WASHINGTON, August 2 (RIA Novosti) – The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has concluded that it could not have prevented the deadly Boston Marathon attack despite being warned by Russia that suspected bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was becoming increasingly radicalized, The New York Times reported this week.
Since the April 15 attack that killed three and wounded more than 260, US lawmakers have strongly criticized the FBI for failing to conduct deeper investigations into suspected bomber Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with law enforcement officers April 19.
The FBI received a request from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2011 asking it to investigate whether or not Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen living in the Boston area, had been radicalized. US lawmakers have also argued that the FBI should have looked into Tsarnaev after he returned from a 2012 trip to the restive republic of Dagestan in southern Russia, a trip Russian officials suspected was linked to his desire to join a terrorist group.
But citing insufficient evidence, the FBI has concluded that the type of investigation it was conducting did not allow for the use of surveillance or wiretapping tools against Tsarnaev, and that nothing more could have been done to prevent the attack, The New York Times reported Thursday, citing law enforcement officials.
The FBI does not intend to appoint a special investigator to examine its procedures, although inspectors general from four federal agencies – including the US Justice Department – are conducting a separate investigation into how intelligence about Tsarnaev was handled in Washington, the Times said.
US prosecutors say Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, detonated homemade bombs near the finish line of the marathon four hours into the storied race. Among the three people killed was an 8-year-old boy, and scores of others lost limbs.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was apprehended and pleaded not guilty earlier this month to charges including murder and using a weapon of mass destruction in connection with the attack.
