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| Tamerlan suspected of links to Plotnikov and Nidal | |
| 2013-05-05 | |
| The hunt for who or what radicalised alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev is focussing on two young men who were in the Russian region of Dagestan during his visit there last year, and who were killed by security forces shortly before his sudden return to the US. Russian media reports say anti-terrorism investigators became concerned about Tsarnaev, who was killed in a shoot-out with Boston police four days after the April 15th bombings, when they discovered he had made contact with Islamic radicals William Plotnikov and Mahmoud Nidal. Tsarnaev travelled from the US to Dagestan in January 2012, and for about six months stayed with relatives in the regional capital, Makhachkala, and in neighbouring Chechnya. A member of the antiextremism unit of Dagestan's security forces told Novaya Gazeta newspaper that Nidal met Tsarnaev several times last April. Nidal (18), who was of mixed Dagestani and Palestinian parentage, was suspected of being a recruiter for Islamic militants fighting Russian rule across the North Caucasus. Tsarnaev was also seen at a Makhachkala mosque, which has a reputation for fundamentalist preaching. According to Novaya Gazeta, Tsarnaev had first come to the attention of Russian authorities in 2010, when his name was given to them by William Plotnikov. Plotnikov (23) was a young man from a Russian family who emigrated to Canada in 2005. According to his father, he converted to Islam in 2009, quickly became radicalised and made his way to the North Caucasus. Russian security services briefly detained Plotnikov in December 2010 and It is not known whether Plotnikov and Tsarnaev actually met or conversed, but the similarities between them are striking: they were young Russian emigres to North America with an interest in conservative Islam and the insurgency in the Caucasus, and both were accomplished boxers.
On May 19th, 2012, Nidal was killed by Russian security forces in Makhachkala. On July 14th, Plotnikov and seven other people died in a special forces raid on a house in the Dagestani village of Utamysh. "The Canadian", as locals nicknamed him, was buried there. Two days later, Tsarnaev abruptly "It seems Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to Dagestan to link up with the militants. But it didn't happen," said Novaya Gazeta's source. "After Nidal and Plotnikov were wiped out, having lost his 'contacts', he got scared and | |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #7 Uh, uh, PLOTNIKOV = CONSPIROV = SCHEMACHEV??? gut nuthin. You gotta luv the name, though. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2013-05-05 22:47 |
| #6 The American procedure is to turn in your old passport with the renewal application. And yes, it can be done at an American embassy while abroad. But it could easily be that other countries do not have the same procedures. Update before posting: I decided to google the question, and it turns out Besoeker is correct: Passports can be renewed at the Russian consulates in the U.S. However, it is very definitely not clear from the Russian embassy site that this is so. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2013-05-05 13:32 |
| #5 Interesting question Anguper. I believe standard procedure nearly everywhere is to turn in your old passport, prior to getting a new one. It would be quite interesting to discover [as a non-US person] he already had a US Passport.....or perhaps the 6 month trip to RU to "get a new passport" was BS? A new passport could be had through a visit and applicaation to a RU mission anywhere in the States. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-05-05 12:20 |
| #4 The Russians have been steadily attriting jihadi higher-ups in Chechnya and vicinity. Never shows up in the MSM, but you see it on the 'burg. Maybe we should be outsourcing some of our problems to the Rooskis. |
| Posted by: SteveS 2013-05-05 12:14 |
| #3 Inquiring minds want to know: How did Tamerlan get back into the USA without a passport? |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2013-05-05 12:09 |
| #2 Two days later, Tsarnaev abruptly fled left Makhachkala, flying back to the US via Moscow. He departed without collecting his new Russian passport, even though acquiring it was the main reason for his visit to Dagestan, according to his parents. Thanks to the Spetsnaz, ole Nidal was TANGO-UNIFORM. Fok the RU passport, time for Tsarnaev to unass the AO and get back to the big PX. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2013-05-05 11:45 |
| #1 One of the names he gave up was Tamerlan Tsarnaev, with whom he regularly exchanged messages on a web forum for young Muslims. www.rageandseetheburg.com |
| Posted by: Frank G 2013-05-05 10:15 |