The FBI is again searching the residence where Tamerlan Tsarnaev lived with his wife at 410 Norfolk St.

Ruslan Tsarnev (the uncle from Maryland) is at the funeral home where the director is still pleading for the Government to step in and find a place to bury Tamerlan, whose body is now being prepared for a proper Muslim burial.

Defendant Robel Phillipos is seeking bail. I have uploaded the bond motion, his mother's affidavit and Robel's resume. [More...]

The funeral director who has Tamerlan Tsarnaev's body says he can't find a cemetary willing to accept his body for burial.

Reportedly, a second autopsy is or has been performed on Tamerlan at the request of the parents or lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.

His father said early on they would like his body returned to Dagestan.

The father said he had no hope that Tamerlan's body would be released by the U.S. authorities to be buried in his homeland.

"They won't give us his body," he said, his voice breaking with emotion. "We wont be able to bury him in our land."

Perhaps he will be cremated and his ashes scattered at sea or returned to Russia. Adam Lanza, Timothy McVeigh, Ted Bundy and Klebold and Harris (Columbine) were all cremated. There's a company in Connecticut that arranges burials at sea, three miles offshore in the Long Island Sound.

I've got lots of errands today.

Has anyone seen The Reluctant Fundamentalist or Silver Linings? This is one of those months I'm wondering why I need Xfinity at all, since there's nothing great on pay per view and their movie offerings seem to be slipping away from the kind of movies I like to watch. I'm hardly tempted to shell out more dollars on top of the $200 a month I already pay them just to see something I'm not sure I'd like.It's like we've gone back to the days of "57 channels and nothing on."

Here's an open thread for you, all topics welcome.

Israel has not yet officially confirmed the news, but everyone else, from the BBC to Al Jazeera to the New York Times, is reporting that Israel launched an airstrike in Syria. An Israeli spokesman says:

“Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, specially to Hezbollah in Lebanon.”

U.S. officials on the other hand say:

US officials say the Israeli air strike happened overnight Thursday into Friday, but the aircraft did not enter Syrian airspace. [More...]

The Boston Globe reports it has seen the death certificate for Tamerlan Tsarnaev and that it states he died from gunshot wounds and blunt trauma.

The document, viewed by the Globe on Friday, shows that Tsarnaev was pronounced dead at 1:35 a.m. April 19.

The death certificate also states that Tsarnaev was shot by police, and run over and dragged by a vehicle.

Police insist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran him over when fleeing the scene in the carjacked Mercedes. Considering the massive, non-stop video footage of the shootout by news organizations and neighbors, you would think there would be one photo or screen grab showing a vehicle running over Tamerlan and dragging him. I sure haven't seen one. That doesn't stop the media from reporting as fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev ran over his brother. [More...]

The Islamic Emirate of Afhanistan (Taliban) have released an official statement on Guantanamo and the hunger strikes.

The Islamic Emirate, which considers the ongoing atrocity in Guantanamo as a crime against humanity and a historical disgrace for mankind, calls on the entire Islamic world, Islamic societies and respected personalities, all the international human right organizations, media groups and charitable organizations to show their opposition and raise their voices against this unlawful action of the American officials as part of their duty and humanitarian obligation. The Islamic Emirate similarly calls on all writers, journalists and professionals to condemn the actions of America carried out against inmates in the infamous Guantanamo prison for the defense of human dignity and to fulfill their religious and humanitarian obligation.

[More...]

Yesterday, 18 year old Abdella Tounisi, the latest terror sting victim of the FBI, was ordered released on bail by a U.S. Magistrate Court Judge. The Government immediately appealed to the District Court Judge who today reversed the Magistrate Court Judge. Tounisi will remain in custody.

Here's the story if you haven't been following the case. [More...]

For the last few days, I've been following the twitter feeds of the friends of Dzokhar Tsarnaev who insist he is innocent and has been framed and rebuttal articles by conservative bloggers who think they are full of it. I hope to have a post up about this tomorrow.

In the meantime, here's an open thread, all topics welcome.

All it takes is for one or two unnamed federal law enforcement officials to make an unsubstantiated claim and every media outlet runs with it as if it is true. The latest: Claims that Dzhokhar Tsnarnev told the FBI the bombs for Boston were made in the apartment Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with his wife and that the brothers initially planned on bombing Boston on the 4th of July but it was so easy to build the bombs they moved up their timetable

Via CNN:

The bombs used in the Boston Marathon attack were built in the apartment that suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev shared with his wife and child, a U.S. law enforcement official with first-hand knowledge of the investigation told CNN on Thursday. The official was not authorized to release the information.

....Tsarnaev and his younger brother, Dzhokhar, initially planned to carry out an attack on July 4, but their bombs were ready earlier than they expected and they decided to move up the date, a U.S. law enforcement official told CNN on Thursday.

Via ABC: [More...]

New York civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart has the backing of medical authorities at BOP Federal Medical Center Carswell to be released from her 10 year terrorism-related sentence due to advanced cancer. Her request will now go to the BOP and federal court, hopefully for approval.

You can read her press release here. Stewart has been battling cancer since 2006.

Stewart's conviction stretched the definition of material support to a terrorist organization to new limits. Here's a transcript of an interview she and her trial lawyer Michael Tigar gave after the jury found her guilty.

Lynne's website is here. You can sign the petition to free her here. [More...]

Here is the Complaint filed today against three of Dzhokar Tsarnaev's friends, Dias Kadyrbayev, Azamat Tazhayakov and Robel Phillipos. The complaint alleges Dias and Azamat went to Dzhokar's dorm room and retrieved his laptop and a backpack with explosives, which Dias later threw away. They are charged with obstruction of justice. Phillipos is charged with lying to authorities. [More...]

Slate has obtained extraordinary compelling memoirs of Guantanamo detainee Mohamedou Ould Slahi and is publishing them in three parts. Here is Part 1.

Slahi, a Mauritanian, has been in custody since 2001. He is still at Guantanamo. Here's a timeline of his captivity. He finished his handwritten 466 page memoir in 2006, but it took 6 years for the Pentagon to declassify it. Here's a 9 page sample of his handwritten version.

He describes what he calls an "endless world tour” of detention and interrogation." He was taken from Mauritania to Jordan to Bagram to Gitmo -- his account is riveting. [More...]