What Else Does Uncle Ruslan Know?

Ruslan Tsarni speaking to reporters outside his home in Montgomery Village, MD, a northern D.C. suburb just outside the Capital Beltway

 

Ruslan Tsarni emerged from his suburban Washington, D.C. home only hours after federal officials identified Tameran and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as the prime suspects in last Monday's deadly Boston Marathon bombings to appear before a gaggle of reporters at a hastily-called and carefully choreographed press conference, which by all appearances was arranged by federal law enforcement so he could announce to the world that he was the uncle of the two suspects he denounced as "losers." In the short press conference, Tsarni left no doubts that he would be no shrinking violet in denouncing the malevolent actions he, unlike other family members, had concluded they had committed. Asked by reporters how his nephews could have carried out the bombings, this is how the Washington Post says Tsarni responded:

Being losers,” was the only thing Tsarni could come up with. “Hatred for those who were able to settle themselves. These are the only reasons I can imagine of. Anything else, anything else to do with religion, with Islam, it’s a fraud, it’s a fake.

“Dzhokhar, if you’re alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness from the victims, from the injured and from those who left, ask forgiveness from these people,” Ruslan Tsarni said. “He put a shame on our family, [the] Tsarni family. He put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity. Because everyone now, they play with the word, Chechen, so they put that shame on the entire ethnicity.”

Uncle Ruslan admitted to reporters that he hadn't seen his nephews or their parents in several years. Another uncle, Alvi Tsarni, lives in the same neighborhood near Ruslan's house. He was more reserved in his comments. He said a family conflict had dvided him from the rest of his family. He had no message for his surviving nephew.  “What can I tell him?” Alvi Tsarni said. “He’s not going to listen to me.” On cue, Uncle Ruslan concluded his short press conference after being tapped on the shoulder by an unidentified plainclothes federal law enforcement officer.

As he spoke, law enforcement officers stood behind him. Some were in plain clothes and had been inside his home, apparently federal agents who had talked to him about his family. Others were uniformed officers from Montgomery County who had helped keep reporters from knocking on Tsarni’s door. At some point, one of the plainclothes agents made a motion that it was time to cut Tsarni off. The officers tapped his back and led him back into his house.

My immediate reaction to Ruslan's damning condemnation of the nephews he hadn't seen in years was to wonder why a family relative would so quickly throw the two suspects under the bus before more than circumstantial evidence in the form of photographic images of two suspects wearing backpacks near the two bombings who resembled his nephews had been offered by the government to prove their guilt. Within hours of the suspects' images being broadcast worldwide, the two would out themseleves by allegedly killing an MIT police officer, hijacking a car, robbing the motorist and critically wounding a transit officer during a shootout with police, which would leave one of his nephews dead after more than 200 rounds were allegedly fired and several explosive devices had been hurled at the police by the suspects. The younger brother was still on the run from police as his uncle spoke to reporters.

As Internet sleuths had already demonstrated, numerous individuals carrying backpacks near the scene of the bombings had been identified in photographs taken at or near the time of the explosions. Various news reports also indicated that law enforcement officials had only 24 hours earlier circulated images of two suspects to select members of the media that identified persons other than Ruslan's nephews, which some new organizations even went so far as to publish, including the New York Post. More importantly, the original suspect identified by law enforcement was a Saudi national who had been injured by one of the bomb's blasts and thought to be acting suspiciously in the blast's aftermath by police. Very troubling terrorist ties of that individual have been reported mostly by alternative media after unnamed ICE officials told reporters the individual's status on a student visa would be revoked and that he would be removed from the country in short order. Never forget that 15 of the 19 terrorists who carried out the 9/11 attacks were Saudi nationals.

I was struck by the lack of interest on the part of the mainstream media to inquire more deeply into the background of the suspects' uncle, who was so quick to accept their guilt, at the same time his parents and aunt emotionally defended their innocence, even going so far as to claim the two men had been framed. The fact that Ruslan, also an immigrant, lived near the nation's capital and had helped facilitate the immigration of the suspects and their families from Russia back in 2002 made his comments all the more peculiar. Press reports said little about him, other than he was a corporate attorney who had shortened his name to "Tsarni" after graduating from law school at Duke University. So much for Uncle Ruslan, the ace attorney in the family, believing in innocence until proven guilty like his nephews' aunt, an attorney in training living in Toronto, Canada. Naturally, we have to turn to alternative media to learn who Uncle Ruslan is. All I can I say after learning his background is wow!

