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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...

Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev left claiming responsibility for the April 13 attack on the Boston Marathon, reports CBS News senior correspondent John Miller. Sources tell Miller that Tsarnaev wrote the note in the boat he was hiding in as police pursued him, and as he bled from gunshot wounds sustained in an earlier shootout between police and his older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The note, scrawled with a pen on the interior wall of the cabin, said the bombings were retribution for U.S. military action in Afghanistan and Iraq, and called the Boston victims collateral damage in the same way...

TEL AVIV – There is a common threat that links the Sept. 11, 2012, Benghazi attack to both the Boston Marathon bombings and the terror assault on the In Amenas gas facility in southern Algeria in January. The thread runs through al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, one of the most deadly members of the al-Qaida conglomerate. AQAP previously attempted several major attacks within the U.S. The group was the first al-Qaida member to comment on the Benghazi attack, releasing a statement arguing the assaults on the U.S. mission and nearby CIA annex were revenge for the death of...

Federal prosecutors have agreed to release a college pal of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev who was locked up last week on charges he lied to FBI investigators.

After the city of Cambridge and several other cemeteries turned him down, Stefan said he is hoping Gov. Deval Patrick’s office will intervene and choose Tsarnaev’s final resting place. If not, “I’ll call the White House,” he vowed.

The family of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect killed in a shootout with police can’t find a place to bury him, even as his body is being prepared for just that purpose. An uncle of suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev arrived in Worcester, Mass., on Sunday to “prepare the body” of his nephew for burial. Ruslan Tsarni, of Mongomery Village, Md., came to the city about 40 miles west of Boston with three other men, who were not family members, and met with the director of the Graham Putnam & Mahoney Funeral Parlors.

Lawyers for Robel Phillipos, the Cambridge native accused of covering up for marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, painted him as a “frightened and confused” teen who didn’t mean to lie to investigators in a bid to convince a judge he should be released with a GPS monitor. “This case is about a frightened and confused 19-year-old who was subjected to intense questioning and interrogation, without the benefit of counsel, and in the context of one of the worst attacks against the nation,” said Phillipos’ lawyers, Derege B. Demissie and Susan B. Church, in court papers filed yesterday, later adding, “Mr....

A Worcester funeral home director is pleading for government officials to use their influence to convince a cemetery to bury Boston bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev, but so far no state or federal authorities have stepped forward to help out. “We have a body for burial that has caused a lot of controversy and we can’t continue to play this game,” said Peter Stefan, owner of the Graham, Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors. “Under normal circumstances, the government would say it’s (the funeral parlor’s) responsibility to find a place for burial, but this is not normal circumstances. This is a nightmare.”

Complete Headline: Al Qaeda magazine found on laptop of bomber's widow: Suspicion over FBI Tsarnaev's wife grows after radical Islamist files found along with traces of explosive residue throughout her homeFederal officials investigating the Boston bombings have discovered radical Islamist materials on a computer belonging to the widow of the deceased suspect, it has been revealed. Katherine Russell, 24, has repeatedly claimed through her attorney that she knew nothing about the deadly April 15 bombings allegedly set off by her late husband, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his younger brother, Dzhokhar. However, the discovery of al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine on Russell’s computer,...

BOSTON (CBS) – The body of Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev is now at a funeral home in Worcester. Peter Stefan, owner of Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlors, told WBZ-TV Friday he is handling funeral arrangements for the Tsarnaev family. Stefan said his staff has experience with Muslim services, which includes washing the body and preparing it for burial. A police cruiser parked outside the Graham Putnam and Mahoney Funeral Parlor Friday. “We take care of a lot of Muslim funerals here, throughout the state,” Stefan said, “and this was no different, except for the circumstances.” A burial...

Two years ago today, SEAL Team Six sent Osama bin Laden on his way to Davy Jones’ Locker — but his Islamist terror machine is anything but sinking to the depths. It remains a vicious, global threat. Since Osama’s demise, the terror group’s strength has ebbed in some areas, but flowed strongly in others. Indeed, one current estimate concludes that al Qaeda affiliates and associates (i.e., groups, cells or operatives) are active in more than 30 countries (of some 190) on four continents. Including our continent. While we don’t yet know the whole story behind the Boston bombing, just last...

