Alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev was added to two different United States government watch lists in 2011 even though he was found to have no connections to extremist groups, the New York Times reported online Wednesday.
After Tsarnaev was cleared of any connections to extremist groups, the CIA asked the National Counterterrorism Center to add his name to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, also known as TIDE, a database that “contains about 700,000 names.as a precautionary measure,” according to the Times.
The FBI also reviewed Tsarnaev after Russian officials requested more information on him in advance of his trip to the country in early 2012. After clearing Tsarnaev of any ties to extremist groups and closing out its report, the FBI added the bombing suspect, who died in a shootout with police last week, to a second watch list: the Treasury Enforcement Communications System, or TECS, which “was set up to send an electronic message to customs officials whenever Mr. Tsarnaev left the country,” according to the Times.
