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TIME report on Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Time in Russia

Time has a new report on Tamerlan Tsarnaev's recent trip to Russia. Shorter version: Tamerlan was more radical than his Islamist cousin who is in a protest group. He didn't get radicalized in Russia, he tried to radicalize them. No one listened to him and they tried to dissuade him of his views.

Time reports the distant cousin "has been in jail since April 27 after a brawl with police in northern Dagestan." That's not quite the whole story. According to eyewitnesses, the cousin was part of a wedding party that got stopped by police for having an Islamic flag on the car. Ten members of the party, including the cousin, were beaten by police and arrested. In all, 17 members of the wedding party were charged. They have all been sentenced to "administrative penalties" of between 5 and 10 days in jail. Tamerlan's cousin's detention was extended a few days. [More...]

TIME reports the cousin was interrogated about Tamerlan for the first time on May 5. Coincidentally, on May 5, another distant cousin of Tamerlan and Dzokhar Tsarnev, Said-Khusein Tsarnaev, who is a photojournalist at a Novasti, the Russian news organization in Caucasus, reports he was stopped on the way back from a sports assignment in a taxi and temporarily detained at a traffic checkpoint between Dagestan and Chechnya, after showing his passport. Pretty harrowing story.

"At the exit post 'Gerzel' from Dagestan to Chechnya, the fixed-route taxi was stopped for inspection. Two men in civilian clothes asked all men to show their passports. Meanwhile, the power agents failed to introduce themselves," Said-Khusein Tsarnaev said.

According to his story, the power agents read his data in his presence; however, they did not return his passport. The power agents returned to the fixed-route taxi with two armed men in camouflage and asked the photojournalist to leave the fixed-route taxi, saying: "You are detained."

"I began to find out the reason for my detention. They told me that I 'know it myself' and asked to leave the fixed-route taxi to have a conversation with them. I refused. I realized that my situation was desperate, and I appealed to passengers of the fixed-route taxi. I said that my surname was Tsarnaev and that I was a photojournalist of the RIA 'Novosti'. I said that if I was detained at the moment, then I would most likely disappear. Immediately, I began phoning my colleagues in Grozny, Makhachkala, and I phoned to the Moscow office of the RIA 'Novosti'," Said-Khusein Tsarnaev said.

According to his story, someone of his colleagues journalists managed to get through to the Chechen Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA), and the problem was resolved. The photojournalist believes that the incident at the exit post was caused by his surname. He has confirmed that he is a distant relative of Tamerlan and Johar Tsarnaev; however, he never saw them.

It seems increasingly evident that Tamerlan Tsarnaev's views were not the product of his time in Russia. No one there shared his views. No one he associated with showed any interest in an attack in the U.S. Their beef is with Russia. Nor are they the product of You Tube or the Internet, as this Rolling Stone article yesterday points out. More likely, terror wannabes visit the internet sites after their views have already been formed.

It is virtually impossible to predict who will or won't engage in violence based solely on their beliefs.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Increasing the Government's arsenal of surveillance tools is unlikely to find the next lone misfit bent on violence. It will only make the rest of us less free.

< More Evidence Feds Read Emails Without Warrants | Enron's Jeffrey Skilling: Govt Agrees to Substantial Sentence Cut >
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  • Display: Sort:
    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar" (none / 0) (#1)
    by bmaz on Wed May 08, 2013 at 05:11:16 PM EST
    Yep. But we have idiots in the press and Congress, so it must be more than that.

    Congress is busy! 5, count 'em, committees (none / 0) (#2)
    by oculus on Wed May 08, 2013 at 05:24:15 PM EST
    continue to investigate Benghazi.

    Parent
    They are trying to stop Hillary (none / 0) (#3)
    by CoralGables on Wed May 08, 2013 at 06:01:38 PM EST
    Good luck with that. They've got no shot.

    Parent
    You would think that (none / 0) (#4)
    by Zorba on Wed May 08, 2013 at 06:06:55 PM EST
    they would have better ways to use their time.  Such as, oh, I don't know..........solving the budget crisis, maybe?

    Parent
    It's not a crisis... (5.00 / 2) (#5)
    by unitron on Thu May 09, 2013 at 08:08:05 AM EST
    ...it's an opportunity.

    What kind of opportunity, you ask?

    Well, let's just say there's a bathtub involved eventually.

    Parent

    After all is said and done (5.00 / 2) (#6)
    by fishcamp on Thu May 09, 2013 at 08:53:42 AM EST
    more is said than done.

    Parent