I’ve shown how the theory that it was on the anniversary of 9/11 that the three men were murdered on Waltham and given the significance of that date that the murders was probably done by a person who was a Muslim extremist was wrong because the murders took place on 9/12. Since that post some have suggested that the murder did take place on 9/11 and the bodies were discovered on 9/12. That may be the case and not having the evidence I can not answer that.
However the reason I don’t believe it had anything to do with 9/11/2001 is that an anniversary attack meant as a follow up to a famous event will not be done in secret. It will be publicized as being a follow up to the earlier event. If not, why do it?
The FBi though has to connect Tamerlan Tsarnaev into the triple homicide even though the theory of a connection to 9/11/2001 doesn’t follow because his friend Ibragim Todashev was killed by an FBI agent.
Without Tamerlan you can’t have Todashev. This is because we’ve been informed by the media of this strange story. That upwards of a dozen law enforcement officials raided the apartment went to the apartment of Todashev and while there he confessed to murdering three people in Waltham.
Now here’s a strange thing from my perspective. A confession is valid and admissible into evidence whether it is verbal or written. If I go up to a cop and tell him that I was the one who held up the liquor store the previous night the cop can arrest me and testify as to what I told him. Of course, if there were two cops there when I confessed that would be better and make the case stronger. If I went into the police station at a change of shift and confessed that in front of 12 cops that would be super as far as any prosecutor was concerned. Well that’s what we are told Todashev did.
But for some strange reason that was not enough. The dozen or so cops wanted him to sign a written confession. This is after six or eight hours of continual interrogation conversation. Although he freely admitted it verbally, being asked to write it down made him freak out and he attacked an FBI agent with a knife or something else.
The above is the best I can put together since everyone has clammed up. The FBI, the Massachusetts state police and the Orlando police all refuse to tell us how a person was killed. No one seems to think this is strange that a person can be a victim of homicide in his own apartment and no one will step up to the plate and tell us what happened. This indeed shows the FBI’s power to intimidate and control. When the Orlando police chief was asked what happened he said the reporters had to talk to the FBI. He had guys there but they can’t tell us what happened unless the FBI clears it.
Here’s what we think we know. Todashev had been questioned several times by the FBI since April 19, 2013. He was visited by the FBI sometime during the evening of Tuesday, May 21, 2013. He was shot down by the FBI in the early morning hours of Wednesday, May 22, 2013. The rest is pure conjecture. You can be killed in the USA by a law enforcement officer and no one has the right to know what happened right afterwards even though a dozen police officers witnessed the killing.
We do have some things we can learn from the repeaters who have covered the story. But they don’t seem to do other than repeat what they are told without analyzing. An NBC news article reported that an unknown number of FBI agents, Massachusetts state police, and Orlando police went to visit Tobashev. That means there were at least six cops there, probably more like a dozen.
Now get this. The NBC story was originally published on Wed May 22, 2013 4:53 PM EDT probably within 12 hours of the killing. It differed from the murder to commemorate 9/11 story.
NBC reported that law enforcement sources told them Todashev confessed to the triple homicide in Waltham. But knowing what we know today, it is clear these sources were putting out false information. We know this because the sources also suggest the reason for the triple homicide was a drug ripoff gone wrong.
The initial investigation of the triple homicide always worked around the idea of a drug related killing, not necessarily a ripoff. Drugs along with a large amount of cash was found in the apartment. I’ve read that marijuana was sprinkled over the bodies. These NBC sources must have felt it was best to continue with that theory and to implicate Todashev in the murders and did not mention the connection to 9/11.
I’ve pointed out before that one of the problems with that theory was that there was a lot of cash left around. Given the financial situation of Tamerlan and Todashev it seems unlikely they would have left money behind. Guys who didn’t need money such as big time drug dealers would be more likely to do that.
Here’s what NBC said its law enforcement sources said: “what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tamerlan Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them.”
Here’s the problem with that invention. It is clear that these NBC law enforcement sources didn’t know that Tamerlan and Brendan Mess, whose apartment the murders occurred in and who was one of the victims, were close friends. A close friend doesn’t suddenly realize his close friend would identify him. He’d know all along that his friend would know who he was.
