海角大神

Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev: What were they thinking?

Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen suggests that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev may have seen terrorism as 'a shortcut to greatness.' As a terrorist, 'You can go from being a nobody to declaring war on a great country,' says Gessen.

As the punishment phase in the Boston Marathon bombing trial begins this week, we鈥檙e expected to hear allegations of brainwashing and accusations of complicity.

Soon, we鈥檒l have a punishment 鈥� execution or life in prison 鈥� for convicted bomber Dzhokhar 鈥淛ahar鈥� Tsarnaev. But it won鈥檛 be enough to close this case, argues Russian-American journalist Masha Gessen, author of the extraordinary new book The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy.

Gessen, who traveled the globe in search of the secrets of the Tsarnaev family, has produced both a gripping narrative and a stunning piece of investigative journalism. She unravels the history of the family in Soviet Russia 鈥� 鈥渋f their lives weren鈥檛 exactly hell, they came from hell鈥� 鈥� and tracks their steps through Cambridge, Mass., and to the Boston Marathon just two years ago.

The book loses steam as Gessen tackles the government鈥檚 conventional wisdom about terrorism, and her hints at a FBI coverup are quite a stretch. At her best, though, Gessen gives us the human side to the story of two young men who must be understood as more than monsters, and she persuasively argues that we deserve more answers than we鈥檝e gotten.

In an interview, Gessen (who migrated from Russia herself) talks about the challenges facing immigrants to the US, a mysterious journey by the late Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and the ultimate fate of these two brothers.
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Q: What should we understand about the lives of the Tsarnaev brothers back in the Soviet Union, where they came from Chechen roots?
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If their lives weren鈥檛 exactly hell, they came from hell. A central part of their story is one of dislocation. It was important for me to write their story of moving around and never feeling quite at home.

Their pain is something that is real to them 鈥� the deportation and the absolute hell that their parents survived and the miracle of that survival.
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Q: Things started going poorly right away once the family made it to the US. What happened?
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They get here right after 9/11, and our relationship with Russia changed at that point.

Many of us don鈥檛 remember that Russia was able to instantly reframe its war in Chechnya听 as a war against international terrorism. Russia has been able to get away with a lot within that new frame and position itself as an ally in the war on terror.

Imagine yourself fleeing a country where you have always been a second-class citizen, and it鈥檚 just been a question whether you were the object of shelling or constant discrimination and marginalization. Imagine fleeing to a country where things are supposed to be different, and while you were en route, these countries decided they would be allies and the war you were fleeing was their common cause.
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Q: How did being new immigrants complicate this picture?
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It鈥檚 hard to get your bearings as an immigrant. I remember from my experience that you鈥檙e optimistic and primed to see things in a wonderful light, but there are things to which you鈥檙e sensitive.

One thing they were extremely sensitive to is being assumed to be criminals because they鈥檙e Muslim. They鈥檇 see that through people鈥檚 remarks.
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Q: You came to the US in 1981 at the age of 14 when the Soviet Union allowed some Jewish families to emigrate. How do you compare your experience to that of the Tsarnaevs?
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I came from a privileged background by Soviet standards to a privileged US community. I don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 a straight parallel. But at the same time, having been a Russian teenage immigrant in the Boston area, it told me which questions to ask of those who鈥檇 known him and the family in Boston and had helped them.

And there are certain similarities when you come here to the American high school system and culture. You鈥檙e expected to have an intelligible identity. That鈥檚 a really hard thing for someone to comes from a marginalized background to grasp and own.

Q: You went to the Russian republican of Dagestan in search of details about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who spent 6 months there in 2012. There鈥檚 a lot of talk that he was 鈥渞adicalized鈥� there. What did you find?
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Other reporters have recognized that was a very important moment in his life and tried to find evidence that he was radicalized there. That鈥檚 part of a concept that鈥檚 developed about terrorists over the past dozen years: of being conscripted by an international organization and going through the process of taking in more radical ideas and becoming a terrorist.

It鈥檚 a model that doesn鈥檛 work and isn鈥檛 borne out by how terrorists are made. There鈥檚 no evidence that he was linked in any significant way to a larger organization, and terrorism scholars tell us radical beliefs are not a predictor of terrorist behavior.

Even those who speak out in favor of violent behavior do not necessarily engage in violent behavior. And some terrorists don鈥檛 hold radical beliefs or only hold them superficially.
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Q: What about the idea that some terrorists are mentally ill, a theory that鈥檚 gotten traction regarding Tamerlan Tsarnaev?
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There's a focus on psychopathy and schizophrenia, and it鈥檚 not useful. It鈥檚 not an explanation, and it isn鈥檛 linked to anything we know about terrorism.
Terrorism scholars have been telling us that the one distinguishing characteristic of terrorists is that they are normal.
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Q: What do you think Tamerlan encountered when he was abroad?
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What happened to him was a radical experience of belonging, and that has a lot more to do with why people become terrorists.

He went there, he found his people. He found young men like him that he could listen to. He felt comfortable and at home and accepted, probably for the first time in his life.

That鈥檚 huge, and the experience of losing that when he had to go back to the United States was probably devastating. This had a lot to do with his decision to blow up the marathon.
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Q: What did the brothers want to see happen when they set off the bombs?
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My sense of their ultimate goal was that they wanted to become great.

You can frame it in terms of martyrdom. You look at Jahar鈥檚 notes scribbled on the side of the boat where he hid. He says that Allah has different plans for different people, and the plan for his brother was to make him a martyr.

You see all of it in that note. You see the belonging rhetoric, and the concept that 鈥測ou hurt one of us, you hurt us all.鈥� You see the desire to have a meaningful role and to be heard, to become somebody.

The lure of terrorism is this opportunity to belong to something larger, to have meaning and greatness. It鈥檚 like a shortcut to greatness. You can go from being a nobody to declaring war on a great country.
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Q: You suggest a coverup regarding the government鈥檚 connections to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and you point out that we still don鈥檛 know where the brothers made their bombs or fully understand why they launched the attack. What does this tell you?
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The problem with the FBI is that its investigation is blatantly incomplete. They鈥檙e allowed to get away with saying 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know.鈥�

The American justice system is not created for the purpose of finding out what happened. Its not the jury鈥檚 or judge鈥檚 job. It鈥檚 the job of other agencies to tell us what happened, and there isn鈥檛 enough conversation about that.

There鈥檚 this inclination to accept closure from the trial. But we ought to investigate what happened, and not use the justice system to get to the bottom of things.
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Randy Dotinga, a Monitor contributor, is president of the American Society of Journalists and Authors.