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Tsarnaevs Might’ve Had Help In Boston Marathon Attack, Prosecutors Say

Tsarnaevs Might’ve Had Help In Boston Marathon Attack, Prosecutors Say

By Richard A. Serrano, Tribune Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors said Wednesday that the Tsarnaev brothers may have received help in building the two bombs that exploded at last year’s Boston Marathon, although they did not identify any potential suspects except to suggest the pair were inspired by al-Qaida operatives overseas.

In court papers, prosecutors said Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev had emptied hundreds of packages of fireworks to create fuel for the bombs. Yet no powder residue was found in their apartments or three vehicles, “strongly suggesting that others had built, or at least helped the Tsarnaevs build, the bombs, and thus might have built more” explosive devices, the documents say.

Prosecutors did not say whether they still believed that theory or were convinced now that the two immigrant brothers from the Russian republic of Dagestan had acted alone when they allegedly detonated two homemade bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260 near the finish line of the race on April 15, 2013.

Prosecutors also revealed several new details about the bombs. They said the fuses were fashioned from Christmas lights and the improvised remote-control detonators were built from model car parts.

“These relatively sophisticated devices would have been difficult for the Tsarnaevs to fabricate successfully without training or assistance from others,” prosecutors wrote.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, died after a shootout with police four days after the bombing. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, now 20, was wounded and captured in a boat stored in a nearby yard in Watertown, a Boston suburb.

In notes found in the boat, scrawled in pencil, he defended the bombings as retaliation for Americans killing “innocent civilians” abroad, authorities say. He also wrote that he was “jealous” of his slain brother.

“I do not mourn because his soul is very much alive,” he wrote. “God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions.”

Prosecutors said the writing “bears hallmarks of al-Qaida-inspired rhetoric, suggested that Tsarnaev might have received instruction from a terrorist group.” They said his repeated use of the word “we” suggested that “others might be poised to commit similar attacks and that Tsarnaev was urging them on.”

Tsarnaev faces 30 charges and could face the death penalty if convicted in connection with the bombings. Prosecutors filed the papers to oppose a motion by Tsarnaev’s lawyers to keep his statements to the FBI, made while he was hospitalized after his capture, from being used in court.

The defense contends that he gave the statements under duress, when he was sedated.

But prosecutors said the FBI questioned Tsarnaev under a public safety provision in the law that allows authorities to hastily gather information if they believe lives are in jeopardy.

“The government did nothing wrong,” prosecutors said.

At the hospital, they said, Tsarnaev “readily admitted” that he and his brother had carried out the bombings. They said he was “responsive, coherent and clear-headed.”

Timothy A. Clary AFP

Red Cross Counselors Offer Help To Grieving Families

Red Cross Counselors Offer Help To Grieving Families

By Lornet Turnbull, The Seattle Times

ARLINGTON, Wash. — Slowly, gradually, the families who have suffered the loss of loved ones and homes are starting to talk to mental health counselors about what comes next.

“They haven’t talked about recovery yet, about where they’re going to live. But that’s starting to happen,” said Ron Matayoshi, an American Red Cross volunteer from Honolulu who is providing mental health counseling. “That’s where case work comes in. It’s been a week now. People need services, they need to see to their financial needs, manage their families, get back to housing. It’s very important for them to … take care of their emotional needs.”

Matayoshi, a professor of social work at the University of Hawaii, is one of nearly 300 Red Cross volunteers from across the country providing a range of services to victims of the Oso-area mudslide, their families and rescue workers and other volunteers.

He has the soft, soothing voice of someone trained to listen.

When he arrived last week, Matayoshi was assigned to the Red Cross shelter at Post Middle School, where families displaced by the disaster have been staying and where relatives of victims — many from out of state — have been showing up.

A few days ago, he was reassigned to the staging area for volunteer rescue workers at the Oso Fire Department, where he’s talking to workers faced with the gruesome task of searching for those missing.

What he found here, Matayoshi said, is not quite what he expected.

“I expected to find what they tell me is a normal disaster,” he said, describing a scene where small pockets of family members surround the victims and professionals search for the missing.

“I didn’t expect the kind of tight-knit community that exists here, where everyone has been impacted by this disaster,” he said.

Matayoshi said a lot of what he and the 34 mental health counselors do is observe, build trust and wait for the right time to approach grieving families or volunteer rescue workers and to get them to talk about what they are feeling.

“They don’t just come up to you and say, ‘Let me tell you my story.’ We are developing relationships. We are new here. We are outsiders. We want to provide a friendly ear.”

Once they approach, he said, the counselors “kindly probe.”

In their search for closure, the families talk about how to identify a loved one, he said. “They want to talk about DNA testing, the length of time it will take to make an ID, how it is done.”

“We hear them asking the questions of the incident commander.”

He said the families frequently are surrounded by relatives and friends. “We watch. You don’t want to be a pest.”

“There are quiet moments when we can approach, happy moments when we can approach. You sometimes see them looking at pictures and passing them along and talking about them. That’s a private time, and not the time for me to go in and ask, ‘Who is that?’”

Then there are those moments, he said, “When they hear news from the incident commander that is too overwhelming and you see some stand up and have to leave. These are moments you just watch and see.”

“The losses are pretty significant. The stories they are telling are unreal. I cannot imagine the pain they are going through.”

He said those who need long-term help are referred to a case worker.

Matayoshi said he’s met family members who have come from across the country and want to reach the slide site.

“They don’t understand that the zone is now a biohazard,” he said.

Rescue workers, he said, want to talk about the process, what they see. “This is a slow process and they don’t want to miss anything. Inside they are thinking of the families.”

David Ryder