ReplyDeleteFirst-time poster, and long-time reader since the Timmy/Shimmy days.
ReplyDeleteLike many, I read as much for the comments as for the gossip.
@Jonathan Andrew Sheen: Yours is the voice of reason.
One of those arrested today should not have been let back into the country due to his student status becoming void. That's strictly on us.
ReplyDeleteOh and one of them (yet to be identified which) drove a leased pimpin' set of wheels with a front license plate that read "Terrorista #1."
JAS is a troll? He sounds reasonable to me.
ReplyDelete^ditto
ReplyDeleteMajor side-eye on this one. Saudi owns a lot of our Congressmen and each do the other's bidding. Many Congressperson's in the Saudi's pocket would like to see the current administration discredited, so there you are.
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Mail is not the most credible source of info, unless it's celebrity gossip, and then I choose to believe everything they publish.
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ReplyDeleteOops, forgot: /tinfoil hat.
ReplyDeleteI think Jonathan, that if YOU actually think the FBI did it's due diligence after the Russians warned us (and yes we then let him fly back to Russia and come back) that you may want to buy this bridge I have to sell you in Brooklyn.....
ReplyDeleteJust like Benghazi, the paper trail will appear (from the Russians I mean-not so worried about the Saudis)
I see you don't have an explanation for Putin's offer of KGB help immediately following the bombing either. How convenient.
Glitter:
ReplyDeleteI once said that adult women should be able to sleep with who they want to, as long as that person wants to as well, even if there's a big gap in age.
The point being that adults are adults, and there's nothing wrong with them doing what they want to with their own bodies.
That makes me a troll and a thug, because if young women can plook middle-aged guys any time they want, then some people here don't get to feel morally superior by calling men who sleep with adults who are younger than they are pedophiles.
It's really obvious, isn't it?
Katie Cunningha
ReplyDelete"I see you don't have an explanation for Putin's offer of KGB help immediately following the bombing either."
Well, of course, Putin made no such offer, because there is no longer any such agency as the KGB. There is the FSB, the Federal Security Bureau, which performs many, perhaps most, of the same duties.
And, of course, there is no need to explain a country with a large security and intelligence apparatus offering others any aid needed in the wake of a terrorist attack. That's more than commonplace.
And I notice that you have no answer to whether you'd criminalize watching stupid violent rhetoric on YouTube for everybody, or just for Mulims.
Do you know how many warnings and updates the FBI and CIA receive in a month? There were foreign governments that warned the US about the planes in 9/11, but that was just one of the thousands of potential threats that had to be examined. The Boston bombing was a small-scale operation orchestrated from inside the country, so IF there was any threat info on it, I can see how it didn't make the top of the pile. Frankly, this story just sounds like certain people trying to ride on the story for their own purposes.
ReplyDeleteBut they could have deported the bomber for beating his wife long before this happened. And they shoukd have, problem solved. This was preventable. Massive fail for FBI, CIA, NSA - all agencies well funded with out tax dollars. FBi with same management staff that failed 9/11. So we have 2 major fails for these agencies and not one soul is held accountable in management.
ReplyDeleteFish rots from the head.
"Had no idea daily mail so unreliable"
ReplyDeleteIt's not. (Or not any more so than any other newspaper these days.)
In this instance, the Daily Mail is delivering unwanted and inconvenient news.
So shoot the messenger.
Actually, Putin and the US are not friends, and for this, no Putin would not offer his help. You know little to nothing about our relationship with Russia, or Putin, if you think that hours after a domestic attack with absolutely NO info yet on who the bombers were that Putin would offer help. Also-he offered help IN HIS OWN COUNTRY. Not here.
ReplyDeleteThere were signs. And this was a failure.
I did not answer your question since I think the entire premise is false. I do not think all they found was that he "liked to watch violent videos" hence my point that if you believe that the FBI did it's due diligence that I have a bridge you might want to buy.
So the Daily Mail is unreliable and cnn confirming a never-happening arrest is great, right? Your fanatical liberal bias don't make any source unreliable.
ReplyDeleteBarack Hussein's Government has made a colossal mistake in this issue, but he will carry away because he is half-black and a democratic party guy.
Non liberals only have the hope that the next mistake (because there will be if American politics continue this way, and not only because pressure cookers are still sold without a background control) the White House makes won't take too many victims.
So easy to criticize and politicize.
ReplyDeleteThe Saudis have denied the Daily Mail's report, or is that too inconvenient to digest.
