Before Boston Attack, Alleged Bomber Posed With Black Flag of Jihad at Local Mosque
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."
The Islamic Society of Boston opened its first mosque in 1994 on
Prospect Street in Cambridge in a former Knights of Columbus building. A
larger $15.6 million Roxbury mosque opened in 2009. Because of its
size, high holidays, like Eid, are celebrated there, Vali said.
Before Tamerlan Tsarnaev began to pray at the Cambridge mosque, which he
did more frequently than his younger brother and alleged Boston bombing
co-conspirator Dzhokhar, the Islamic Society of Boston over the years
had had a small number of run-ins with alleged would-be violent
extremists.
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.
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.
The mosque was also where Matanov met Ibragim Todashev, a suspect in a
mysterious triple murder elsewhere in Massachusetts, the FBI report
says.
On Sept. 11, 2011, the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks,
the bodies of three young men were discovered with their throats slit
and covered in marijuana in a home in Waltham, Mass.
Todashev, a suspect in the case, lived with Matanov at the time of the
murders, according to FBI reports, and later moved to Florida.
This May Todashev was killed in his Orlando home
by an FBI agent after he allegedly attacked the officer. The FBI says
Todashev was on the verge of signing a statement that implicated himself
and Tamerlan Tsarnaev in the triple murder. The same month, ABC News
reported investigators had developed “mounting evidence,”
bolstered by “forensic hits,” that pointed to the possible involvement
of the Tsarnaev brothers in the grisly unsolved murders.
Matanov's immigration attorney, Paul Glickman, said that his client was
cooperative with the FBI during multiple interrogations over the past
year and answered all of the bureau's questions about the night of the
Waltham murders.
"Mr. Matanov was cooperative multiple times," Glickman told ABC News. "I have no idea why he has been arrested now."
Glickman refused to comment on the specifics of his client's interviews
with the FBI, including at least one that took place at his Boston
office, according to the reports.
Matanov and Todashev have not been implicated in the Boston bombing, but
Matanov did have dinner with the Tsarnaev brothers the day of the
Boston bombing and texted Tamerlan roughly 40 minutes after the deadly
blasts, prosecutors said. He was also in touch with Todashev in Florida
after the attack, the report states.
Edward Hayden, who represents Matanov on the current obstruction charges
said his client is a hardworking immigrant with dreams of bringing his
family to the United States, not a radical.
"Being friends with someone is not an indication of terrorist
activities," he said. The FBI report obtained by ABC News notes that
Matanov told investigators he consciously avoided discussing extremism
with the Tsarnaevs.
The Islamic Society of Boston said too that terrorism is are not in line
with the mosque’s values. Vali pointed out that mosque leaders
volunteered to try and negotiate with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the accused
bomber who survived the police shootout that took his older brother’s
life and who was on the run for hours before being captured.
“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.”
Michele McPhee is a freelance journalist and frequent ABC News contributor based in Boston.
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