Coats Says He Wants To "Get To The Bottom" Of FBI's Botched Investigation Of Terrorist Suspects

We've heard this before. Members of Congress promised to get to the bottom of how so many foreign nationals with terrorist ties could slip into the country undetected and then spend months plotting the hijacking of planes they would fly into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The truth was that many of the hijackers were cleared for entrance by a CIA-run consular officer in Saudi Arabia as Sen. Dan Coats well knows, the same post headed up by current CIA Director John Brennan. Nonetheless, Sen. Coats is promising the public answers it never got after 9/11. The Northwest Indiana Times reports on what Sen. Coats, who sits on the Intelligence Committee, said on Fox News' "American Live With Megyn Kelly." yesterday:

Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., said Tuesday the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hopes to “get to the bottom” of the FBI’s previous investigation of one of the Boston bombing suspects.

“Obviously we can’t jump to conclusions until we hear what the FBI did do, and what other agencies did do,” Coats said in an interview on Fox News’ “America Live with Megyn Kelly.”

Coats is a member of the Intelligence Committee, which heard from FBI officials during a closed hearing Tuesday afternoon after Coats’ TV interview.

He did not issue a statement after the hearing. His office noted that the hearing information is classified and the FBI’s investigation is ongoing.

Coats earlier told Fox News, “We want as much information as we can procure, and we want to get to the bottom of it for the safety of Americans in the future, and it’s for providing justice in the proper way.”

Kelly asked why the FBI had not kept better tabs on bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev after inquiries in 2011 by Russian officials about Tsarnaev’s activities. Tsarnaev, who traveled to Russia last year, was killed in a shootout with police three nights after the April 15 bombings.

“The FBI said they did a thorough investigation, but obviously it wasn’t thorough enough. We are looking for other information as to what we could have learned that we didn’t,” Coats said.

“We want the full detail of everything that was done pre- and post-incident in Boston,” he said. “It’s important that we tie this down to make sure we know if there were connections to terrorist organizations overseas, if there’s some foreign element in this. It’s important to know what kind of procedures we have in place here to prevent this or to get these people’s names on the right screens so that when they do travel in and out of the United States, they pop up when they go through the process.”

If you really wanted the truth, Sen. Coats, you would insist on more information on the accused suspects' uncle with ties to our own government be made public. You won't though because we know you know the truth and have no intention of letting the American people know the truth. Nobody who seeks the truth on these matters is permitted to sit on the Intelligence Committee. The FBI told Sen. Lindsay Graham (R-SC) they didn't know about Tamerlan Tsarnaez's long trip to Russia last year because his name was misspelled when it was entered into the system. I knew that was a lie as soon as he said it. Tamerlan was a lawful permanent resident who carries an ID card issued by DHS with smart card technology that is swiped by U.S. border control agents on entrance and exit from the country. Graham later professed shock when DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano contradicted what the FBI told him when she admitted the agency's system had been pinged when Tamerlan exited and re-entered the country. Their excuse now? The information wasn't shared with the FBI. That contradicts reforms implemented post 9/11 to share information among federal agencies.

On another note, many Americans are going to be inflamed when they hear that the accused bombers and their family members were receiving welfare benefits until they stopped meeting the income requirements last year. The Boston Herald reports:

Marathon bombings mastermind Tamerlan Tsarnaev was living on taxpayer-funded state welfare benefits even as he was delving deep into the world of radical anti-American Islamism, the Herald has learned.

State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state’s Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev’s attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home.

In addition, both of Tsarnaev’s parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state.  

The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money . . .