FBI Chechen Sting May Shed Light on Boston Bombing

By Michael Riley
Bloomberg Business Week
April 25, 2013

In 2006, a disaffected 22-year-old Chechen living in California spent 18 months trolling radical websites, eventually getting invited into private online forums where he watched bomb-making videos.

“Ivan” was actually a 30-something FBI agent named Ernest Hilbert, whose investigation provided federal agents with a window into online grooming that targeted young transplants living in U.S. cities.

“It used to be that the process had to be physical and now 90 percent or more can happen online,” said Hilbert, 43, now a managing director for Kroll Advisory Solutions, the private security company.

Law enforcement officials said their early assumption is that the alleged Boston Marathon bombers acted alone and were motivated by a web-based radicalization that turned them from kids next door into self-taught militants willing to injure more than 260 people and kill three, including an eight-year-old boy.

Hilbert, whose online persona was remarkably similar to the real lives of the two suspects -- brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who arrived from the Russian Caucasus in 2002 -- said “self-taught” doesn’t mean the bombers had no help on their journey to militancy.

As he spent months posing on the Internet as a Chechen increasingly drawn to militant Islam, Hilbert’s alter ego was engaged by others in long conversations on Skype chat or in web forums. They told him to draw on the tenets of the Koran and his Chechen roots as an antidote to the injustices he experienced as an immigrant.

Bomb Links

Some of those conversations became regular interactions. Eventually, he was sent links to videos on how to build a bomb and demonstrations of the damage those devices inflicted on U.S. troops abroad.

The agent was never given a specific mission. Instead, he was encouraged to find his own ways to act on his beliefs.

A growing trove of evidence, both online and offered by relatives, shows similar elements in the experience of the Boston bombing suspects, especially 26 year-old Tamerlan, who relatives said grew more strident over a two-year span before the attack. He was killed in a shootout with police on April 19.

Dzhokar Tsarnaev told investigators the brothers found bomb-making information in the pages of Inspire, an online magazine affiliated with al-Qaeda, Maryland RepresentativeC.A. “Dutch” Ruppersberger, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said.

Motivating Factor

A U.S. official briefed on the interrogation confirmed that wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were given as a motivating factor behind the Boston attack.

“Everything that I see right now seems like they were radicalized through the Internet,” Ruppersberger said.

That process appeared to be a gradual one. Tamerlan, who at one point had hoped to be an Olympic boxer, gave up sports and began encouraging his mother and his wife to wear a headscarf in public.

His YouTube channel, started in August 2012, contains “likes” of an interview about Russians converting to Islam and a recording of an interview with a famous sheik.

The page also links to a video entitled “The Black Flags from Khorasan,” which refers to a prophecy of Mohammed predicting the rise of an army from the Central Caucasus that will march to Jerusalem. There are also videos of a well-known Russian singer named Timur Mucuraev, who in his music advocates jihad, according to Andrei Soldatov, a Russian researcher and expert in the country’s intelligence services.

Russian Authorities

Soldatov says he believes the brothers’ online interactions first brought the suspects to the attention of Russian authorities, who asked the FBI to interview Tamerlan before a trip he took back to Russia in 2012, citing his growing militancy.

Soldatov said Russia’s Federal Security Service, known as the FSB, uses sophisticated software to monitor social media sites, looking for incipient signs of the same radicalization process described by Hilbert.

“They might have picked up one of these guys discussing his ideas on a forum or chat monitored by the FSB and other law enforcement bodies of Russia,” Soldatov said in an interview.

Investigators are also taking a closer look at the 2012 trip back to Russia for any signs the oldest brother received training or had contact with militant groups fighting since 1994 to separate from Russia, according to lawmakers briefed on the investigation.

Religious Schools

Hilbert said that as his online interactions deepened, he was invited to visit a mosque and several religious schools, including one in the U.S., which he said he couldn’t name because it may still be under investigation.

The months-long grooming -- beginning on public sites and continuing in invite-only web boards and forums -- amounted to crowdsourcing for potential converts to a militant brand of Islam, especially ones who were already located in the U.S.

His guides were especially effective at playing on the conditions faced by recent immigrants, who often find it hard to acclimate to their new country. In the days following the attack, the suspects’ uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, blamed the difficulties they had adjusting to life in the U.S. as a possible motivation for the attack, calling them “losers.”

