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Journalism of Courage
The surviving suspect in Boston Marathon bombings told FBI interrogators he and his brother considered suicide attacks and striking on the Fourth of July as they plotted their deadly assault,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 Tamerlans apartment in Cambridge,Mass.,faster than they had anticipated,and so decided to accelerate their attack to the Boston Marathon on April 15,Patriots Day in Massachusetts,according to the account that Dzhokhar provided to authorities. They picked the finish line of the marathon after driving around the Boston area looking for alternative sites,according to this account.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities that he and his brother viewed the Internet sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki,a radical American cleric who moved to Yemen and was killed in September 2011 by an American drone strike. There is no indication that the brothers communicated with Awlaki.
Tsarnaev made his admission on April 21 two days after he was captured while hiding in a boat in a nearby backyard to specially trained FBI agents.
The new details of what Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has told authorities emerged as the FBI moved forward on Thursday with trying to determine how the brothers were radicalized and the role that Tamerlans wife,Katherine Russell,may have played in the plot or in helping the brothers evade the authorities after the attacks.
As part of those efforts,the authorities have sought to determine whether fingerprints and DNA found on bomb fragments were from Russell. According to law enforcement officials,Russells fingerprints and DNA do not match those found on the fragments.
A funeral home retained by members of Tamerlan claimed his body from the Massachusetts state medical examiners office about 5:30 pm Thursday,a spokesman for Department of Public Safety said. He offered no details.
US Customs ordered to verify all student visas
Washington: Customs officials are being ordered,effective immediately,to verify that every foreign student arriving in the US has a valid student visa. It is the first security change by the US government directly related to the Boston bombings. According to an internal memorandum,the Homeland Security Department says every international student holding a non-immigrant student visa must have their status verified before being allowed into the US. Ap
