The mother of the alleged Boston Marathon bombers spoke with her older son about going to “Palestine.”
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, in a telephone conversation from Russia with her older son, Tamerlan, suggested during a discussion about jihad that he go to Palestine, the Associated Press reported. Russian security services intercepted the phone conversation, according to AP.
Russian officials told the FBI in early 2011 that they believed Tamerlan, 26, and his mother were religious extremists. Following what the AP called a “limited inquiry,” the FBI closed the case in June 2011. Tamerlan traveled to Russia that year, spending six months there.
Zubeidat Tsarnaeva denied that her sons, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, had anything to do with the Boston bombings. She says her sons are being framed by U.S. security officials. Zubeidat Tsarnaeva was added to a federal terrorism database about 18 months ago, AP reported.
Police say the brothers, ethnic Chechens from Russia who had lived in the United States for about a decade, carried out the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, which killed three people and wounded more than 260. The brothers later allegedly killed a university police officer at MIT.
Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police and Dzhokhar was apprehended by police. He was questioned for two days before he got a lawyer and refused to continue providing information.
Investigators and lawmakers briefed by the FBI have said the Tsarnaev brothers were motivated by anger over the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. — jta