WASHINGTON — The surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings told F.B.I. interrogators that, as he and his brother plotted their deadly assault, they considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July, according to two law enforcement officials. But the suspect,Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, told investigators that he and his brother,Tamerlan, 26, who was killed in a shootout with the police, ultimately decided to use pressure-cooker bombs and other homemade explosive devices, the officials said. The brothers finished building the bombs in Tamerlan’s apartment in Cambridge, Mass., faster than they anticipated, and so decided to accelerate their attack to...

For seven minutes, five Dagestan rebels spoke into a video camera about killing infidels and how the “good deeds” they were doing would absolve them of “700 sins” committed during their lifetimes. Filmed by a Canadian jihadist fighter before he was killed by Russian security forces, the video offers a disturbing glimpse of the fanaticism of the rebels who may have inspired Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev does not appear in the footage, which was obtained by the National Post. But it was recorded and narrated by William Plotnikov, a Canadian whose alleged links to Tsarnaev are now under...

As the fallout from the Boston bombing continues, Americans are coming to terms with the realities of the terrorist threats we are facing in our country. Part of this is adopting a prepared mindset to meet the threats where they occur. The Chechens are here. So are Muslims from Dagestan, Albania, and Bosnia. Much has been made in the press about the more Caucasian look of the Tsarnaev brothers. But what sets the radicalized segments of these ethnic groups apart from their Middle Eastern counterparts, is not so much the racial aspects of their ethnicities, but the way they fight....

The World's Greatest Orator appeared before the press yesterday, and here are some highlights of his remarks: "This is hard stuff. . . . Maybe I should just pack up and go home. Golly. I think it's a little--as Mark Twain said, rumors of my demise may be a little exaggerated at this point. . . . Right now things are pretty dysfunctional up on Capitol Hill. . . . You seem to suggest that somehow these folks over there [in Congress] have no responsibilities and that my job is to somehow get them to behave. That's their job. ....

The U.K. Daily Mail recently claimed that a senior Saudi government official revealed to its sources that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia had sent a written warning to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012 about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, one of the suspects accused in the Boston Marathon bombing. But now, the Saudi Arabian embassy in Washington, D.C. is denying the Saudi government warned the United States about Tsarnaev, the Daily Mail reports.

New details are emerging about the religious motivations of Boston bombing suspects Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and their recent interest in Chechnya, which experts say has become a hub for the extremist Saudi sect of Islam known as Wahhabism. The brothers are ethnically Chechen, though Dzhokhar was born in the Russian republic of Dagestan while his deceased older brother Tamerlan was born in the neighboring Russian republic of Kalmykia. Their parents confirmed that Tamerlan visited Dagestan and Chechnya last year, but denied reports that he did so to engage in militant Islamist training. University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Professor Brian Glyn Williams,...

Breaking: Boston police take three Boston Marathon bombing suspects into custody By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News National Affairs Reporter By Liz Goodwin, Yahoo! News | The Lookout – 10 mins ago Boston police have three additional suspects in custody in connection to the Boston Marathon bombings, the department announced Tuesday. A spokeswoman at the Boston police department directed all questions on the suspects to the FBI, which has yet to disclose their identities.

Writing in the Wall Street Journal, Jennifer Graham tells me something that I hadn’t heard about Boston Marathon bombing. As dozens of victims were sprawled across Boylston Street, many of them in danger of death, Catholic priests came running to the scene—and were turned away. Doctors and nurses were welcome at the bombing scene. Firefighters and police officers were welcome. But Catholic priests, who might have offered the solace of the sacraments, were not. ”Catholics need not apply.” That slogan was familiar in Boston years ago, before Irish and Italian immigrants took over control of the city. Now, after decades...

