Boston's Tsarnaev Brothers Raise Red Flags

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright May 3, 2013
All Rights Reserved.                                         

      Whatever one says about Boston’s Tsarnaev brothers being self-radicalized or part of a transnational terror group, the two boys represent the tip of the iceberg of other young terrorists plotting future attacks against the U.S.  Nineteen–year-old surviving Dzhokhar admitted to the FBI he plotted the attacks to avenge Islamic deaths in Iraq, Afghanistan and other Muslim lands.  Whether his deceased 26-year-old brother was radicalized or not in Chechnya or over the Internet, he showed the same fanaticism the drive suicide bombing in besieged parts of the Islamic world.  New information reveals the boys moved up their timetable of the April 15 Boston Marathon attack from the original plan of July 4, 2013.  Other reports indicate that the Mideast-style pressure cooker bombs were assembled in Tamerlan’s small Cambridge apartment, suggesting that his 24-year-old wife Katherine Russell might have known.

             U.S. authorities must pivot from their single-minded focus of airport security to the very real situation of thousand of terrorist-age foreign students who might also harbor hatred toward the U.S.  White House and Congressional officials, led by 72-year-old Homeland Security Secretary James Clapper, must come up with better screening for any Islamic foreign twenty-something coming to study from the Mideast or North Caucasus region.  Today’s one-size-fits-all approach isn’t working, punishing the lion’s share of airline passengers that don’t fit the terrorist profile.  When the FBI interviewed and “cleared” Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011, it showed how broken the present system is to really deal with terrorist threats.  Had the FBI simply followed Tamerlan more closely, Boston would have never occurred.  Applying common sense to Transportation Security hasn’t been easy.

             Today’s one-size-fits-all approach satisfies the politically correct culture too obsessed about discrimination to hone in on dangerous terrorists.  When the Russians tipped off the FBI in 2011 as to the potential terrorist threat posed by Tamelan, Clapper’s department should have reevaluated the entire system, fixated on putting American children, the elderly and disabled through X-ray screenings rather that hone in on what’s known about terrorist profiling.  Every foreign student from the Mideast, Africa or other terrorist-rich lands should be screened more carefully and tracked.  Had the FBI followed Tamerlan to the New Hampshire fireworks store, they would have intercepted a terrorist act before it happened.  It’s not hindsight expecting the FBI to do its job of following up with potential terrorists.  Whether self-radicalized or not, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar were equally dangerous.

             Shortly after the April 15 twin-blasts, Jordanian cleric Mohammad al-Chalibi praised the attacks, bringing suffering to U.S. streets.  “American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood,” said al-Chalibi, giving a free X-Ray into the Tsarnaev brothers’ motives.  Beyond Boston, other young Muslims living in the U.S. also view U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as an attack against Islam.  That’s Bin Laden’s tight propaganda message to young devotees all over the planet.  Al-Chalibi gives the real hatred that drives terrorism across the Atlantic and Pacific to the United States.  As long as young Muslim students—like the Tsarnaev brothers—immigrate or come to the U.S. to study, the homelands is at risk without vigorous FBI monitoring and vetting.  Boston’s mishap revealed only one terror cell with hundreds, perhaps thousands more, incubating around the country.

             If Sept. 11 taught anything, it’s that Saudi Arabia—whether it’s a state policy or not—panders to American big business, especially the oil industry with its tentacles into American politics and presidential libraries—funds Sunni Wahhabi mosques and schools around the globe.  Hiding behind the First Amendments, the Saudis have no problems funding and constructing Islamic mosques in every large and small community across America.  Shortly after Sept. 11, the Saudis have wanted to build a mosque and Islamic cultural center at Ground Zero.  Boston’s twin blasts should sound a loud gong to U.S. officials to begin the painstaking process of listening more carefully to the machinations of young Islamic students around states.  If there’s any lesson at all to Sept. 11, it’s that vulnerable youth are easily brainwashed, recruited in converted into anti-American Islamic suicide bombers.

             Boston’s April 15 terrorist bombings should raise a red flag to Homeland Security and FBI officials that Bin Laden’s message of the U.S. war against Islam resonates with the youth around the globe.  Watching Muslims die around globe in civil wars and sectarian strife is easily blamed by clever propagandists on the U.S.  Instead of putting all its eggs into transportation security, Homeland Security and the FBI must turn their attention to the thousands of Islamic students studying in the U.S.  When foreign governments, like the Russians, tip off U.S. authorities about possible terrorists, U.S. officials should take it seriously.  “The essence of terrorism is about symbolism,” said former federal prosecutor Mark Rausch.  “The Boston Marathon just does not have as much of a symbolic feeling as Fourth-of-July to the United States,” telling U.S. officials to keep a close watch on future events.

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.