Russia intercepted a communication between the mother of the accused Boston Marathon bombers and someone who may have been one of her sons “discussing jihad” in 2011, according to a U.S. official with knowledge of the investigation.
This source described the conversation as vague.
The Russians turned over the intercept to the FBI in the last few days, the official said.
This source was not aware of a reason for the delay and did not offer an opinion about whether it would have given the FBI enough reason to justify a closer look at Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the oldest of the two brothers.
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was asked abut the report while attending the White House Correspondents Dinner Saturday.
“That’s an ongoing matter,” Holder said. “I can’t really comment on that.”
CNN has previously reported that the FBI has said that it conducted an investigation — including an interview with Tamerlan Tsarnaev after Russia expressed concerns in 2011.
The FBI said at the time if found nothing to justify pursuing the matter further and that Russia did not respond to US requests for additional information.
The Russians also raised questions about Tsarnaev’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaev, when they approached the U.S. about concerns regarding Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to several sources. The mother’s name was subsequently added to the TIDE (Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment) database at at the same time as her son’s, an intelligence official said Thursday. TIDE is a collection of more than half million names of suspected terrorists that is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center.
The FBI did interview the mother in 2011 as part of the investigation into her son. The case was closed after several months.
CNN.com