The FBI’s Bad Choice That Caused Two Deaths: “60 Minutes” Tsarnaev Terrorist Attack

J. Edgar Hoover IN Dedperation Misses The Target.

I read the FBI was on 60 Minutes telling us a story about how it identified the Tsarnaev brothers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar, after the Marathon Terrorist Attack (MTA). The first thought came to mind was: “60 Minutes can find out what happened but the US Congress can’t.” Does that make you wonder about our justice system?

Don’t you remember that members of Congress had to travel to Russia to find out what the Russians told the FBI about Tamerlan Tsarnaev? Think back to what happened when a Congressional committee sought to hold hearings on it. The FBI refused to appear before it giving the usual excuse “the matter is under investigation.” Maybe the next time after a similar incident Congress should bring in the 60 Minutes crew to sit next to the members to find out what happened.

If you have read any of the history of the FBI you’d have learned it was divided into several divisions, either 4 or 5. One of those divisions was the Public Records. Its job was to spread FBI propaganda to the media. J.Edgar Hoover knew better than anyone there was nothing like good press. He was well aware it trumped the truth or Congress every time.

As you know I have a couple of major concerns in this matter: the first relates to the initial information from Russia where we really have not learned what the FBI did subsequently to receiving the information from Russia on Tamerlan – what investigation was done, how long did it last, were any attempts made to have him become an informant, why didn’t it advise others on the Joint Terrorism Task Force about it, and why did it close out the case; the other, and what’s relevant here is why did the FBI publicize his picture when it had agents in its office who could have identified him. The aftermath of the publication was the death of Sean Collier and Tamerlan as well as the notorious “shelter in” of a city. Also, in that respect, what were the teams of FBI agents doing in Cambridge (during this all-hands-on-board episode one would expect they’d be working on the MTA matter) that night.

After having been blocked at learning anything by the FBI”S refusal to answer to anyone, seeing that some spoke out, even though it was in the controlled environment of a “60 Minutes” interview was like a thimble full of cold water after a long run, it was something. I went to “60 Minutes” to read the transcript of its program wondering if I could find some answers.

Reading it I learned what was motivating the FBI was fear of other attacks as it systematically went about gathering evidence and taking it to a central location and forwarding parts of it to its labs in DC. The FBI does this very well and its labs are among the best in the world. It was also determined to find those responsible.

On Wednesday morning, a day and a half after the MTA, the FBI had a team of 120 agents who examined 120,000 still photographs and 13,000 videos looking for something different. They found one that showed a man in a white baseball cap (Dzhokhar) who had put down a backpack and acted out of character with the rest of the people when the first explosion occurred. Standing near where he put his backpack down was Martin Richard the young boy from Dorchester who was killed when the explosion occurred 20 seconds after the backpack was dropped.

Excellent work let those agents identifying the man in the white cap. This allowed the Massachusetts state police to link him up with the man in the black cap (Tamerlan). Then they were able to discover the videos of the two men walking together. These they would eventually make public.

Then a strange thing happens. A cable network reported an arrest has been made. Remember the Globe confirmed the story through its own sources. Everyone rushed to the federal courthouse in Boston. It was a huge false rumor.

But something even stranger happened. It caused panic. The US Attorney in Boston,  Carmen Ortiz, learning the report of the arrest was false said:  I think that kind of misinformation makes it appear as if government isn’t in control, the investigation is sort of, you know, confusing. And so it can be very, very harmful.”  Figure that logic, a false media report means the government isn’t in control. Who is running the show?

The next day the NY Post published pictures of the wrong man. Rather than taking advantage of that and letting it lull the bombers into believing they were safe, Ortiz reacted differently. Not looking at it from an investigative viewpoint but a public relations one, she said: “That generated tremendous risk and harm. It gives people a false sense of security thinking, “Oh they’ve identified these suspects” when it turns out that it’s wrong individuals. It puts those individuals at tremendous risk.” It seems she was reacting to the media rather than the evidence. Since when is it the job of the government to get panicked over erroneous media reports?

A debate then occurred. Some in the FBI seemed to have reacted properly not wanting to release the pictures because it would give the terrorists a chance to escape; the FBI Special Agent in charge, DesLauriers, who was working directly with Ortiz noted: The countervailing argument is you had individuals, we had photographic evidence of individuals, who we strongly believed were responsible for the bombings and we need to identify them as quickly as possible”. I agree but would have thought the best way was to ask his fellow agents.