NBC News is reporting that attorneys for accused Boston Marathon Bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev are discussing a possible deal in which federal prosecutors might consider waiving the death penalty in exchange for a “full accounting” of the attack that left three people dead and 264 people injured. Citing legal sources, correspondent Pete Williams reported on “NBC Nightly News” that prosecutors and lawyers for Tsarnaev “have begun very early discussions about a possible deal in which he could avoid the death penalty in return for a full accounting to the FBI of what happened and why as investigators continue working to...

Obama’s top lawyer Eric Holder is facing criticism from America’s intel community for agreeing to read Dzohkar Tsarnaev his Miranda rights. The suspect legally does not have to tell authorities another word. An ongoing FBI investigation with multiple leads and others suspected of collaborating with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev One of them is only being referred to as ‘Misha,’ and is alleged by the jihadi mama of being the indoctrinator of deceased suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Misha is a shadowy figure possibly affiliated with the tea party said to have trained Tamerlan in the tactics of violent jihad.

State Rep. David Linsky (D-Natick) said he’ll demand answers from the Patrick administration today about whether there are any other Massachusetts welfare recipients on the nation’s terror watch list — or others with pending criminal cases — when he launches a Post-Audit and Oversight Committee meeting today on tax-funded benefits received by the accused marathon bombers. “I will be asking the executive branch whether or not they have a system in place to cross-check people on the terrorism watch list as well as pending criminal 
cases,” Linsky said. “I want an answer from the executive branch about what they do.”

Having lost your older son in an stand off with the police, the younger one gravely wounded and recently moved to maximum security prison, while alleging both have been set up by the FBI in the recent Boston Marathon bombing, what do you do? Abandon all plans to see them, apparently, despite announcing just a few days ago that burying your dead and "finding out the truth" is the main priority. At least that is that case if you are Anzor Tsarnaev, father of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects. From Reuters: "The father of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects...

This week on the Tribal Update, the satirical newscast produced each week by Latma, the Hebrew-language satirical news criticism website I run, we bring you behind the scenes at FBI headquarters in Boston and show you how dedicated FBI officers labor to discover the motive behind the bombing at the Boston Marathon, We also interview Maj. Gen. "Leitzan Balloon," the Commanding officer of the IDF's Central Command about his trenchant defense of peace. Here's the FBI sketch separately. And here's the whole episode.

The mother of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects is a "person of interest" to federal authorities seeking to learn who radicalized one or both of her sons, according to lawmakers, and a separate report said she was on a federal terrorism database some 18 months before the attack.

Doctors and nurses were welcome at the bombing scene. Firefighters and police officers were welcome. But Catholic priests, who might have offered the solace of the sacraments, were not. ”Catholics need not apply.” That slogan was familiar in Boston years ago, before Irish and Italian immigrants took over control of the city. Now, after decades of decline in Catholic influence , the attitude has returned. One priest who was barred from Boylston Street remarked that in the past a priest was admitted anywhere. “That’s changed,” he said. “Priests are no longer considered to be emergency responders.”

The FBI works for, and falls under the authority of, the Federal Department of Justice, Eric Holder. Which brings in a strange series of questions regarding the stoppage of questioning by the FBI of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Megyn Kelly outlines the initial issue: Initially the feds proclaimed Tsarnaev would fall under the “public safety exception to miranda” which would have given them 48 hours to question him prior to the delivery of Miranda protection. The feds didn’t even need to charge him with anything right away – but they did. In addition, something, obviously unexpected by the FBI interrogators, was changed....

The family of Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two brothers accused in the Boston Marathon bomb attacks, received food stamps and welfare when the brothers were growing up, according to a letter from the state Department of Transitional Assistance that was obtained by the Globe. In the letter, sent Thursday to the chairman of the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee, the department outlined the benefits that the brothers had received through their parents, Anzor and Zubeidat, as well as benefits Tamerlan Tsarnaev later received as a member of his wife’s household. Anzor and Zubeidat received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program...

