Boston Suspects' Mother Was on Watch List, Too

Landfill searched as investigation continues
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 27, 2013 9:00 AM CDT
Boston Suspects' Mother Was on Watch List, Too
This undated photo shows Dias Kadyrbayev, left, with Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, at an unknown location.   (AP Photo/VK)

Tamerlan wasn't the only Tsarnaev family member to appear on a US terror watch list: His mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, was named as well. The Terror Identities Datamart Environment list contains some 500,000 names marked by several federal agencies. It remains uncertain why Zubeidat's name appeared on the "low-level" list, the Wall Street Journal reports. She surfed on the same websites as Tamerlan, she told the Journal in an interview, adding that neither had extremist views.

There's a warrant out for her arrest in the US; she skipped out on a court appearance following shoplifting charges, the Journal reports. Her family was never comfortable with life in the US, she says. "We never should have come to America." In other investigation news:

  • The FBI has been investigating a landfill near Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's college, the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth; authorities haven't said why, the AP reports. ABC News, however, thinks they're looking for Tamerlan's laptop.
  • Two of Dzhokhar's friends from the school, Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev, have faced extensive FBI questioning. They're currently in a Boston-area jail for student visa violations tied to skipping classes, their lawyer says; their detention began the day after the marathon attacks, but they're not suspects, he notes.
  • Dzhokhar told officials he and Tamerlan were inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki's online sermons, authorities tell the Daily Beast. But it's not certain whether the sermons by the US-born cleric killed by a drone in 2011 had a direct influence on the bombings.
(More Boston Marathon bombing stories.)

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