Massachusetts Congressman Bill Keating expressed frustration with the FBI on Thursday for the lack of information about the agency's investigation into the the Tsarnaevs prior to the Boston Marathon bombing.
Keating, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, said he recently sent letter to new FBI director James Comey asking for more information about the FBI's investigation into the Boston Marathon bombing.
Keating told Boston Public Radio that the FBI has declined all three invitations to attend a hearing with the Homeland Security Committee, despite clarifications that his questions would not compromise the ongoing investigation.
"I got more information from Russia than I did from our own FBI," he said. "It's clear we're not getting the cooperation we need to do our job to make Americans safer."
Keating met with Russian officials in May. He said they read him a letter they sent to the FBI in March 2011, warning that the older Tsarnaev brother had plans to join insurgents in Chechnya.
Keating said he wants more information about the FBI's process, the procedures in place, what happened, what didn't work, and how lapses in sharing relevant information about the suspects occurred. He said he's also seeking information on what the FBI knew about Tsarnaev's friend, Ibragim Todashev. Federal and local authorities were interviewing Todashev in connection with the Boston Marathon investigation when an FBI agent reportedly shot and killed him during an altercation.
The very things that the 9/11 Commission Report cautioned against years ago are still going on today, Keating said.
"These very issues- lack of communication, of procedures that need repair, and jurisdictional issues (...) lack of sharing among agencies... Here we are almost 12 years later still dealing with these issues," he said.
Listen to the Jim Braude and Margery Eagan's full interview with Keating below.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this article.
