Lupica: Hiding evidence for Boston Marathon bombers goes beyond obstruction of justice
Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev are charged with 'knowingly destroying, concealing, and covering up objects belonging to (Dzhokhar Tsarnaev), namely a backpack.' Robel Phillipos is charged with lying to the feds. If they are guilty, they obstructed humanity and aided terrorists.
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 10:07 PM
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Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (second from right) stands with Azamat Tazhayakov (second from left) and Dias Kadyrbayev (center) in Times Square. Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev were both arrested for visa violations on Saturday.
Maybe these friends of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev thought that blowing up innocent people at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, blowing off their legs or killing them, was like some kind of game. Like video-game killing. Maybe that is how three morons convinced themselves it was all right for friends to help friends.
The government now charges Azamat Tazhayakov and Dias Kadyrbayev with “knowingly destroying, concealing, and covering up objects belonging to (Tsarnaev), namely a backpack.” And Robel Phillipos is charged with lying to the feds. If the three of them did what they’re accused of, they were not just knowingly helping friends; they were helping terrorists.
“And at that moment,” a government source told me Wednesday afternoon, “(the Tsarnaev brothers) were part of the No. 1 terror case in the world.”
The government now says that Tazhayakov, Kadyrbayev and Phillipos — classmates of the younger Tsarnaev brother at UMass Dartmouth — agreed to get rid of Dzhokhar’s backpack after the whole world saw pictures of him and his older brother on the Thursday when they were identified as suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing.
Understand: There is obstruction of justice, and then there is obstruction of justice involving a terrorist attack, a cold-blooded attack that killed an 8-year-old boy and two young women on Boylston St. the day of the most famous road race in the world. Two pressure-cooker bombs doing the job in the middle of Boylston St. the way roadside bombs do the job in the Middle East.
Phillipos and Kadyrbayev are 19. Tazhayakov is 20. What kind of kid helps out somebody who did what Tsarnaev did in Boston that day?
“This wasn’t the kind of college-boy obstruction where you throw the vodka bottle out of the car window when you think you’re about to get busted for a DWI,” the government source said. “This was obstruction after three dead in a terrorist attack. These were good enough friends (to Tsarnaev) that he felt confident enough to call them and ask them to get rid of evidence.”
Robel Phillipos/youtube
Robel Phillipos. “This wasn’t the kind of college-boy obstruction where you throw the vodka bottle out of the car window when you think you’re about to get busted for a DWI,” a government source said of the friends' alleged efforts to help Boston Marathon boming suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Boston cops and the feds also want to know whether or not the Tsarnaevs simply got lost in Watertown, Mass., the night Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, was fatally shot in a firefight with police. Or if Watertown was a destination for them because they had other friends willing to help them.
“They could have ties somewhere down there,” a local Boston cop I know said Wednesday. “Big Armenian and Russian-Armenian population in Watertown.”
This is all part of determining who else might have known about the Tsarnaev brothers before the bombs went off on Boylston St., and what Tamerlan Tsarnaev’s wife might possibly have known as well. It is why the FBI went to see the former Katherine Russell in North Kingstown, R.I., a couple of days ago.
She may not know anything about the planning that went into the attack, no one from law enforcement has said that she does. But from the start of this what the feds and the Boston cops have wanted to know is if these two brothers really did act alone. Wanted to know how much help they might have had in the purchasing of bomb components, or assembling the mean, dirty bombs that ended three lives and forever changed the lives of those who lost limbs on Boylston St. Those people blown up because they were there to cheer on runners finishing the marathon.
Who helps anybody who does something this unspeakable, helps them before or after the fact? This is not just obstruction of justice. It is more than that, obstruction of decency and humanity. If they did this, they should go down hard for it.
You say this all the time, because you have to, because this is America: Arrests are not convictions in this country. Tazhayakov and Kadyrbayev — apparently they don’t need to buy vowels, just brains — and Phillipos will get their chance to prove they are innocent of the charges against them.
But if they did help their friend Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, it was after they saw what we all did: Tsarnaev standing right behind 8-year-old Martin Richard before he blew that boy to kingdom come. The boy had friends, too, and family, and Little League teammates.
They all showed up for his funeral.
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