The Boston bombing – more loopholes discovered

The Boston bombing – more loopholes discovered

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14123812_sThe Boston bombing continues to create news and some point allegedly to things that could have been done to prevent the terror act.

Israeli experts say that one thing is clear – there is still no central body in the U.S. that can process raw intelligence data about planned terror acts and issue warnings accordingly, fast and to the right organizations.

According to the Los Angeles Times five days before two bombs tore through crowds at the Boston Marathon, an intelligence report identified the finish line of the race as an “area of increased vulnerability” and warned Boston police that extremists may use “small scale bombings” to attack spectators and runners at the event.

The 18-page report was written by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center, a command center funded in part by the Department of Homeland Security that helps disseminate intelligence information to local police and first responders.

The “joint special event assessment” is dated April 10. It notes that at the time there was “no credible, specific information indicating an imminent threat” to the race.

“The FBI has not identified any specific lone offender or extremist group who poses a threat to the Boston marathon,” the report reads.

Two officials read parts of the report to a Washington Bureau reporter.

Since the blasts, the FBI has acknowledged that agents had interviewed one of the suspected bombers, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, in 2011 but determined that he did not pose a threat. Customs agents were aware that Tsarnaev had traveled to Russia in 2012, but decided that he didn’t require additional questioning when he returned to the U.S. later that year.

What was known to the FBI and other agencies before the Boston bombings was being examined by the House Homeland Security Committee last week  in the first of a series of hearings investigating the attacks.

Top police officials in Boston testified to the panel that the FBI never shared with local law enforcement agencies that Tsarnaev had visited Dagestan and that FBI and Russian officials were concerned he  and possibly his younger brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, might become radicalized extremists.

i-HLS ISRAEL Homeland Security 

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