U.S. Rep. Bill Keating has just returned from his second trip to Russia since the Boston Marathon bombings last spring, where he obtained new information on Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s time there, and assessed the security situation in Sochi, home to the upcoming Winter Olympics.
Keating sits on the House homeland security committee and the foreign affairs committee. He joined Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan to go over his fact-finding mission.
On Connections Between The Tsarnaev Brothers And Terrorists:
I received information from what I deemed to be credible sources, non-governmental sources … that he met with Mahmoud Nidal, who was a known recruiter for this insurgent group. But what I found out this time is it appears there were several meetings with him, including meetings at a mosque, and that, in the mosque, Tamerlan had gotten inolved in verbal fights the same way he did here at one point. It appears he was exploring or trying to become a member of those insurgents. What I’ve learned is that there’s a pretty extensive vetting process for that, that can take months, and they evaluate people carefully. My conclusion is that he wasn’t having great success getting though that process.
[Tamerlan] wanted to get involved in Palestine-type insurgencies … You had someone who had that desire, but there’s no indication thus far that he was accepted by them.
On FBI cooperation With The Homeland Security Committee:
The chair of the committee has referenced conversations he’s had with the FBI, that he thinks some progress is being made. But in terms of the response I received, and in terms of their inability, or unwillingness really, to come forward publicly and discuss our security issues going forward. You know, their last public statement from the FBI, was 'Well, if we had known everything we do now, we wouldn’t have done anything differently.’
Now that statement to me: I couldn’t disagree with anything more. If you knew what you know now, meaning the letters, and the implications and everything that happened, to take a position that you wouldn’t do anything differently, is a huge part of the problem.
On Ibragim Todashev:
The FBI has issued a statement saying they’ve completed their report, other agencies review it before it’s released.
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Given the situation, the crime scene being limited, the number of people being limited, I don’t understand now why it’s taken eight months to get to this point, to give the public that information because any time the government uses force or lethal force, I always think one of the most important things is to get the information out as quickly as you can and as accurately as you can, and give the public that information because they should have confidence in their government officials that use lethal force, and know the circumstances and it’s the best for all the people that are involved as well. That time lapse is something that I can’t quite understand, that doesn’t quite make sense.
We shouldn’t assume anything one way or the other. Yet, when you look at whether the exact shooting, you know, the fact that, at that instance, lethal force may have been justified, doesn’t tell the whole story. And that’s really relevant to what our committee is trying to do with the Boston Marathon bombing.
On Security For The Sochi Olympics:
I think people should be cautious. In one sense the security investment is enormous, maybe the biggest of any event so far. There’s upwards of 100,000 security people, including 40,000 police, 30,000 active military people, drones flying overhead, satellites being used. Really a lockdown, as described by one columnist in Russia. You’re gonna be stopped, your bags are going to be searched going into the city. They wont allow cars that don’t have license plates from Sochi even into the place. They’re going to Use the tickets of admission as a security measure. They’re going to do background checks on admission tickets.
People should be be aware that when you’re over in Russia, it’s different from our country. They can monitor in live time some of your social communications, and you know, have access to your iPads and your phones that way. It’s a different situation. It’s very secure.
On Vladimir Putin:
Russia wants to put themselves on the world stage. This is a chance for him to raise his stature in the world, and it’s very important to him in a personal sense, but there’s another group out there that wants to be on the world stage right now, and those are the terrorists that have had a bloody and longstanding relationship with Russia from an area that we know well in Boston because of the Boston Marathon bombings — that’s the North Caucasus areas. Areas like Dagestan and Chechnya. The Caucasus Emirates leader just said in July that he wants to destroy these Olympics. He’s urging his followers to destroy and use violence to disrupt these Olympics. And, for the first time, he reneged on a ban that he had not to hurt civilians in the process. So, that happened a few months ago.
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Since October 15th, there’s been three suicide bombings that have occurred. Two in the last three weeks.
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If you have an interest in following our teams, contact our own State Department, get registered and you’ll get up to the minute advisories of precautions, what to watch for. From our own country you’re going to get the advice you need to act for that. If you’re going to register, take precautions and listen to our State Department.
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In terms of pure safety concerns I would be very cautious.