The tragedy, of course, is that the rush, abetted by the US Attorney’s unusual concern, apparently prevented the FBI from even inquiring among its agents or other law enforcement sources whether these people were known to any of them, which they were. If that happened it sits squarely on the SAC but even more so on the US Attorney. She apparently was more worried about correcting false media reports than letting the professionals do their job.

Unfortunately we know what happened after the photographs were released. Yet, even though it was a major mistake, the FBI still justifies it. SAC DesLauriers said: “I stand by that decision, Scott. Nobody could have reasonably foreseen that a police officer would be murdered. What could reasonably be foreseen is that these individuals could have had more bombs could have set those bombs off and caused carnage similar or even greater to than what they caused on April 15th.”

DesLauriers suggests he knew when releasing the photographs the suspects could flee or set off more bombs causing similar carnage but decided to do it anyway. Stephanie Douglas, an executive assistant director or the FBI who was overseeing DesLauriers agreed. She said: “Yes, I think at the end of the day, we really had no choice.”

I’d suggest to Stephanie she had a real choice – don’t panic just because the US Attorney is worried about the media – check and see if any in law enforcement knew these men. You may have prevented further killings.

 

 

8 Comments

  1. Very good post. CBS does a story on the marathon bombing and neglects to ask any important questions. Are the media and the government the same thing? Does CBS tell us that the Tsarnaevs are asylum seekers who return to Russia after they are granted refugee status? Should their status have been revoked? Do they mention that Putin told us Tamerlan was a terrorist? Do they explain there investigation of Tamerlan? A NYC Police official said they would have prevented this bombing because they do a mosque crawl. Was Tamerlan working for the FBI doing a mosque crawl? ( reports said he attended services and often made radical, jihadist claims) Did the Feds teach him how to make a pressure cooker bomb? Was Tamerlan part of a sting to set up other radical Muslims but he double crossed the FBI? Did CBS even mention he was a Muslim? The timing of the investigation is suspect. On Monday they knew what type of bomb was used. No later than Tuesday they could point out the two with the black back packs. How many of the agents in Boston were shown the pictures of the bombers and asked if the could I.D. them? Photos of the Tsarnaevs were at the Cambridge Police, State Dept. and Boston FBI. The FBI claim that they needed the public’s help was completely false. It was designed to mislead the public. What they didn’t count on was Russia spilling the beans on their cover up. But remember BHO said the FBI performed their duty in this case. No wonder Putin won’t co operate with this crowd.

    • NC:

      There’s a big breakdown in our society when people who claim political asylum shortly after getting the OK to stay here return to the country from which they are allegedly escaping. Our immigration department is broken and may never be fixed. Od course they should have been booted out of the country as should everyone else who is doing the same thing right now.

      I see the defense of the Joker is suggesting that Tamerlan was an FBI informant. His whole matter with the FBI is a great mystery. I wish someone would tell us what happened between him and the FBI – how was he closed out after 3 months? I’m sure the Russians haven’t given more than a half dozen tips about people in Boston being terrorists. So many questions remain about his relationship that it is hard to document them all.

      I think the FBI knew who he was earlier than it let on. It sent several teams of agents over to Cambridge to get him. We know it had those teams in Cambridge at the time but the FBI says they were on a different matter – what nonsense when the whole FBI had been ordered to concentrate on getting the bombers. Who could believe in the middle of the terrorist investigation other teams were doing something else that was more important.

      That’s when things fell apart; Tamerlan and his brother must have spotted the FBI and took off; the killing of Officer Collier and the great shut down happened after that. If the FBI were less interested in getting glory and more a team player all that could have been avoided. That is what I believe is the true scandal here and not that Tamerlan was an FBI informant.

  2. Strange, isn’t it, that for all the many web demonstrations showing various government conspiracies, all of which would have required dozens if not hundreds of participants to pull off, there has yet to be a single credible perpetrator confess to being part of the scheme and produce evidence. All the way back to Pearl Harbor bombing that everyone” knows FDR orchestrated to initiate WWII.

    “Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.”
    ― Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanack

    • Henry:

      I suppose that is what is good about “conspiracy theories;” there is no one around to rebut them so one just disregards the evidence and goes off on a horse of her own and she’ll always find many to go along on the ride. Your point is well made. You made me recognize that there are so many people out to make a buck by coming up with some sensational news in a book that were there so many cover-ups or schemes to deny the truth we would have seen them in their books.

