FBI Continued Interrogating Drugged And Badly-Wounded Boston Bombing Suspect After He Repeatedly Requested An Attorney

An attorney representing the lone surviving suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing case, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, has filed a motion with the court hearing his case to suppress all statements he made to FBI agents at his hospital bedside while he was being treated for serious injuries he sustained during his capture. According to the filing, FBI agents continued to interrogate Tsarnaev while he was heavily sedated with pain medication even after he had written on paper at least 10 times the word "lawyer" and circled it. The attorney's motion also claims that FBI agents lied to Tsarnaev and told him that his brother, Tamerlan, was still alive even though he was in fact dead as they questioned him. The Chicago Tribune reports:

"The questioning continued for hours, in what was obviously an effort to extract as much incriminating information as possible, without regard for the protections of the Fifth Amendment," his lawyers wrote in the 21-page filing. At the time, Tsarnaev could not talk because of his injuries, so he answered questions in writing.

The lawyers also say that his hospital statements should be suppressed because they were involuntary. Tsarnaev was heavily drugged and in pain while he was being interviewed, they argue. His left eye was sutured shut, his jaw was wired closed and he was unable to hear out of his left ear. At times, his pen trailed off the page, indicating that he fell asleep or lost motor control . . . 

Tsarnaev was in critical condition when he arrived at the hospital about 9 p.m. on April 19, 2013, with serious injuries from gunshot wounds to his head, face, throat, jaw, left hand and both legs. Less than 24 hours later, after he underwent emergency surgery, FBI agents began questioning him. 

The interrogation, as the court filing calls it, continued for about 27 hours, with some breaks, until April 22, when a lawyer was appointed for Tsarnaev. Two lawyers from the federal public defender's office had tried to meet with Tsarnaev before he was questioned but were turned away, the filing says. 

Because he had a tracheotomy tube in his throat, Tsarnaev could not talk, so he wrote answers in a notebook. He assured agents that no one but him and his brother were involved in the bombings, and that there were no remaining bombs, the defense says. He wrote the word "lawyer" 10 times, and circled it. 

Agents asked Tsarnaev how the bombs were made and about his beliefs about Islam and U.S. foreign policy. They also asked about his brother and told him Tamerlan was alive, the filing says. "Is my brother alive I know you said he is are you lying?" Tsarnaev wrote on the paper, according to the filing. 

"These questions went well beyond even the Department of Justice's own written policy regarding use of the public safety exception to interrogate members of terrorist organizations," defense lawyers David Bruck and Judy Clark argued. Citing Tsarnaev's medical condition, they noted that he wrote his Cambridge address incorrectly in the notebook. He also wrote, "I'm exhausted," "Can we do this later," and "I need to throw up."

I've discussed on multiple occasions in the past how the government's version of what happened in Boston doesn't add up on so many levels. There's the fact the Tsarnaev brothers had been handled by federal agents throughout the period of time following their arrival in this country years earlier, including the fact that their uncle, Ruslan Tsarni, who worked for a number of CIA front companies and organizations, was responsible for bringing the family to the U.S., and Tsarni was once married to the daughter of Graham Fuller, a high-level CIA operative who was an early mastermind behind the Iran-Contra Affair. The older brother, Tamerlan, had been sent to a CIA- funded training facility in Chechnya, despite our government's claim of ignorance of his activities, even after the Russians warned American authorities they believed he was involved in terrorist-related activities--primarily American efforts at destabilization of the former Russian states through state-sponsored terrorist activities. That's not to mention the overwhelming evidence that what happened on the day of the bombing was a totally staged event using crisis actors. Video footage clearly showed Tamerlan being arrested alive in Watertown after the so-called shootout with police after he had been stripped naked. Yet somehow we were later led to believe he had been shot and then run over by his brother and killed. Law enforcement later released a gruesome autopsy photo of the deceased brother.