Free Republic

MOSCOW — A female suicide bomber blew herself up in front of policemen in Russia's Dagestan on Saturday, injuring 18 people in the second bombing attack to hit the restive region this week, officials said. Two of the victims -- both policemen -- were in a critical condition, police said. ... The latest attack in Russia's troubled Northern Caucasus region comes after twin car bombs killed four people and wounded more than 40 in the same city on Monday. Dagestan is one of Russia's most violent regions. It experiences almost daily shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals...

ORLANDO, May 23, 2013 – Ibragim Todashev, a 27-year-old mixed martial arts fighter, was fatally shot at his Orlando townhouse during a meeting with an FBI agent and two Massachusetts state troopers yesterday, raising numerous questions in the minds of neighbors. Todashev lived, and was killed, in the Windhaven condominium complex located in Orlando, Florida, near the Universal Studios theme park. Agents were reportedly talking to the man regarding his role in a 2011 triple murder in Massachusetts. Todashev’s neighbors last night spoke of a person who rarely left the property, but spent hours detailing and cleaning a prized vehicle,...

The FBI is calling this a drug deal gone bad, but considering that both money and drugs were left behind, it doesn’t sound like drugs were the issue at all. And considering the date, the 10th anniversary of September 11 and the identities of the victims, there is a more obvious explanation. But here’s the official story… Dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man — who was killed by the FBI on Wednesday — murdered three people in Massachusetts after a drug deal went wrong in 2011, law enforcement sources tell NBC News. Sources say that what began...

Two members of the FBI’s elite counterterrorism unit died Friday while practicing how to quickly drop from a helicopter to a ship using a rope, the FBI announced Monday in a statement. The statement gave few details regarding the deaths of Special Agents Christopher Lorek and Stephen Shaw, other than to say the helicopter encountered unspecified difficulties and the agents fell a “significant distance.” Last month, the team was involved in the arrest of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings. And in February, it rescued a 5-year-old boy held hostage for six days in an underground bunker...

An FBI agent was involved in a deadly overnight shooting connected to the Boston Marathon bombing case. The man who was shot, Ibragim Todashev, had been interviewed about his connections to the bombing suspects before by the FBI and started out cooperative, NBC sources said. The suspect then went to attack the agent and was shot, the sources said. The suspect is deceased, the FBI said.

Dead Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and another man — who was killed by the FBI on Wednesday — murdered three people in Massachusetts after a drug deal went wrong in 2011, law enforcement sources tell NBC News. Sources say that what began as a drug ripoff ended in a triple homicide when Tsarnaev and friend Ibragim Todashev realized their victims would later be able to identify them. Todashev was killed by a federal agent while giving a statement on his role on Wednesday in Orlando, Fla. The man who was shot, Todashev, 27, allegedly attacked an agent with a...

BOSTON — A man in Orlando, Fla., who was being interviewed early Wednesday morning by law enforcement officers about his ties to the deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect was fatally shot after he tried to attack the officers with a knife, according to a federal law enforcement official. The officers — who included an F.B.I. agent from the Boston field office and two Massachusetts state troopers — were questioning the man, Ibragim Todashev, about whether he had played a role in a triple murder on Sept. 11, 2011, in Waltham, Mass., which had been one of the biggest mysteries in...

Friends say victim knew Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev ORLANDO, Fla. - The FBI confirms a special agent was involved in a deadly shooting early Wednesday near Universal Orlando, and two friends of the victim say he was from Chechnya and knew one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. The fatal shooting happened just after midnight at 6022 Peregrine Avenue in Orlando. "We are currently responding to a shooting incident involving an FBI special agent," FBI Special Agent Dave Couvertier told Local 6. "The incident occurred in Orlando, Florida. The agent encountered the suspect while conducting official duties. The...

REPORT: Man Being Questioned About Boston Bombing Was Shot And Killed By FBI Paul Szoldra May 22, 2013, 7:42 AM Photo: Orange County Sheriff's Office Ibragim Todashev, 27, an Orlando man with alleged ties to Boston Marathon bombing suspect An Orlando man being investigated over ties to Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed during an encounter with an FBI agent late Tuesday, WESH Orlando reports. WESH has more: A friend of the suspect, Khusn Taramiv, said his friend, 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, was being investigated as part of the Boston bombings and knew bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev because...

