Remember: former “FBI Director Robert Mueller has also said that although the FBI visited the [Tsarnaev’s] mosque in the past — as part of its ‘outreach’ to the Muslim community — he was unaware of the Islamist leanings of the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB), which runs the Boston bombers’ house of worship. But the FBI was warned nearly four years prior to the bombings that the ISB was a nest of Islamic radicalism.” And it looks as if they missed more signals as well.
“Before Boston Attack, Alleged Bomber Posed With Black Flag of Jihad at Local Mosque,” by Michelle McPhee, ABC News, July 3, 2014 (thanks to A.M.H.):
Months before the 2013 terror attack on the Boston Marathon, accused bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev posed in front of a black flag often associated with jihad with a fellow worshiper at a Boston-area mosque, according to an FBI report obtained by ABC News.
The FBI report, which did not include the photo, describes Tsarnaev and his friend Khairullozhon Matanov as “seated in front of a black flag with a sword and a shadada phrase,” referring to the Muslim statement of faith, and adds that the photo was taken “at the mosque.” Similar flags have become symbols of jihad, used by al Qaeda and al Qaeda-linked extremist groups.
The FBI had been warned by Russian intelligence in 2011 that Tsarnaev may have become radicalized, but the bureau dropped its inquiry months before the photo was taken because it said it “did not find any terrorism activity.”
The black flag picture is part of the evidence prosecutors said Matanov deleted from his computer to obstruct the investigation into the bombings, which in turn led to the arrest of the Kyrgyzstani national last month on federal charges. He has pleaded not guilty and is currently being held without bail.
The FBI report says the alarming photograph was taken on Eid-Al-Adha, also known as the Festival of Sacrifice, the highest of Muslim holidays, but does not say exactly when. A source familiar with the investigation told ABC News it was taken during the August 2012 celebration. The FBI report does not identify the mosque where the photograph was taken.
Tsarnaev and Matanov prayed at a mosque in Cambridge, Mass., the FBI report says, but Yusufi Vali, the Executive Director of the Islamic Society of Boston that opened the mosque told ABC News there were no reports of the black flag of jihad being at the 2012 Eid holiday, or at any other time. Tsarnaev had been asked to leave the Cambridge mosque after he disrupted services later that same year.
“Without doubt there is no symbol of violence or terrorism at the [Cambridge] center,” said Vali. “I can confidently say that we preach moderation in line with more American values.”
Yes, completely in line with American values, such as when the Imam Suhaib Webb of the Islamic Society of Boston called secularism a “lunatic ideology.”
…The Islamic Society of Boston was founded by Abdulrahman Alamoudi, who pleaded guilty in 2004 to charges related to his “activities… with nations and organizations that have ties to terrorism” — including a link to an assassination plot targeting Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah ibn Abdilaziz, according to the Department of Justice. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. To this day the FBI lists Alamoudi’s prosecution as a “Major Terrorism Case” on its website.
Tarek Mehanna, 31, was a pharmaceutical student at a Massachusetts college where his father worked as a professor, and lived with his parents in upscale Sudbury where his mother ran a state-licensed day care center out of her home. He was convicted in 2012 of supporting al Qaeda and conspiring to kill Americans. Before that, Mehanna had visited the Cambridge center for prayers and lectures, in addition to visiting mosques in other parts of the state, Vali said.
After the Boston bombing, investigators found a Tarek Mehanna prayer card tucked into a Russian dictionary in Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s Cambridge apartment, according to court documents.
Who printed those cards? What did they say? Where were they distributed, and by whom?
Mehanna’s alleged accomplice, Ahmad Abousamra, also occasionally prayed at the Cambridge mosque. He had graduated from the prestigious Catholic high school Xavier with honors and his father, Dr. Abdul Abousamra, was a respected endocrinologist at Massachusetts General Hospital before moving to Detroit and was the President of The Islamic Center of New England, according to The Boston Globe.
After being interviewed by agents from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, Abousamra was able to slip out of the country in 2006, according to the bureau. He was indicted in 2009 and last December he was added to the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List with a $50,000 reward for information leading to his capture.
