Russia first warned the FBI of Boston Marathon bombing mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev in spring and later fall of 2011 - at the time, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were monitoring Occupy Boston

[chatnoir]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16446-the-wrong-men-how-the-dhs-failed-to-prevent-terrorism

The Wrong Men: How the DHS Failed to Prevent Terrorism

. Russia first warned the FBI of Boston Marathon bombing mastermind
Tamerlan Tsarnaev in spring and later fall of 2011 - at the time, the
FBI and Department of Homeland Security were actively monitoring
Occupy Boston. (Photo: Ethan M. Long)Imagine if a band of violent
criminals stormed a building, fatally shot several people and injured
hundreds of others. What if the local police department was busy
playing cards instead of stopping the bandits? Shouldn’t those
irresponsible cops be held partially responsible for those casualties,
if not lose their jobs altogether?

Russia first warned the FBI of Boston Marathon bombing mastermind
Tamerlan Tsarnaev in Spring of 2011, saying he had radical tendencies
and could potentially stage a terror attack. Russian intelligence
warned the feds again during the Fall of that same year. But in
Boston, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security were busy
monitoring something else in the Fall of 2011—Occupy Boston
protesters.

The ACLU was able to obtain documents of intelligence reports filed in
2011. They reveal that on September 30, the DHS-funded Boston Regional
Intelligence Center, or BRIC, was collecting information about an
upcoming Occupy Boston rally in Dewey Square, just two days after
Russia sent them the second warning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Boston
Police Commissioner Ed Davis recently told Congress he “would have
liked to know” that there was a potential extremist with violent
intentions living in his city, and accused BRIC of failing to properly
inform local law enforcement about a possible terrorist threat.

The DHS, which spent billions of dollars on fusion centers like BRIC,
has been accused of gathering “crap intelligence” and using federal
anti-terrorism programs and resources to spy on nonviolent protesters
exercising their First Amendment rights, rather than stopping
terrorists. When they should have been investigating Tamerlan
Tsarnaev’s extremist ties, the intelligence arm of the Boston Police
Department was busy collecting information on peaceful antiwar
activists from Code PINK and Veterans for Peace. That information was
assembled in dossiers categorized under “Criminal Act,” “Extremists,”
“Civil Disturbance,” and the more disturbing “HomeSec- Domestic.”

In fact, monitoring the Occupy movement became DHS’ key focus in
October of 2011, when the movement’s power and influence was at its
peak. Among the topics included in the DHS’ daily intelligence
briefing was “peaceful activist demonstrations.” That section was
included in the same briefings as “significant criminal activity” and
potential domestic terrorist acts.

In the days leading up to the Boston Marathon bombings, agencies were
aware that the race's finish line was “an area of increased
vulnerability” and could be subject to domestic terrorism. Had
Boston’s well-financed criminal intelligence prioritized actual
domestic terrorists like Tamerlan Tsarnaev instead of nonviolent
protesters, the warnings from Russia may have been taken seriously and
the attack prevented.

This is all leading back to the troubling trend of the massive
surveillance-industrial complex that’s cost us hundreds of billions of
dollars since 9/11. It’s been recently revealed that federal agencies
are likely reading our emails without a warrant, even though they’ve
needed a warrant to read postal mail since the 19th century. One can
only imagine how they’ve been misusing such unprecedented surveillance
technology over the last decade. .... (cont)