Obama Defends FBI Response to Boston Terror Suspect

Tamerlin probed, but case closed

President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended the FBI from suggestions it might have prevented the Boston marathon bombing by acting on warnings about one of the suspects.

Russia had advised US authorities about ethnic Chechen Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 and the possibility he was slipping into the grips of hardline Islam, and the FBI probed and interviewed him, although the case was eventually closed.

Tsnarnaev and his younger brother Dzhokhar are accused of going on to carry out the April 15 bombing, which killed three and wounded more than 264 at one of the world's premier sporting events.