April 30th, 2013
08:23 AM ET

Boston probe eyes slain Canadian jihadist, source says

Federal agents are looking into possible links between dead Boston Marathon bomb suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a Canadian boxer-turned-jihadist killed by Russian troops in 2012, a source being briefed on the investigation said Monday.

William Plotnikov and six others died in a firefight with Russian forces in the southwestern republic of Dagestan in July 2012, while Tsarnaev was visiting the region, the source said. The 23-year-old Plotnikov was born in Russia, but his family moved to Canada when he was a teenager.

The source said Plotnikov's body was prepared for burial by a local imam on July 14. Tsarnaev flew out of Dagestan two days later, arriving in New York on July 17. Investigators are looking into the possibility he left because of Plotnikov's death, the source said.

 Post by: ,
Filed under: Boston • Crime • Massachusetts • Terrorism
soundoff (58 Responses)
  1. Jay jay

    Is it any wonder how a terrorist family from Russia is able to collect over a hundred thousand dollars in welfare and other assistance? No. No wonder at all. But people on here claim there is no problems with entitlements here in America. Duh!

    April 30, 2013 at 10:49 am | Report abuse |
  2. Jay jay

    Is it any wonder how a family from Russia can amass over 100000 dollar in welfare and other types of assistance? No. No wonder at all. And people on here claim there is no problem with welfare. Dumb!

    April 30, 2013 at 10:52 am | Report abuse |
  3. BOMBO

    They were getting more than just welfare. Someone was giving these guys cash while they planned jihad.

    April 30, 2013 at 11:00 am | Report abuse |
  4. BRUCE

    Improvements needed to monitoring of potential threats include:
    1) Reset time on the long list when foreign travel is pinged (both into and out of US)
    2) Upgrade to a shorter list and clock reset if determined that travel to a dangerous area is discovered.
    3) Reassess at what point reinterview or surveillance is indicated based on hits to any lists.

    Also note that asylum should be reevaluated (if legal) or revoked if asylum grantee returns to country of persecution. What can we legally do now and what changes (if any) are needed regarding asylum. It is a very important issue in how to determine asylum for citizens who assisted US in countries such as Iraq, Afganistan, Yemen, etc. who may co-operate to infiltrate US forces and /or US itself as sleeper agents. Some who helped earlier may have become dissaffected due to US actions in their country or elsewhere and be a risk.

    April 30, 2013 at 12:24 pm | Report abuse |
  5. saywhat

    Ethnic Chechens fighting for their independence from Russia has been a political movement.
    The world kept ignoring that issue for fear of antagonizing Russia. The region as a consequence is now wide open for extremism to grow & terrorism.

    April 30, 2013 at 12:44 pm | Report abuse |
  6. saywhat

    Not me at 12:38 pm. Beware, the troll is out today.

    April 30, 2013 at 12:45 pm | Report abuse |
  7. saywhat

    Oh yeah!
    We see 'jihad' being carried out on our soil by an estimated 6-7 million Americans of Muslim faith ever since they have been here. lol

    April 30, 2013 at 12:52 pm | Report abuse |
  8. saywhat

    William Platnikov died fighting Russian forces in Dagestan & is called a 'jihadist'.
    Let's dub those rebels fighting Syrian forces, that we train& aid as 'jihadists'.'
    All those 'republics' which struggled & won independence from former USSR too had carried on 'jihad'. God!

    April 30, 2013 at 1:02 pm | Report abuse |
  9. saywhat

    Then all those now independent countries previously part of USSR which struggled for their freedom were carrying on 'jihad'.

    April 30, 2013 at 1:07 pm | Report abuse |
  10. saywhat

    Talibans fighting to kick out Soviets from Afghanistan, called 'freedom fighters', embraced & armed by us were 'jihadists' too.

    April 30, 2013 at 1:37 pm | Report abuse |
  11. saywhat

    Reagan hosted Taliban leaders in White House & called them 'equal to our 'founding fathers'. jihadists indeed.

    April 30, 2013 at 1:40 pm | Report abuse |
  12. saywhat

    Libyan rebels fighting Ghaddafi forces, rebels fighting Bashar forces in Syria all 'jihadists' armed & trained by us.
    Jihadists.

    April 30, 2013 at 1:41 pm | Report abuse |
  13. Trace

    Yeah, yeah, yeah, every American is evil, every last one of us, the US is the most evil country in the world. Yeah, saywhat we get it.

    April 30, 2013 at 2:05 pm | Report abuse |
  14. Hamsta

    I can'y believe some stupid people want to extend welfare benefits for a terrorist by giving him lofe in prison. We should make him watch while his father is castrated and turned into a prison punk while his terrorist mother is anally impaled on a twenty foot pole in front of The Dome Of The Rock in the sands of Jerusalem before we slowly pull all his limbs off his body.

    April 30, 2013 at 4:19 pm | Report abuse |
  15. saywhat

    No@Trace
    Our greatness lies in learning lessons both from history recent & past, learning from mistakes that we have been making in formulating our foreign policy. To get on the right side of history, regain our lost credibility & prestige.

    April 30, 2013 at 5:31 pm | Report abuse |
1 2 3 4
« Back to main