Bombing Suspect Was in Security Files, but Not on Watch Lists
The name of one Boston Marathon bombing suspect was included on U.S. law enforcement and counterterrorism databases, but he was not on any watch list that would have prevented him from flying or required additional screening when he left or entered the country, according to intelligence and law enforcement officials.
After the FBI was asked by the Russians in early 2011 to investigate Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s possible connection to jihadist causes, his name was added to the agency’s Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB). That is a list of more than 500,000 names of known or suspected foreign and domestic terrorists.
Tsarnaev’s name was also included on the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment list, otherwise known as TIDE, which is maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center.
That list is similar to the TSDB database, but contains more detailed, raw intelligence. The two lists are linked. New intelligence and data on suspects is developed and added to TIDE multiple times a day.
When that happens, the TSDB database also is updated.
Both files are tools for law enforcement and intelligence agencies to share information on terrorism suspects.
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