It turns out that, in addition to warning the United States about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the Russians also warned the FBI and CIA about Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, his unhinged, reality-denying, conspiracy theorist mother. According to the AP, the FBI investigated both mother and son, found no cause for alarm, and lost interest. But in the fall of 2011, the CIA had both names added to the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, or TIDE, a database of foreigners suspected of terrorist ties. However, there are around 745,000 names in the database, so it’s not exactly the toughest list to get on.
Back home in Dagestan, Tsarnaeva isn’t thrilled about the report. “It’s all lies and hypocrisy,” said said. “I’m sick and tired of all this nonsense that they make up about me and my children. People know me as a regular person, and I’ve never been mixed up in any criminal intentions [except that one time I stole $1,600 worth of merchandise from a Lord & Taylor and then missed a court hearing and then fled the country].”