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ReplyDeleteNot to put too fine a point on it, but why the hell would anyone automatically put stock in Russia advising that a Chechen be put on a national or international watch list? Seriously. How many Chechens do you think Russia accuses of being potential terrorists? I'm guessing, oh, 100 percent?
ReplyDelete@Amy, precisely.
ReplyDeleteamartel
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Mail is famously unreliable, and was many years before this already debunked story came out.
I am loving the italics! Very theatrical!
DeleteThe easiest way to kill someone is with one person. These were two brothers, not a network. Just like the school shooters & the Timothy McVeigh's of the world & the shooter we had in Tasmania, the lone person will always go under the radar because there is no-one to communicate with. Brothers can easily communicate & are supposed to, so it would have been almost impossible to decide that they were planning a bombing. At least with networks there are patterns & communications & a chance of catching them. The hardest part is realising how vulnerable we are to attacks, but I am confident that a lot of attempts both in the US & here in Australia have been foiled, we just don't hear about them.
ReplyDeleteKatie Cunningham
ReplyDeleteI hate to break it to you, kid, but I was well-versed in international politics when your higher reasoning centers were running down your dad's leg. When there's a terrorist attack against the United States, it's in every nation's interest to offer aid. America's cataclysmic reactions to foreign-based terrorist attacks on American soil made sure of it. Yes, it's perfectly normal and unremarkable that Putin offered help.
You're taking conspiracy-theory nuttery past Glenn Beck level and into Alex Jones territory.
Looks like the USA doesn't listen to other nations very much, does it?
ReplyDeleteDidn't the Saudis also deny Dave Chappelle a Visa to go to Mecca when he left his show and went on his pilgrimage?
ReplyDeleteThis does not seem like a credible story to me.
I'm kind of amazed that intelligence services can come up with any useful information before something happens with the vast quantity of data they collect in the all-digital age. There aren't enough people on earth to review all the e-mails, phone calls & blog posts being collected. I read they use software that looks for keywords. Yeah, that's going to catch it all.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because the government is run by men and most of the are egotistical IDIOTS.
ReplyDeletethree more participants arrested today--college friends who may or may not have helped.
ReplyDeletetwo are immigrant students one is american--helped get rid of the debris from making the bombs after--they took the emptied out fireworks, etc to a landfill in New Bedford.
In other words, "US officials were informed there was a needle in a haystack".
ReplyDelete"The Daily Mail is famously unreliable, and was many years before this already debunked story came out. "
ReplyDeleteInconvenient story about government inadequacy debunked by inadequate government that finds it inconvenient. And shady nation of double-dealing insider oil tics. Well alrighty then.
The Ministry of Truth has Spoken!
Shoot the messenger.
Case closed.
News sources are all unreliable, that goes without saying, especially these days with Politicization of Everything.
To confidently dismiss this story as "debunked" simply because the government agencies responsible for our safety conveniently say so, even in the face of obvious systemic error of allowing these terrorists to live amongst us, and take a $100,000 draw on top of that, is rank partisanship. You're not interested in the truth - you're interested in burying it.
Nothing to see here.
ReplyDeleteMove along.
Katie Cunningham said...
ReplyDeleteI can guarantee you that if Bush was president everyone here would be blaming his inadequacy
Yes. A bunch of Obama voters engage in excuse-making.
Nothing is ever Obama's fault.
Isn't that convenient?
Mooshki said...
ReplyDeleteAnd hey, just as you could have guessed, we're still talking about the bombers but no one is talking about West, Texas. Terrorists are so much sexier than regulation failures.
Um, there was no "regulation failure"
when are you silly people going to stop trying to use tragedies to further your silly political agendas?
Jonathan Andrew Sheen said...
ReplyDeleteAnd I notice that you have no answer to whether you'd criminalize watching stupid violent rhetoric on YouTube for everybody, or just for Mulims.
You continuing to pretend that the FBI found that all he wanted to do is "watch youtube videos" is absurd.
Do you enjoy being absurd?
BUT WHERE IS LINDSAY LOHAN GOING TO REHAB!!
ReplyDeleteLet's fight the real terrorist!
Ugh, it bugs the crap out of me when people call the president by his first and middle name only. What are you implying by adding that his middle name is Hussein?
ReplyDeleteThe Daily Mail is a horrible source for legit news. It's like reading The Enquirer for hard hitting world news.
Came here to say pretty much what ino said.
ReplyDelete@Pugglewug I'm no Obama fan, but it really grinds my gears when people call him Barack Hussein. No one ever called Ronald Reagan Ronald Wilson or Jimmy Carter Jimmy Earl.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure these same people would never admit to any racism however, after all, they have black friends!