Free Republic

A slain Canadian jihadi gave Russian counter-terrorism agents the tip that put alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev on their radar two years ago, Bay State U.S. Rep. William R. Keating confirmed yesterday — raising questions about whether Tsarnaev’s direct link to the known militant was ever passed on to the FBI or local authorities. Keating told the Herald yesterday his staff in Russia has learned William Plotnikov, while under interrogation in the militant hotbed of Dagestan, named Tsarnaev as a fellow extremist. “That’s when the Russian government started looking at Tamerlan and he showed up on a jihadist website,”...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

Two days after Plotnikov's death, Tsarnaev flew to Moscow on July 16 last year, and the next day to the US. "It seems that Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to Dagestan with the aim of joining the insurgents," said the source. "It didn't work out. First you need to contact an intermediary, then there is a period of 'quarantine' – before they take someone, the insurgents check him out over several months. "After Nidal and Plotnikov were destroyed and he lost his contacts, Tsarnaev got frightened and fled."