FBI Had Interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011

Foreign government raised concerns

A "foreign government" asked the FBI to look into one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect's "possibly extremist ties" to a terrorist organization in 2011, an FBI official confirmed Friday. The bureau complied and interviewed Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, to investigate any possible ties to extremism.

The FBI determined Tsarnaev represented no threat and found "no derogatory information," the Washington Post reports.

"The interview was conducted by the FBI in Boston, said the official," the report adds. "[T]he case was closed, according to the official, who refused to identify the country or the terrorist organization."

Tamerlan, believed to be 26 when he was killed overnight in a shootout, dropped out after studying accounting at Bunker Hill Community College for just three semesters. He was an amateur boxer who had hoped to fight on the U.S. Olympic team, a man who said he had no American friends.