Here's What Tsarnaev Wrote in That Boat

Alleged bomber says he was 'jealous' of brother for dying first
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted May 22, 2014 12:20 PM CDT
Here's What Tsarnaev Wrote in That Boat
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev leans over in a boat at the time of his capture by law enforcement authorities in Watertown, Mass, April 19, 2013.   (AP Photo/Massachusetts State Police, Sean Murphy, File)

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev did indeed scrawl a statement on the inside of the boat he was captured inside of, and now we know what it says, thanks to newly filed court documents from prosecutors. "I'm jealous of my brother," because Tamerlan had presumably already received his heavenly reward, Tsarnaev wrote. But "God has a plan for each person. Mine was to hide in this boat and shed some light on our actions." A bit of that explanation:

  • "The US Government is killing our innocent civilians but most of you already know that. As a [UI] I can't stand to see such evil go unpunished."
  • "Know you are fighting men who look into the barrel of your gun and see heaven, now how can you compete with that. We are promised victory and we will surely get it."
  • "Now I don’t like killing innocent people it is forbidden in Islam but due to said [UI] it is allowed."

You can see the full transcript here. Prosecutors filed the note in response to the defense team's attempt to toss out statements made during Tsarnaev's hospital interrogation, arguing that Tsarnaev's note had the "hallmarks of al-Qaeda-inspired rhetoric," and that the FBI therefore feared the Tsarnaevs weren't working alone, the Boston Herald explains. They also believed the brothers had help making their "relatively sophisticated" bombs, which, the documents reveal, included fuses made out of Christmas lights and remote detonators built using model car parts, the Boston Globe reports. (More Dzhokhar Tsarnaev stories.)

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