Thread: Napolitano Testifies to Senate Panel on Bombing Suspects

42 MINs agoWashington Wire

Napolitano Testifies to Senate Panel on Bombing Suspects

A federal inquiry into the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev was concluded by the time he returned to the U.S. from a six-month visit to Russia in 2012, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told a panel of Senate lawmakers on Tuesday.

By Corey Boles

WASHINGTON—A federal inquiry into the activities of Tamerlan Tsarnaev was concluded by the time he returned to the U.S. from a six-month visit to Russia in 2012, Homeland Security Janet Napolitano told a panel of Senate lawmakers on Tuesday.

Ms. Napolitano said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee the system did alert authorities when Mr. Tsarnaev left the U.S., offering up a defense of the law enforcement system’s actions in the case.

“The system pinged when he was leaving the U.S.,” Ms. Napolitano said in response to questions from the top Republican on the panel, Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa. “By the time, he returned, all investigations, the matter had been closed.”

A U.S. law enforcement official has previously said an FBI inquiry began in February 2011 at the request of Russian authorities and was closed about three months later.

The older Mr. Tsarnaev was killed in that shootout, and his younger brother was later found by police and arrested. He remains seriously injured, in custody at a Boston hospital.

Ms. Napolitano also said that a Saudi national who was initially questioned by police in the immediate wake of the bombings was never on a federal “watch list” nor was he “really a person of interest.” She said “this student was in the wrong place in the wrong time.”

That individual who hasn’t been identified by police was later released.

Ms. Napolitano was also asked about the robustness of the current background checking system of foreign nationals claiming asylum in the U.S. She said that over the past four years, the Obama administration had increased both the thoroughness and number of levels of vetting that occurred.

She said through the entirety of the process, people claiming asylum could be interviewed at least three times, and vetted by federal officials at several points throughout the process. She said that peoples’ biometric and biographical data is screened across all U.S. law-enforcement systems to ensure they have a clean background.

The Tsarnaev brothers initially came to the U.S. as minors after their father claimed asylum in 2002. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev eventually was granted citizenship while his older brother had a green card at the time of the attacks.

Several Republican lawmakers have increasingly argued that the marathon bombings should slow down the progress of a Senate bill seeking to overhaul the country’s immigration laws.

Ms. Napolitano told lawmakers that the border security measures included in the bill would build on and supplement the existing enforcement system already in place.

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