Tag Archives: Federal Bureau of Investigation

June 18, 2013 · 12:05 PM

FBI: Surveillance thwarted bombings of NYC stock exchange and subway

NBC News

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/52241371 via @nbcnews

National Security Agency surveillance programs helped disrupt plots to bomb the New York Stock Exchange and the New York subway system, an FBI official told Congress on Tuesday.

The official, Deputy Director Sean Joyce, said that the programs also linked an American citizen in Chicago to the 2008 terror attacks on hotels in India and to a plot to bomb the offices of a Danish newspaper that published a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad.

Joyce and other officials appeared before the House Intelligence Committee to defend the surveillance programs after a 29-year-old NSA contractor, Edward Snowden, provided details of them to The Guardian and The Washington Post.

Gen. Keith Alexander, the NSA director, told the committee that the programs had helped stop more than 50 “potential terrorist events” since the Sept. 11 attacks. He said he would provide classified details of all of them to the committee Wednesday.

“I would much rather be here today debating this point than trying to explain how we failed to prevent another 9/11,” Alexander said.

Joyce gave limited details on the foiled plots. In the stock exchange plot, he said, the NSA used Internet surveillance to find an extremist in Yemen who was in contact with an operative in the United States. He said that intelligence agents were able to detect “nascent plotting” to bomb the exchange.

In the subway plot, he said, the NSA intercepted an email from a terrorist in Pakistan in 2009 who was talking with someone in the United States about perfecting a recipe for explosives. He said that person turned out to be Najibullah Zazi, who later pleaded guilty in the plot and is in federal prison.

The NSA director said that the programs are critical to protecting the country, are limited and subject to rigorous oversight, and carefully protect the civil liberties of Americans.

In introducing Alexander, the committee chairman, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said that Americans’ trust in government to protect the country has been damaged by “inaccuracies, half-truths and outright lies” about intelligence programs.

“It is at times like these when our enemies within become almost as damaging as our enemies on the outside,” Rogers said.

Alexander said that Snowden’s disclosures would have a “long and irreversible impact” on the security of the United States and its allies.

“This is significant,” he said.

http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/52240543 via @nbcnews

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June 6, 2013 · 4:44 PM

Bystanders wrongly pegged by New York Post as Boston ‘Bag Men’ file suit

New York Post fingers 17 year old kid as bombing suspect

Here’s hoping the two get a large pile of Murdoch money in exchange for this mess. A very, very large pile of money ~ Daily Kos on Facebook

Daily Kos

Here’s hoping the two get a large pile of Murdoch money in exchange for this mess. A very, very large pile of money.

I’m only surprised it took this long:

A Massachusetts teenager and his 24-year-old friend filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Post Wednesday in Boston, accusing the tabloid of falsely portraying them as suspects in the deadly Marathon bombings by plastering their photograph on the front page under the headline, “Bag Men.”

As the picture above demonstrates, the Post wasn’t shy about it, calling them the “bag men” in large type even while their own story admitted that it wasn’t actually clear if the two pictured were the ones law enforcement were actually investigating. As it turns out, they weren’t—it was a picture that some online sleuths found suspicious, and that was all it took to make the Post front page, and to therefore make the two a conspicuous public target:

When Zaimi arrived at work that day, a company vice president called him into his office. Zaimi did not understand why until the office manager showed him a copy of the Post.“He immediately started shaking, his mouth went dry, and he felt as though he was having a panic attack,” the complaint said. […]

That night, the complaint said, as he waited for the train home, someone pointed him out as the person in the New York Post. Zaimi fled.

Given that we’re living in an age when would-be public heroes even fire shots at fleeing shoplifters, I’d say hightailing it out of a crowd that thinks you might be a terrorist based a front-page picture saying so was probably a very good idea. The Post should count themselves lucky no worse harm came to the two.

