Editorial Board
Washington Post
Law Enforcement agencies can’t be expected to stop every terrorist attack, any more than they can prevent every mass shooting. If, as most investigators now appear to believe, brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev acted on their own with a bomb design downloaded from the Internet, their plot posed a steep challenge to those agencies, including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for detecting threats.
Nevertheless, there are reasons for concern about the two agencies’ performance, based on what is known so far about their tracking of Tamerlan Tsarnaev. The older and more radical brother was first identified as a possible extremist by Russia, which asked the FBI to investigate him in early 2011. Later that year, also after prompting from Russia, the CIA asked that his name be added to a watch list maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, The Post’s Greg Miller and Sari Horowitz reported. His subsequent departure for Russia in early 2012 resulted in “a ping” to customs officials, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Congress on Tuesday. However, it appears the FBI never learned that Tamerlan had left the country and was not informed when he returned in July.
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Death row inmate Paul Hammer spent 2 years on death row with Timothy McVeigh. His cell was next to Mcveigh’s. Timothy McVeigh told Hammer the names of the FBI officials he was working for before the Oklahoma City bombing. Terry Nichols identified one of the FBI agents as Larry Potts. Now the FBI won’t let attorney Jesse Trentadue take a deposition from Nichols and Hammer. see Court denies attorney chance to interview Terry Nichols S.L. lawyer cannot take depositions in regards to his brother’s death http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705314507/Court-denies-attorney-chance-to-interview-Terry-Nichols.html?pg=all