Boston Bomber Charged With Using WMDs, Sealed FBI Charges Leaked

Charges have been officially filed against the surviving suspect of the Boston bombings and within moments of the announcement a sealed FBI affidavit to the charges was leaked.

The leaked information comes as the federal government announced the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now awake, answering questions and will not be held as an enemy combatant.

Instead he is being charged criminally for conspiring to use Weapon’s of Mass Destruction and may face the death penalty.

Spefically the Justice Department said Tsarnaev, was charged with one count of 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.

There is a probable cause hearing scheduled for May 30th aftter which Dzhokhar will face a criminal indictment which will include many more charges than the two announced today.

An overview of the new revelations from Zero Hedge:

The charges against Dzhokhar may have been filed under seal but it took minutes to find the full 11 page affidavit by FBI agent Daniel Genck, against the alleged bomber. And while there have been many discrepancies in various official versions of the narrative leading to the capture of the younger Tsarnaev, this is the final, final draft, which means any changes to the story from now on will be greeted by substantial popular skepticism.

Some of the newly emerging highlights:

From the day of the marathon:

• At approximately 2:42 p.m. (i.e., approximately seven minutes before the first explosion), Bomber One can be seen detaching himself from the crowd and walking cast on Boylston Street towards the Marathon finish line. Approximately 15 seconds later, he can be seen passing directly in front of the Forum Restaurant and continuing in the direction of the location where the first explosion occurred. His knapsack is still on his back.

• At approximately 2:45 p.m., Bomber Two can be seen detaching himself from the crowd and walking cast on Boylston Street toward the Marathon finishing line. He appears to have the thumb of his right hand hooked under the strap of his knapsack and a cell phone in his left hand. Approximately 15 seconds later, he can be seen stopping directly in front of the Forum Restaurant and standing near the metal border among numerous spectators, with his back to the camera, facing the runners, He then can be seen apparently slipping his knapsack onto the ground. A photograph taken from the opposite side of the street shows the knapsack on the ground at Bomber Two’s feet.

• The Forum Restaurant video shows that Bomber Two remained in the same spot for approximately four minutes, occasionally looking at his cell phone and once appearing to take a picture with it. At some point he appears to look at his phone, which is held at approximately waist level, and may be manipulating the phone. Approximately 30 seconds before the first explosion, he lifts his phone to his ear as if he is speaking on his cell phone, and keeps it there for approximately 18 seconds. A few seconds after he finishes the call, the large crowd of people around him can be seen reading to the first explosion. Virtually every head turns to the east (towards the finish line) and stares in that direction in apparent bewilderment and alarm. Bomber Two, virtually alone among the individuals in front of the restaurant, appears calm. He glances to the cast and then calmly but rapidly begins moving to the west, away from the direction of the finish line. He walks away without his knapsack, having left it on the ground where he had been standing. Approximately 10 seconds later, an explosion occurs in the location where Bomber Two had placed his knapsack.

From the hijacking:

• Near midnight on April 18, 2013, an individual carjacked a vehicle at gunpoint in Cambridge, Massachusetts. A victim of the carjacking was interviewed by law enforcement and provided the following information. The victim stated that while he was sitting in his car on a road in Cambridge, a man approached and tapped on his passenger-side window. When the victim rolled down the window, the man reached in, opened the door, and entered the victim’s vehicle. The man pointed a firearm at the victim and stated, “Did you hear about the Boston explosion?” and “I did that.” The man removed the magazine from his gun and showed the victim that it had a bulletin it, and then re-inserted the magazine. The man then stated, “I am serious.”

• The man with the gun forced the victim to drive to another location, where they picked up a second man. The two men put something in the trunk of the victim’s vehicle. The man with the gun took the victim’s keys and sat in the driver’s seat, white the victim moved to the front passenger seat. The second man entered the victim’s vehicle and sat in the rear passenger seat. The man with the gun and the second man spoke to each other in a foreign language.

• While they were driving, the man with the gun demanded money from the victim, who gave the man 45 dollars. One of the men compelled the victim to hand over his ATM card and password. They then drove to an ATM machine and attempted to withdraw money from the victim’s account. The two men and the victim then drove to a gas station/convenience store in the vicinity of 816 Memorial Drive, Cambridge. The two men got out of the car, at which point the victim managed to escape.

• A short time later, the stolen vehicle was located by law enforcement in Watertown, Massachusetts. As the men drove down Dexter Street in Watertown, they threw at least two small irnprovised explosive devices (“IEDs”) out of the car. A gun fight ensued between the car’s occupants and law enforcement officers in which numerous shots were fired. One of the men was severely injured and remained at the scene; the other managed to escape in the car. That car was later found abandoned a short distance away, and an intact low-grade explosive device was discovered inside it. In addition, from the scene of the shootout on Laurel Street in Watertown, the FBI has recovered two unexploded IEDs, as well as the remnants of numerous exploded IEDs.

