Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Boston Terror Suspect, Investigated By FBI 2 Years Ago For Extremists Ties

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, Boston Terror Susepect #1, who died Thursday night during a battle with police, was allegedly investigated by the FBI previous to his alleged role in the Boston marathon bombing.

Confirmation came late Friday that Tamerlan Tsarnaev was investigated by the FBI at the behest of an unspecified "foreign government" for possible ties to terrorism or terrorist groups like al Qaeda or al Shabaab. The FBI statement said that the "foreign government" suspected Tsarnaev, a legal permanent resident of the United States, to be planning to leave the country to "join unspecified underground groups" and to have been a follower of "radical Islam".

After an intense combing of Tamerlan's information in databases and online postings, the "FBI did not find any terrorism activity" to be prevalent in his background, and effectively cleared his name.

It is now known that Tamerlan Tsarnaev spent an estimated six months in his homeland of Dagestan, in the Chechen region of Russia. Chechnya is home to the Mujahideen of the Caucasus, a United Nations-specified terrorist organization. However, a statement from the group said they are at war with Russia and not concentrating on the United States. They accused the Russian government of occupying their homeland and discriminating against Muslims.

However, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., found what he considered a flaw in the FBI's investigation of the elder Tsarnaev brother, suspected of bombing the Boston Marathon with the help of his brother Dzhokhar: "He went over to Russia, but apparently, when he got on the airplane, they misspelled his name so it never went into the [government's] system," Graham said. Congressman Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican also said he believed the visit to Russia involved Tamerlan being involved in "[terrorism] training".

Graham said he believed that "the FBI either dropped the ball, or our system doesn't allow the FBI to follow this guy in the appropriate fashion." He also referred to the "foreign government" as the Russians, but it is not officially confirmed that Moscow ordered the request.

After what was seen as mostly seamless execution of the search and capture of the terrorist suspects by the FBI: the bureau was cheered by Bostonians lining the streets of Watertown, Mass. after the capture of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and the rapid turn of events accelerated by regular public briefings by FBI Special Agent Rick DesLauriers and Massachusetts officials such as the governor and mayor, the FBI drew bipartisan criticism on the issue.

Two powerful New York legislators, often polar opposites on nearly every issue, echoed the South Carolinian's sentiment: "[Tamerlan] was pointed out by a foreign government to be dangerous...What did [the FBI] miss? Why wasn't he interviewed when he [returned to Massachusetts]?" demanded Sen. Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from Brighton Beach.

His oft ideological opponent, Long Island Republican Rep. Peter King said the FBI should have "looked more carefully" at Tamerlan Tsarnaev's records, and demanded to know "what information was given and what was done with it." He also noted that Tamerlan marked at least the third future suspected terrorist to be "let off the hook" by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, noting Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, now serving a life sentence for killing a soldier at an Arkansas recruitment office, and Nidal Hasan, the Fort Hood shooter were also checked out prior to committing acts of terror.

Of the few details that are known of Tamerlan Tsarnaev's Chechen trip, pictures obtained by the Daily Mail of the United Kingdom show Tamerlan posing beside an armed man in a mask identified by the paper as Gadzhimurad Dolgatov, a "Dagestani jihadist who died in 2012 after a vicious stand-off with Russian security services".