Here’s hoping the two get a large pile of Murdoch money in exchange for this mess. A very, very large pile of money. The crooked, reckless sensationalism of the Post was demonstratedthroughout the Boston story, but in this instance it could have gotten someone killed.

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May 31, 2013 · 2:17 PM

Rachel Maddow – ‘Something weird is going on’ in FBI shooting of Ibragim Todashev

Maddow 053113

(Revised from earlier post)

The Raw Story

On Thursday night’s edition of “The Rachel Maddow Show,” host Rachel Maddow discussed the swirl of questions around the shooting of Ibragim Todashev, an associate of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the two men charged with the bombing of the Boston Marathon.

FBI officials have given conflicting accounts of the questioning and killing of Todashev, who knew Tamerlan Tsarnaev through Mixed Martial Arts fighting. Todashev, who, like the Tsarnaevs, was Chechen, lived in Boston for a time before moving to Florida. Agents from the FBI traveled to Florida to question Todashev repeatedly about the bombing.

“Last week while being questioned again in Florida,” said Maddow, “something went very, very wrong and he ended up dead.”

Law enforcement officials were interviewing Todashev in his apartment in Orlando on Wednesday, May 22, when something occurred that resulted in the young man being shot multiple times.

On Thursday, Todashev’s family held a press conference in Moscow, where they showed autopsie photos of their slain son. Ibragim Todashev was shot six times in the torso and once in the back of the head.

“We have not been able to authenticate these photos,” said Maddow. “No one has.”

But, she said, if they are genuine, “something weird is going on.”

“How does that comport with the FBI’s story that he was killed during questioning by armed agents who were only acting in self defense?” she asked. “Shot seven times, including in the back of the head?”

Todashev was questioned because of a possible connection to a bizarre 2011 murder in Waltham, Massachusetts in which three men were found with their throats cut, covered in marijuana, with $5,000 in cash untouched nearby. Law enforcement officials theorize now that Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have murdered the men with the help of some other person or persons.

“That cold case got hot again” after the marathon bombing, Maddow said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was close friends with one of the victims, but, after his murder, Tsarnaev declined to attend his friend’s funeral.

After Todashev was shot during questioning, Maddow said, law enforcement officials “leaked an elaborate story” that purported to justify the killing. The officials also claimed that Todashev had implicated himself in the Waltham murders prior to being shot. They said that just before the man was about to sign a confession, he snapped, and “lunged at the interrogator with a blade.”

“That initial story has fallen apart,” Maddow said. Within 12 hours of the shooting, two of the three law enforcement officials who were talking to the media about the case changed their story, saying they were no longer sure whether Todashev had a knife.

Now, multiple sources have come forward to papers like the Washington Post to say that, in fact, Todashev was unarmed. NBC News reported on Thursday that Todashev may have been brandishing some kind of “metal rod.”

“So they shot him seven times?” Maddow asked, “Including in the back of the head?” She added that no one actually knows right now if that was the actual number of gunshot wounds on Todashev’s body since officials will neither confirm nor deny that the post-autopsy photos are accurate.

“What we’re left with here is a baffling mess and a story that does not make sense,” she said.

 

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May 30, 2013 · 10:43 AM

James Comey As Next FBI Director? Obama To Pick Former George W. Bush Official: Sources

If the name James Comey sounds vaguely familiar it’s because he’s remembered for his riveting testimony in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee inquiring about spying  practices of the George W. Bush administration.

James B. Comey, Jr. (born December 14, 1960) was United States Deputy Attorney General, serving in President George W. Bush‘s administration. As Deputy Attorney General, Comey was the second-highest ranking official in the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) and ran the day-to-day operations of the Department, serving in that office from December 2003 through August 2005. He was U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York prior to becoming Deputy Attorney General.

