BY HARUT SASSOUNIAN
The bizarre circumstances and dubious names in the Boston Marathon bombings have raised many questions that have yet to be answered by government officials and journalists.
The most mysterious character is ‘Misha’ whom Ruslan Tsarni, uncle of the Boston bombers, described as an Armenian convert to Islam who had supposedly brainwashed and radicalized Tamerlan, the elder of the suspected Tsarnaev brothers. Ruslan described ‘Misha’ as a heavy-set bald exorcist with a long reddish beard!
Initially, no one could find ‘Misha.’ While his alleged affiliation with Tamerlan and Armenian origin was prominently and repeatedly mentioned in the media, it took the authorities 10 days to announce that they knew who ‘Misha’ was and that he had no connection to the terrorist acts!
Last Sunday, Christian Caryl of the New York Review of Books, was finally able to locate and interview the elusive ‘Misha’ in his Rhode Island home. Even though Caryl disclosed that ‘Misha,’ a native of Baku, Azerbaijan, is the son of an Armenian father and a Ukrainian mother, and that his last name is Allakhverdov, the media continues to refer to him as an ‘Armenian.’ Notably, neither Caryl nor anyone else mentions the fact that ‘Misha’ or ‘Mikayel’ — a common Christian name — cannot be the name of a Muslim! Moreover, after the break up of the Soviet Union, many Muslim Azerbaijanis applied for asylum in Europe and the United States, under the pretext that they were persecuted Christian Armenians! It is odd that ‘Misha,’ supposedly a Christian, would flee from Islamic persecution in Baku, only to convert to Islam in America!
Interestingly, Caryl reports that ‘Misha’ had nothing to do with the Boston bombings, which is exactly what government investigators had earlier announced. Could it be that US officials had put Caryl in contact with ‘Misha’ in order to confirm their declaration of his innocence, leading some analysts to speculate that ‘Misha’ may have been an FBI informant whose cover is now being meticulously protected!
The next suspicious character is Uncle Ruslan who has accused ‘Misha the Armenian’ of having a powerful influence over Tamerlan. Ruslan himself has had a checkered past, having worked for USAID and several Caspian Sea energy companies, while married to Samantha Ankara Fuller, daughter of Graham Fuller, a retired top CIA official. Because of Ruslan’s close relationship to the bombers’ family, his employment with Central Asian oil companies including Halliburton, and marriage to the daughter of a high-ranking CIA official, some analysts have suggested that the enigmatic uncle warrants a closer look.
Last week, prominent Armenian-American attorney Mark Geragos blasted Ruslan Tsarni on CNN, suggesting that “somebody needs to give this uncle a field sobriety test, because I think this guy is under the influence of something.” Geragos was furious that Ruslan had linked the Boston bombers to the ‘Armenian Misha,’ while Armenians worldwide were commemorating the 98th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide! Ruslan then tried to reach Geragos by telephone, seeking “to clarify” his earlier statement. Geragos refused to take his call.
Some analysts suggest that Tamerlan may have been recruited by the Russian secret services (FSB) to spy on Chechen extremists during his six-month stay in Chechnya and Dagestan last year. Having informed the FBI and CIA of Tamerlan’s links to radical Islamist groups, and not receiving a satisfactory response from US officials, it could be that the FSB took matters into its own hands and recruited the unemployed and penniless young Chechen during his lengthy stay in Russia.
Other analysts speculate that Tamerlan may have been an informant for the US government. Such a supposition is much more credible than assuming that the FBI and CIA were too incompetent or too busy to conduct a thorough investigation of Tamerlan’s background after the Russian FSB brought his name to their attention. It could be that US authorities knew Tamerlan only too well and may have even encouraged him to travel to Russia as their mole in Jihadist circles.
Finally, there are those who believe that Tamerlan ended up betraying both the Russian and American intelligent services, deciding instead to support radical Islamic groups, “out of anger over US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” according to his younger brother Dzhokhar’s jailhouse confession.
Of course, these speculations are advanced by various analysts based on preliminary information, pending a thorough Congressional investigation to uncover the true facts. Americans killed and maimed in the Boston bombings deserve an honest answer!
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All I can see, that ‘uncle”, Tsarmaev, FSB, FBI and CIA are well connected together for Boston bombing, and nobody really knows the real truth..all I can say that Armenians must be ready for new sabotage by Turkey and Axerbaijan, Aliyev personal fund and Erdogan political influence can discredit Armenians in US public opinion simply to set up Al-Qaeda terrorists in US and blame Armenians, for a political victory and neutralize Armenian Genocide recognition by US Congress, especially when we are getting closer to 2015!!
These are just speculations. We will sound silly if the official investigation finds otherwise. It’s hard to believe the uncle suddenly decided to use the opportunity to link an Armenian to the incident and then later apologized for doing so?? I think we are giving this character too much credit. It’s paranoia on our end to think that there is a conspiracy at ever corner and that the conspirators are so in-tune with the plan.
Most likely, the uncle described ‘Misha’ as an Armenian to help investigators find him. Remember, initially no one knew who ‘Misha’ was, not even the local Mosque. Next to being bald and having a long reddish beard, being a Muslim Armenian was the other most outstanding characteristic of this character. In any case, let’s can the conspiracy theories for once and wait for the official report…..Of course, if we don’t later discredit the report as also being another conspiracy against us….
It truly is sad,that our officials in turkey are being bribed and selling our country U.S. down the river,by false input.The big-mouth uncle IS A TURK,the nephews are turks changing their names.The uncle was married to a cia official over in turkeyGRAHAM FULLER.Who blinked when this trash entered illegally in the U.S.What happened to the American woman killed in turkey,the old Armenian woman….NOTHING-NOTHING-turkey is a SEWER.The money comes from the little bastard brother of turkey.The funding is coming from them.Another bit of info–the big mouth uncle works for Halliburton,who srewed the U.S out of billions,then there is cheney,it goes on,and on.All of these sponsers for the jerky turkey..No wonder we got problems.You will never get the Genocide accepted,with this line-up of crooks..Being an American I worry about the U.S.
“Misha” has been cleared by the FBI. No one but us Armenians are talking about him anymore. Besides, why would this incident, it true, discredit the Armenian cause. I don’t get the logic? If one mention of an Armenian connection is going to derail all our efforts, I think we have bigger problems than “Misha” to worry about. The fact remains that the Chechens are still on the front page as being associated with this act. I don’t think this so-called Armenian conspiracy is worth our time and effort.