Free Republic

Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s ex-girlfriend said he used to beat her if she wore Western clothing and tried hard to turn her against the United States. Nadine Ascencao, 24, said that in her three years of dating Tsarnaev, he tried to change her into an Islamic extremist, The Daily Mail reported. She said in the report that she was originally obsessed with him but that she had a “lucky escape.”

A man known as “Misha,” who is suspected of being the person who radicalized Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, has apparently been identified by the FBI. Misha, a red-bearded, 30ish Armenian-American Christian who had converted to Islam, apparently became the Rasputin-like figure who spent hours indoctrinating Tsarnaev, once even visiting the family home.

Today I was able to meet “Misha,” whose real name is Mikhail Allakhverdov. Having been referred by a family in Boston that was close to the Tsarnaevs, I found Allakverdov at his home in Rhode Island, in a lower middle class neighborhood, where he lives in modest, tidy apartment with his elderly parents. He confirmed he was a convert to Islam and that he had known Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but he flatly denied any part in the bombings. “I wasn’t his teacher. If I had been his teacher, I would have made sure he never did anything like this,” Allakhverdov said....

Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have murdered his 'only American friend' in an unsolved triple killing two years ago, it emerged today. Brendan Mess had his 'throat slit' alongside two other men in a Massachusetts apartment in 2011 in what police described as a 'very graphic crime scene'. Former associates of the Chechan immigrant didn't initially suspect him of carrying out the gruesome attack, but thought it was strange he didn't attend his friend's funeral. Now one man who knew Tamerlan through the gym where they trained said some of their social circle 'without even speaking about it beforehand...