In December 2003, as Deputy Attorney General, Comey appointed the U.S. Attorney in Chicago, close friend and former colleague Patrick Fitzgerald, as Special Counsel to head the CIA leak grand jury investigation after Attorney General John Ashcroft recused himself. In August 2005, Comey left the DOJ and he became General Counsel and Senior Vice President of Lockheed Martin. In 2010, he became General Counsel at Bridgewater Associates. In early 2013, he left Bridgewater to become Senior Research Scholar and Hertog Fellow on National Security Law at Columbia Law School. He also joined the London-based board of directors of HSBC Holdings. ~ Wiki

The Huffington Post

Former Justice Department official James Comey is expected to be nominated as President Barack Obama’s next FBI Director, NPR and the New York Times reported Wednesday.

NPR cited two sources saying that Comey, who served as Deputy Attorney General under former President George W. Bush, is in line to be Obama’s choice. The Times added one source, noting that Comey will be chosen over top White House top counterterrorism adviser Lisa Monaco.

Back in March 2011, Comey was in line for the same FBI post. The Associated Press detailed how he threatened to resign from the Justice Department over Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program. That stance placed him as a revered figure among Democrats who were against the practice, the wire service reported.

Politico adds that Comey, 52, left the Justice Department in 2005, and has since worked as a general counsel for defensive contracting firm Lockheed Martin and investment firm Bridgewater Associated. Their report also notes that Federal Election Commission records have him donating to Obama’s two Republican election opponents: John McCain in 2008 and Mitt Romney in 2012.

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April 24, 2013 · 2:06 PM

O’Reilly Demands To Know Why Obama Didn’t Condemn Islam Immediately After Boston Bombing

Think Progress

Fox News host Bill O’Reilly chose on Tuesday night to slam President Obama for failing to condemn Islam in the immediate aftermath of the Boston bombings and claimed that American Muslims aren’t doing enough to stand up against jihad.

During his “Talking Point Commentary” segment, O’Reilly called the President “seriously wrong” for urging the country on Friday to not to jump to conclusions about the bombing suspects’ motivations.

“It’s all about motivation and it’s all about a specific group of people,” O’Reilly declared, referring to Muslims. He then went on to say that suspected Dzhokar Tsarnaev and his deceased brother Tamerlan were definitively jihadists, stating that “only radical Islam allows terror murder.”

What O’Reilly failed to mention is that Obama’s Friday statement was made before anything was known about the brothers or what led them to place explosives at the Boston Marathon. The FBI didn’t release the two suspects’ pictures until Thursday afternoon, kicking off a massive manhunt. While on Friday morning the media learned that the two were ethnic Chechens, that information alone provided no further knowledge of the motivation behind the attack. Only after questioning alleged bomber Dzohkar Tsarnaev in custody did authorities learn that thewars in Iraq and Afghanistan provided at least part of the impetus for the bombing.

While attacking Obama for not speaking out against radical Islam, O’Reilly begrudgingly acknowledged that there are Muslim countries that are our allies, particularly those that utilize “secret police” to combat terrorism. He was disappointed, however, that more Muslims — including Muslim-Americans — aren’t doing their part to help combat radicalism. “Most Muslims on this Earth are good people, but they are not helping to neutralize the jihad,” he said. “They are not standing up against it in any numbers. And that includes American Muslims. They largely remain silent.”

Watch O’Reilly’s statements here:

Conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, who appeared on the program, shared O’Reilly’s views that Obama isn’t doing enough to speak out about the threat that Muslims pose. Despite their worries, it was Muslim-Americans who found themselves the targets during the media’sexcessively flawed coverage of the attacks. At least one Muslim woman was attacked based on the media’s shoddy reporting.

Counter to O’Reilly’s claims, there are many instances of Muslim communities standing upagainst radicalism in their ranks. Just this week, a Toronto imam was lauded for reporting suspicious behavior to the Canadian authorities, leading to a possible major terrorist plot being foiled. Leaders of the Muslim-American community also reiterated their opposition to terrorism at a press conference held on Friday.