      However, reading the book “The Brothers” and seeing how the Dulles brothers operated we still have to keep our right high for many things are not what they seem to be. Right now I’m a little wary about what is going on in Ukraine. I guess I’m wondering how much of Ukraine the Nobel Peace Prize winner will surrender to prevent Putin from taking all of it. Nice to hear from you.

  3. I know Matt does not like my comments; however, they are supported by raw video evidence. With all the evidence contrary to the official narrative, these officials should go before a grand jury. It strongly appears that we have framed patsies. The US Congress did not want the FBI before them anymore than the FBI wanted to appear before the committees. The fact of the matter is a bill was drafted on 4/12/13 that would be the premise of the failure to avert.

    Info share including better communication by the feds to the state and local authorities. http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/hr1542

    The Forum picture that the FBI claims was the crowd at the time of the blast is, in whole, fabricated!! The authorities merged earlier crowds and shopped as needed. This is not a photograph- it is art work (sloppy art work) https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bjf9VdgCAAInY45.jpg:large

    The FBI was the crowd at the time of blast 2. This is validated by the audio comparison of two raw videos. The FBI agent noted at the mailbox in the blast 2 raw video is seen in the 30 yard video BEFORE THE BLAST. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bjf5ebKCQAAZ05p.jpg (blurry but it’s him in green sweater far left by the building)

    After the blast, he walks toward the Forum and joins other federal agents working under cover and already present at blast 2; the time it took him to walk and arrive at the mailbox falls straight in with the timeline as determined with the audio compare of the raw videos. http://friendfeed.com/0p6dfbitimgenck/fb694c8e/photo-of-fbi-agents-at-t-is-in-public-domain-fema http://friendfeed.com/0p6dfbitimgenck/9c2f3e41/audio-compared-in-videos-below-puts-group-of

    It also appears our reps are traveling via photo shop and green screen to promote the terror threat. The inconsistent “stories” coming from representatives, FBI and DOJ is beyond belief and has the hallmark of pathological lying!

    The US Congress has the power of subpoena. We are continually being lied to and we have been subjected to “show” hearings by the US Congress and Senate. I watch every single hearing and can not believe that the witnesses get to appear and READ from pre-drafted testimony as the representatives then pose all questions to ensure the lies prevail
    http://friendfeed.com/impoliteconversation/345332e8/twitter-not-happy-with-my-tweet-cnn-abc-ap http://friendfeed.com/ff-ophousehomelandsecurity/95e590df/fwd-there-are-some-peculiar-findings-
    http://friendfeed.com/impoliteconversation/e913daeb/i-describe-my-findings-as-noted-re-pics-in

    There is no ‘theory” involved; there is evidence that indicates the American people have been terrorized and defrauded by their own government and that calls for the convening of grand juries!

    • LJ:

      That’s no way to start off a comment by saying I won’t like it. That doesn’t matter. A lot of comments here I don’t like but try my best to deal with them. You’re always welcome to set out your views. That I disagree with them doesn’t mean I don’t like them, even though the latter may be true.

      As you know the problem with a grand jury is the people you think are acting amiss actually control the grand jury. So what would be accomplished by going before one? My big problem is I don’t see what is to be gained by the FBI or any government agency having a role in perpetrating the Marathon Terrorist Attack. I do see them wanting to cover up any mistakes they may have made before or afterwards but the idea any in our government would carry out an attack like that just goes too far afield for me. Especially since whomever did it would gain noting from it.

      • Matt,

        The ongoing threat of terror that is reinforced by an actual terror attack is a money maker. The military industrial complex has a huge hold on our representatives.

        • LJ:

          Agree – but we didn’t need an attack to reinforce our fear of terror. There was sense I was aware of that it was diminishing nor do I ever expect there will be a diminishing of the Homeland Security budget. I worry about that group because it has set about to militarize our police departments which is unnecessary. Congress is absent as usual and will pretty much rubber stamp any request marked “to fight terrorism.”

          We have our problems but they pale compared to other countries. Europe seems to be doing fine as does Japan and some others but they have done so under the security umbrella of America. We must remember we are only seeking “a more perfect” society not one that is perfect. We have many scars and stains and many things going wrong but as long as we can communicate and associate openly without fear then we’ll have to put up with those things we don’t like and hope we can change them. Thanks.