Perhaps most controversial of the group, Dr. Aafia Siddiqui also prayed at the Prospect Street mosque while she earned a scientific doctorate degree at MIT. She eventually moved overseas with her husband and two children. She was detained in 2008 after Afghan officials found her in possession of handwritten notes that referred to a “mass casualty attack” along with a specific list of targets like the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.
As military intelligence officials and FBI agents questioned her at a police compound in Afghanistan, prosecutors said, she grabbed an assault rifle from a U.S. serviceman and opened fire on her interrogators while saying “Death to America,” according to the reported testimony of witnesses. No one was killed in the sudden attack. Siddiqui was convicted in 2010 on federal terrorism charges and sentenced to 86 years in prison.
Director Vali insisted that all were “infrequent” worshippers at the Cambridge center, as were the Tsarnaev brothers, and they also worshipped at other mosques. Their affiliation with the Islamic Society of Boston should not cast aspersions on either the Cambridge center or the larger Roxbury mosque, where some 1,200 worship every week, Vali said.
“When the [Boston] bombings happened initially, like most Bostonians, we were all traumatized and scared. We were devastated that these people were part of city and part of our mosque,” he said….
Is that why, in the wake of the Boston jihad bombing, the Islamic Society of Boston sent out an email to members telling them to contact the ACLU if the FBI wanted to talk with them?
jihad3tracker says
I have not seen JW readers post an appreciation of Mr. Spencer here on our Day of Independence, so let me start — with my deepest gratitude to him for years of virtually 24/7 effort, and for the courage to risk his own life and family members as well.
If I am ever blessed enough to meet him, he’s going to get a bear hug that he will never forget ! ! !
Raise a glass of something appropriate in celebration today for the United States. With all of our problems and shortcomings, there is no better place on this planet to call home….
What say you ???
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
Hear hear. Relentless truth-telling about Moslems is a morally dangerous business. It also precludes a fat job as a professor at some fancy university. His reward for this is what’s happening now with the Copts, something I’m sure he foresaw. After all, the Moslems had been threatening doing just that for centuries now.
Isn’t it amazing that as the facts have gotten worse, higher frequency, more powerful weapons available, a U.S. Prez hooking up with the Mo-Bro-Hood, look at Barack and his War Coward gigolo employee sell out Israel into a probable large scall nuke event, the installation of Holy Ko-Ran-reading mujahidin leaders to replace dictators. Just last week we got our first Caliph in over a hundred years. And sharia law is expanding along with Jihad, cashing in on lawsuit wins, intimidating lesgislatures and media outlets at will. The Jihad has grown exponentially since the ’93 bombing of the WTC. Things have boomed since we ended the Iraq Occupation in ’11. The Jihad is growing, fast, and something big is gonna happen.
In lawyerly parlance, the Moslems have bad facts. Very bad facts. Same goes for their cohort the globo-socialists, dudes like Prez Barack Hussein, for example, in fact now that I think about it he’s gotta the top globo-socialist on earth. If the UN is able to finally get global taxation and assumes the role now held by national governments, Barack is the rock star to become the world’s first President of Earth.
But it looks like the membranes in the walls of the Islam Fictive Reality will hold. General public awareness today the real facts and real causes of the matter isn’t much better today than 20 yrs ago. The opinion programmers are winning; they’re doing a great job on behalf of a 1,400 yr old homicidal maniac cult. On with Mo
Jay Boo says
jihad3tracker
I too appreciate Mr. Spencer’s great contributions but if I were to meet him I would be a bit more reserved.
Should you attempt such a bear hug with three exclamation points, security might wrestle you to the ground assuming you are a fanatical ‘groupie’ or worse.
Maybe you could just settle for just taking a selfie photo.
Jay Boo says
No bear hugs needed jihad3tracker
Jay Boo says
I will bet that every mosque in the country is asking MUSLIMS to donate to get his brother Dzhokhar to walk free.
Jay Boo says
I will bet that every mosque in the country is asking MUSLIMS to donate to get (Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s)
brother Dzhokhar to walk free.
jihad3tracker says
OK, Jay, selfie it is —
Bradamante says
Hip hip hooray!! JihadWatch is my daily go-to site — when I’m feeling depressed and afraid because it feels as if no one recognizes what’s going on right in front of our faces, the frequent updates boost my spirits. And there’s nobody like Robert Spencer when it comes to having all the facts. The fact that he does it all out in public under his real name is, indeed, heroic.
