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Youtube, Amazon and the Russian answer to Facebook all offer a glimpse into the minds of the Boston bombing suspects

Postings suggest Islamic fervour, a desire for Chechen independence, and an interest in forgeries

James Legge
Sunday 21 April 2013 12:04 BST
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Second suspect of Boston Marathon bombing Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev
Second suspect of Boston Marathon bombing Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev

Online accounts have revealed details of the brothers suspected over the Boston Marathon bombings, with the older brother's Amazon wishlist including books on Chechen history and lots of titles on fraud and forgeries.

The books on what appears to be Tamerlan Tarnaev's list, added in 2006 and 2007, include How To Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie; How to Make Driver's Licenses and Other ID on Your Home Computer, by Max Forge; and The Lone Wolf And the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule, by Moshe Gammer.

Tarnaev was killed last night in a shootout with police. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, is still hiding out - police believe - somewhere in the suburb of Watertown, Massachusetts.

On the Russian social networking website VK, the younger brother posted links to Islamic websites and others calling for Chechen independence.

On the site, the younger Tarnaev identifies himself as a 2011 graduate of Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a state school in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

It says he went to primary school in Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan, a province in Russia that borders Chechnya, and lists his languages as English, Russian and Chechen.

His "World view" is listed as "Islam" and his "Personal priority" is "career and money".

He also posted his own joke: "A car goes by with a Chechen, a Dagestani and an Ingush inside. Question: who is driving? The answer: the police."

Elsewhere online, a photo essay entitled "Will box for passport" shows the older brother Tamerlan practicing boxing at a gym. The captions identify him as a Chechen heavyweight boxer, in the United States for five years.

"I don't have a single American friend," one caption quotes him as saying. "I don't understand them."

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