“Everything we know about the older brother makes him the perfect candidate as someone who is so unhappy in this country that the right person saying the right things will switch you,” Hilbert said. “Education is the key to this process.”

Private Passwords

After he was probed on his beliefs and vetted over his claimed identity, Hilbert was eventually given passwords to private forums, where he learned how to make bombs based on models used by militants in Iraq. That access to a more trusted environment also tightened the bonds between the agent’s alter ego and his guides -- and all of it occurred in cyberspace.

The agent repeatedly declined offers by his online groomers to travel abroad, explaining that his father forbade it.

Hilbert said the investigation, which ended after 18 months online, gave him a respect for the psychological power of the grooming he received and the effect of long hours spent in what amounted to a virtual camp for extremists.

“These guys aim at creating a friendship but really it’s a manipulation of you based on the thoughts you put out,” Hilbert said. “Having done the role, every night I went home hating myself, because in order to sell it, you have to act like you believe it.”

The case is U.S. v. Tsarnaev, 13-02106, U.S. District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston).

-- With assistance from Phil Mattingly and Jim Rowley in Washington and Jason Corcoran in Moscow. Editors: Fred Strasser, David E. Rovella

Source:
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2013-04-25/fbi-chechen-sting-sheds-light-on-grooming-in-boston-bomb-case
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Law enforcement agency may have known about Boston bombing in advance

Georgia Sen. Saxby Chambliss told Channel 2 Action News late Tuesday afternoon that a law enforcement agency may have had information in advance of the Boston bombings that wasn't properly shared.

WBSTV.com April 23, 2013

"There now appears that may have been some evidence that was obtained by one of the law enforcement agencies that did not get shared in a way that it could have been. If that turns out to be the case, then we have to determine whether or not that would have made a difference," Chambliss said.

Though Chambliss would not get into specifics on the information or whether or not the bombing could have been prevented, he told Channel 2 Action News that they will find out if someone dropped the ball.

"Information sharing between agencies is critical. And we created the Department of Homeland Security to supervise that.  We created the National Counter Terrorism Center to be the collection point for all of this information, and we're going to get to the bottom of whether or not somebody along the way dropped the ball on some information and did not share it in a way that it should have been shared."

The Senate Intelligence Committee panel was briefed by federal law enforcement officials Tuesday as well. Members of the panel said there is "no question" that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was "the dominant force" behind the Boston attacks, and that him and his brother had apparently been radicalized by material on the Internet rather than by contact with militant groups overseas.

Younger brother Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's condition was upgraded from serious to fair as investigators continued building their case against the 19-year-old college student. He could face the death penalty after being charged Monday with joining forces with his brother, now dead, in setting off the shrapnel-packed pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people.

Based on preliminary written interviews with Dzhokar in his hospital bed, U.S. officials believe the brothers were motivated by their religious views. It has not been clear, however, what those views were.

Martin Richard, a schoolboy from Boston's Dorchester neighborhood who was the youngest of those killed in the April 15 blasts at the marathon finish line, was laid to rest after a family-only funeral Mass.

"The outpouring of love and support over the last week has been tremendous," the family said in a statement. "This has been the most difficult week of our lives."

A funeral was also held for Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26, who authorities said was shot to death by the Tsarnaev brothers on April 18.

A memorial service for Collier was scheduled for Wednesday at MIT, with Vice President Joe Biden expected to attend.

More than 260 people were injured by the bomb blasts. About 50 were still hospitalized.

Source:
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/chambliss-law-enforcement-agency-may-have-known-ab/nXT7x/
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Tamerlan Tsarnaev 'interviewed by FBI in 2011'

The FBI interviewed one of the Boston marathon bombing suspects in 2011 at the request of a foreign government, reports have claimed.

By Sarah Titterton and agencies
20 Apr 2013

Officials told the Associated Press, Reuters and CNN that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died in a shootout with police outside Boston on Friday morning, was interviewed by federal officers. The matter was closed when it did not produce any incriminating information. One official told AP that the FBI shared its information with the foreign government. The official did not say what country made the request about Tamerlan Tsarnaev or why.

The 26-year-old's younger brother Dzhokhar, also a suspect in Monday's bombings that killed three people and wounded scores more, has been taken into custody after a dramatic confrontation with police.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died of bullet wounds and injuries from explosives strapped to his body, a hospital doctor said.

