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Home Front: WoT

Investigators sharpen focus on Katherine Russell Tsarnaev

2013-05-05

Too many news outlets are leaving off Mrs. Tsarnaev's proper last name these days. Can't imagine why...

Federal law enforcement officials are sharpening their focus on the widow of the dead suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing after finding al-Qaeda's Inspire magazine and other radical Islamist material on her computer, according to law enforcement officials.

The probe of the computer belonging to Katherine Russell ~~Tsarnaev~~,

See what I mean? It's like WaPo is trying to help her distance herself from her late, not-lamented husband. Why is the MSM doing that?

24, widow of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, is part of the effort by investigators to determine whether Russell~~-Tsarnaev~~ knew anything about the April 15 bombing plot or helped her husband and his brother, Dzhokhar, hide from authorities, according to the officials.

Officials have concluded that fingerprints and female DNA found on fragments of the pressure-cooker bombs do not match Russell~~-Tsarnaev~~'s, but they say they are continuing to investigate.

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, the surviving suspect, has told investigators that he and his brother learned to build the bombs from an English-language Inspire magazine and that they were partly influenced by the online sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, an al-Qaeda propagandist who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in 2011.

According to officials, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev also told investigators that he and his brother built the bombs in Tamerlan Tsarnaev's apartment in Cambridge, Mass., where the elder brother lived with Russell and their daughter. Officials said that Russell~~-Tsarnaev~~ called her husband when she saw his photograph on television -- following the FBI's release of the pictures of the suspects -- but did not notify authorities.

That's likely a crime right there and is a logical reason for her not to be cooperating with authorities, as noted here. She's lawyered up and clammed up.

One of the key questions for investigators is whether the radical Islamist materials on Russell~~-Tsarnaev~~'s computer belonged to her or were downloaded by her husband or someone else.

Russell~~-Tsarnaev~~'s attorney, Amato DeLuca, did not return phone calls seeking comment. DeLuca had previously said his client played no role in the plot and was shocked to learn of the involvement of her husband and brother-in-law.

Posted by:Steve White

#18 Back up a sec, Frank. You're talking about judging her as a human being. I'm talking about charging her with a crime and getting a conviction that will stick. Not seeing how a case can be made just yet.

Don't get me wrong, I loved putting people in prison for a living. Guilty ones. Not innocent ones, whose way of life happened to offend me.

For example, I got forced into one of those by a superior with an attitude like yours. There was zero physical evidence, and the "victim's" testimony changed every time she opened her mouth. So I made damn sure the charges got dismissed. That was a guy charged with rape, by the way. A scumbag, and maybe he was guilty. But I couldn't prove it.

Believe me, you want federal prosecutors with a sense of ethics and restraint like that, who can check their prejudices and emotions at the door, especially with an administration like the one we have now.

Posted by: RandomJD 2013-05-05 21:15

#17 Harsh? at some point you have to take responsibility, even if it's for failure to act. We aren't talking a cultural scene that would've punished her for bailing out. SHE is an adult. SHE should be blamed for
1) not getting out if it was an abusive relationship - she had 6 mos to do so
2) not seeking help if she was oppressed to the point of PTSD. There's no dearth of available help, especially when your oppressor is GONE for 6 months
3) possibly participating

Quit giving camp followers and co-conspirators a pass because they're wymyns. They demand equality, I want to give them that

Posted by: Frank G 2013-05-05 18:01

#16 Pretty harsh there, Frank. Even General Patton recognized that PTSD/battle fatigue is distinct from malingering.

More to the point, I can't identify any acts of omission or commission that amount to an offense to charge her with (yet). And there's still the issue of requisite intent. Maybe she had it. Maybe she didn't.

Posted by: RandomJD 2013-05-05 16:18

#15 If anything is a red flag, it's that her parents immediately mortgaged their house

Katie is coming home to live in the basement. We'll need new laptops and pressure cookers !

Posted by: Besoeker 2013-05-05 15:03

#14 I'm not cutting her any slack. Husband's gone to Russia and you didn't leave/divorce him? You can only play the abused wife card til you had a chance to run

Posted by: Frank G 2013-05-05 14:52

#13 You can find some of my stuff (SF mostly) on my ex's computer.

Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2013-05-05 14:52

#12 Hm, good point, TW. Except, I can't imagine that any offspring of yours would make such an appalling series of bad judgments, that would necessitate such action on your part.

IMO, the extent of Mrs. Tsarnaev's radicalization is difficult to determine. I do not know if or where she went to college, or what she may have studied, which would be interesting information.

