US authorities interview Boston bombing suspects' parents in Russia
Published April 24, 2013
FoxNews.com
-
The parents of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Anzor Tsarnaev and Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, will be interviewed by U.S. authorities regarding the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15 that killed three people and injured nearly 200 others. (AP)
U.S. authorities have traveled to a mountainous region in southern Russia to interview the parents of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects, as more details emerged about the brothers' recent activities in the U.S., including word of where the deadly explosives may have been purchased and that the family relied on welfare for at least some of their time here.
A U.S. Embassy official said the Americans traveled from Moscow to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan "because the investigation is ongoing, it's not over."
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said Wednesday that the team is working with the Russian security services, the FSB.
The boys' father, Anzor Tsarnaev, told Fox News Wednesday that FBI and FSB authorities had visited him, adding that FBI officials were polite while asking him questions. Tsarnaev said he still believes his sons were innocent, that they were somehow framed in the bombings and that Tamerlan, who was shot and killed in a gunfight with law enforcement, was apprehended alive. He also denied that Tamerlan was associated with extremists.
Tsarnaev plans to travel to the United States in coming days with the boys’ mother, he told Fox News.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, will be interviewed Wednesday in the FSB building in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan. The official said one positive development from the Boston tragedy might be closer cooperation with the Russian government on security issues.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, who was arrested in the United States in June on charges of shoplifting, has told The Associated Press that her son Tamerlan greatly enjoyed his time with her relatives during a trip to his ancestral homeland in southern Russia last year. But Tsarnaeva said he never traveled to her native village in a mountainous region of Dagestan, which is a hotbed of an ultraconservative strain of Islam known as Wahabbism. Wahabbism was introduced to the Caucasus in the 1990s by preachers and teachers from Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, new information surfaced Wednesday about the older of the two brothers, as the manager of a New Hampshire fireworks store said 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was seen buying two mortar kits at the store in February.
April Walton, of Phantom Fireworks, says Tamerlan bought two "Lock and Load" reloadable mortar kits with 24 shells each.
Company Vice President William Weimer says FBI agents visited the Seabrook store on Friday, interviewed staff and checked its computers.
He says the amount of gunpowder that could be harvested from the kits would not have been enough to detonate the Boston bombs.
Walton says Tsarnaev paid $200 cash, but scanned his driver's license into the company's computer system as required by store policy. Walton says the employee who handled the sale described it as a routine transaction.
Faisal Shahzad, who has pleaded guilty for his attempted Times Square bombing on May 1, 2010, also purchased fireworks used to build his failed car bomb from the same company. Shahzad bought consumer-grade fireworks from Phantom Fireworks' showroom in Matamoras, Pa
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/04/24/us-authorities-to-interview-boston-bombing-suspects-parents-in-russia/#ixzz2ROgZaB8a
Anzor Tsarnaev And Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, Boston Bombing Suspects' Parents, Speaking To U.S. Investigators In Russia
By ARSEN MOLLAYEV 04/24/13 11:25 AM ET EDT 
MAKHACHKALA, Russia — U.S. investigators are in contact with the parents of the two Boston bombing suspects in southern Russia and working with Russian security officials to shed light on the deadly attack, a U.S. Embassy official said Wednesday.
The parents plan to fly to the United States on Thursday, the father was quoted telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
The U.S. team traveled Tuesday from Moscow to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan "because the investigation is ongoing, it's not over," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Americans were working with the Russian security services, the FSB. He would not specify how long the Americans planned to stay in Dagestan.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are accused of setting off the two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. The elder brother was later killed in a police standoff.
Investigators are looking into whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who spent six months in Russia's Caucasus in 2012, was influenced by the religious extremists who have waged an insurgency against Russian security services in the area for years. The brothers have roots in Dagestan and neighboring Chechnya, but neither spent much time in either place before the family moved to the United States a decade ago.
Their mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, spent from morning to early evening Wednesday inside the FSB building in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan, where she was believed to be speaking further to U.S. and Russian investigators.
Heda Saratova, a prominent Chechen rights activist providing support to the distraught mother, said Tsarnaeva first went in for questioning on Tuesday, returning late at night. Saratova said she had no details about the discussions, but Tsarnaeva said they were "cordial."
The father, Anzor Tsarnaev, also was summoned to the FSB headquarters but did not go because he felt ill, Saratova said.
He has said previously that he intended to travel to the U.S. this week to talk to police and seek "justice and the truth." The family has said that he wants to bring Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body back to Russia.
