Agencies/Washington


President Barack Obama yesterday defended the FBI from suggestions it might have prevented the Boston marathon bombing by acting on warnings about one of the suspects.
Russia had advised US authorities about ethnic Chechen Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 and the possibility he was slipping into the grips of hardline Islam, and the FBI probed and interviewed him, although the case was eventually closed.
Tsnarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar are accused of going on to carry out the April 15 bombing, which killed three and wounded more than 264 at one of the world’s premier sporting events.
But Obama said US authorities had done the best they could in the face of threats that include what he called “self-radicalised individuals.”
“Based on what I’ve seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, the Department of Homeland Security did what it is was supposed to be doing. But this is hard stuff,” Obama told a news conference.
Still, he acknowledged lingering suspicions between the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the two former Cold War foes.
“You know, old habits die hard,” Obama said.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police as he tried to flee the Boston area three days after the bombing. His younger brother was wounded and captured.
Meanwhile, Obama praised Russian officials for their co-operation in the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings, but pointed to ongoing suspicions between the countries’ officials that date back to the Cold War.
“The Russians have been very co-operative with us since the Boston bombing,” Obama said, pointing to conversations he has had with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the attacks allegedly carried out by two brothers with ties in the volatile Caucasus region.
“You know, obviously, old habits die hard. There are still suspicions sometimes between our intelligence and law enforcement agencies that date back 10, 20, 30 years, back to the Cold War,” Obama said. “But they’re continually improving.”
Obama pointed to Russian intelligence sources that alerted US authorities to concerns about the older brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and prompted the FBI to interview him. The agency concluded there were no ties to extremist activities at that time, but Obama noted an investigation into the handling of the case was ongoing.
“When an event like this happens, we want to go back and we want to review every step that was taken. We want to leave no stone unturned,” he said.
“We want to see, is there in fact additional protocols and procedures that could be put in place that would further improve and enhance our ability to detect a potential attack? And we won’t know that until that review is completed. We won’t know that until the investigation into the actual crime is fully completed, and that’s still ongoing.”
Relations between Washington and Moscow have been damaged in recent months as the US cracked down on Russian violators of human rights and Russia responded with a ban on US adoptions of Russian children.
Prominent criminal defence lawyer Judy Clarke, who has represented defendants in some of the most high-profile death penalty cases in recent years, has joined the legal defence team for Dzhokhar, according to court documents.
San Diego-based Clarke defended Jared Loughner, who pleaded guilty last year to an Arizona shooting rampage that wounded then-US representative Gabrielle Giffords and was spared the death penalty.
Miriam Conrad, a public defender representing Dzhokhar, filed a request in Boston federal court last week asking US Magistrate Judge Marianne Bowler to appoint to his legal team Clarke and another lawyer. She cited a federal law that gives such defendants a right to “learned counsel,” or lawyers with experience handling death penalty cases.
Bowler in an order on Monday agreed to appoint Clarke, who will join the three federal public defenders already assigned to Dzhokhar’s case.

FBI agents question Tamerlan’s widow
Federal agents questioned the widow of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev on Monday, the Washington Post reported, quoting an FBI spokesman.
The agents spent 90 minutes at the house belonging to Katherine Russell’s parents in North Kingston, Rhode Island, Special Agent Jason Pack said.
“The FBI is there as part of our ongoing investigation, but we aren’t permitted to discuss specific aspects our case,” Pack said.
Female DNA was found on the one of the bombs, two unidentified law enforcement officials told the Washington Post. They said the DNA could have come from a female accomplice, from someone in a shop who handled the materials used to make the bomb or from someone in the crowd at the marathon.