And God bless America!
mom2four says
Agree with my whole heart! Robert Spencer is an American hero.
Ashley says
jihad3tracker…thank you for this post.
We owe so very much to Mr. Spencer.
Shane says
Good point, Robert Spencer is a hero in the fight against Islamic jihad. I don’t use my real name in my posts, as I fear Muslim savages will attack me an my family.
I am not surprised that the mosque Tsarnaev attended preached jihad against the infidel. Most mosques in the USA do preach jihad against the infidel and the infidel government.
Uri says
“Without doubt there is no symbol of violence or terrorism at the [Cambridge] center,” said Vali.
Except for that manual of hatred and blasphemy called the koran
Jay Boo says
“Islamic Society of Boston (ISB), which runs the Boston bombers’ house of worship”
“But the FBI was warned nearly four years prior to the bombings that the ISB was a nest of Islamic radicalism.”
HOW COULD THIS BE ????
Alarmed Pig Farmer says
How could that be? The ISB was born of subsidies paid for by taxpayer money, they had political cover from the get-go.
Or, it could be that when warned of Islamic Radicalism, the FBI blew it off knowing that *all* of Islam is radical. There’s no use fighting it, and a few dismembered legs is the price to pay for the multicultural pleasure of paying taxpayer money to bring them in and have them among us.
Jay Boo says
Agreed, That is the likely reason.
Meanwhile the NSA is in the news yet again for spying on US allies in Europe to the anger of these governments.
It might be a better idea to aid the police to spy on hate speech mosques in NYC.
Could it be that the Europeans are hiding terrorists that they don’t want us to know about or are they simply afraid to trust the duplicitous Obama administration for fear the terrorists will be tipped off or Obama will run interference?
Jay Boo says
http://lonelyconservative.com/2013/06/obamas-spy-dragnet-excludes-mosques/
Shane says
Obama and the traitorous libs in general state that terrorism done by Muslims has nothing to do with Islam or jihad. Obama ordered all mentions of Islam and Jihad removed from our counter-terrorism training manuals. Mr. Spencer is well aware of that fact.
RG says
“Since the bombing what we are intentionally trying to do at that Cambridge center is to push the right vision of Islam, in a stronger way… contributing positively to our community,’’ Vali said. “That’s what we are about.”
WHAT A CROCK!
I, for one, am so sick of hearing how the damn muzzies are so into “contributing positively to our community”. WHAT A REAL CROCK!!!!
And just one more thing while I’m at it–mosques are nothing more and nothing less than JIHADIST TRAINING CENTERS!
Stop calling them “houses of worship” and “community centers”–the only prayers that muslims “pray” go something like this, “Oh, allah, please help us to kill all the infidels, Christians and Jews, and please bring the world caliphate to pass.” NO JOKE–THAT’S WHAT EVERY DAMNED MUZZIE LEARNS FROM THE TIME HE’S OLD ENOUGH TO PSS HIS PANTS!!
So how’s that even remotely considered to be prayers and worship to God??? ISLAM IS EVIL, pure and simple, thru and thru!!! Hands down!!!
Jay Boo says
You can bet that Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s brother Dzhokhar will get the best lawyer that overflowing mosque donations can buy.
mortimer says
‘It had NOTHING to do with Islam.’
I didn’t see nothin’.
Nope. I didn’t see them.
What black flag? Oh, THAT black flag. Coincidence.
WallyUK says
“The FBI report…. describes Tsarnaev and his friend Khairullozhon Matanov as “seated in front of a black flag with a sword and a shadada phrase,” referring to the Muslim statement of faith….”
I hope ‘shadada’ (for ‘shahada’) was a typo – or is FBI knowledge of Islam that slapdash? Use of the words “A shadada phrase” make it sound as if the guy doesn’t know exactly what he’s talking about- perhaps a lecture on the rudiments from Robert Sencer would be in order.
duh_swami says
The ‘Black Flag ‘, is the flag of death…It led Mahound into battle.
Today it is also the name of a popular insecticide.
Boston Tea Party says
“Tsarnaev had been asked to leave the Cambridge mosque after he disrupted services later that same year.”