It turns out that Ruslan worked for USAID as a consultant back in the 1990s in the Russian republic of Kazakhstan before becoming a prominent oil and gas attorney for various energy companies. Madcow investigative journalist Daniel Hopsicker uncovered a press announcement when Ruslan joined Big Sky Energy Corporation as a top executive back in 2005. Here's Ruslan's biographical narrative recited in that announcement:

Mr. Ruslan Tsarni, a U.S. citizen, has over 10 years of professional experience in oil and gas legislation and corporate law. Previously, Mr. Tsarni served as Corporate Counsel of Nelson Resources Limited Group of companies, as well as Managing Director of several of its operating subsidiaries, responsible for all matters relating to corporate governance and placements and filing requirements under the securities regulations of Toronto Stock Exchange and AIM. He worked with financial institutions and banks on raising funds for acquisition and development of the assets operated by Nelson's subsidiaries, as well as managed legal and administrative matters for all such subsidiaries. From 1999 to 2001, Mr.  Tsarni worked as Head of Legal Affairs of Golden Eagle Partners LLC where he developed downstream and upstream oil and gas businesses in Kazakhstan and served as Managing Director of its wholly owned subsidiary Tobe LLP. From 1998 to 1999 Mr. Tsarni worked as Senior Associate with Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn providing legal advise to major multinational companies on different aspects of Kazakhstan legal issues on development of mineral resources, corporations, taxation, currency, customs, employment, banking, bankruptcy and trade marks. From 1994 to 1996, Mr. Tsarni served as a consultant for Financial Markets International LLC and Arthur Andersen LLP contracted by USAID for projects aimed to develop securities markets in Central Asia, where he trained corporate governance and corporate finance principals to state and private companies. 

According to Hopsicker, the CIA often used USAID, a government agency, as cover for its agents during the 'Wild West' days of the early 1990's, when anything that wasn't nailed down in that country was up for grabs. What's equally intriguing is Ruslan's involvement in an ongoing investigation of a billionaire businessman from Kazakhstan, Timur Kulibayev, who has been accused of embezzling $6 billion from Kazakhstan's BTA Bank, and who is involved in a separate investigation that has ensnared Britain's Prince Andrew, who sold a multi-million dollar estate he owned to Kulibayev at a selling price $5 million over the market price. The estate has sat unused since payment for it was arranged through an offshore transaction.

Prince Andrew, the Duke of York, in his capacity as Special Trade Represenative, allegedly discussed a bribery arrangement and an investigation of an arms deal. "The Duke, she explained, 'was referencing an investigation, subsequently closed, into alleged kickbacks a senior Saudi royal had received in exchange for the multi-year, lucrative BAE Systems contract to provide equipment and training to Saudi security forces." Kazakhstan President's billionaire son-in-law purchased Prince Andrew's Surrey mansion in Sunninghill Park using offshore companies. Kulibayev is described in the leaked cabals as one of the men who has accumulated millions in gas-rich Kazakhstan. Last year, Swiss and Italian police were reportedly investigating "a network of personal and business relationships" of the Duke of York used for international corruption. Enviro Pacific Investment, which charges large fees to energy companies seeking to do business with Kazakhstan, reportedly contributed part of the purchase price for the Surrey mansion. Prince Andrew has denied any wrongdoing.

Relying on reports by the London Telegraph, Hopsicker notes an investigation into money laundering by Kulibayev discussing Ruslan as a witness. Tsarni, who is referred to as "a U.S. lawyer who has had dealings in Kazakh business affairs," was reported to have given a statement "in the High Court in December, claiming that Kulibayev bought Sunninghill and properties in Mayfair with $96 million derived from a complex series of deals intended to disguised money laundering." The report continued, "Tsarni alleged that the money came from a takeover of a western company, which had  been used as a front to obtain oil contracts from the Kazakh state." The report alleges that Blue Sky Energy where Tsarni was employed as a top executive was the western company he mentioned in his testimony had been used as part of the money laundering scheme. Hopsicker cites a source from Platts Oilgram News for the proposition that several of the energy companies with which Tsarni has been affiliated in the past, including Big Sky, as being "on my watch list for intelligence connections and pay-offs of various kinds." Hopsicker also notes that a Radio Free Europe report describes the Tsarnaevs as being a very well-connected family in their native Chechen community. Perhaps it's just a coincidence, but their home near the border of Kazakhstan was next door to the home of a well-known organized crime boss, Aziz Baukaev, also a member of the Chechen community.

