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Former Gov. Michael Dukakis says a Cambridge man facing five years in federal prison for repeatedly lying to the FBI about his pal Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is “a fine young man” who “could have a great future in public service.” Dukakis went to bat for Robel Kidane Phillipos, 21, in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Douglas P. Woodlock ahead of Phillipos’ sentencing today for making false statements to the FBI in its investigation of the Boston Marathon bombings. Prosecutors want five years. Phillipos and Tsarnaev, both 21, grew up together in Cambridge and were classmates at the University of...

Much of Iran’s media today panicked, attacking WND reports on the Islamic regime’s involvement in the Boston Marathon bombings and claiming Washington is behind the WND reports so the U.S. can attack other countries. WND’s source for the report regarding Iran’s involvement in the bombings, a member of the regime’s intelligence services, said today regime officials fear a campaign in the United States for a retaliatory attack on Iran similar to what happened to Afghanistan after 9/11. How to Remove MalwareRemove all Traces of Malware Fast Follow These 3 Steps Immediately! speedmaxpc.com Goodbye GlucosamineIs it time to throw your Glucosamine...

Among the more unusual aspects of what has been learned thus far about the Brothers Tsarnaev is that in January 2011 Russian officials encouraged their U.S. counterparts to take notice of Tamerlan, the older of the two, for possible Chechen terrorist links.

More than a week before three people were killed and more than 175 people were injured in the Boston Marathon bombings, a Jersey City man was arrested at the train station in Hoboken while carrying two home-made bombs, authorities say. Police also found explosive devices in the Newport Parkway home of Mykyta Panasenko, 27, Jersey City police said today. According to a criminal complaint, Panasenko is charged with having "two destructive devices, specifically improvised explosive devices (IEDs) constructed from a cylinder containing Pyrodex (black powder)" on April 5, the criminal complaint says.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday will question outgoing FBI Director Robert Mueller on investigations of the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, the Boston Marathon bombings, and recent leaks of classified government information. Mueller was to undergo questioning by the committee on these and other issues in what will be his final appearance before the panel. His last day on the job is Sept. 4. The Justice Department revealed last month that it had secretly gathered emails of Fox News correspondent James Rosen and phone records of The Associated Press in an effort to crack...

Lawyers for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev asked a judge Tuesday to suspend jury selection in his trial for at least a month because the recent terrorist attacks in France have again placed the marathon bombings “at the center of a grim global drama.” The lawyers said a delay would allow some time “for the extraordinary prejudice flowing from these events—and the comparison of those events to those at issue in this case—to diminish.” …

In Real Clear Religion, I discuss why the FBI could have and should have stopped the Boston Marathon jihad bombings.

US officials knew about the potential danger of Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to a soon-to-be-released Congressional report—but a spelling error led them to miss his frequent flights out to Dagestan for terror training. […] In March 2011, Russian intelligence agency FSB notified the FBI with concerns about Tamerlan Tsarnaev and the Tsarnaev family, which had emigrated to Massachusetts nearly ten years earlier. In the letter, FSB included contact information, with addresses and phone numbers, for many of the members of the Tsarnaev family, including Tamerlan and his mother, and warned that Tamerlan was gaining a reputation for associating...

The father of a Chechen man shot to death by authorities in Florida while being questioned in the Boston Marathon bombing investigation has written to President Barack Obama asking for help finding out what happened. Abdulbaki Todashev wrote in a letter released Monday that son Ibragim Todashev knew dead marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, through boxing but had no connection to the bombing or any other crime. He said his son voluntarily went to an FBI office in Orlando to speak with agents four times before they showed up at his apartment on May 22....

Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis, who led his department’s response to the Boston Marathon bombing, is stepping down, a department spokeswoman said Sunday. … The decision by Davis to step down is perhaps not surprising. Boston is poised to have a new mayor for the first time in two decades after Menino opted not to seek another term. …

The F.B.I. has concluded that there was little its agents could have done to prevent the Boston Marathon bombings, according to law enforcement officials, rejecting criticism that it could have better monitored one of the suspects before the attack. That conclusion is based on several internal reviews that examined how the bureau handled a request from a Russian intelligence agency in 2011 to investigate whether one of the suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, had been radicalized during his time in the United States. … Members of Congress have contended that the F.B.I. should have done a more extensive investigation of Mr. Tsarnaev...

Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert lit-up and clearly irked Obama FBI Director Robert Mueller, who testified under oath before the House Judiciary Committee today. Gohmert specifically focused on the FBI’s handling (i.e., mishandling) of the Boston Bombings. Below is a partial text of the heated exchange...

(CBS News) Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left a note claiming responsibility for the April 13 attack on the Boston Marathon, reports CBS News senior correspondent John Miller.

Investigators are ramping up their focus on Katherine Russell, the widow of Boston Marathon bombing suspect and alleged planner Tamerlan Tsarnaev after an inspection of her computer turned up radical Islamist material, law enforcement sources said. With Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, alive and in custody, police are trying to determine what involvement, if any, Russell had in the plot to plant bombs at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. Russell’s attorney, Amato DeLuca, released a statement earlier this week saying his client was willing to provide “as much assistance to the investigation as she can.” The younger...

WORCESTER — The distraught mother of Boston Marathon bombing mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev wants his body sent home to Russia, the funeral director caring for the remains said today. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva called Peter A. Stefan “in tears” yesterday afternoon, said Stefan, whose Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlor has been seeking a Massachusetts cemetery that will accept Tsarnaev’s body since Friday. “The woman was in tears,” Stefan said. “She just said, ‘It would be nice if you could get him home.’ She’d love to have him back there, obviously. Regardless of what he did, she’s still his mother. What are you...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said Thursday the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings shows how difficult and sensitive the issue of racial profiling can be. Speaking with young students in Denver, Sotomayor noted that some people asked whether authorities had done enough to track the two suspects, both ethnic Chechens. “Is that profiling? Could be,” she said. “Is it something you just can't ignore? Maybe sometimes not.” …

It is understandable that a lot of people were relieved when the government was quickly able to identify and locate the perpetrators of the Boston Marathon bombings. And it is also understandable why some people might want to treat the surviving attacker as an “enemy combatant,” given his ostensible beliefs in — and potential ties to — militant Islam. But that doesn’t make any of it right or just — or permissible under our Constitution. It’s been said that the first casualty in war is the truth. And it’s also been said that sometimes the truth can be inconvenient. But...

This morning, a Muslim guy started an argument with me because he was upset after seeing the new bumper sticker I just put on my car a couple of days ago. The sticker says: ”You Can’t ‘COEXIST’ With People Who Want To Kill You.” I’m sure most readers are already familiar with those ‘COEXIST’ bumper stickers, which spell out the word using the symbols of the world’s major religions as letters. Liberals drive around with them on their cars. One of them got carjacked and almost killed by the murdering Muslim Borat bombers near Boston recently, barely escaping with his...

Two Kazakh men and a third man have been arrested by federal authorities in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings, a law enforcement official familar with the case said this morning. The two men, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, came to America from the Central Asian nation to study at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was also enrolled. The law enforcement official did not release the name of the third person arrested. … The White House and law enforcement authorities have previously suggested that the Tsarnaevs may have acted alone without clear ties to foreign governments...

Ken Livingstone did not 'directly blame' the U.S. for the Boston bombings, Labour insisted after Tory demands for him to be axed over controversial comments about terrorism. Mr Livingstone sparked controversy by suggesting the brothers who launched the attack on the city’s marathon acted 'out of anger and demand for revenge' over American foreign policy. US-born Conservative MP Brooks Newmark wrote to opposition leader Ed Miliband calling on him to condemn the remarks, made by the former London mayor on a phone-in on Iranian channel Press TV. He called for the Labour veteran to be removed from the party’s National...