And given Tamerlan’s relationship with Brendan Mess it is far-fetched to suggest he’d be ripping his friend off. People who knew them said there was no indication of any hostility. The true bottom line is there is no evidence that Tamerlan had anything to do with the murders.
The media has implicated Tamerlan because the murders took place on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. But even if they did they probably had no connection. It also sought to implicate Tamerlan because he was doing a drug ripoff of a close friend who he thought wouldn’t know him, which is absurd. We can only wonder what theory will be spun out next.
We are told Tamerlan’s phone number was in Brendan Mess’s phone log which would be expected; we’re told there is some DNA evidence Tamerlan was at Mess’s apartment which one would expect since he often frequented it. What we are not told is why Tamerlan would want to kill one of his few close friends. And if he didn’t, both theories to date having been proven wrong, we are not told why an FBI agent would want to kill Ibragim Todashev.
Exceptional post but I was wondering if you could write a
litte more on this topic? I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit more.
Appreciate it!
QUOTE:
“Khusen Taramov, a friend of Todashev’s who is coordinating the return of his body to Russia and who washed his body in the traditional Islamic fashion, said Todashev’s body had multiple gunshot wounds, including one in the head and several near the heart.”
Apparently, Taramov counted 7 gunshots in all, one to the head, the back of the head.
http://www.boston.com/metrodesk/2013/05/29/islamic-group-calls-for-justice-department-probe-into-shooting-marathon-bombing-suspect-associate/ehHJmRdLDI8a1XM5mOeWKO/story.html
I’m not seeing where any motive has failed or succeeded.
I am fairly certain that 9/11 was the date of the murders based on Mess’ girlfriend and the restaurant delivery report. If the DA, FBI, Mass Staties and WPD tell the ME that 9/12 was the date, then that’s probably what the date will be. Besides, if you set out to kill on 9/11 but for unexpected reasons are delayed until 9/12, that doesn’t really change the “intended” symbolism for a psychopath.
I doubt Tamerlan would “publicize” his involvement, as you suggest a symbolic killer would, if he also had preliminary plans for deadlier attacks in the future.
And I’m not sure why you are convinced that Tamerlan was “close” friends with Mess. Is a person who is capable of blowing up hundreds of people really capable of having close friends and deep emotional attachment?
And why would it matter if he were close friends with Mess or not? Husbands kill wives, wives kill husbands, children kill parents, parents kill children, friends kill friends, this stuff happens all the time.
You seem to be jumping the shark a bit in your attempts to exculpate Tamerlan, and I’m not sure why.
You should dig deeper. There is little chance that Tamerlan was not involved. I don’t know about Todashev.
After Todashev’s killing, I’m not sure that I want to post much more about what I really think. I’ll ask once more, what do you know about Uncle Ruslan Tsarni? Whose daughter was he married to?
Mark:
Thanks for the information. A shot in the back of the head is interesting.
I’m not necessarily disagreeing with you that the murders didn’t take place on 9/11. I’m saying if they didn’t that would absolutely eliminate the idea of it being done because it was the tenth anniversary of 9/11; but I’m also saying that if they were done on 9/11 that is an indication they were connected with 9/11. I suggest without more, as I indicated something to connect them with 9/11/01, the date probably has little to do with the reasons for the murder.
When I suggest Tamerlan would connect the murders to 9/11 I don’t suggest he would connect himself to them but would have given an indication that it was done in response to 9/11 otherwise it seems an empty act. I also don’t believe that in September 2011 Tamerlan was planning an attack like that of the Marathon Terrorist Attack. But again, that’s my opinion since I don’t know what motivated him one way or the other except for his Muslim radical beliefs.
There are several reports from Mess’s friends that he and Tamerlan were close friends. Sure he could have had little emotional attachment to him but there were many other people he could kill rather than one of the few he liked if he wanted to remember 9/11. I don’t think you do it by killing those closest to you; and I agree many killings occur by people who are close to each other but there’s usually a significant motive or great mental problem involved. I just don’t see them here, but as you suggest I might be wrong.
I’m not interested in exculpating Tamerlan if there is sufficient evidence to show he was involved. I am just looking at the evidence I have seen and evaluating it as I have done in the past. I’d prefer not to implicate someone in a triple homicide if he didn’t do it. That, at a minimum, lets those who did it off the hook. Basically, I want to get the right guy.
