Boston bombers received taxpayer-funded welfare

by Robert Laurie

By ROBERT LAURIE - Taxpayer funded anti-Americanism?

Back in 2009, Tamerlan Tsarnaev said "I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them." He also said that as a nation, the United States had lost its "values."

Apparently, he didn't think generosity was one of our values because, at the time, his entire life was likely being subsidized by taxpayers. According to the Boston Herald, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was on welfare. Furthermore, at one point or another, both brothers were the beneficiaries of American largesse.

From the Herald:

"I don't have a single American friend, I don't understand them."

State officials confirmed last night that Tsarnaev, slain in a raging gun battle with police last Friday, was receiving benefits along with his wife, Katherine Russell Tsarnaev, and their 3-year-old daughter. The state's Executive Office of Health and Human Services said those benefits ended in 2012 when the couple stopped meeting income eligibility limits. Russell Tsarnaev's attorney has claimed Katherine — who had converted to Islam — was working up to 80 hours a week as a home health aide while Tsarnaev stayed at home.

In addition, both of Tsarnaev's parents received benefits, and accused brother bombers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan were recipients through their parents when they were younger, according to the state.

The news raises questions over whether Tsarnaev financed his radicalization on taxpayer money.

Various news reports indicate that Tamerlan became increasingly radicalized in 2008-2009. In 2011, he came to the attention of the FBI after the Russian FSB alerted American authorities to the potential danger he posed. They asked our government for more information, and said that the request "was based on information that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country's region to join unspecified underground groups."

In 2012, he was being watched by the FBI prior to taking a six-month trip to Dagestan. While there, he attended a radical mosque, delving further into his anti-American beliefs.

Now, we're faced with the possibility that Tamerlan's existence, inluding everything from the internet access that allowed him to become obsessed with radical Islamic YouTube videos to the Dagestan trip, was financed by Massachusetts taxpayers.

While he accepted the misplaced generosity of our nation, he was learning to hate that hand that fed his family. Disgusting.

The Herald is reporting that the Massachusetts Executive Office of Health and Human Services is refusing to reveal exactly when the benefits began, or any specific dollar amount. Evidently, the paper had a hard time getting the state to admit that the Tsarnaevs were receiving benefits at all. All they will confirm is that they stopped sending checks sometime last year.

So there you have it. Not only did the feds fail to take the Russian warning seriously, the Massachusetts welfare system was funding these extremists for at least part of the last decade.

Congratulations to government on a job well done.

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