FBI Reportedly Seeking Terror Sleeper Cell of 12 People

WHERE IS THE AMERICAN MEDIA?

by Sharon Rondeau

(Apr. 21, 2013) — The foreign press is reporting that the FBI is seeking up to a dozen people in connection with the two suspected Boston Marathon bombers who set off explosives on Monday at the Boston Marathon, killing three and injuring more than 170.  A university police officer was killed in the overnight hours of Thursday to Friday, which set off a high-speed chase ending in the death of the elder of the suspect brothers.

The younger brother, Dzhokhar, was hospitalized in serious condition after being captured on Friday night by federal and state authorities in Watertown, MA.

Also on Friday night, three young people in New Bedford, MA were arrested and released.  However, on Saturday, the two men of the trio were rearrested on Saturday afternoon.  It is believed that Dzhokhar might have lived there for some time while attending the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth.

Two overseas news reports stated that the original arrest had been of two women and a man.  The UK Mail Online and other media reported that the two men drove a black BMW bearing the license plate “‘Terrorista #1” and a bumper sticker on the back with obscenities.

Debkafile had reported that initially, a cell consisting of “Mid-East terrorists with domestic support” had been suspected of perpetrating the bombings which occurred at 2:50 local time on Monday afternoon after most of the contestants had crossed the finish line.

The International Business Times quoted “a source close to the investigation” as having said, “We have no doubt the brothers were not acting alone. The devices used to detonate the two bombs were highly sophisticated and not the kind of thing people learn from Google.  They were too advanced. Someone gave the brothers the skills and it is now our job to find out just who they were. Agents think the sleeper cell has up to a dozen members and has been waiting several years for their day to come.”

The two men rearrested on Saturday have allegedly committed immigration violations.

Dzhokhar is reportedly chained to his hospital bed and under police guard, although reportedly unable to speak because of neck injuries.

Tamerlan had been investigated by the FBI in 2011 after the Russian government reported that it suspected him to have ties to terrorism.  The FBI said it found no evidence to detain him, although friends and neighbors indicated that he showed signs of radicalism since returning from a trip to Russia last July during which he reportedly visited his father.

While Tamerlan was married, he and his wife did not apparently reside together.  They have a three-year-old girl.  The wife has been questioned by the FBI.

The apartment in Cambridge where the two brothers resided was found to be in disarray by police.

The UK Daily Mail reported that the elder brother “was on the radar screen of agents in Boston between his return to the U.S. and the end of the fall.”  In an unconfirmed report, Tamerlan was allegedly identified and reported to the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) as a mosque attendee who was becoming increasingly radicalized.

The April 15 explosions are the first successful terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 19 Islamic jihadists flew four airliners on September 11, 2001 into the World Trade Center, part of the Pentagon, and into a field in western Pennsylvania.

On Friday following the arrest of Dzhokhar, Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly spoke by telephone.

A reports of a third explosion allegedly confirmed to be “linked to the ones at the marathon” remains online despite authorities’ insistence later that there were only two explosions.  The WorldNetDaily report also states that a “Saudi Arabian national” was “taken into custody less than two hours after the bombs went off” on Monday.  Boston officials later denied that anyone was in custody, although The New York Post reported that a “person of interest” who was a Saudi national was in the hospital and “under guard.”