Latest Boston bombings updates: Mom was in terror database, suspect moved to prison
The mother of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing was added to a federal terrorism database about 18 months before the attack, the Associated Press is reporting.
Government officials who insisted on anonymity told the AP that the CIA asked for Zubeidat Tsarnaeva to be placed on an intelligence database called TIDE, short for the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment. The CIA also had 26-year-old bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev placed on that list, which feeds information to other terror databases.
The CIA made the requests after Russian officials raised concerns that the two were religious militants and about to travel to Russia.
Tamerlan Tsarnaev and his brother, 19-year-old Dzhkokhar, are suspected in the April 15 blasts at the marathon finish line that killed three people and wounded more than 260.
Dzhokhar is facing federal charges in the attacks; Tamerlan died trying to escape from authorities last week.
Since the blasts, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva has insisted her sons were innocent and called the explosions a hoax.
Suspect moved from hospital to prison
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been moved from a hospital to a Massachusetts prison.
The U.S. Marshals service said today he was transported overnight from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to the Federal Medical Center Devens. The center, located about 40 miles west of Boston, treats federal inmates who require long-term medical or mental health care.
Tsarnaev is recovering from gunshot wounds and other injuries suffered during the brothers' getaway attempt.
Massachusetts antiterror units not told about FBI investigation
Antiterrorism intelligence centers in Massachusetts were never told that the FBI had probed Tamerlan Tsarnaev's activities in 2011, the Boston Globe reports.
Two intelligence units that are supposed to be clearinghouses for details on possible threats weren't informed that Russian authorities alerted the FBI about Tsarnaev's Islamic radicalization and that the bureau interviewed the suspect.
"We were not privy to the tip," Massachusetts State Police spokesman David Procopio told the newspaper. "They didn't share that information with us."
Landfill searched
Federal investigators have been searching a New Bedford, Mass., landfill near the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, where Dzhokhar was a student, the Globe reports.
Officials confirm NYC attack planned
The brothers were plotting to go set off bombs in Times Square the night Tamerlan died trying to escape authorities and Dzhokhar was apprehended in a bloodied boat, New York City officials confirmed Thursday.
"In the car, they made a decision to go to New York with the remaining explosives that they had," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said. The two planned to detonate the bombs in Times Square, he said.
Reports earlier this week suggested that a New York attack was planned, but officials said they believed the suspects had only been traveling to the city to party.
Kelly said today that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was "more lucid" in subsequent questioning.
Kelly and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said they didn't know why the pair was targeting New York and didn't appear to have any more specific plan than to go to Times Square with the explosives.
There is no evidence to suggest that New York is still a target, Bloomberg said.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.