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Russia contacted US government ‘multiple’ times

Whitewing

Well-known member
Russian authorities alerted the US government not once but ``multiple’’ times over their concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev -- including a second time nearly a year after he was first interviewed by FBI agents in Boston -- raising new questions about whether the FBI should have focused more attention on the suspected Boston Marathon bomber, according to US senators briefed on the probe Tuesday.

True government leadership. :roll:

The FBI has previously said it interviewed Tsarnaev in early 2011 after it was initially contacted by the Russians. After that review, the FBI has said, it determined he did not pose a threat.

In a closed briefing on Tuesday, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee learned that Russia alerted the United States about Tsarnaev in ``multiple contacts’’ -- including ``at least once since October 2011,’’ said Richard Burr, a Republican of North Carolina, speaking with reporters afterward.

Senators said the briefing also revealed failures among federal agencies to share vital information about Tsarnaev, indicating, they said, that the US government still has not established a strong system to ``connect the dots’’ about would-be terrorists residing in America more than a decade after 9/11.

Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican and member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised law enforcement authorities for quickly producing videos of the suspects and putting a halt to their violent spree Thursday night and Friday.

“But I’m very concerned that there still seem to be serious problems with the sharing of information, including critical investigative information,’’ she said after emerging from the closed-door committee briefing. ``That is troubling to me, this many years after the attacks on our country in 2001, that we still seem to have stovepipes that prevent information from being shared effectively, not only among agencies but also with the same agency in one case.”

Collins, who was among senators receiving a briefing from Deputy FBI Director Sean M. Joyce and officials from the National Counter-terrorism Center and the Department of Homeland Security, did not elaborate on details of those failures.

Members of the House also received a briefing Tuesday and emerged with questions.

“We have to go back and take a good hard look at the gaps,’’ said Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, a Florida Democrat. ``With each event that occurs like this one, we have to go back and take a look at what lessons we could learn and how to fill in those gaps.’’

Warnings raised by Russia have loomed large in the investigation of how Tsarnaev, a Kyrgyzstan national, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, a naturalized US citizen, allegedly prepared for the April 15 bombing attacks near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

``I think the increasing signals are that these are individuals that were radicalized, especially the older brother, over a period of time,’’ said Republican Senator Marco Rubio, of Florida, after the briefing. He said the brothers ``used Internet sources to gain not just the philosophical beliefs that radicalized them, but also learning components of how to do these sorts of things.”

US officials have faced tough questions for not tracking the older brother’s travels to the Russian provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya -- where he spent more than half of last year and may have interacted with militant groups or individuals.

The FBI has said it was not aware that Tsarnaev had traveled to Russia in 2012. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said Monday that the FBI told him it was not aware of the older Tsarnaev’s travels because his name had been misspelled on an airliner passenger list. US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano confirmed the misspelling during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, but she said Homeland Security nonetheless was aware of his trip.

“Even with the misspelling under our current system, there are redundancies, and so the system did ping when he was leaving the United States,” she said.

Napolitano said the Senate’s proposed immigration overhaul bill would improve that system to avoid any chance of clerical errors, by making passports ``electronically readable.’’

Her disclosure that Homeland Security knew of the trip, but not the FBI, raised questions among lawmakers.

“I want to make sure that DHS is talking to the FBI,” said Senator Charles Grassley, the ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee. “It looks to me like there is a lack of communication.”

Others expressed concern about signs that officials did not connect the dots about the potential threat Tsarnaev’s may have posed.

“Post-911 we thought we had created a systems that would allow for the free flow of information between agencies,” said Senator Saxby Chambliss, a Republican from Georgia and member of the intelligence panel. “And I think there have been some stone walls .. .that have been re-created that were probably unintentional.”

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, cautioned against jumping to any final conclusions.

“We had a full discussion back and forth over the process that’s followed and we need to keep at that and we need to see if there are any loopholes in it, that we fix those loopholes,” she said.

She characterized the issues as part of an evolving intelligence process. :roll:

“With every one of these we find problems, it’s not just this one,” she said. “And you try to remedy the problem so next time it’s not going to happen and something else pops up next time, but the right things are being done and the right kind of investigation is being conducted.”

“I think there’s concern about knowledge about the individual’s trip to Russia and was that information shared between the FBI and Homeland Security,” said, Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs of the House Homeland Security committee.

The more that comes out, the more obvious it is that the US still has a cluster fark on its hands when it comes to receiving and processing intelligence.
 

Steve

Well-known member
this is absolutely stunning.. in it's failure..

my wife goes through a check every time she leaves or enters the country...

her passport is scanned.. her alien ID card is scanned...

on returning her photo is taken.. her prints are taken..

her passport is rescanned.. her alien ID is rescanned..

where is the misspelling?

how do you misspell all those scanned forms of ID

that is a crock and a lame excuse..
 

Tam

Well-known member
WHAT

Napolitano said the Senate’s proposed immigration overhaul bill would improve that system to avoid any chance of clerical errors, by making passports ``electronically readable.’’

Really :shock: are the US Passports not electronically readable yet?????? :? Every time I enter the US, Border Officers take my Canadian passport and SCAN IT as in having their computer ELECTRONICALLY read the barcode that identifies me. Is this not how it works with US Passports?
 

Whitewing

Well-known member
US Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano confirmed the misspelling during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday, but she said Homeland Security nonetheless was aware of his trip.

So Janet, wtf did you guys do with the info? Send him a gift certificate?
 

Steve

Well-known member
Steve said:
this is absolutely stunning.. in it's failure..

my wife goes through a check every time she leaves or enters the country...

her passport is scanned.. her alien ID card is scanned...

on returning her photo is taken.. her prints are taken..

her passport is rescanned.. her alien ID is rescanned..

where is the misspelling?

how do you misspell all those scanned forms of ID

that is a crock and a lame excuse..

when this came up this morning.. my wife also commented on how both of us had to fill out a form online prior to traveling..

here is a direct quote from the e-mail I have saved from the flight for my records..

In compliance with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security before travel to the USA all passengers must:

1. Add API (Advance passenger Information) to your booking on www.aerlingus.com

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (Bureau of Customs and Border Protection) requires certain Advance Information about all passengers - including infants - travelling to and/or from the USA.
Passengers must provide this information at least 72 hours pre flight or passengers may not be allowed to travel.

***Simply logon and select "Manage Booking" from the home page where you can add the information to your booking now.***



The Information required from each passenger - including infants - is:

- First Name (as on passport)
- Family Name (as on passport)
- Gender
- Date of Birth
- Citizenship
- Passport Number and Alien Resident Card Number (Green Card) if applicable
- Passport Country
- Expiry Date of Passport
- Address while in USA (including ZIP Code)


2. All non-US residents must ensure they have proper documentation which meets the requirements of the U.S. Government for travel into the United States.

Residents of countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program must apply online for approval to travel under the Visa Waiver Programme if they do not possess a Visa or Green card. You can find a current list of participating countries through the application link below.

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov

Application only takes a few minutes and should be completed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov ESTA website. Applications should be submitted no less than 72 hours prior to travel.

Thank you for your time

so how did they misspell his name?

and worse.. how can they claim to have missed it?
 
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