Terrorism at Home

    Besides the fact that the Marathon bombing hit close to home, there are other reasons to be concerned for our safety and secutiy.  The Marathon bombing and Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s activities are a clear indications that the reforms to the intelligence gathering process, instituted as a results of 9-11, are not working.  Reminiscent of 9-11 the FBI and CIA have begun finger-pointing and both have even suggested that the Russians’ lack of candor regarding Tamerlan, is partly to blame.  Our intelligence apparatus is not sharing information and they are not working in unison.  Massachusetts residents should be particularly concerned because the Massachusetts Fusion Center, created in the wake of 9-11, to facilitate the sharing of information, has stated that they did not receive any information about Tamerlan Tsarnaev.  The Fusion Center is the vital link designed to funnel information from the federal government to the State and Local police. If the State and local police don’t have the necessary information it greatly reduces the opportunity to interrupt a home-grown, local terrorist plot.   

     The low-grade, but effective Boston Marathon bombing is a sign of future similar attacks.  In fact many of the activities that Tamerlan Tsarnaev engaged in are detailed in a 2006 New York Police Department report entitled: “Radicalization in the West”.  Intelligence gathering efforts in Massachusetts have proven to be especially difficult because we are overly concerned with political correctness and sensitivity.  Adding to this problem is the local media whch has attempted to paint these Islamic terrorists as two angry,unassimilated young men who simply turned to violence.

   A foreign government alerted the FBI to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, he was repeatedly interviewed by the FBI, he travelled overseas to an area that is a hotbed of terrorist activity, and he had contact with the local police.  The only red flag that Mr. Tsarnaev didn’t waive was to actually commit a terrorist act

   The FBI is handling these radicalized self-taught terrorists in the same fashion that they handled traditional organized crime figures, by establishing an extensive intelligence database that they did not share with anyone.  This insular and secretive investigative strategy appears to have allowed Tamerlan Tsarnaev to move about with very little scrutiny

     The only people who knew about Mr. Tsarnaev was the FBI.  It isn’t that Mr. Tsarnaev and his brother operated below the radar, the radar wasn’t working.  If we hope to halt these homegrown unsophisticated terrorists the federal  government has to make intelligence information accessible to the people who are likely to encounter these suspects on a daily basis –the local and state police.