The mainstream media always has to stick this line in there, hoping the average reader will infer something like “oh, he was so radical that all those moderate Muslims kicked him out of their mosque permanently.” In actuality, he was asked to leave THAT SPECIFIC SERMON on THAT DAY—he was not in any way barred or discouraged from attending the next day, or any day in the future.
Ashley says
Whoa…
Nice find and observation!
Citizen Warrior says
After all Robert S has revealed about the Boston Bombings, and the knowledge the FBI et al had, and should have pursued sooner, I often wonder about all those individuals that were badly hurt , left disabled for the rest of their lives and the PTSD they will suffer, (and the unbearable pain they have been through) and of course not to forget the parents of that little boy killed; How must they feel on a day to day basis that their injuries COULD have been prevented_ Have their voices been lost in this horrible episode in American history? Did they all have insurance, did they all get the expert medical assistance they needed? how did their husbands, wives, children, relatives, parents coped with such horrific injuries? And the family of the policeman shot ? Are they all getting the counseling they need? I often think about all these people – even more so when I see the remaining bomber’s photo, or see a video of his Mother! denying SO much…How apologists for the so called moderate Muslims even dare open their mouths is beyond me, and then deny that ISLAM had nothing to do with those brothers crimes against humanity? And stupid, stupid people who stand up for multiculturalism and declare that we are all equal! I just about go insane.
Are these people living on the same planet as me? We need a thousand + Robert Spencer’s in this world; Sadly so many who can will not speak up.
Sorry for making this post so long, but those questions haunt me a lot of the time?
Thank God for Robert Spencer, Pamela Geller, Daniel Greenfield (brilliant writer) Douglas Murray (UK) Richard Dawkins, etc etc
Undaunted says
The Eff-Bee-Eye “did not find any terrorism activity” so they shut down the investigation on this guy.
So, to them, a fully operational, ticking bomb is not a bomb until it goes BOOM.
Brilliant.
http://freemendo.typepad.com/undaunted/2013/05/you-can-run-but-you-cannot-hide.html
voegelinian says
“So, to them, a fully operational, ticking bomb is not a bomb until it goes BOOM.”
It depends on one’s definition of “fully operational ticking bomb”. The FBI under Obama must follow a template where nothing short of a lit fuse, apparently (essentially the mainstream PC MC template), is warrant for investigation.
I support the other end of the spectrum: the mere affiliation with Islam is the lit fuse.
Not a few JWers, apparently, lean far in the opposite direction, not too many degrees of separation from the mainstream PC MC template (though they otherwise seem to be tough and no-nonsense in their anti-Islam bonafides).
Skeptic says
Those boys were framed. A Fagor pressure cooker is 10 inches tall and would weigh at least 30 pounds with the explosives and shrapnel. Look at their backpacks. There is no way the two could have have been carrying bombs like that on their famous stroll down the sidewalk. The following days were a circus. What really happened? I bet the FBI knows.
Boston Tea Party says
But I bet it was probably the Jews,–right, Skeptic?
Skeptic says
I am not saying who did it, I am saying who did not do it. Why don’t you stick to the subject. Could there have been bombs of that size and weight in their backpacks? Do you prefer t take the word of the FBI guy with the crew cut?
hilarity says
This site is hilarious. The comments sections are so entertaining, judging from the odd capitalization, utter disregard for punctuation and grammar, the posters must be sitting on the porches of their trailers in the south with straw on their mouths and their front teeth missing.
The world will leave you all behind in your ignorance. Enjoy your time while it lasts, I hope you one day see the frivolity of your existence and embrace a higher purpose.
The internet should be restricted to people with college degrees, not drop outs and blue collar laborers that couldn’t tell an apostrophe from a comma.
Boston Tea Party says
Yes, I’m sure that when William F. Buckley declared that he’d rather be governed by the first 300 people in the Boston phone directory rather than by the faculty of Harvard, you were scratching your head in complete incomprehension.
But please, do stay and enlighten us all with your profound exegesis of Islamic scripture. I think many of us here look forward to benefiting from your erudition and scholarship on the points in question.
silinsky says
Afia has her Ph.D from Brandies! Oh, what an unlikely venue for Islamist ideology.