Slain Boston Bomb Suspect Tried To Obtain Infamous Anti-Semitic Tract
Tamerlan Tsarnaev Image by getty images
Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the slain man suspected of carrying out the Boston Marathon bombing with his younger brother, told a relative he was seeking a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Elmirza Khozhugov, who was married for a time to Tsarnaev’s sister, Ailina, told the Associated Press in an interview published Tuesday that Tsarnaev had been radicalized by a Muslim convert whom he named as Misha.
Tsarnaev started visiting conspiracy websites, Khozhugov said, and was seeking a copy of the Protocols, a notorious Tsarist forgery positing world control by a Jewish cabal.
Federal authorities have charged Tsarnaev’s younger brother and alleged accomplice, Dzhokhar, with a weapons of mass destruction charge for alleged role in planting the bombs that killed three people and wounded scores in last week’s marathon.
The elder Tsarnaev was killed in a shootout last Friday, but not before a policeman was killed during a day-long chase. It is still not clear what motivated the attacks.
The Tsarnaevs are ethnic Chechens, a persecuted minority in Russia.
Why I became the Forward’s Editor-in-Chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
