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Militant Islam Monitor > Articles > Was Katherine Russell Tsarnaev A Potential 'Black Widow?'

Was Katherine Russell Tsarnaev A Potential 'Black Widow?'

April 30, 2013

MIM: Had Katherine Russell Tsarnaev gone to Dagestan to be with her husband and his family the question can be raised as to if she could have become the first American born 'Black Widow'. According to news reports she was the one who counseled her husband on how to be a more religiously observant Muslim in their daily Skype talks while he was in Chechnya connecting with jihadists. After the FBI published the brother's pictures she warned her husband by phone that the police were looking for him telling him "you're being watched" prompting him and his brother's flight. Katherine Russell Tsarnaev converted to Islam and started wearing the hijab when she married terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev. They have a 3 year old girl. She is currently hiding out at her parents home in Rhode Island and immediately after the bombings 'lawyered up' to avoid incriminating herself during any law enforcement investigations, It seems unlikely that she could not have had any inkling of her husbands murderous intentions and participation in the bombings since she last saw him on April 18th, three days after the attack.

4/1/13 Update: Law enforcement have arrested three new suspects in connection with the Boston Jihad bombings one day after interviewing and searching the home of Katherine Russell Tsarnaev.

Excerpt:

"...Investigators are focusing on the six months Tsarnaev spent last year in the predominantly Muslim provinces of Dagestan and Chechnya to see if he was radicalized by the militants in the area who have waged a low-level insurgency against Russian security forces for years.

Every day, using Skype, he spoke to his American-born wife, who had recently converted to Islam, and at times she instructed him on how to observe religious practices correctly when he lapsed, Suleimanova said Sunday from her home in Makhachkala, the capital of Dagestan.

She said her nephew was considering bringing his wife to Dagestan.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/wife-boston-bombing-suspect-dark-lawyer-article-1.1323925#ixzz2S4MyIgPo

The two brothers suspected in the Boston Marathon bombings are of Chechen ethnicity, officials said today, identifying them with a group that has a long history of violence against Russia and ties to Muslim extremists groups.

Have Chechen groups launched terror attacks before?

The Chechens have claimed responsibility for a number of major terror attacks on Russia in the past 10 years, including a 2004 attack on a Russian school in which more than 350 people, many of them children, were killed.

In addition to bombing shopping plazas, apartment buildings, parades, and trains over the years, Chechens launched an attack on a theater in Moscow in 2002 in which they held more than 700 audience members hostage. Russian forces used gas to try and sedate the Chechens, but ended up killing many of the hostages and militants.

Many of the Chechen terrorists involved were women whose militant husbands had been killed by Russian forces, earning them the moniker Black Widows.

The Black Widows became known as a deadly part of the Chechen terror groups, willing to sacrifice themselves as suicide bombers for the Chechen cause.

In 2010, Chechen militants claimed responsibility for the bombing of two metro stations in Moscow, killing nearly 40 people.

What does Dagestan have to do with this?

Dagestan is also a region on the Russian border, part of North Caucasus, and shared a border with Chechnya. Though Dagestan did not fight against Russia for independence after the fall of the Soviet Union, it became known as a lawless and corrupt state. Eventually, Chechen militants began to gain a foothold in Dagestan.

Dagestan has replaced Chechnya as the most volatile region in Russia, with reports of bombings, shootings, and kidnappings occurring every few days.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/chechens-violent-history-includes-black-widows-attacks-school/story?id=18997035&page=2

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Feds Further Investigating Role of Bomber's Wife
Katherine Russell Tsarnaeva notified husband that the FBI had released his picture.
Stephen F. Hayes
April 25, 2013 1:11 PM

Law enforcement officials are carefully reexamining any possible role that Katherine Russell Tsarnaeva, the wife of Tamerlan Tsarnaev, played in the Boston Marathon bombings on April 15, according to three federal officials with knowledge of the investigation. The intense scrutiny comes as a result of information provided by Dzokhar Tsarnaev in his on-again, off-again interrogation by FBI officials before he was read his rights by a federal magistrate.

According to those officials, Dzokhar Tsarnaev told interrogators that the information that set in motion the series of events leading to Tamerlan's death and Dzokhar's apprehension came in a phone call from Katherine Russell Tsarnaeva to her husband. "She notified him and there certainly didn't seem to be any notion of surprise – just a report that ‘you're being watched,'" said one official with knowledge of the investigation. Tsarnaev had seen the photographs and videos distributed by the FBI on television and called her husband to give him a heads up.