Let me tell you what I think we should find out first: why were these three men who were murdered together that evening; was it their habit to do this to watch Sunday night football or was this an unusual event? If we knew that then a lot of things would fall into place. Add to that whether Tamerlan knew the three were together; and decide whether the three were involved as drug dealers and planning to meet suppliers to make a big buy as someone of Mess’s friends indicated.
I know little of Rusian Tsarni other than he’s a lawyer who went to Duke Law. Of his wife I know nothing.
If you don’t post anymore then I thank you for what you have done. You’ve added a lot to the discussion and brought up other ideas for me and the folk who read these comments which is helpful. I
mtc, just downloaded the kindle version of your book for Cape reading in a few weeks…
You’ve pointed out that it makes no sense for Tamerlan to have brutally murdered one of his only friends. This leads me to wonder, how would someone like Tamerlan have reacted to the grisly murder of one of his best friends? My sense is it would not have sat well with him, and he would not have easily let it go. If he was paranoid at all, he may have even felt the date was an attempt to shed suspicion on Brendan’s Muslim friends.
There’s also the statement of one of Brendan’s other friends (all over the media):
[Christopher Medeiros, who described himself a close friend of Mess, said he believes the killings were drug-related. He said Mess and another one of the victims, Erik Weissman, were marijuana dealers and had been trying to start a major growing operation.
“The Friday before he died, (Mess) told me, ‘Listen, I’m getting ready to make this big move,'” Medeiros said. “And I think that’s what cost him his life.”]
The brutality of the act, the sprinkling of marijuana on the bodies, and the $$$ left in the apartment; the fact that Brendan and at least one of the other victims were pot dealers; the presence in the Watertown/Waltham of a large Armenian-American/Canadian drug ring that mostly dealt in marijuana; all make it look more like a clear message to anyone thinking of crowding into their business that they’d best think otherwise.
Many members of this drug ring were busted about four months before Mess and friends were killed:
http://www.justice.gov/usao/ma/news/2011/May/MadaratiSafwan.html)
A former Watertown policeman was charged with feeding info to the drug ring guys. Were some other Watertown police involved, as well? At a community forum between Watertown PD and residents yesterday, one of the big questions on residents’ minds was—Why did the bombers come to Watertown??? Indeed, it seems the brothers were inexplicably dawdling when they could have left the region anytime between Monday and Thursday, and certainly after their photos were shown (but officials didn’t know their names) on Thursday evening. Anyone trying to follow their trail that evening is left scratching their head in confusion. All this leads me to ask:
Could Tamerlan have taken the fight to Watertown on purpose???
Jamie:
There’s so much mystery surrounding this that may never be cleared up because we have no way of knowing what happened, not even the most elementary things so we can only guess at things base on our experiences and common sense.
I wrote earlier today to Mark. You allude to this in your comment. What we must first try to figure out when it comes to the triple homicide is why these men were together on the night of September 11, 2011. Was it to watch the football game something they did every Sunday night or was it to discuss their marijuana business? If they are dope dealers and they don’t usually get together then it was probably the latter.
The next thing to consider is if they are not usually together, whoever would have shown up at Mess’s place would be surprised to see the three of them. That is unless the person or persons who showed up were expected. You note what a friend Medeiros said that Mess told him about making a big move. You rightly infer that big drug dealers don’t like competition. The message on the bodies with the marijuana seem to be the warning given out that the reason for the murders was that product.
It’s difficult for me to figure out how Tamerlan would act to the brutal murders if he weren’t involved. One thing is he may have been revolted by the murders and the society where it occurred and it further radicalized him. Not wanting to go to the wake of someone who was so alive a day or two before seems to me something normal. Tamerlan had nothing to do with the drug scene as best we can tell because of his Muslim religion so linking him to a drug deal or rip off seems a stretch.