The Tsarnaev brothers’ brutal attack in Boston sparked renewed interest in terrorism in Eurasia. The subsequent disclosure that two students from Kazakhstan allegedly tried to hide incriminating evidence against Djokhar Tsarnaev has only heightened that interest. The not-guilty plea of Fazliddin Kurbanov, the alleged Uzbek terrorist in Idaho, underscores the new threat. And that’s a good thing. Understanding what was and is happening in Eurasia can help us better fight terrorism and prevent future attacks rooted in that region. Chechens and Uzbeks fought in Afghanistan with the Taliban, and fighters from the North Caucasus are involved in Syria on the...

MOSCOW – A delegation of American lawmakers will travel to Russia next week in part to investigate last month’s Boston Marathon bombings, ABC News has learned. The group, led by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., wants to find out why a 2011 Russian request that the United States investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspected Boston bombers, did not raise more red flags. The Russians offered a vague warning that Tsarnaev planned to link up with extremist groups abroad, but an FBI investigation yielded no evidence to support those claims at the time. The lawmakers also want to know why subsequent...

Among the many unanswered questions about the two Tsarnaev brothers accused of the Boston Marathon bombing is why, days after the attack, they were heading to the suburb of Watertown and its manicured lawns and tulips when police picked up their trail and began a chase. Investigators want to know what drew the accused bombers to the cluster of side streets in the blue-collar suburb, far from any major thoroughfare, especially if the brothers were on the run after their images had been shown on television by the FBI and after they had allegedly murdered MIT Police Officer Sean Collier....

Howie thread for the second part of the month starting with his Fri 5/17/13 column, actually; reminder that Howie is nationwide on Tue as he again fills in for Mark Levin (6-9 pm ET though 7-10 on WRKO)

Finally, we get the note in the boat — a month late. Do you how much media effort has been devoted to unearthing what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev apparently thought was his last will and testament? But somehow, the cops held it tight until yesterday. Unconfirmed stories have circulated that in Dave Henneberry’s backyard in Watertown that Friday evening, the feds went so far as to check out the cellphones of the local cops, to make sure no one had snapped a photo of the note in the boat. No big surprises in the note. The Joker said his brother Speedbump was...

Investigators have gathered 'mounting evidence' that suggest the Boston bomber brothers could have been involved in a grisly unsolved triple murder in 2011, it has emerged. Officials told ABC News that forensic evidence could tie Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to the killings of Brendan Mess, Raphael Teken and Erik Weissman, who were found with their throats slit and marijuana dumped over their dead bodies in a Waltham, Massachusetts house. The Tsarnaevs knew the men as Tamerlan trained in boxing and martial arts with Brendan Mass. However, officials said more DNA testing is required before bringing an indictment against the surviving...

DOSWELL, Va. — Officials in the county where the remains of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev have been buried say they were stunned to learn of the burial and they are looking into whether the law was followed in the process. “I’m sure that if no laws were broken ... there’s nothing we can do,” said Floyd Thomas, chairman of the board of supervisors of Caroline County. “What we would do is make sure that all of the laws regarding this particular burial were adhered to. If they were not, then I believe we would have to look at...

Report: Boston terror suspects linked to triple homicide in 2011 By Jonathan Easley - 05/10/13 01:05 PM ET Authorities have “mounting evidence” based on “forensic hits” that the two brothers believed responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing were possibly involved in a gruesome, unsolved 2011 triple homicide, ABC News reported on Friday. According to the report, which cites anonymous law enforcement officials close to the investigation, experts have matched some forensic evidence from the crime scene back to the brothers. Cellphone records also indicate the brothers were in the area when the murders took place. Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are...

The message to the parents of the Boston bombing suspects was clear and unmistakable: “pack and go.” And soon after the phone call from the Chechen authorities Tuesday, a car carrying government officials arrived to accompany the couple out of the republic. The deportation followed a speech by Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, in which he referred to the Tsarnaev brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar as “the worst devils.” “I will never defend them, never say a word in their support,” Kadyrov told a local television station Monday.

Boston and Massachusetts law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday that federal agents left them in the dark on the growing warning signs about Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the run-up to the Boston Marathon bombing. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, in testimony on Capitol Hill, said his officers on a joint terrorism task force were never told about an explicit warning from the Russian government or about Tsarnaev's travel to the Chechnya region last year. Davis said he would have liked to have known about that activity, and that it "absolutely" would have merited a second look at Tsarnaev.

WASHINGTON -- Five days before two bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon, an intelligence report identified the finish line of the race as an "area of increased vulnerability" and warned Boston police that extremists may use "small scale bombings" to attack spectators and runners at the event. The 18-page report was written by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a command center funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security that helps disseminate intelligence information to local police and first responders. The "joint special event assessment" is dated April 10. It notes that at the time there was...