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April 20, 2013 · 8:37 AM

Second Boston Marathon suspect now in custody: Summary

Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokar Tsarnaev in ambulance after being taken into custody

Daily Kos

A brief summary of today’s events for those who were unable to follow them throughout the day. Here’s hoping this wraps up a truly monstrous week.

  • After a shootout with police that left Tamerlan Tsarnaev (“Suspect 1″) dead last evening, today began with a street-to-street search for the remaining suspect in Watertown and a stay-indoors order in place for all of Boston.
  • A hero: Jeff Bauman lost both legs in the bombing, as was evidenced by several of the most grisly post-bombing pictures. After waking up in the hospital, however, he was still able to deliver crucial information to the FBI:

    “He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” [his brother] Chris Bauman said yesterday in an interview.

    Bauman was able to give a description of the man, allowing investigators to narrow their focus. He is also facing major medical needs, and his friends have set up a a fundraiser for those expenses: you can contribute here.

  • Late today, the FBI confirmed that the older brother, Tamerian, had been interviewed two years ago. According to CBS, the interview was done “at the request of a foreign country about possible extremist ties“, but no such ties were found.
  • By the afternoon, the trail had seemingly gone cold. Police lifted the stay-indoors order at slightly after 6 PM local time; less than an hour later, a call to police from an alert resident reporting blood in or near a backyard boat led to an immediate police response and another shootout.
  • The suspect was soon confirmed to be Dzhokar Tsarnaev, hiding in the boat. After an extended standoff, he was captured alive this evening and transported to a nearby hospital, where he is reported in “serious” condition.
  • In remarks late this evening, President Obama pledged: “We will determine how this happened. We will investigate any associations that these terrorists may have had.”

This story is far from over, of course. But both main suspects have now been accounted for.

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April 19, 2013 · 1:57 PM

Jeff Bauman, who lost both legs in Boston attack, helped ID suspects

Jeff Bauman, helped by first responders in Boston, & two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing (© Kelvin Ma/Bloomberg/Getty Images; FBI via Getty Images)

Jeff Bauman, helped by first responders in Boston, & two suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing (© Kelvin Ma/Bloomberg/Getty Images; FBI via Getty Images)

MSNBC 

Jeff Bauman was still in intensive care, heavily sedated after surgery, but he had something he desperately needed to tell his brother. “He woke up under so much drugs, asked for a paper and pen and wrote, ‘bag, saw the guy, looked right at me,’” Chris Bauman said. Jeff, the ashen-faced, wheelchair-bound man in that iconic photo taken in the aftermath of Monday’s Boston Marathon bombings, gave a description of the suspect to the FBI, telling them that he wore “a cap, sunglasses and a black jacket over a hooded sweatshirt.” He told them that he locked eyes with the attacker as he placed the bomb-filled bag at the finish line — the bomb that took both of Bauman’s legs. [Source]

Click to see more on msnNOW.com, updated 24 hours a day. 

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· 8:57 AM

How the Boston Marathon bombing suspects were hunted down [Updated]

The Week

Thursday night and Friday morning turned the sleepy Boston suburb of Watertown into a war zone. And one suspect is still at large

The hunt that led to the death of one of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings and, as of Friday morning, the full-bore manhunt for the second suspect in a sleepy Boston suburb, began Thursday night at a 7-Eleven in Cambridge. On Friday morning, police shut down all transportation in the area and urged residents of Watertown and the surrounding suburbs, including Cambridge, to stay home, and businesses to close. Here’s a recap of the incredibly dramatic chain of events Thursday night and Friday: (Latest updates below)

THURSDAY NIGHT:
According to The New York Times, it started this way: “The pursuit began after 10 p.m. Thursday when two men robbed a 7/11 near Central Square in Cambridge. A security camera caught a man identified as one of the suspects, wearing a gray hoodie.”