Imagine, a connection between good 'ole oil and terrorism. Did we spend trillions of dollars fighting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to fight terrorism, or was it all about access and control of Middle Eastern oil? Did we become involved in Libya to overthrow an evil dictator, or was it all about the country's oil?  Yesterday, the New York Post ran a story describing how Tameran Tsarnaez became radicalized in recent years living in the U.S. "[Tamerlan] mentioned how in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, most casualties are innocent people gunned down by American soldiers," the Post reported. "He mentioned that America has colonial power and is trying to take over in the Middle East and Africa." I wonder where he would have got that thought? From a Washington Post report last year titled,  "Why do we ignore the civilian casualties in American wars?":

Despite the fact that contemporary weapons are vastly more precise, Iraq war casualties, which are also hard to quantify, have reached several hundred thousand. In mid-2006, two household surveys — the most scientific means of calculating — found 400,000 to 650,000 deaths, and there has been a lot of killing since then . . .

The war in Afghanistan has been far less violent than the others, with civilian and military deaths estimated at about 100,000.

Will anyone in the mainstream media investigate Uncle Ruslan's ties to energy companies and the U.S. government? Is it possible Uncle Ruslan's nephews are mere patsies in a much larger plot? Some of us would like to know. The people are counting on a few good investigative journalists to do the job. Watching mainstream news reports over the past week gives me little hope any will emerge.

UPDATE: Possibly related story. The Boston Globe reports on the apprehension of two students from Kazakhstan in New Bedford for visa violations who are suspected of being connected to the suspected bombers. These are likely the students shown in one of photos Dzhokhar Tsarnaev supposedly uploaded to his Twitter account, which shows them standing next to a black BMW with a vanity plate on the front that reads "Terrorista". A little too obvious, don't you think? Sort of like the YouTube clips promoting radical Islamic views that Tamerin supposedly uploaded to the Internet and then removed. The people who stage these false flags count on a complacent media and a stupid, undiscerning public. Former President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about these evil forces in his farewell address. Nobody listened to him. His successor's assassination was a product of the very forces that the decorated WWII general had grown to fear.

Two foreign students arrested Saturday in New Bedford for allegedly violating their student visas are from Kazakhstan and may have known the brothers accused of bombing the Boston Marathon, according to a statement from the nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

FBI and Homeland Security agents wearing hazmat suits descended on the students’ neighborhood on Monday and searched their apartment, according to media reports in New Bedford.

Kazakhstan’s foreign ministry said US immigration officials discovered the students while investigating the Tsarnaev brothers’ “possible links and contacts,” particularly those who studied with them. The students – two men -- are being held in Boston, according to the ministry and a US official.

“During the investigation, it was revealed that two students from Kazakhstan had violated the U.S. visa regime in the course of their studies. They were consequently arrested until the full clarification of the circumstances is achieved,” the ministry said in a statement.

The New Bedford students are being held on civil immigration violations, not criminal charges, which is why federal officials have not disclosed their names to the public. US immigration officials usually withhold the names of immigrant detainees purportedly to protect their privacy, even though detainees are often held in the same jails as criminals.

Kazakhstan’s consul is in Boston to work with the students, their families and US authorities, according to the ministry. The oil-producing nation of 17 million people was formerly a part of the Soviet Union. The United States was the first nation to recognize the nation’s independence in 1991, federal records show.

On Monday, Kazakhstan officials assured the United States that they were willing to cooperate on issues of terrorism. “We would like to reaffirm our openness to cooperation with the United States on the issue and emphasize that Kazakhstan strongly condemns terrorism and acts of terrorism in any form,” the embassy said.