In the hours and days after the Boston Marathon Bombing, there were a number of false leads and dead ends that were pursued not only by amateurs in social media, but many of the largest media outlets in the country. Among those were the stories that there was a Saudi national arrested, then released, plus several pictures of individuals now known to have nothing to do with the attack. There was even (and still is) a portion of the population that believes the bombing was either staged, faked or orchestrated by the Federal Government in order to execute martial law in Boston for a day. Here are some of the facts as we now know them:

• The Tsarnaev brothers (Tamerlan, 26 and Dzhokha, 19) planted and detonated a pair of bombs made of pressure-cookers near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, killing three people, including an 8-year-old boy, and injuring more than 260 others.

• They shot and killed an MIT campus police officer on Thursday,

• Shortly after that shooting, Tamerlan was killed in a shootout with police, while Dzhokhar was injured and later captured. In the incident, they utilized pressure-cooker bombs against police, and similar devices were found in their residence.

• In subsequent interviews with family members, and confirmed by Dzhokhar himself before he was read his Miranda rights, their motivation was a hatred for America inspired by radical Islamic teaching.

• Although they apparently carried out the bombing alone, several friends are considered accessories after the fact for helping destroy evidence, and it is possible that Tamerlan's wife may have helped in the preparation of the bombs.

In such an event that is perpetrated by either a single individual or a small number of low profile people, using low-tech materials, is admittedly a difficult one for law enforcement to forsee and even harder to foil. However the more we learn, the more we realize that these two, particularly the older brother should have been at least a “person of interest” before the Watertown shootout, and possibly even before the initial bombing event. Regarding our intelligence on him, we know:

• Twice Russia had contacted the FBI about the Tamerlan's radicalization and their concern regarding his contacts in Russia. First in 2011, and the FBI interviewed Tamerlan but found no incriminating evidence. Then while he was in Dagestan in 2012, he apparently met with, or at least communcated with two Islamic radicals there, William Plotnkov and Masur Nidal. Tamerlan was unders surveilance by Russian counter-terrorism forces at this time. Nidal was killed by Russian special forces in May. On July 14^th, 2012, Plotnikov was killed in a shoot-out with police. Russian counter-terrorism authoritiees were searching for Tamerlan but he had disappeared and fled back to the United States. Russia again contacted the FBI, but received no response.

• The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sent a written warning about Tamerlan Tsarnaev to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2012, according to a senior Saudi government official. They had human intelligence that indicated he was going to detonate a bomb. Saudi Arabia had also denied Tamerlan a visa to visit Mecca in 2011, citing concerns about his radical stances.

• Tamerlan was on two US terror watch lists, as was his own mother.

• At least Tamerlan, possibly Dzhokar, were involved in an unsolved triple homocide that happened in Waltham, on September 11^th.. (not a coincidence), 2011.

With these facts in mind- that intelligence agencies from 2 foreign governments contacted us in the last year to tell us that an indivdual who was already on the watch list was seeking out violent terrorists overseas and possibly planning a bomb attack on a public event- how is that when bombing victim Jeff Bauman fingered the image of the individual that placed the bag down that had the explosives- the FBI and homeland security STILL did not know who the individual was? Instead the FBI held a press conference to ask for the public's help in identifying them. 

Exactly what is the FBI and Homeland Security doing if they are ignoring shared intelligence from other countries counter-terrorism agencies?

We now know that they were busy going over the phone records of the Associated Press, tracking the whereabouts of Fox News reporters, and issuing dire warnings about the dangers of conservatives, vets coming back from the war, and pro-life Roman Catholics. Truly enemies of the state, no doubt. At least they are to Eric Holder, Janet Napalitano and Barack Obama.

The bombings were terrible tragedies, without a doubt. But it is likewise tragic that the Federal Government – again- was looking for terrorists in all the wrong places. Just as in the years before 9-11 in New York, the FBI and Department of Justice under Louis Freeh and Janet Reno were focused on “Right Wing”- particularly Christian extremists- as outlined in their plans from the “Project Megiddo” directive.