Russia Sent U.S. 'Multiple' Warnings About Boston Marathon Suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev

After attending a closed door briefing on Tuesday, members of the Senate Intelligence Committee learned that Russia warned the U.S. about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the now deceased Boston Marathon bombing suspect, on "multiple" occasions.

Russia did not hesitate to alert the US government about their concerns with Tsarnaev and sent US officials a warning in 2011 which led the FBI to interview the 26-year-old. However, he was determined to not be a threat. A year later, Russia sent another alert.  

In hindsight, U.S. senators are questioning whether the FBI should have focused more attention on the suspected terrorist. 

"I'm very concerned that there still seem to be serious problems with the sharing of information, including critical investigative information," Republican Sen. Susan Collins told reporters following the private briefing. "That is troubling to me, this many years after the attacks on our country in 2001, that we still seem to have stovepipes that prevent information from being shared effectively, not only among agencies but also with the same agency in one case."

N.C. Sen. Richard Burr said that Russia alerted the United States about Tsarnaev in "multiple contacts," including "at least once since October 2011."  

Lawmakers also expressed concern about the poor communication between federal agencies in their ability to share vital information about Tsarnaev. This, they said, indicates that the US government still has not established a strong system to "connect the dots" about would-be terrorists residing in America over 10 years after 9/11.

During the briefing, Deputy FBI Director Sean M. Joyce, the National Counter-terrorism Center and the Department of Homeland Security also revealed that the Homeland Security was aware that Tsarnaev spent six months in Makhachkala, Dagestan, a base for Islamic fundamentalism and terrorist bombings. U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano explained that his name was misspelled on an airliner passenger list which is why the FBI missed it. Nonetheless, her department was aware of the trip "even with the misspelling under our current system, there are redundancies, and so the system did ping when he was leaving the United States."