Boston police said more than 200 rounds of gunfire were exchanged with the brothers early Friday morning shortly before Tamerlan Tsarnaev's death, and that the two men had hurled improvised explosive devices and handmade hand grenades at officers.

It has been widely reproted that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev drove over his brother's body as he fled police during that incident.

The brothers had not previously been on the radar as possible militants, US government officials said.

On Friday night, while the hunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was still ongoing, US President Barack Obama spoke with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, by telephone.

During the conversation, Mr Obama praised the "close cooperation that the United States has received from Russia on counter-terrorism, including in the wake of the Boston attack," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said in a written statement.

There were hints earlier in the day that Russian officials were helping American investigators research the brothers.

CNN reported that one interview in Dagestan with Tsarnaev's father ended when Russian authorities showed up to question him.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10007327/Boston-marathon-bombs-Tamerlan-Tsarnaev-interviewed-by-FBI-in-2011.html
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Cyprus Crisis and the Dangers of Fractional-Reserve Banking 
The Great Cyprus Bank Robbery 

By Ron Paul
April 1, 2013


The dramatic recent events in Cyprus have highlighted the fundamental weakness in the European banking system and the extreme fragility of fractional reserve banking. Cypriot banks invested heavily in Greek sovereign debt, and last summer's Greek debt restructuring resulted in losses equivalent to more than 25 percent of Cyprus' GDP. These banks then took their bad investments to the government, demanding a bailout from an already beleaguered Cypriot treasury. The government of Cyprus then turned to the European Union (EU) for a bailout.

The terms insisted upon by the troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, International Monetary Fund) before funding the bailout were nothing short of highway robbery. While bank depositors have traditionally been protected in the event of bankruptcy or liquidation, the troika insisted that all bank depositors pay a tax of between 6.75 and 10 percent of their total deposits to help fund the bailout.

While one can sympathize with EU taxpayers not wanting to fund yet another bailout of a poorly-managed banking system, forcing the Cypriot people to pay for the foolish risks taken by their government and bankers is also criminal. In their desire to punish a “tax haven” catering supposedly to Russian oligarchs, the EU elites ensured that ordinary citizens would suffer just as much as foreign depositors.  

Imagine the reaction if in September 2008, the US government had financed its $700 billion bank bailout by directly looting American taxpayers' bank accounts!

While the Cypriot parliament rejected that first proposal, they will have no say in the final proposal delivered by the EU and IMF: deposits over 100,000 euros are likely to see losses of at least 40 percent and possibly as much as 80 percent. “Temporary” capital controls that were supposed to last for days will now last at least a month and might remain in effect for years.

Especially affected have been the elderly, who were unable to use ATMs or to transfer money electronically. Despite the fact that ATMs severely limited the size of withdrawals during the two week-long bank closure, reports indicated that account holders who had access to Cypriot bank branches in London and Athens were able to withdraw most of their funds, leading to speculation that there would be no money available when banks finally opened up again. In other words, the supposed Russian oligarch money may well be already gone.

Remember that under a fractional reserve banking system only a small percentage of deposits is kept on hand for dispersal to depositors. The rest of the money is loaned out. Not only are many of the loans made by these banks going bad, but the reserve requirement in Euro-system countries is only one percent! If just one euro out of every hundred is withdrawn from banks, the bank reserves would be completely exhausted and the whole system would collapse. Is it any wonder, then, that the EU fears a major bank run and has shipped billions of euros to Cyprus?

The elites in the EU and IMF failed to learn their lesson from the popular backlash to these tax proposals, and have openly talked about using Cyprus as a template for future bank bailouts. This raises the prospect of raids on bank accounts, pension funds, and any investments the government can get its hands on. In other words, no one's money is safe in any financial institution in Europe. Bank runs are now a certainty in future crises, as the people realize that they do not really own the money in their accounts.  

How long before bureaucrat and banker try that here? (USA)

Unfortunately, all of this is the predictable result of a fiat paper money system combined with fractional reserve banking. When governments and banks collude to monopolize the monetary system so that they can create money out of thin air, the result is a business cycle that wreaks havoc on the economy. Pyramiding more and more loans on top of a tiny base of money will create an economic house of cards just waiting to collapse. 

The situation in Cyprus should be both a lesson and a warning to the United States. We need to end the Federal Reserve, stay away from propping up the euro, and return to a sound monetary system.

 Source:
 http://www.the-free-foundation.org/tst4-1-2013.html
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