Suppose the marathon bombings had been committed by born-again Christian Tea Party members on the dole. If these were “domestic” terrorists, I guarantee you Deval would have coughed up everything by now, up to and including whether they were getting on-the-arm brand-name or generic prescription drugs. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, on the other hand, was an alien mass-murdering deadbeat. Excuse me — he was a “stay-at-home dad.” That’s how the Globe describes him —

Who exactly do you represent? Gov. Deval Patrick dodges questions about how much welfare benefitsthe Chechen terrorists got from his state, citing their "privacy".- Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and his state agencies are refusing to release information on what government benefits Boston jihadist Tamerlan Tsarnaev received, following a national furor over reports he and his family received welfare. Their reason? It would violate the dead terrorist's right to privacy!That's right. Led by the stalwart Boston Herald, media entities pressed for info all day. Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old...

(Newser) – The latest headline-getting theory from Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the two Boston bombing suspects: She thinks the marathon attacks may have been staged. "That's what I want to know, because everybody's talking about it—that this is a show, that's what I want to know. That's what I want to understand," she says in an interview with CNN, adding that she thinks the blood shown in pictures of the aftermath is actually be paint. (According to Mediaite, she likened the whole thing to a "really big play.") "America took my kids away from me," she says. But...

Gov. Deval Patrick defended his administration’s refusal to release financial aid, welfare, unemployment and other information about the suspected Boston Marathon bombers today.

Since 2010, al-Qaeda has apparently been publishing an English-speaking magazine called Inspire meant to attract Muslims into extremism and teach them how to wreak massive amounts of violence onto innocent people. “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom” reads one of the headlines. At first, Americans laughed at Inspire and didn’t think anyone would take it seriously. But then we realized just how powerful this propaganda could be considering the relationship the average Muslim has with the American people these days. Wired’s Spencer Ackerman described the purpose of Inspire as “getting frustrated Muslim youth to buy into al-Qaeda’s...

I empathize with the victims of the Boston bombing; they were killed, maimed, injured, and/or forever traumatized only because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. As they gathered to compete in or watch the marathon underway, they were -- like all terrorism victims -- the epitome of innocent. But imagine if this happened again next week, at a pizzeria, killing 15 diners. And again, a week later, on a bus, killing 19 passengers. Then at a discotheque, killing 21 teens. Then at a church, killing 11 worshipers. And so on, with a new bombing...

It’s time for all the bureaucrats, paper-shufflers and flak-catchers to come clean on the Tsarnaev clan, those chiseling Chechens who tried to kill us last week. Open the damn books! If somebody tries to murder you, you have a right to know everything about them, privacy be damned. I want to know everything about them, and I want to know it now, right down to the quality of the weed Dzhokhar was peddling down at UMass Dartmouth. Were they living in Section 8 housing in Cambridge? .Did they use Obamaphones to detonate the pressure-cooker bombs? Did lovebirds Katherine and Tamerlan...

The Patrick administration clamped down the lid yesterday on Herald requests for details of Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s government benefits, citing the dead terror mastermind’s right to privacy. Across the board, state agencies flatly refused to provide information about the taxpayer-funded lifestyle for the 26-year-old man and his brother and accused accomplice Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19. On EBT card status or spending, state welfare spokesman Alec Loftus would only say Tamerlan Tsarnaev, his wife and 3-year-old daughter received benefits that ended in 2012. He declined further comment. .On unemployment compensation, labor department spokesman Kevin Franck refused to say whether Tamerlan Tsarnaev ever collected,...

Although police feared he was heavily armed, the suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings had no firearms when he came under a barrage of police gunfire that struck the boat where he was hiding, according to multiple federal law enforcement officials.

Arlington Police have turned over information to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force about a 2012 house party and disturbance in which Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was involved. Arlington Police Chief Frederick Ryan said Wednesday that police responded to a report of a disturbance caused by a house party and public drinking on Paul Revere Road on the night of July 4, 2012. At the scene, the chief said police encountered Tsarnaev, who was sitting in the passenger seat of his own Honda sedan. Ryan said the Honda was same car that was found in Watertown last Friday...

The father of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects has been interviewed by Russian and American authorities and will make his way to the United States along with his ex-wife as early as Thursday while more details emerge about the brothers' recent activities in the U.S., including word of where the deadly explosives may have been purchased and that the family relied on welfare for at least some of their time here.

