[AnNahar] The U.S. trial of Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev heard witness testimony Wednesday that his elder brother Tamerlan traveled to Dagestan...a formerly inoffensive Caucasus
republiccurrently bedevilled by low-level Islamic insurgency, occasional outbreaks of separatism, ethnic tensions and terrorism, primarily due to its proximity to Chechnya. There are several dozen ethnic groups, most of which speak either Caucasian, Turkic, or Iranian languages. Largest among these ethnic groups are the Avar, Dargin, Kumyk, Lezgin, and Laks. While Russers form less than five percent of the population, Russian remains the primary official language and the lingua franca...
a year before the attacks to "get involved in jihad."
Defense lawyers, working to save Dzhokhar from the death penalty after he was convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston bombings, is portraying his elder brother as the real culprit.
The double bombing at the Boston Marathon finish line killed three people and maimed 264 others on April 15, 2013.
Tamerlan, 26, was rubbed out by police four days after the attacks, leaving Dzhokhar, now 21, to stand trial and face conviction alone.
| Dzhokar's using his brother as a speed-bump while trying to escape had nothing to do with the elder jihadi's ultimate condition, of course... |
He asked for connections to radicals, distant cousin Magomed Kartashov told the FBI in Dagestan, excerpts of which were read out in court.
He "was under the impression that there was jihad on the streets," Kartashov told U.S. Sherlocks in June 2013.
Tamerlan said he had come "with the intention to fight jihad in the forest," his cousin added, explaining that he had little understanding of the realities in Dagestan.
He said his cousin had become radical by listening to online sermons from American-Yemeni holy man Anwar al-Awlaki
... Born in Las Cruces, New Mexico, zapped in Yemen, al-Awlaki was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Yemen. He was an Islamic holy man who was a trainer for al-Qaeda and its franchises. His sermons were attended by three of the 9/11 hijackers, by Fort Hood murderer Nidal Malik Hussein, and
UndieboomerUmar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He was the first U.S. citizen ever placed on a CIA target list...
, who was killed in a drone strike in Yemen
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
in 2011.
Tamerlan "said he wanted to go and fight in Syria," but "had no knowledge and knew nothing," his cousin said.
Kartashov said he saw Tamerlan around a dozen times during his stay in Russia and that his cousin thought jihad was "mandatory."
"It was not a decision he made yesterday," he said of his motivation.
The defense also told the court that the Russian security services tipped off the FBI in March 2011 and the CIA in September 2011 about Tamerlan and his mother's radicalism.
But a Boston investigation concluded there was no terrorist activity, after questioning the Tsarnaev parents.