That database, the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment,
or TIDE, is a data storehouse that feeds a series of government watch
lists, including the FBI’s main Terrorist Screening Database and the
Transportation Security Administration’s “no-fly” list.
Officials said Tsarnaev’s name was added to the database but it’s unclear which agency added it.
The
CIA’s request came months after the FBI had closed a preliminary
inquiry into Tsarnaev after getting a similar inquiry about him from
Russian state security, according to officials, who spoke on condition
of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
The
new disclosure suggests that the U.S. government may have had more
reason than previously known to scrutinize Tsarnaev in the months
leading up to the bombings in Boston.
Law enforcement officials
said that the request to the FBI in 2011 originated from fears by the
Russian government that Tamerlan was a threat to Russia and would commit
a terrorist act in Russia -- not the United States. The request came
from Russian federal police to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.
“There
was a concern he might have some kind of ties to terrorism,” said FBI
spokesman Paul Bresson. “We did everything legally that we could do with
the little bit of information we had. After we did, we found no
derogatory information.”
The FBI gets hundreds of similar
requests a year from foreign governments, said a law enforcement
official. The findings were reported back to Russia and Russian
authorities were asked if they had any more information for the United
States to investigate about Tamerlan and they did not.
“They were satisfied,” said the official. “We had checked on their information. And no further information was provided.”
In
Russia, meanwhile, representatives of the U.S. Embassy in Moscow were
in Dagestan to interview the parents of the Tsarnaev brothers, an
embassy official said in an e-mail. The mother was interviewed Tuesday
by Russian security officials, according to one of her representatives,
but the father was ill and remained at home.
A police source in
Makhachkala, the capital of the Dagestan region that borders Chechnya,
the homeland of the Tsarnaev family, told the RIA Novosti agency that
the parents told U.S. officials they would go to the United States soon.
“During
the talks it was decided to take the Tsarnaev parents to the United
States. The parents have given their consent to this, they will be
involved in the U.S. investigation,” the source told RIA Novosti.
