A mountain of new welfare records shows numerous EBT card cash withdrawals made by the Tsarnaev family, but so far there is no information about how terrorist Tamerlan Tsarnaev and others may have spent the money.
| Even if they just used the EBT (Even Benefits Terrorists!) card to buy pork and beans it means they were eating while they were building bombs in pressure cookers... |
The EBT receipts were handed over by the state to the House Post Audit and Oversight Committee as part of its probe into the Russian family's $100,000-plus taxpayer-financed life in the Bay State. The committee met yesterday behind closed doors to review Medicaid and welfare awards.
| So they had EBT money, other welfare assistance, and money from the wifey's family (you just know they were putting up cash, particularly after the little girl was born). Plus whatever 'assistance' came from certain people overseas... |
The EBT records are now part of thousands of pages of documents listing the government assistance doled out to the Cambridge clan from 2002 to November of 2012.
The purchases show specific stores, but not the items bought. But further details could be available to investigators.
| Specific stores could be very, very interesting... |
The legislative committee is also asking for records from the Cambridge Housing Authority on Section 8 assistance given to the Tsarnaevs, who lived in an apartment on Norfolk Street.
The committee's request for financial aid records from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth -- where marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was a sophomore flunking some classes and owing a reported $20,000 -- was rejected, the Herald learned. Federal officials have forbidden the school from releasing any records publicly.
| Why? And which 'Federal officials' -- FBI or Department of Education? |
Rafi Ron, a former top Israeli security official and past consultant to Logan International Airport, said the welfare cash could have been enough money to help the Tsarnaev brothers build their pressure-cooker bombs that killed three and injured more than 260 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15.
"The budget required for such an attack was extremely limited. We're talking a three-digit dollar investment for purchasing and constructing the devices," Ron told the Herald last night.
Authorities say the Tsarnaev brothers planted two bombs packed with nails and BBs on Boylston Street using gunpowder emptied out from fireworks to ignite the deadly devices that killed and maimed race fans.
It is still unclear from the records whether any welfare cash was used to finance slain bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev's journey to Dagestan from January to July 2012. The 26-year-old, who was finally entombed yesterday in an undisclosed cemetery, left his wife and child behind for the trip during which he made contact with Islamist extremists, authorities said.
The Herald was told the welfare records show the Tsarnaev family all using taxpayer-paid benefits. That help included Mass Health, housing assistance, food stamps and more.
| They didn't miss a trick, did they... |
State Rep. David P. Linsky, chairman of the oversight committee, said his goal is to make sure the welfare cash was "properly authorized and all the oversights were in place." He declined to go into further detail, but said he hopes to make as much public as he can. |