US Lawmakers Probe Intelligence Sharing After Boston Bombing
U.S. lawmakers have raised concerns about the sharing of intelligence among federal enforcement agencies, as investigators continue to piece together last week's deadly bombing of the Boston Marathon.
Senator Lindsey Graham said Tuesday that the FBI told him it did not know last year that one of the bombing suspects, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, traveled to Chechnya and Dagestan.
Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano told the Senate Intelligence Committee that her agency knew of the six-month trip, but that an FBI alert on Tsarnaev had expired by the time he returned.
The FBI had interviewed Tsarnaev in 2011 at the request of Russia, but found nothing to connect him to terrorism at that time.
After a closed-door briefing by FBI officials Tuesday, Republican Senator Susan Collins said there are problems with sharing of "critical investigative information" within and among different agencies.
Another Republican Senator, Saxby Chambliss, expressed similar concerns, saying there appear to be so-called "stovepipes" that keep information flowing within one group and not readily shared with others.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died after a shootout with police late Thursday, while his younger brother Dzhokhar was captured a day later.
The 19-year-old Dzhokhar has been charged with using a weapon of mass destruction. He is in federal custody in a Boston hospital.
U.S. officials say Dzhokhar told them in preliminary interviews that he and his brother were partly motivated by the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but that they were self-radicalized and not connected to any terrorist network.
The brothers allegedly set off two bombs near the Boston Marathon finish line last week, killing three and injuring 264. Some of the wounded lost their legs.
The two suspects are Chechens who came to the United States as boys.
Two victims from the attacks were laid to rest Tuesday.
Eight-year-old Martin Richard was remembered at a private funeral service. He was killed in one of the bombings while waiting for his father to cross the marathon's finish line. His mother and younger sister were seriously hurt.
Also remembered Tuesday was Sean Collier, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology security officer gunned down three days after the bombings while the suspects were on the run from police.
Two others also were killed by the bombs -- restaurant manager Krystle Campbell and Chinese-born student Lu Lingzi.
Also Tuesday, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said a fund to help the bombing victims has received $20 million in donations in less than a week. Menino calls the outpouring from around the world tremendous, and more than he could ever imagine.
Source: Voice of America
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