Two More Terrorist Mom & Pop A whole Family Affair
The father of the two Boston bombing suspects has canceled plans to visit the US, as a senior Republican lawmaker raised the prospect of their mother being questioned should she set foot on American soil.
Anzor Tsarnaev cited poor health as the reason why he had to abandon plans to fly from Russia to the US to bury his son Tamerlan – who died in a shootout with police – and support his surviving son Dzhohkar, currently under guard in a secure facility after being charged over the terrorist attack.
Meanwhile, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, Michael McCaul, said Sunday that he believed the suspects' mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, played a "very strong role" in their apparent radicalisation.
He also added a belief that the suspects may have had outside help in preparing for the deadly attack on the Boston Marathon.
McCaul told Fox News Sunday that the type of explosive device used in that terrorist incident – a pressure-cooker bomb packed with shrapnel – gave rise to suspicions that they may have received assistance. "That leads me to believe there was a trainer," the representative from Texas said.
It came as both parents of the suspects retreated to a village in the troubled North Caucasus region under intense media attention.
Anzor Tsarnaev had planed to return the US in the coming days. But on Sunday he told reporters that the trip had been postponed.
He told the Reuters news agency: "I am not going back to the United States. For now I am here. I am ill."
Speaking from an undisclosed location in the North Caucuses, Anzor added: "Unfortunately I can't help my child in any way. I am in touch with Dzhohkar's and my own lawyers. They told me they would let me know [what to do]."
He added that both he and Zubeidat had relocated from their homes in Dagestan to an undisclosed village in an effort to keep a low profile amid scrutiny into the family.
In recent days, focus has been placed on the role that the suspects' mother may have had on their ideological development. McCaul said Sunday that she would likely face questioning should she return to the US. The Tsarnaevs emigrated from southern Russia to the Boston area around a decade ago. Both parents have since moved back to Russia.
On Saturday, it was disclosed by US officials that counterparts in Russia had turned over information they had on 26-year-old Tamerlan and his mother, including wiretapped telephone calls between the two.
In early 2011, the Russian FSB internal security service intercepted a conversation between Tamerlan and his mother in which the elder brother vaguely discussed jihad, according to US officials
It is believed that the pair discussed the possibility of the elder brother going to Palestine during one phone call. In the second wiretapped call, Zubeidat is heard speaking to a man who was under investigation by theFBI.
The bureau is known to have opened a file on both Tamerlan and his mother following a request from Russia in 2011, but it concluded that neither was a terrorist threat and closed the case in June of that year after Moscow failed to come forward with more information.
Likewise the CIA asked for more information on the pair later in 2011, but none was forthcoming. The agency did, however, ask that both Tamerlan and his mother's name be entered into a US terrorism database.
The Boston Marathon bombs claimed the lives of three people and injured 264. An MIT police officer was later killed by the pair, sparking a massive manhunt that ended in the death of Tamerlan and the capture of his younger brother.
Dzhohkar, 19, has since been charged with using and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction – a charge that carries a possible death sentence.
Injured in a final standoff with police four days after the bombings, he is currently being housed in a secure facility as the investigation continue
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