Update: The government has officially denied the report is true for whatever that is worth.
More evidence is accumulating that the Boston Bombing was entirely preventable. Despite spending more money since 9/11 on Homeland Security than was spent on the New Deal, the same problems that helped caused 9/11 still exist, namely, intelligence agencies dropping the ball after being given explicit actionable intelligence. And now we find out that not only had the Russian government warned U.S. intelligence services about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, so had the Saudis.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about accused Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, long before pressure-cooker blasts killed three and injured hundreds, according to a senior Saudi government official with direct knowledge of the document.
The Saudi warning, the official told MailOnline, was separate from the multiple red flags raised by Russian intelligence in 2011, and was based on human intelligence developed independently in Yemen.
Citing security concerns, the Saudi government also denied an entry visa to the elder Tsarnaev brother in December 2011,when he hoped to make a pilgrimage to Mecca, the source said. Tsarnaev’s plans to visit Saudi Arabia have not been previously disclosed.
Denying a Muslim a pilgrimage to Mecca is no small thing but the warning from the Saudis allegedly went further.
The Saudis’ warning to the U.S. government was also shared with the British government. ‘It was very specific’ and warned that ‘something was going to happen in a major U.S. city,‘ the Saudi official said during an extensive interview.
It ‘did name Tamerlan specifically,’ he added. The ‘government-to-government’ letter, which he said was sent to the Department of Homeland Security at the highest level, did not name Boston or suggest a date for his planned attack.
I guess no one told the Saudis that DHS isn’t actually about stopping terrorism, it’s for spying on law abiding Americans. Maybe if Tamerlan was protesting the bank bailouts.
But what are we to make of all this? Since 9/11 more money has gone into building this anti-terrorism apparatus than went into the New Deal and it proved completely useless in stopping the Boston Bombing. This after the bomber was on the terrorist watch list and was warned about by not one but two foreign governments. Meanwhile, the U.S. government demands more and more information on its lawful citizens in the name of anti-terrorism. Is this all really about stopping terrorism?
