FLASHBACK: Yesterday in The Post (
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WASHINGTON — Lawmakers yesterday demanded to know whether slain Boston Marathon terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev got overseas training and what role his jihad-loving mom played in developing his murderous beliefs.
Focus on Tsarnaev’s mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, has intensified since Saturday, when it was revealed that Russian security forces had wiretapped recordings of her speaking to Tamerlan about jihadist activities.
Investigators want to talk to Tsarnaeva, who lives in the Republic of Dagestan, American officials said.
“I think she played a very strong role in his radicalization process,” House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mike McCaul (R-Texas) told “Fox News Sunday.”
“I do believe if she does come to the United States that she will be detained for questioning. So I think there is a connection.”
McCaul also said he believes Tamerlan may have received terror training when he visited Russia six months ago.
“The level of sophistication of this device leads me to believe . . . that there was a trainer, and the question is: Where is that trainer or trainers?”
One suspect has recently been cleared. “Misha,” who was accused of radicalizing Tamerlyn, said he has cooperated with the FBI, according to a report yesterday in The New York Review of Books.
“I gave them my computer and my phone and everything,” he said. “I wanted to show I haven’t done anything,”
Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said yesterday that feds are still looking at others in the US who may have aided the suspects.
“There are persons of interest in the US,” Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The real test is in Russia. When he went over to Russia and came back, things changed.”
Tamerlan’s brother, Dzhokhar, 19, is facing charges of using a weapon of mass destruction.
He was recently moved from a hospital to a medical detention center in Ayer, Mass. His cell has a steel door with food slot.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) conceded the FBI erred by not keeping closer tabs on Tamerlan.
“I am a big defender of the FBI,” he said. “But in this case, they may have messed up, because Russia did call and say they had doubts about Tsarnaev.”
Additional reporting by Yasmine Phillips and David K. Li in New York