From the showdown and subsequent examinations:

• A preliminary examination of the explosive devices that were discovered at the scene of the shootout in Watertown and in the abandoned vehicle has revealed similarities to the explosives used at the Boston Marathon. The remnants of at least one of the exploded IEDs at the scene of the shootout indicate that a low-grade explosive had been contained in a pressure cooker. The pressure cooker was of the same brand as the ones used in the Marathon explosions. The explosive also contained metallic BBs contained within an adhesive material as well as green-colored hobby fuse. The intact low-grade explosive device found in the abandoned car was in a plastic container and wrapped with green-colored hobby fuse.

• On the evening of April 19, 2013, police investigation revealed that there was an individual in a covered boat located at 67 Franklin Street in Watertown. After a stand-off between the boat’s occupant and the police involving gunfire, the individual was removed from the boat and searched. A University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth identification card, credit cards, and other forms of identification were found in his pockets. All of them identified the man as DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV. He had visible injuries, including apparent gunshot wounds to the head, neck, legs, and hand. DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV’s wounds were triaged and he was brought to an area hospital, where he remains for medical treatment.

• On April 21, 2013, the FBI searched DZHOKHAR TSARNAEV’s dormitory room at 7341 Pine Dale Hall at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, pursuant to a search warrant. The FBI seized from his room, among other things, a large pyrotechnic, a black jacket and a white hat of the same general appearance as those worn by Bomber Two at the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013, and BBs.
 

Here’s the Full complaint

Criminal Complaint Tsarnaev

From RT here’s a report on the new charges:

 

This image taken from a video released by the FBI on April 18, 2013 shows a man wearing a white cap walking along the route of the Boston Marathon on April 15 (AFP Photo / FBI)

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving brother implicated in the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, has been charged with using weapons of mass destruction to kill people, a federal crime which is punishable by death, the Justice Department said.

On Monday, the White House announced that the surviving brother implicated in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing will not be tried as an enemy combatant, but will rather be prosecuted in the federal court system.

“He will not be treated as an enemy combatant,” White House Spokesman Jay Carney said a media briefing. “We will process this terrorist through our system of justice,” he said.

Noting that other terrorists had been tried and convicted in federal court, Carny stressed: “The system has repeatedly proven that it can successfully handle the threat that we continue to face.”

He continued that as a naturalized US citizen, Tsarnaev cannot be tried before a military commission. Carny added that US President Barack Obama has been and will continue to be updated regularly on the progress of the investigation.

The federal public defender’s office in Massachusetts has already agreed to represent the 19-year-old suspect.

Following his arraignment, it was earlier reported that Tsarnaev is now awake and responding to investigators’ questions in writing, a law enforcement official not authorized to comment on the matter said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said “substantive” information had been collected during the course of questioning, though he declined to elaborate further, the Detroit Free Press cites him as saying. He further said the neck wounds Tsarnaev sustained may have been self-inflicted, based on the positioning of the entry wound and exit wound.

The High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group – a multi-security agency unit tasked with interrogating high-value suspects – had previously been unable to question Tsarnaev following his capture on Friday night due to the extent of his injuries. A primary goal of investigators is to determine if the brothers acted alone and whether there are any unexploded bombs yet to be accounted for.

Previously, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino expressed his doubts the brothers were part of a larger terror network.

“All of the information that I have, they acted alone, these two individuals, the brothers,” he said on ABC News’s ‘This Week’.

Menino had also stated that due the extent of Dzhokhar’s injuries, “we don’t know if we’ll ever be able to question the individual.”

Ruslan Tsarni, an uncle of the accused and his late brother and co-suspect Tamerlan, told the Associated Press that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been “used” by his older brother to carry out the bombing. “He’s not been understanding anything,” Tsarni said. “He’s a 19-year-old boy.”

Anzor Tsarnaev, who calls himself father of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, reacts as he gives an interview in Makhachkala in this video grab from the footage via Reuters TV, April 19, 2013 (Reuters / Reuters TV)

‘Mama, I love you’

Meanwhile, Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the two suspected Boston bombers, is set to travel from Russia to the United States to seek “justice and truth.”

Tsarnaev told AP that he had “lots of questions for the police” and he wants “to clear up many things.”

Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the suspects’ mother, said her husband plans to travel on Wednesday, adding that their family would try to bring the body of their elder son back to Russia.

Speaking with ABC News, Tsarnaeva recounted her final conversation with her slain 26-year-old son Tamerlan Tsarnaev, which occurred just moments before a deadly standoff with police in the streets of Watertown, Massachusetts, early Friday morning.

“The police, they have started shooting at us, they are chasing us,” Tsarnaeva recalled her son as telling her.

The suspects’ mother Zubeidat Tsarnaeva. Credit: Natick Police

He said “Mama, I love you ” as his mother became frightened and begin to sob and shout. Just as the line cut off, Tamerlan Tsarnaev apparently told his mother that his younger brother was with him.

Her daughter later called her to tell her that Tamerlan Tsarnaev had been killed.

On Monday, Tsarnaev’s widow said she learned about her husband’s alleged role in the Boston Marathon bombing by watching TV, the New York Daily News reports.