With that big drug bust in May 2011 that was reported the feds “executed search warrants at seven locations in Watertown and Waltham, resulting in the seizure of more than $700,000 in U.S. currency, seven kilograms of gold bars, 80 pounds of marijuana, four weapons and several vehicles. It is alleged that beginning in February 2010, federal agents began a drug trafficking investigation focused on an international marijuana smuggling organization . . .” How is it far fetched to think that Mess and Weissman were trying to fill the vacuum left by that group? Or, what about if they had been dealing with those people that they were thought to be informants. Didn’t I read that Weissman had been arrested at one time for marijuana.
Did we learn whether any of these guys were informants? Isn’t that one of the first questions we should learn.
There’s a Wikipedia article on that murder. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Waltham_murders
It’s interesting how in that article it says “before Mess was murdered there had been animosity between Tsarnaev and Mess over Mess’s “lifestyle.” That is sourced to an ABC news report yet Mess’s friends say there was no animosity.
Of note it also says, which is confirmed by his friends, that Tamerlan was a regular visitor to Mess’s apartment and it even said they were roommates at some time. However the cops investigating the homicide reported “Two unidentified men had been seen at the apartment before the murders.” That alone would seem to eliminate Tamerlan. Plus we have Todashev’s wife saying she can prove he was in Atlanta at the time of the triple homicide.
From what I see nothing adds up to Tamerlan and Todashev being involved. It does look like a drug rip off by people who were there by pre-arrangement or an execution for having been informants. After the big bust, the first thing those dealers would want to find out is who was the informant who led to the wiretap.
see link for full story
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-agent-gifts-cash-mobster-informant-alleges/story?id=19276048#.UaZWa5xyziE
FBI Agent Took Gifts and Cash, Ex-Mobster Informant Alleges
May 29, 2013
The FBI has opened an investigation into accusations that one of its agents took lavish gifts and cash from an informant who has been indicted in the murder of a popular Atlanta rapper known as Lil Phat.
The informant, Russian ex-mobster Mani Chulpayev, has told investigators for the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General that he was asked for and gave the FBI agent gifts of cash, jewelry, watches, expensive sports shoes, basketball game tickets, hotel rooms and the use of luxury cars, according to his lawyer, George Plumides.
“The agent obstructed a murder investigation,” Plumides told ABC News in an interview to broadcast Thursday on ABC News’ “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline”.
“That’s my opinion and it is Mani’s as well,” said the suspect’s lawyer, claiming the FBI agent’s efforts to get local police and detectives to leave Chulpayev alone actually complicated his client’s case and led to the murder charges against him.
“Well, it’s nice to have an FBI agent that is looking over your shoulder, I guess. But I think he was ill served. He didn’t get a bargain,” Plumides said.
The FBI confirmed to ABC News that the DOJ’s Inspector General and the FBI’s own Inspection Division are both looking into the allegations against the agent, Dante Jackson.
PHOTO: Russian ex-mobster and FBI informant Mani Chulpayev
ABC News
Russian ex-mobster and FBI informant Mani… View Full Size
“We take the allegations very seriously,” an FBI spokesperson said. “The policy on this could not be more clear.”
Phone messages and a letter sent by ABC News to Jackson at the FBI office in Atlanta seeking comment were not answered.
The murder case grows out of the 2012 death of Melvin Vernell III, 19, a popular rap artist in Atlanta who used the name Lil Phat.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga. allege that Chulpayev, who says he has worked with the FBI since the 1990s, helped arrange the murder in league with four other men. A grand jury indictment charges them with murder, felony murder, street gang criminal activity and weapons counts.
Prosecutors said Lil Phat was involved with Chulpayev and the other suspects in a dispute over “drugs and other ‘business’ dealings.”
Chulpayev’s lawyer said his client will enter a plea of not guilty and has an alibi for the night Lil Phat was murdered outside an Atlanta hospital where Lil Phat was waiting for his fiancee to give birth to their child.
It was the alleged role of Chulpayev in the murder that led to the significant FBI investigation of one of its own agents.
As an apparent informant for the FBI for almost a decade, Chulpayev has twice been able to avoid long prison terms of possible deportation.
Even before the murder charge, an ABC News investigation found that someone in the FBI attempted to divert law enforcement attention from allegations that Chulpayev was selling stolen luxury cars to unsuspecting victims.
One of the victims, Travis Jones of Atlanta, said when he reported to local police that Chulpayev had sold him a stolen car, he was told by a detective that Chulpayev was protected by the FBI.
