The bizarre circumstances and dubious names in the Boston Marathon bombings have raised many questions that have yet to be answered by government officials and journalists.
The most mysterious character is “Misha,” whom Ruslan Tsarni, the uncle of the Boston bombers, described as an “Armenian convert to Islam” who had supposedly brainwashed and radicalized Tamerlan, the elder of the suspected Tsarnaev brothers. Ruslan described Misha as a heavy-set bald exorcist with a long reddish beard!
Initially, no one could find Misha. While his alleged affiliation with Tamerlan and his Armenian origin was prominently and repeatedly mentioned in the media, it took the authorities 10 days to announce that they knew who Misha was, and that he had no connection to the terrorist acts.
Last Sunday, Christian Caryl of the New York Review of Books was finally able to locate and interview the elusive Misha in his Rhode Island home. Even though Caryl disclosed that Misha, a native of Baku, Azerbaijan, is the son of an Armenian father and a Ukrainian mother, and that his last name is Allakhverdov, the media continues to refer to him as an “Armenian.” Notably, neither Caryl nor anyone else mentions the fact that Misha or Mikayel—a common Christian name—cannot be the name of a Muslim. Moreover, after the break up of the Soviet Union, many Muslim Azerbaijanis applied for asylum in Europe and the United States, under the pretext that they were persecuted Christian Armenians! It is odd that Misha, supposedly a Christian, would flee from Islamic persecution in Baku, only to convert to Islam in America.
Interestingly, Caryl reports that Misha had nothing to do with the Boston bombings, which is exactly what government investigators had earlier announced. Could it be that U.S. officials put Caryl in contact with Misha in order to confirm their declaration of his innocence, leading some analysts to speculate that Misha may have been an FBI informant whose cover is now being meticulously protected?
The next suspicious character is Uncle Ruslan who has accused Misha the Armenian of having a powerful influence over Tamerlan. Ruslan himself has had a checkered past, having worked for USAID and several Caspian Sea energy companies, while married to Samantha Ankara Fuller, the daughter of Graham Fuller, a retired top CIA official. Because of Ruslan’s close relationship to the bombers’ family, his employment with Central Asian oil companies, including Halliburton, and his marriage to the daughter of a high-ranking CIA official, some analysts have suggested that the enigmatic uncle warrants a closer look.
Last week, prominent Armenian-American attorney Mark Geragos blasted Ruslan Tsarni on CNN, suggesting that “somebody needs to give this uncle a field sobriety test, because I think this guy is under the influence of something.” Geragos was furious that Ruslan had linked the Boston bombers to the “Armenian Misha,” while Armenians worldwide were commemorating the 98th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide! Ruslan then tried to reach Geragos by telephone, seeking “to clarify” his earlier statement. Geragos refused to take his call.
Some analysts suggest that Tamerlan may have been recruited by the Russian secret services (FSB) to spy on Chechen extremists during his six-month stay in Chechnya and Dagestan last year. Having informed the FBI and CIA of Tamerlan’s links to radical Islamist groups, and not receiving a satisfactory response from U.S. officials, it could be that the FSB took matters into its own hands and recruited the unemployed and penniless young Chechen during his lengthy stay in Russia.
Other analysts speculate that Tamerlan may have been an informant for the U.S. government. Such a supposition is much more credible than assuming that the FBI and CIA were too incompetent or too busy to conduct a thorough investigation of Tamerlan’s background after the Russian FSB brought his name to their attention. It could be that U.S. authorities knew Tamerlan only too well and may have even encouraged him to travel to Russia as their mole in Jihadist circles.
Finally, there are those who believe that Tamerlan ended up betraying both the Russian and American intelligence services, deciding instead to support radical Islamic groups, “out of anger over U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” according to his younger brother Dzhokhar’s confession.
Of course, these speculations are advanced by various analysts based on preliminary information, pending a thorough Congressional investigation to uncover the true facts. Americans killed and maimed in the Boston bombings deserve an honest answer!
Harut Sassounian
I don’t understand things about this article. Correct if I’m wrong, but I believe “Mikhail” is simply the Russian translation of “Michael”, it isn’t necessarily a Christian name considering there are Jews and atheists with that name. Also there are Muslims who don’t have Muslim sounding names such as rapper Ice Cube (whose first name O’Shea), Dave Chappelle, John Allen Muhammad, and Lewis Arquette (a Jewish American who converted to Islam). Just because he doesn’t have a Muslim sounding name doesn’t mean he isn’t one. Allakhverdov just might not be fundamentalist. And if he was a Muslim Azerbaijani who immigrated to the US under the pretext of being a Christian Armenian, then why would he keep his Azeri surname? As far as people speculating that he was an FBI or FSB informant, it’s just that, speculation. Yes Tsarni was wrong to claim Allakhverdov influenced Tamerlan, but that doesn’t mean this is part of a large conspiracy to defame Armenians and the fact he announced it on April 24th is probably coincidence. The fact that he has connections to oil companies in the Caspian (Halliburton is a private American company which also has contracts with Armenia’s ally Russia, and therefore having an interest in defaming Armenians makes no sense). Unless one finds telephone calls or emails talking about between Tsarni’s bosses about making a false statement to defame Armenians, there’s no reason to believe this anything bigger than a weird guy who made a false statement that unintentionally offended Armenians.
*meant to type ” Unless one finds telephone calls or emails between Tsarni’s bosses talking about making a false statement to defame Armenians”
Readers may refer to this link: http://www.foreignpolicyjournal.com/2013/05/03/uncle-ruslan-tsarnis-organization-may-have-funded-terrorists/
where we read stunning revelations about uncle Ruslan’s created Chechen front called “Congress of Chechen International Organization/s” even having used the home address of his father-in-law, Graham Fuller, a high-ranking CIA official and an expert on Islamic extremism, when applying for the registrtion of the front, his possible involvement in the bombing etc.
Well said…
Plus to add, the enigma of “Armenian Misha” affair was strange enough as the mass-media blew it out proportion by basically taking the word of the family of terrorists – a clear attempt to divert attention. Now, that Misha is identified, the affair become outright bizarre, since it completely died out. As if the notion that an Armenian from Azerbaijan, who escaped Muslim Azeri pogroms would adopt Islam in America was not strange enough. Add the fact that uncle Tsarni, the “Misha Affairs” whistle-blower, was employed by the Azeri State Oil Company. Questions, questions… What about Misha? Does this Armenian exist? Is there a photo? Why does his father, supposedly Armenian with Ukrainian wife have Alahverdov-Amatuni name – probably one of the strangest combinations of names, a Turkish root name with historically Royal Armenian name? Questions abound. Until you connect the “Misha Affair” to one factor: over the last 20 years thousands of Azeris, Mountain Tut Jews, Russians, Ukrainians, etc from Azerbaijan claimed, in the US, to be Armenians, to exploit US refugee and asylum visa program. There are law firms in NYC which specialize in turning any ethnicity with Azeri passports to “Armenians” to secure US residency. It seems the “Misha Affair” was dropped by the the media not to “point fingers” at some sensitive directions. Meanwhile, Armenians did not manage to get the closure on this bizarre “Misha Affair”.