Why are people still wondering why these boys bombed innocent people? Are they not listening? In addition to all the other facts that have surfaced, apparently on CNN last night, their mother said the following: “If they are going to kill him. I don’t care. My oldest son is killed, so I don’t care. I don’t care if my youngest son is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And, I don’t care if I am going to get killed too. And I will say Allahu Akbar!“

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned. State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to...

Full title-"WHOA!… Zubeidat Tsarnaeva Tells CNN: “I Don’t Care if My Youngest Son Is Killed. I Don’t Care If I Am Killed. I Will Say Allahu Akbar!” (Video)" Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of Boston Marathon bombers Tamerlan and Tzhokhar Tsarnaevso, made these shocking statements on CNN tonight: “If they are going to kill him. I don’t care. My oldest sone is killed, so I don’t care. I don’t care is my youngest son is going to be killed today. I want the world to hear this. And, I don’t care if I am going to get killed too. And I...

Philip Mudd, former counterterror expert for the CIA and the FBI -- "I would charge these guys as murders not terrorists," Mudd said of the suspects in the attack on the Boston Marathon. -- "What I fear though is that people too quickly categorize this as terrorism," Mudd added. "This looks more to me like Columbine than it does like Al Qaeda." -- "Two kids who radicalized between themselves in a closed circle and go out and commit murder," Mudd observed. "I would charge these guys as murderers, not terrorists."

A preliminary examination of the cellphones and computers used by the Tsarnaev brothers has found no indication of an accomplice in the Boston Marathon bombing, according to a U.S. counter-terrorism source briefed on the FBI investigation. The source stressed that the investigation is ongoing, but bureau officials at this point appear increasingly confident that “nobody else was involved,” said the source. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told investigators he and his brother acted alone, learned to build the pressure-cooker bombs over the Internet and were motivated by a desire to defend Islam because of "the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan," said...

In America, he had been a cocky and charismatic heavyweight boxer who wore fancy pointy leather shoes and slick white shirts down to the gym. In Dagestan, the volatile southern Russian region where he lived for a time as a teen and returned to spend the first half of 2012, he became a quiet young man who spent his days online studying Islam, nursing a growing anger against heretics.

MAKHACHKALA, Russia - The father of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers said he was struggling to believe his sons were behind the twin blasts that killed three and injured more than 170. “I’m planning to find the truth, justice,” said Anzor Tsarnaev during an interview at his home in the southern Russian republic of Dagestan. "I want facts, proof that this is all original because otherwise, anything could be set up."

As everyone followed the Boston manhunt for the Tsarnaev brothers, thoughts turned to Tolstoy’s final novel, ‘Hadji Murad,’ about Chechen rebels fighting Russian imperialism. Benjamin Lytal checks in on the master’s tale of anti-heroism and betrayal. On Friday, while CNN was making constant reference to the Tsarnaev brothers' attempt “to go out in a blaze of glory,” a micro-meme lit up social media: didn’t Leo Tolstoy have a novel about Chechnyan rebels, called Hadji Murad? He does: it was his last, a thin book that everyone should read. While it offers few overt parallels to a case of 21st-century terrorism,...

It's just “preliminary� evidence. Could be that Tamerlan, when he wasn't busy favoriting Chechen jihadist videos on YouTube, was building up an explosive hatred of marathons.This AP story is actually newsy, not because of the conclusion officials have drawn but because of how they drew it: Two U.S. officials say preliminary evidence from an interrogation suggests the suspects in the Boston Marathon attack were motivated by religion but were apparently not tied to any Islamic terrorist groups.The two ethnic Chechen brothers practiced Islam.The U.S. officials spoke Monday on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the...

Terror never rests, even on the placid train trip between New York and Toronto. With the help of the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Canadian law enforcement officials announced Monday that they had stopped an Al Qaeda-linked plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto Amtrak passenger train, and have arrested two suspects in Montreal and Toronto. Police charged Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser with "terrorism related offenses," officials said at a news conference Monday afternoon. The men were observed gathering information on trains in the Toronto area, officials said, which they planned to attack. The charges against the...