Because otherwise, she fits a pretty classic abused-wife profile. Apparently Speedbump was abusive to women long before he got religion. At the time she married him and had a baby, he was a garden-variety wife-beater, not an Islamonazi. Later, she busted her hump at a menial job to support him, which she was upset about, and may have started dressing as he demanded just to keep his anger in check.

I can only speculate, but it seems most of Mrs. Tsarnaev's life activities were coerced. If so, it would follow that any aiding/abetting may also have been out of fear of what he'd do to her if she didn't. Hard to say, without more information.

Posted by: RandomJD 2013-05-05 14:20

#11
#7 Go Crazy

Good God - that's one of the most dangerous holsters I've ever seen! Any holster that requires you to point a gun at your chest should be avoided at all costs! Especially by a novice!

Posted by: Unang Omeans6347 2013-05-05 14:11

#10 they probably just got a great rate and wanted the interest deduction for taxes...

*snort*

Posted by: Frank G 2013-05-05 13:44

#9 If anything is a red flag, it's that her parents immediately mortgaged their house, presumably to pay for her legal defense

Speaking as a parent with reasonable news awareness, RandomJD, that's what I would do, regardless of guilt or innocence. Actually, especially if I believed my young and stupidly naive offspring were innocent. Look at poor Zimmerman, down in Florida, will likely have lost everything, along with his parents, defending himself against a legal lynching. After all, if the money turns out not to be needed, it can be used to pay off the mortgage that provided it, for only the cost of the application. But after the hue and cry is raised, it may be impossible to find someone willing to loan the parents anything at all.

Posted by: trailing wife 2013-05-05 13:42

#8 Right, I'm well aware of those bizarro leftie/muzzie feminist types, and the fanaticism of recent converts. I'm just evaluating this from a prosecutor's standpoint.

I'm just sayin, given the information available so far, I'm not convinced Mrs. Tsarnaev is guilty of any crime. Specific intent is an element of any crime she'd be charged with, and so far I'm not seeing proof of that. Her motivations remain unclear and other explanations remain plausible. For now.

If anything is a red flag, it's that her parents immediately mortgaged their house, presumably to pay for her legal defense. If she's truly as innocent and clueless and shocked as her lawyer says, why would that be necessary?

It'll be interesting to follow the investigation.

Posted by: RandomJD 2013-05-05 12:54

#7 Go Crazy

Posted by: Besoeker 2013-05-05 12:34

#6 I don't know about that. Once saw and advertisement for a holster which fits it right up between the bumpers. Woman could reach up, draw [down], and fire in about 1.5 seconds...

Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-05-05 12:30

#5 Hard to carry weapons in a tube top, Random.
Well,...umm, uh...never mind.

Posted by: Skidmark 2013-05-05 12:09

#4 Here in Riverside, at University of California, Riverside, we easily have about two dozen young ladies running around dressed like Mrs. Tsarnaev. They extoll the virtues of Islam and how the religion respects women. Seems most of these misguided women are in gender studies, and the radical feminists and critical theory crap leads them to believe that hiding in a burqah makes them less of a sex object to men.

I gained some insight into why the academics and lefties like Islam with that, it fits their narrative of white men and Christian white men at that oppressing women and minorities...what they carefully edit from the narrative is the arab slave traders and how women are treated as livestock in the Middle East. The westernized misrepresented religion bears no resemblance to that actually practiced in the ME.

Mrs. Tsarnaev may be one of those ladies who was originally brainwashed by a radical feminist professor.

Posted by: Bill Clinton 2013-05-05 11:14

#3 Mass murderers are often a man-woman team.

Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2013-05-05 10:39

#2 The newly-converted are very often the most fanatical.

Perhaps she egged them on...

Posted by: CrazyFool 2013-05-05 09:37

#1 Jeff Foxworthy observed that women who like bad boys usually wind up hanging out of a trailer in a tube top, screaming "lock his ass up!"

But Mrs. Tsarnaev stayed in her burqa like a good girl. Why? Was it (1) active complicity; (2) fear of retaliation by Speedbump and/or his associates; (3) Stockholm syndrome? She had to have been pretty brainwashed to live as she did.

Whether she committed a crime isn't immediately evident to me. Depends on what she said when she called hubby: she may have told him to turn himself in, before he got killed. She may not have known his location, thus, no relevant information to report. Even if she was actively complicit, proving that she had the requisite intent could be difficult.

Don't mean to defend this dumb, screwed-up lady, but I'm not ready to condemn her either.

Posted by: RandomJD 2013-05-05 09:18

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