After federal investigators visited Katherine Russell Tsarnaev at her parents’ home in Rhode Island, her attorney said he had spoken with authorities and is currently “deciding what we want to do and how we want to approach this.”

Details of the fatal standoff emerged on Sunday, beginning on Thursday night when the brothers allegedly ambushed and killed a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer, then hijacking a Mercedes-Benz SUV

The carjack victim, who asked not to be identified, told police that his life was spared because “he wasn’t American,” NBC news reports. Police believe the pair might have been headed to New York.

For some time the elder brother drove the carjacked vehicle while the younger brother drove his own Honda. After forcing the victim to withdraw $800 dollars from an ATM, he was later able to escape while the brothers stopped in a convenience store. Police used the victim’s cellphone to track the car, Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau told ABC.

A tribute to MIT police officer Sean Collier (L), killed by the Boston marathon bombing suspects and MBTA police officer Richard Donahue, Jr. (R), shot and injured in a shoot out with the suspects, is seen at a memorial to the victims of the Boston Marathon bombings near the scene of the blasts on Boylston Street in Boston, Massachusetts, April 21, 2013. ( Reuters / Jim Bourg)

The fierce shootout erupted when the pair was spotted by a Watertown cop, who was told not to approach the suspects until backup arrived.

“Unfortunately, they brought their fight to us. They stopped their car because they knew he was behind them. And immediately started shooting at my police officer,” Deveau said.

Deveau said they were still attempting to determine the extent of the arsenal used by the brothers.

“My understanding is that there were firearms and there was a long rifle,” he said.

“Our other officers were responding immediately. They were seconds behind him. So immediately we had three or four Watertown police officers in a gun fight with these two brothers,” Deveau continued.

“At some point they go behind the Honda, open the trunk and start heaving a device at our officers. And there was a huge explosion. We believe that was the pressure cooker bomb that went off. We found the pressure cooker lid embedded into a car further down the street,” he said.

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis told CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday that another attack was imminent.

“We have reason to believe, based upon the evidence that was found at that scene – the explosions, the explosive ordinance that was unexploded and the firepower that they had – that they were going to attack other individuals,” he said.

“That’s my personal belief at this time,” Davis continued.

He said that more than 250 spent rounds of ammunition were found at the scene, and that the ground was

“littered with unexploded improvised explosive devices that we had to point out to the arriving officers.” Tamerlan Tsarnaev, reportedly got within three meters of police officers before he ran out of ammunition and was tackled. He later died from wounds sustained in the shootout.

His injured younger brother, 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, fled the scene, forcing officers to conduct a house to house search in Watertown. He was arrested late on Friday when he was found seriously injured in a boat in the backyard of a private residence.

“He was very slow and lethargic in every move that he made and they could see that there was no device on his chest. They kept creeping closer to him and then they felt it safe enough to pull him away from the boat,” Deveau continued.

Members of the FBI Evidence Recovery Team inspect the boat where Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was hiding at 67 Franklin St. in Watertown, Massachusetts, April 20, 2013. (Reuters / Lucas Jackson)

FBI drops the ball?

The twin bombing near the finish line of the Boston Marathon last Monday killed three people, including an eight-year-old boy, and wounded up to 183 people.

Prior to the bombings, neither brother had been flagged by the government as potential terror suspects, nor was there any intelligence that the Boston Marathon might be the target for an attack.

The FBI confirmed Friday that agents had interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev and other family members in 2011 at the request of a Russian intelligence agency but “did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign,” they agency said in a statement on Friday.

“There just wasn’t anything there,” said a federal law enforcement official who has been briefed on the matter. “We ask that the government get back with us if they develop new information, but they did not. The Russians seemed satisfied, so we closed it.”

An official further said it would take “some time” before agents are able to review information in the possession of Russian authorities which prompted their request that the FBI look into the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

US lawmakers have slammed the FBI for what has been characterized as an intelligence failure, claiming the agency failed to react appropriately to Russia’s warnings.

A FBI agent celebrates outside 67 Franklin Street, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings, was discovered hiding inside a boat in Watertown, Massachusetts April 19, 2013. (Reuters / Lucas Jackson)

Lawmakers also accused the FBI of an intelligence failure, questioning whether the bureau had responded forcefully enough to Russia’s warnings.

House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul wrote to the FBI and other officials asking why Russia’s request to look into Tamerlan Tsarnaev did not raise red flags at the agency.

“Because if he was on the radar and they let him go, he’s on the Russians’ radar, why wasn’t a flag put on him, some sort of customs flag?,” McCaul, a Texas Republican, said on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ program.

“And I’d like to know what intelligence Russia has on him as well.” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina was more equivocal, saying

“the FBI or the system dropped the ball” on the elder suspect.

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York told the network

“There’s certainly a lot of questions” about the agency’s handling of Tsarnaev.

When asked to address legislators’ concerns, the FBI said it had no further comment beyond Friday’s statement.

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