“He’s just untouchable,” Jones told ABC News.
Oh oh! what do we got in
today’s news.
see link for full story
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/fbi-agent-gifts-cash-mobster-informant-alleges/story?id=19276048#.UaZWa5xyziE
FBI Agent Took Gifts and Cash, Ex-Mobster Informant Alleges
May 29, 2013
The FBI has opened an investigation into accusations that one of its agents took lavish gifts and cash from an informant who has been indicted in the murder of a popular Atlanta rapper known as Lil Phat.
The informant, Russian ex-mobster Mani Chulpayev, has told investigators for the Department of Justice’s Office of Inspector General that he was asked for and gave the FBI agent gifts of cash, jewelry, watches, expensive sports shoes, basketball game tickets, hotel rooms and the use of luxury cars, according to his lawyer, George Plumides.
“The agent obstructed a murder investigation,” Plumides told ABC News in an interview to broadcast Thursday on ABC News’ “World News with Diane Sawyer” and “Nightline”.
“That’s my opinion and it is Mani’s as well,” said the suspect’s lawyer, claiming the FBI agent’s efforts to get local police and detectives to leave Chulpayev alone actually complicated his client’s case and led to the murder charges against him.
“Well, it’s nice to have an FBI agent that is looking over your shoulder, I guess. But I think he was ill served. He didn’t get a bargain,” Plumides said.
The FBI confirmed to ABC News that the DOJ’s Inspector General and the FBI’s own Inspection Division are both looking into the allegations against the agent, Dante Jackson.
PHOTO: Russian ex-mobster and FBI informant Mani Chulpayev
ABC News
Russian ex-mobster and FBI informant Mani… View Full Size
“We take the allegations very seriously,” an FBI spokesperson said. “The policy on this could not be more clear.”
Phone messages and a letter sent by ABC News to Jackson at the FBI office in Atlanta seeking comment were not answered.
The murder case grows out of the 2012 death of Melvin Vernell III, 19, a popular rap artist in Atlanta who used the name Lil Phat.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Ga. allege that Chulpayev, who says he has worked with the FBI since the 1990s, helped arrange the murder in league with four other men. A grand jury indictment charges them with murder, felony murder, street gang criminal activity and weapons counts.
Prosecutors said Lil Phat was involved with Chulpayev and the other suspects in a dispute over “drugs and other ‘business’ dealings.”
Chulpayev’s lawyer said his client will enter a plea of not guilty and has an alibi for the night Lil Phat was murdered outside an Atlanta hospital where Lil Phat was waiting for his fiancee to give birth to their child.
It was the alleged role of Chulpayev in the murder that led to the significant FBI investigation of one of its own agents.
As an apparent informant for the FBI for almost a decade, Chulpayev has twice been able to avoid long prison terms of possible deportation.
Even before the murder charge, an ABC News investigation found that someone in the FBI attempted to divert law enforcement attention from allegations that Chulpayev was selling stolen luxury cars to unsuspecting victims.
One of the victims, Travis Jones of Atlanta, said when he reported to local police that Chulpayev had sold him a stolen car, he was told by a detective that Chulpayev was protected by the FBI.
“He’s just untouchable,” Jones told ABC News.
MS:
Thanks for the heads-up. Watched the show tonight and saw another gangster walking around as if he owned the world. What’s a murder or two if you’re an FBI informant. It’s hard to believe the Russian Mafia are being used as informants and protected so that they can rip off and kill Americans.
Now look at how the informant Chulpayev is playing the system. He’s jammed in on a murder so his way out is (probably with his lawyer’s advice) to say he’s been giving the FBI agent money. So what happens, the FBI will want to go after the agent and to do that it will have to help out the Russian, at least that’s his game plan.
It’s even worse than I’v been suggesting because Chulpayev has twice been able to avoid long prison terms of possible deportation. He’s an open and obvious criminal and the FBI still uses him and puts him back on the street. It shows me the FBI is both naive and stupid in its dealings with informants. I think it’s time someone took a look at their whole Top Echelon Informant program. By the way we still don’t know if that other Russian Tamerlan Tsarnaev was an informant.