Boston bombing trial: What was on Tsarnaevs' home computer?
| Boston
Prosecutors in the trial of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Thursday presented the jury with evidence from computer devices that links the defendant to radical Islam.
The contents come from dozens of different media devices recovered from crime scenes or belonging to friends and family of the Tsarnaevs 鈥� from a Sony laptop to various cellphones and iPods.
The amount of data analyzed was 鈥渧oluminous,鈥� testified Kevin Swindon, a Federal Bureau of Investigations special agent and supervisor of the bureau鈥檚 "cyber squad." One laptop contained more than 500,000 files on its hard drive.
But several files were common to different devices, and these files were closely tied to radical Islamic teachings.
There were multiple copies of Inspire Magazine, an English language magazine published by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Some PDF copies of the magazine dated from as early as fall 2010, and one of the Inspire articles found was titled 鈥淗ow to build a bomb in the basement of your Mom.鈥�
Mr. Swindon said a number of the audio devices also included sermons from United States-born radical Muslim cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, as well as several copies of 鈥淣asheed鈥� hymns v simple, memorable melodies that have become 鈥渁 capella battle hymns鈥� of global jihad, .
Not all the files related to Islam. The jury also saw a copy of Mr. Tsarnaev鈥檚 r茅sum茅 from when he was a student at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, what appeared to be a graduation photo, several selfies, and some homework assignments 鈥� including a term paper for a Modern World History class titled 鈥淭he Predator War.鈥�
In the grand scheme of the trial, the contents of these media devices may be important in portraying how self-radicalized Tsarnaev was. Outside experts say that Tsarnaev鈥檚 defense team will try and convince the jury that he was pressured聽into carrying out the bombings by his older, more radical brother, and thus doesn鈥檛 deserve the death penalty.
Despite the volume of jihadi material released in court Thursday, that argument may still not be out of reach. While Swindon was able to confirm these files existed on a variety of electronic devices, he admitted that he couldn鈥檛 determine what person downloaded the content, or who specifically viewed it and when.
A desktop computer he analyzed from the Tsarnaev鈥檚 apartment in Cambridge, Mass., for example, had multiple usernames.
鈥淲ere you able to determine if this was used by only one person, or by many people?鈥� asked Assistant US Attorney Aloke Chakravarty.
鈥淚 think it was used by many people,鈥� Swindon replied.
The defense team objected repeatedly throughout the day to the court admitting certain pieces of evidence. For the most part Judge George O鈥橳oole allowed the names of the media files to be read out loud in the court.
There will be no testimony Friday. The trial will resume Monday morning, likely with a defense cross-examination of Swindon.