At about 10:48 p.m. — roughly five hours after the FBI released photos and video of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects — an unidentified MIT police officer was shot multiple times in his car in Cambridge. A short while later, two men carjacked a Mercedes SUV in Cambridge, keeping the driver in the car for half an hour and then releasing him at a gas station.

FRIDAY MORNING:
The police tracked down the SUV in Watertown, about 4 miles away from Cambridge. The suspects reportedly threw grenades or other explosives out of the window and engaged the police in a long, intense gun battle.

Here’s amateur video of the gunfight:

During the gun battle, an MBTA transit police officer was shot, as was one of the suspects. Early Friday, Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio said the MIT and Watertown events were probably related, and could be tied to the marathon bombings. The FBI early Friday released new photos of the Boston bombing suspects:

The wounded suspect, the “dark cap” on on the right, was taken to Beth Israel hospital. He was pronounced dead at about 1:35 a.m. He had multiple gunshot wounds and trauma consistent with bomb blasts. The second suspect, the “white cap” one, escaped. The Boston police released this photo of the white cap suspect, taken at the 7-Eleven:

At 3:02 a.m., Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis confirmed media speculation:

Police, federal agents, and bomb squads swarmed Watertown and shut down a roughly 20-block perimeter to search for “white cap.” At a subsequent press conference, Commissioner Davis urged Watertown residents to stay indoors and not answer their doors or stop their cars for anyone but uniformed police officers. “We believe this is a terrorist, we believe this is a man that’s come here to kill people,” he said.

Continue at 6:55 am update…

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April 17, 2013 · 4:30 PM

FBI: Poison Letter Sent to Obama

The Daily Beast

Just one day after a mysterious letter sent to Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker was found to contain ricin, the FBI announced the discovery of another poison-laced letter—this one meant for President Obama.

Several other senators reported receiving suspicious mail Wednesday as well.  A spokesman for the FBI announced that early tests on the Obama letter showed signs of ricin.

In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Press Secretary Jay Carney said the president had been briefed on the letter, but deferred all other questions to the FBI, which is conducting the investigation. The disturbing discovery comes just one day after authorities intercepted a note meant for Wicker, which was also found to contain ricin. Whether the letters are connected to the deadly explosions at the Boston Marathon remains unclear.

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April 16, 2013 · 12:59 PM

PERSON BRIEFED ON PROBE: BOMBS IN PRESSURE COOKERS

Associated Press - Apr 16, 12:45 PM EDT

The explosives used in the deadly Boston Marathon bombing were contained in 6-liter pressure cookers and hidden in black duffel bags on the ground, a person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

One of the explosives contained shards of metal and ball bearings, and another contained nails, the person said.

A second person briefed on the investigation confirmed that at least one of the explosives was made out of a pressure cooker. Both spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing investigation.

Two bombs blew up seconds apart Monday at the finish line of one of the world’s most storied races, tearing off victims’ limbs and leaving the streets spattered with blood and strewn with broken glass. Three people were killed, including an 8-year-old boy, and more than 170 were wounded.

President Barack Obama said called the explosions a terrorist attack and said law enforcement and intelligence officials were trying to determine who was responsible. No one has claimed responsibility for the bombings.

These types of pressure cooker explosives have been used in Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan, according to a July 2010 joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, the intelligence report said.

“Placed carefully, such devices provide little or no indication of an impending attack,” the report said.

The Pakistani Taliban, which claimed responsibility for the 2010 attempt in Times Square, has denied any role in the Boston Marathon attack.

Law enforcement has not yet determined what was used to set off the explosives. Typically, these bombs have an initiator, switch and explosive charge, according to a 2004 warning from the Homeland Security Department about these types of explosives.

“We will go to the ends of the Earth to identify the subject or subjects who are responsible for this despicable crime, and we will do everything we can to bring them to justice,” said Richard DesLauriers, FBI agent in charge in Boston.

Investigators in Boston are combing surveillance tapes and pictures from Monday.

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