After receiving that phone call, authorities believe, Tamerlan decided he could not continue to hide from law enforcement and triggered the brothers' bizarre flight from authorities – a wild chase that included the murder of an MIT police officer, a convenience-store robbery, a carjacking, shootouts with police officers, the death of Tamerlan and the capture of Dzokhar...

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/special-report-bret-baier/blog/2013/04/25/steve-hayes-feds-investigate-katherine-russell-tsarnaeva

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Excerpt:

Finding of woman's DNA on Boston Marathon bomb complicates investigation

The FBI has found female DNA on at least one of the two homemade bombs detonated during the Boston Marathon on April 15, complicating the task of identifying how and where the deadly devices were constructed.

The presence of genetic material does not necessarily mean a woman helped build the pressure-cooker bombs that killed three people and injured more than 260, said a law enforcement official, who discussed the discovery on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The genetic material could have come from a woman who was in the room where the devices were built, or from a cashier at a store where one of the bomb parts was purchased, the official said.

Still, the test results have prompted investigators to look more closely at women who may have had contact with the alleged bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar. Investigators are collecting DNA samples from some women who were close to the pair to provide a comparison.

On Monday, investigators visited the Rhode Island home of the family of Katherine Russell, the widow of the elder brother, who was killed in a shootout with police on April 19.

FBI agents carried out several bags. CNN says at least one bag was labeled DNA samples.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/finding_of_womans_dna_on_bosto.html

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation took DNA samples from Tsarnaev Monday, according to one of the U.S. officials briefed on the probe. Jason Pack, an FBI spokesman, declined to say whether the agency may seek a subpoena to interview Katherine or whether she's cooperating voluntarily.

Going Quiet

Tsarnaev married Tamerlan at a mosque in the Dorchester neighborhood. She adopted Islam, dropped out of college and bore Tamerlan's child, a daughter who's now 2 1/2.

She cut off contact with her college friends after the marriage, according to the NPR report.

http://newyork.newsday.com/news/nation/katherine-russell-tsarnaev-tamerlan-tsarnaev-s-wife-draws-fbi-s-attention-1.5167183

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The widow of one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects will ask the Massachusetts medical examiner to release his body to his family, her attorney said Tuesday.

Attorney Amato DeLuca said in a statement that Katherine Russell wants Tamerlan Tsarnaev's remains released to the Tsarnaev family.

Read more: http://www.seattlepi.com/news/crime/article/Boston-bombing-suspect-s-widow-wants-body-released-4477289.php#ixzz2S5ewQo84

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Boston police announced on Wednesday that three new suspects were arrested in connection to the marathon bombing...

...The news of the arrests comes one day after the elder suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev's wife Katherine Russell was interviewed by investigators after they spent hours searching her home.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2317770/Three-MORE-arrests-connected-Boston-marathon-bombing.html#ixzz2S9PMYoCe

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Source: Tamerlan Tsarnaev built bombs while caring for 3-year-old daughter at home

Investigators believe Boston Marathon bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev built pressure-cooker bombs while watching his 3-year-old daughter at his Cambridge apartment, and that his wife was out working when most of them were assembled, a federal law enforcement source said.

The FBI is continuing to meet several times per week with Tsarnaev's wife, Katherine Russell, 24, whom they are showing photographs and documents as part of their probe into the bombings, the source said...

A copy of the online al-Qaida magazine Inspire, along with other jihadist materials, was found on Russell's computer, which she may have shared with her husband, the source has said.

"Devices appear to have been built while he was at home with the child," the source said. Those included the two pressure-cooker bombs detonated April 15 at the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring more than 260 others...

Forensic tests by FBI explosives experts have detected residue from explosives in the bathtub and kitchen sink in the couple's apartment, the source said.

The results, according to the source, appear to corroborate Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's statements to federal investigators that the brothers built the bombs in the apartment.

He has told investigators that he and his older brother learned to make the pressure-cooker bombs from instructions in Inspire.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nation/source-tamerlan-tsarnaev-built-bombs-while-caring-for-3-year-old-daughter-at-home-1.5199679

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Every time the widow of suspected Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev leaves her parents' house, federal agents watching the residence follow her in unmarked vehicles...

Legal experts say it's part of their quest not just to determine whether Russell and the friends are culpable but also to push for as much information as possible regarding whether the bombing suspects had ties to a terrorism network or accomplices working domestically or abroad. A primary goal is to push the widow and friends to give their full cooperation, according to the experts...

David Zlotnick, a professor of law at Roger Williams University and former federal prosecutor in the District of Columbia, said authorities may be tracking Russell closely because they feel she's not being completely honest about all she knows.

"It seems to me they don't believe her yet," he said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57582901/feds-pressure-widow-pals-for-info-in-boston-bomb-case/

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