About that mosque: USA Today reports

The Boston Globe has been engaged in serious damage control on behalf of the Cambridge mosque attended by Tamerlan Tsarnaev. In “About that mosque,” we noted the mosque’s well known Islamist flavor. There’s a story there, and Oren Dorell glimpses it in USA Today’s “Mosque that Boston suspects attended has radical ties.”

Dorell’s article is must reading in its entry. One highlight is the purported refutation of its thesis by the executive director of the owner of the mosque, the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center:

Yusufi Vali, executive director at the Islamic Society of Boston Cultural Center, insists his mosque does not spread radical ideology and cannot be blamed for the acts of a few worshipers.

“If there were really any worry about us being extreme,” Vali said, U.S. law enforcement agencies such as the FBI and Departments of Justice and Homeland Security would not partner with the Muslim American Society and the Boston mosque in conducting monthly meetings that have been ongoing for four years, he said, in an apparent reference to U.S. government outreach programs in the Muslim community.

Well, then, never mind. Or Andrew McCarthy, call your office.

Oh, and then there is this:

The FBI was alerted by Russian intelligence officials multiple times about their fears over Tamerlan Tsarnaev and a senator on Congress’ intelligence committee told the Herald the alleged Boston Marathon terrorist bomber may have flown under the agency’s radar because he wasn’t tied to al-Qaeda.

One senator, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the briefing was classified, said federal intelligence officials admitted yesterday they had been contacted more than once about Tsarnaev before he traveled to Dagestan, in Russia.

It’s early, but I’m recognizing George Neumayr for the quote of the day: “It is almost as if the Obama administration considers security vigilance itself a species of Islamophobia.”

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